Callidus

Issue #23 – Fate of the Stars

By Callidus and connie k

All rights reserved. “Captain Jette Jones, Star Ranger” © 2021 All characters and stories are not to be reproduced in any form without the expressed written permission of the authors.

Captain Jette Jones and her allies clash with Suzerain Supreme Zeta and the powerful and mysterious Goddess of Darkness over the destiny of the galaxy.

Part six

Zeta and the Goddess of Darkness now joined as one all-powerful being? The Star Ranger fleet captured? Serpens Caput close to surrender and with it all of Te’ Sareez?  The battle for the galaxy hangs in the balance with Jette Jones and her allies facing the tipping point …

Rear Admiral Onimanina Hartley’s eyes drifted open lazily. It was disorienting, dreaming of mundane things in the routine of her life and now awakening in a nightmare.

She was a prisoner. They all were. The thousands of brave men and women who crewed the vessels in the Star Ranger fleet. The weapon that had immobilized them in space left them in a pleasure-fueled fugue state. Hartley could remember her capital ship being boarded and obeying thoughtlessly when she and her crew were ordered to egress. Then things grew dark and hazy in her mind. She remembered walking but couldn’t remember where.

The mental paralysis had worn off. She found herself in a vast chamber that stretched out a kilometer in every direction. The distant walls, ceiling and floor were organic and uneven, like some cavern formed by eons of geology rather than workers from a shipyard.

Hartley’s mind staggered. The ship that had swallowed the fleet was the size of a continent. The technology was beyond the grasp of her imagination. Had this vessel had been grown instead of built? Was it a living thing?

The floor of the cavern was dotted with hundreds of large pits. The thousands of prisoners were being funneled into narrow walking paths that snaked between them. Standing watch over the pits were humanoid soldiers.

Not quite Black Widdom. Shock troops from the look of them. They had no wings and their natural armor was bulkier, though with the same glossy black and iridescent shimmer. They wore blocky helmets with large facets set at odd angles to each other, like poorly cut gemstones. Hartley surmised these were the ground forces for conquering the galaxy.

Hartley looked down into the closest pit. She saw faces. She fought the urge to scream. A boot suddenly slammed into her back and she tumbled into the hole and landed with a thud.

She wasn’t sure how long she was unconscious. She could barely move her limbs but her head popped up and took stock of the situation. She, and dozens of other prisoners, were trapped inside one of the bowl-shaped pits. The basin was 20 meters across and less than half that distance from the bottom to the rim.

It looked like a child’s aquarium. The hole was filled with smooth stone pebbles of blue, purple and magenta. There were crystal structures jutting out at uneven intervals. The bowl was filled with strange life forms. There were translucent creatures floating through the air, looking like sea jellies drifting in a current. Their bulbous central bodies floated along trailing behind a mass of small tendrils.

Along the ground, there were a variety of brightly colored globular creatures moving about. They resembled sea urchins with fleshy limbs, like a starfish, jutting out in all directions. They rolled, tumbled, coiled and sprung their bodies as they moved through a forest of enormous translucent mushrooms.

Trapped inside each of the mycelia was a Star Ranger. The head of each captive poked out the top of the bulbous cone-shaped caps while their bodies were held fast within the dense, gooey interior of the fungi.

Hartley pulled her arms toward her body with all her strength — wincing from pain in her elbow from the fall — but it was like being stuck in adhesive quicksand. She strained her head forward, then realized she was naked inside the monstrous sponge.

There was a voice behind her: “A-admiral …,” a woman said quietly.  “Gartner. Sensor specialist, second class.” She was using all her strength to form words. “W-we have to do something. Have to escape.”

“Gartner?” Hartley whispered over her shoulder. “What can you tell me? What happened to our clothes?”

“The mushrooms ate them. They dissolved right off my body but it didn’t affect my skin. At least not at first.”

Hartley felt a tingle across her flesh. “I-I think I feel what you’re talking about, Gartner.”

“It’s worse.”

Hartley twisted trying in vain to spin around and face the other woman. “What does that mean?”

“Admiral, if you rotate your arms and legs at the same time you can shift around a bit and move yourself. Look to your left, there’s something you need to see.”

Hartley did as instructed and discovered the technique worked. It took several minutes but eventually she manage to turn herself. “Alright, what am I look —”

The words died on her lips as she spotted a mushroom higher up the wall of the basin.

Inside was a man. One of the floating jellies had settled on his head, completely encasing it.

Through the translucent flesh, Hartley could see that he was screaming. The sound was muffled but his body thrashed violently. Another jelly was around his waist, trapping his cock inside. It moved and pulsed in a slow steady rhythm, like a heartbeat. Each time it flexed, his body spasmed.

Gartner, meanwhile, hung limply inside her mushroom prison. She had three jellies attached to her body. Two at her breasts and a third between her legs. They pulsed as one and she shuddered with a low, guttural moan.

Hartley was gob smacked watching the creatures milk ecstasy from Gartner with every contraction of their bodies. She was so distracted it took a moment to realize something was wrong with Gartner’s body. Her muscles were huge and exaggerated. At first, Hartley thought it was some trick of light refracting through the goopy interior of the mushroom. Until she realized that areas of Gartner’s flesh were turning glossy black.

“Ohmygods!” Hartley shrieked. “They’re turning you into one of them. One of Her soldiers!”

Gartner gasped as another wave of pleasure crashed through her body.

“Gartner! Listen to me. If we can shift enough inside these shrooms to move we might be able to shift enough to climb out. Now you must focus and listen to me. I want you to…” She trailed off as she spotted one of the fleshy urchins rolling end-over-end as it climbed up the side of Gartner’s mushroom toward the back of her head.

Gartner’s eyes were pleading. “W-what? What’s happening?” She sensed movement behind her. She began screaming, but the urchin pounced on her head. It wrapped its fleshy limbs across her face, gagging her mouth and covering her eyes. She twisted her head back and forth but the creature held fast.

Hartley began working her limbs inside her toadstool, trying to free herself. Then she caught sight of one of the jellies. It floated past her and came to rest just above Gartner’s face. The body rotated up and the tendrils at its base spread wide. Colors began to pulse along each wisp. Blue and green, yellow and purple chasing each other along each strand of flesh starting at the center and moving outward.

The urchin shifted then and unwrapped its arms covering Gartner’s eyes. She blinked once and then her gaze locked onto the flashing jelly. Hartley watched her eyes narrow, as if she were confused, and then slowly open wider and wider until she was staring agape into the mesmerizing display. The urchin pulled its remaining limbs from Gartner’s mouth. Her mouth hung open as she kept staring into the lights.

“Gartner? Can you hear me?”

Hartley caught a hint of movement and looked down. More of the jellies were inside the mushroom with Gartner. A dozen of them were swimming through the transparent goop towards her naked flesh. The closest two positioned themselves at her thighs. Then they suddenly sprang forward and attached to her legs.

The creatures melted softly and shaped themselves to Gartner’s legs. Then they began to harden. Hartley’s eyes went wide. It was armor. The natural armor, black and iridescent, of the soldiers she’d seen earlier. The rest of the woman’s legs and feet were quickly covered, then her upper arms. Gartner was being sealed inside the armor. She was being transformed into a soldier. Her soldier.

Two jellies floated in front of Gartner and aligned with her pear-shaped breasts. There appeared to be suckling mouths inside. They pressed forward and slipped over her creamy flesh. Gartner cried out as they sealed themselves over her nipples.

Struggling in the mushroom pod, Gartner looked both horrified and horny. Sprouting from the floor, a single tendril rose up inside the mushroom stalk and moved between Gartner’s feet carrying two bulbous protrusions. They pulsated in an alternating rhythm. Each throb of the phallic organs pumped out a measure of milky liquid that floated away within the toadstool. She thrashed her hips as they drew closer.

The arm pushed the swelling cocks into Gartner and they instantly sealed themselves to her body. Hartley could see the sensor specialist’s eyes roll up into her head and she groaned loudly.

Then another jelly descended into view. It was carrying a thick helmet with odd, sharp angles. The ear cups were filled with tiny, wriggling tendrils that stretched out as they drew closer to the young woman’s head. The eye lenses within were flashing and swirling with color. Hartley could see the woman’s face when the lights flashed. The helmet clamped onto Gartner’s head sealing her eyes and ears inside.

It was done. The enslaving armor covered Gartner from feet to neck and the wicked helmet encased her head and face. All except her mouth, which was open in a whorish moan of pleasure. She howled at Hartley as her whole body convulsed in orgasm.

Hartley was weeping from her eyes and her sex. It would be her turn soon.

In the caves of Shahmarana on Serpentarius, Vice Commander Jette Jones and Lt. Kanivia Riesga discover a new, more powerful enemy than even the Goddess of Darkness — Dark Zeta!

Lt. Riesga rolled onto her side and wheezed. She was lying on the floor of the crypt within the mountains on Serpentarius. There was a cyclone of crackling white light circling the chamber above her. The trap Jette Jones – and Zeta — had set. The two of them working together to stop the Goddess of Darkness.

She couldn’t believe what she just witnessed. From her hidden vantage point, she watched as her commanding officer obeyed Zeta in all things. Worshipfully addressing her as “Mistress Zeta” and serving like the most eager of concubines. The mad Suzerain had called for an orgy … with Jette at the center.

Riesga had never seen a woman used the way her captain had been.

Rocks were raining down and the crypt’s exit was sealed off by several large boulders. Riesga clutched her chest as she took shelter beneath a nearby statue.

“Damned ribs,” she muttered.

Suddenly a shot came from outside the crypt.  Jette was trying to blast her way back in! Then Riesga heard voices.

“Your cherished Star Ranger won’t make it in time. The crypt will collapse and grind you to dust long before then.”

The woman of fire stood, all eight feet of her, and stared down at Zeta. Two more muffled shots rang out.

Zeta stood and faced the Goddess of Darkness. “You did not choose a poor vessel to hold your essence. She’s quite resourceful. And wildly dedicated once she’s been properly tamed.”

“You robbed me of my vessel. I should destroy you.”

“You robbed me of my lover and truest servant.” Zeta stood proud and fearless. “And I already have destroyed you.”

Riesga heard another shot from within the tunnel but her eyes were riveted on the pair of colossal egos.

“It is so, Zeta. Without this well of soul energy to sustain my inter-dimensional anchor, I will be ripped apart. But neither of us will have her.”   

“Stalemate.” Zeta sneered as a huge rock shattered at her feet.

The boulders blocking the passageway shuddered from another blast from Jette’s rayvolver.

“There is another path.” The Goddess of Darkness leaned in conspiratorially. “We will both survive. If we join.”

Zeta laughed. “I would not be a willing vessel. You would spend every moment trying to dominate my will and claim my body as your own.”

“As you would spend every moment trying to conquer my will and wield my power yourself, daughter of Zurkana.”

Zeta shrugged dramatically. “Stalemate again.”

The Goddess of Darkness shrunk her form to match Zeta’s height. They were eyeball to eyeball. “But we would both be alive for the contest.”

“You would become mortal. You could be killed once you inhabit my body.”

The woman of fire shook her head. “I expend considerable power now just to manifest in your reality. With a living body to anchor me in your dimension, I can use my full strength. To smite our foes and to repair and sustain our body.”

“Immortality for us both?” There was a flicker in Zeta’s eye.

“Yes. But you must let me in willingly.”

Jette’s rayvolver fired again as a large boulder crashed to the ground and splintered the stone tiles. Zeta pulled off her clothes quickly.

There was a metallic clang and Riesga realized the rayff K’wari had given Jette was still attached to Zeta’s belt. She crept forward, trying to stay out of sight.

Zeta stood before the Goddess of Darkness naked. She grabbed the Primon by the shoulders and kissed her, hard. Their bodies pressed into each other. Limbs writhed and intertwined as the collapsing ceiling rained stone fragments all around them. The ground shook. The fiery glow from the renegade Primon grew brighter as they sunk to the floor. Their two shapes were becoming one, flowing into each other like waves of lava until what remained was one flaming ball of fire.

Boom! Jette finally blasted apart the final boulder blocking the entrance. Riesga dove to safety as part of the wall came down with it, nearly crushing her.

Jette rushed in, her rayvolver ready to take aim. She abruptly stopped in front of the fiery ball. It slowly melted into the floor, a shapeless blob. However, Jette could see living, writhing flesh beneath the glow. A figure rose up within it. Flakes of fire fell away. It was Zeta!

Or was it?

“Zeta?”

“No, Jette. Not Zeta.” The figure before her looked like Zeta –- except her eyes were now gold, not green — but her voice was deeper, less feminine.  A Dark Zeta. “This could have been you. The living incarnation of an immortal god. This form is inferior to yours, but it will suffice. It will also be the last thing you see before you die in unspeakable agony.”

Riesga crawled stealthily across the cavern and snatched up the rayff.

“Your entire fleet has been captured! They will be the first to fall in worship.” Riesga could see Jette’s face twist in anger. “Nothing can stop it now. Today, your galaxy becomes mine!”

Dark Zeta raised a hand, energy crackling from her fingertips. “Now you will die, as I have decreed!” She suddenly twisted violently one way and then the other. Her voice sounding unfamiliarly familiar. “No! You will be my slave for all eternity, as I have decreed!”

Green lightning bolts danced on Dark Zeta’s fingertips.  Jette realized that Zeta and the Goddess of Darkness were struggling for dominance within their shared body. Dark Zeta’s hands reached out, and bolts of green flew off them headed directly at Jette.

“Look out!” Riesga lunged forward with her arms outstretched, the rayff clutched in her hand. Time slowed to a crawl. The crackling energy arced away from Jette and straight at Riesga!

The green lightning flew past her face, connecting with the rayff instead! The cold metal turned hot, scalding in her palm. Riesga fell to her knees, the rayff now glowing in her hand.

Jette pulled her to her feet just as Dark Zeta charged forward. Riesga threw a hand up defensively and the rayff erupted with a bolt of stored energy. The green lightning caught Dark Zeta in the torso, launching her across the crypt. The lightning surged up the wall, to the ceiling. It shattered and began falling like flaming comets.

“Move!” Jette shouted and pushed them both toward the passageway. They barely made it out in time.  Behind them, the crypt walls collapsed in a torrential shower of stone and dust. Its interior went dark.

“Zeta!” Jette turned back toward the crypt, her rayvolver drawn.  She felt Riesga’s hand on her wrist.

“Skipper! I don’t think you’re going to be able to blast through with your sidearm this time.”

Jette holstered her weapon reluctantly. Her face was stern. “What … did you do?”

“It wasn’t me. It was this.” Riesga handed the rayff to Jette. Her captain took it and turned it over in her hands carefully.

“I’ve seen K’wari’s staff drink up energy before but nothing like that.”

“Skipper, I heard the Primon say that once she has a living vessel, she can finally call on her full power. I think she’s gonna be even more of a handful than she already was.” There was a boom from inside the crypt. Loose dirt fell from the ceiling of the tunnel. “And I don’t think this is the best place to face off with her.”

“Was Zeta’s ship still outside when you got here?”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Then let’s go.”

Riesga fell in step next to her captain as they sprinted down the passage and toward the surface.

“Have you been in contact with any of the others?”

“No, Sir.”

It was late night when they emerged from the caves.  They quickly crouched down and took cover behind an outcropping of rocks.  The didn’t spot any Diamond Warriors nearby.

“So …” Jette didn’t turn her head as she whispered. “How much did you see back there?”

Riesga cleared her throat, suddenly embarrassed. “Um … not too much. I was hiding. Mostly, I heard stuff.”

“Stuff?” Jette looked at her.

Riesga shrugged. “A lot of stuff.”

Jette muttered even more softly before turning away: “Great …”

Another explosion echoed behind them.

At that same time, Midshipman Sewena Carpenter’s mission to rescue Queen Kalokairi on Serpens Soma takes another unexpected turn …

Saaku, the high regent of Serpens Soma, waited anxiously as the row of lights above the large computer terminal before him all flashed white in unison. He let out a relieved breath.

“The satellites are engaged. They can be operated from another location.” He hit a series of buttons and the entire computer housing went dark. “They cannot be operated from here any longer.”

He looked to his queen, Kalokairi, her dead eyes fixed on nothing. He paternally cupped her cheek.

“I have no doubt Zeta extracted all the information about the satellite system from the queen. So we moved the command center somewhere even my dear queen does not know about.”

He turned to Carpenter, deep lines of sadness creased his elderly face. “Terrible business. War.”

There was a sudden rush of sound from below. Footsteps hurriedly climbed the staircase to the control room.  Saaku stabbed a button and the heavy door closed.

“The effects of your weapon appear to have worn off.” There was banging on the door. “You must leave.”

Carpenter looked left, then right. “Leave?” She stuck her head out the small window –- their only exit. One hundred feet below, the courtyard was filling with enemy soldiers.  She stepped back toward the regent. “We might not have that option.”

She steered the mindless Kalokairi behind her with one hand and raised the old-style handgun Elexa had given her with the other, pointed at the door.

Cosmo lay in a puddle by the window, then swiftly flowed up the wall, attaching itself to the two metal bars which bracketed the frame.  The glushang then stretched itself out, longer and longer, through the window.  It was shaped like a chute, but instead of sliding downward it was meant to be ridden outward.

“Cosmo, are you crazy? It’s a four-story fall! Even if we survived the impact, I doubt Zeta’s soldiers will be very welcoming.”

Climb onto me. Pet.

“I’m not sending Queen Kalokairi to her death!”

Saaku clutched her arm. “I will tend to the queen and await what awaits us.” Sparks appeared through growing cracks in the door. They were cutting through. “You must go.”

Now. Pet.

Carpenter obeyed the command, although she couldn’t prevent the fleeting thought of Riesga in her quarters wagging her ass on all fours before the glushang. Its pet?

“I’m not your pet,” she huffed as she swung a leg out the window. “You’re here to protect me, remember?”

She cast a final glance toward Kalokairi and Saaku.

“Thank you, Star Ranger,” he said earnestly.

The words surprised her. She nodded. For the first time, she knew how it felt to be a Ranger.

She pushed herself away from the window and flew down the chute. She was falling fast, the end was near. She shut her eyes.

Vrooooooom!

She felt herself flying through the dark, night air. Cosmo clutched her legs with two thick tendrils.  Her eyes popped open. All she saw was a door …

Carpenter and Cosmo tumbled through the open hatch of a ship.  Cosmo’s body inflated to soften the impact as Carpenter summersaulted across the small cargo bay, each revolution wrapping another layer of inky softness around her body. She bounced off the bulkhead like a balloon before coming to a stop.

She felt the surge of engines beneath her before passing out.

When Carpenter came to, she was lying on thick, black oil in the shape of a mattress. A thin veil of oil was wrapped around her like a blanket. As soon as she stirred, the glushang gently deflated into a puddle of inky goo. It reformed into a cube a few feet away from her.

“Well, well. Look what the glushang dragged in.”

Carpenter looked up at Elexa Dyne smiling down wryly. The open zipper on her pilot’s suit almost reached her navel.

“You didn’t think I’d leave you, did you, Red?”

Carpenter breathed out a thankful sigh, but it came out more like a moan. Elexa grabbed her arm and pulled her up firmly, pressing the midshipman tightly to her.  Their lips almost touching.

“T-thanks,” Carpenter said, stepping back. She ran a quick hand through her short, red hair. Elexa’s expression hadn’t changed. Carpenter put a hand on her hip. “This trip has been full of surprises.”

She stared at Elexa, hoping to get the reaction she wanted.

Elexa smirked.

Bzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzt! An alarm went off.  Both women almost jumped.

“Picked something up on the scanners!” Elexa yelled over her shoulder as she headed to the cockpit.

Zeta’s saucer-shaped ship was still belching out thick, white gas from its rocket nozzles, prepared for a quick getaway.  A group of Diamond Warriors stood by the ladder. Two of them – larger and more jewel-covered – stood out from the rest.

“Five. I can’t be sure if there are any more than that onboard,” Jette whispered.  “I wasn’t in much of a condition to take a head count.”

“Your rayvolver is almost out of juice, Skip.  Mine’s okay, but the odds aren’t looking too good.”

Jette cast a quick glance over her shoulder.  “We don’t have much choice. A few rocks aren’t going to slow down a Primon, especially one with Zeta’s tenacity.”  Jette pulled the rayff from her belt.  “Let’s give this a try.  See if you can take out the big boys. I’ll get the others.”

Jette stood up with Riesga taking aim behind a large boulder. “I wish I had paid more attention to K’wari when she tried to give me a few lessons with this thing. Stand ready.”

“Aye, Sir.”

Jette rushed toward them as her rayff sprung open. The two uber-muscular warriors stepped forward almost casually to face her. Riesga fired! With surprising quickness, the lead warrior unsheathed his lazerblade and parried the blue streak of energy away.  She fired again and the second blast was knocked away as easily as the first.

Jette’s rayff came crashing down. The warrior’s blade caught it, and with a mighty heave he sent it spinning away, knocking Jette to the ground.

The second large Diamond Warrior was upon her! Jette grabbed the rayff, stabbed it into the ground and vaulted away just as the glowing blade cut through the air.

Riesga turned her attention to the other three Diamond Warriors. In quick succession she fired — onetwothree. Although the other warriors were formidable, they lacked the quickness and strength of their two superiors. Each fell in turn.

“Riesga! Get to the ship! Take out the garbage and prepare to blast off!”

The Star Ranger lieutenant hesitated for only a moment before dashing up the ladder.

Jette spun the rayff slowly in her hands as she began circling the two brutes, but they held their ground.  One snarled at her.  She pivoted, swinging the rayff across her body. The first warrior hopped back and easily avoided the attack, but Jette had counted on that. She spun completely around and lunged forward. This time her aim was lower, and she caught the blue-skinned soldier behind the back of his legs, knocking him off his feet. She flipped her hands over on the staff and slammed its opposite end under the wrists of the second warrior. His lazerblade popped into the air between them. Jette caught it inches from his face and in one fluid motion drove the lazerblade into his neck.

The first warrior got to his feet, swinging his sword wildly. Jette back peddled. She held the rayff high in her left hand for defense with the blood-soaked lazerblade in her right.

With an animalistic shriek, the warrior leaped at her. His next powerful stroke slammed against the rayff. Her left arm was sharply pulled away from her body. He swung back to connect with the lazerblade. Both weapons flew out of her hands. Jette was suddenly disarmed.

Her momentum carried her in the direction of the lazerblade. She dove and rolled, snatching up the blade just as the warrior’s sword came crashing down above her. She barely got her hand up in time. The two lazerblades slammed together. The force of the blow split off the top of Jette’s weapon. The violent impact forcing her onto her back.

She tried to crawl away, but the Diamond Warrior stalked her. He was breathing heavily and growled. He lifted his lazerblade again to finish her off.

ZAP!

His body stiffened as if stunned.

ZAP!

Another force beam hit him flush in the back, but he wouldn’t fall. Scampering on her hands and knees, Jette took up the rayff again. The Diamond Warrior barely moved.

ZAP!

A third beam of energy slammed into the warrior before he could raise his arm.  Planting her foot, Jette lunged forward, driving the tip of the rayff through the tough hide of his abdomen.

He froze, a look of bewilderment on his face.

“I hate humans,” he mumbled weakly. Then collapsed.

Riesga hurried down the ladder, waving the rayvolver in her hand.  “You okay, Skip?”

Jette took a deep breath as she stood, tugging at Zeta’s gold collar still around her neck.  “Okay? I guess you could say that. Anyone inside?”

“Empty and ready to go.”

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Won’t we be spotted?” Carpenter’s voice was even but her head jerked to the side catching sight of plumes of glowing exhaust from a group of distant spaceships.

Serpens Soma was shrinking quickly behind Elexa’s small ship as it headed toward Serpens Caput.

“We’re catching a break,” Elexa said, one hand wrapped around the joystick, the other flipping switches and pressing buttons. “There are so many different ships flying around up here … I think we’ve gotten lost in the crowd.”

The ship’s comm beeped.

“That’s unusual.”

“What is it?”

“Your boss is a tough woman to keep track of, Red,” Elexa said. “She’s sent us a message but it’s not coming from where she’s supposed to be.”  Elexa flipped a couple of switches and peered into the small viewer.  “In fact,” Elexa pointed out the cockpit window toward Serpentarius, “she’s right over there.”

The pair of scouts crept to the edge of a building that had once been a restaurant. They peeked around the corner then looked back and signaled “all clear” with military hand gestures. Barras stepped forward with Odell and Leeza on each side of him. Behind them was a sea of crimson robes dotted with gray uniforms.

The Vicars of Yasu marched alongside what was left of K’wari’s detachment of rebels — the last free soldiers on the planet. Together, they were all that stood between Her forces and the total defeat of Serpens Caput.

Barras stepped around the corner of the abandoned café and looked down a long, empty street. “That’s the capital building?” He nodded toward the end of the wide avenue. Two kilometers away stood a huge arch-shaped structure with a series of towering spires that sat beneath the dome of an energy shield.

“Yes, that’s the primary entrance.” Leeza pointed to a pair of metal doors that stood nearly three-stories high. She sighed heavily as she scanned the outlying streets and the dozens of enemy units in place around the capital. “They’ve had plenty of time to fortify their position against a direct assault.”

Barras motioned to Leeza’s tactical hand comp. “Are you still showing Queen Diamanti’s bio-tracker signal inside the capital?”

Leeza checked the screen and nodded. “Yes. She’s definitely inside.”

Barras nodded grimly. Leeza shook her head in response as if knowing his thoughts. She jerked her thumb toward the army filling the street behind them. “I do not think my queen would want us to risk the last of our forces to rescue her.”

Odell placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.  “We need Diamanti’s voice to unite ALL the free people of Te’ Sareez.  Only she can bring the GSL and the queendoms together.  The other queens … well, no one has seen or heard from any of them for weeks.”

Baras looked skyward. “If the renegade Primon cannot be stopped here, she will have an entire star system under her control. From here she can prepare for as long as she needs to launch her campaign against the rest of the galaxy. By then it might be too late to stop her.”

After a moment, Leeza nodded. “Then we must stop her now.”

Odell looked toward the capital. “I shall go with a small force. Enter by stealth.”

“I have a few specialist soldiers left. How will you get inside?”

Barras scratched his newly grown beard. “A diversionary attack. Keep their forces distracted while you make your way in.”

One of the forward scouts made two short whistles. The ground troops immediately took cover with their weapons at the ready. All eyes were on the scout as she made a series of gestures toward a nearby intersection in the opposite direction of the capital.

Barras, Odell and Leeza peered around the corner. There were approaching footsteps echoing from a nearby alley. Then four figures darted into view.  Barras’ eyes narrowed. “Looks like civilians.”

Leeza peered through her optic scanner. “Three women and a man. They’re running from something?”

“Listen!” Odell whispered. There was a strange droning sound growing louder with each moment.

Four flashes of chrome appeared in the air behind the group of panicked civilians. They buzzed and flitted about like huge insects. “The droning helmets!” Leeza hissed. “We have to help them!”

Barras cupped a hand to his mouth and yelled, “This way! Hurry!”

The group spotted him and rushed forward. The droning helmets re-acquired their targets and zipped after them. Leeza hefted her rifle.

“Set for stun,” Barras cautioned. “Can’t risk anyone seeing an explosion.”

Leeza squeezed the trigger and one of the helmets flew directly into the path of the stun bolt. It veered hard right and bounced off a building before skidding to a stop in the street.

The first of the civilians, a middle-aged woman with streaks of gray in her dark hair, sprinted past Odell and ran straight into the arms of several Vicars. They pulled her to safety as the first of the helmets zipped around the corner and stopped in mid-air. It seemed confounded about what to do now that its potential targets had grown from four to nearly 10,000. A stun round flashed and deactivated the fiendish helmet. The second woman ran around the corner and collapsed. Two Vicars moved to help.

The other woman was slightly ahead of the man as they neared the rebel army. Leeza drew a bead as one of the helmets matched her speed and poised to latch onto the woman’s head. Leeza fired and stunned it out of the air.

The downed helmet fell, bounced off the woman’s shoulder and directly into the path of the man following her. She looked back at him, “Oburt! Watch out! Don’t trip on it!”

“Don’t stop!” Barras cried. “Keep running!”

But the woman had already slowed to a jog. The air above Oburt’s head was clear, the fourth drone nowhere to be seen. She looked around. “I think it’s—” Her words were cut off by a panicked shriek as a helmet clamped itself onto her head.

Two jointed appendages unlatched from either side of the dome-shaped top and locked under her jaw, strangling off her cry. Then a chrome wasp tail with twin stingers latched onto the base of her neck. Her arms fell to her sides and the purple light on the helmet began blinking green.

“Irielle!” The man cried in anguish as he raced to her side and reached for the wasp stingers.

Suddenly, Barras’ hands closed over Oburt’s wrists and pulled him away. He struggled to keep the man under control. “No, you’ll paralyze her!”

The man sobbed as Barras pulled him into a side street. The first woman embraced Oburt as they both began weeping. Irielle exhaled a breathy moan as the droning helmet began softening her mind, giving her a taste of the pleasure that would be used to break her will and permanently reprogram her personality.

Barras turned to find Leeza and Odell examining one of the stunned helmets.

Odell was fiddling with something inside it. “What are you doing?”

There was a click and the helmet’s purple light started flashing green. Odell held it up triumphantly. “I’ve disabled the other systems, but I’ve managed to keep the light working so it looks like the helmet is functional.”

“To what end?”

As he spoke, Irielle mindlessly walked past them, her hands hanging listless at her sides. She looked like she was sleepwalking. Baras nodded to Odell.

“A group of freshly caught drones,” she said, “marching obediently through the front door.”

Leeza shook her head. “But we only have three helmets. That’s you and two soldiers. Is that enough?”

“It will have to be. I’ll rig the other two helmets. Leeza, I need your best two specialists up here right away.”

Barras folded his arms. Odell stepped in front of him, suddenly meek. She bowed her head.

“Forgive me, Superior Father. It is your decision, of course.”

He put his hand on her shoulder and their eyes met.  “I’ll give you ten minutes after you get inside and then initiate an attack to keep them distracted. Hopefully, that will make things easier for you.”

“Yes, Superior Father.”

Leeza returned with two soldiers, a man and woman. “This is Yurim and Balahkoth. They’re the best we have.”

Odell nodded in greeting as she pulled off her crimson robes and adjusted her tunic so it concealed the rayff on her belt. She brushed back her white-gray mohawk with her fingers.

“Leave everything you don’t need. How are you fixed for melee weapons?”

The two soldiers pulled off their packs and dropped their rifles and sidearms. Yurim pulled up the sleeves of his shirt revealing two thin daggers strapped to his forearms. “Double fixed.” He winked.

Balahkoth smiled. “I’ve been wearing brass knuckles since infantry school.” She showed off what looked like arm warmers with decorative jewels along the top of the hand. Odell could see caked blood in the crevices of the polished metal.

“Alright then, the plan is to follow that civilian, Irielle.” Odell pointed to the woman with the chrome helmet making her way zombielike toward the capital. “Once we get inside, we peel off and get downstairs. The queen’s signal is somewhere on sub-level three.”

“We keep the helmets on?” Balahkoth was examining the rigged drone helmet with a look of unease.

“Yes, for as long as the charade holds. If we do get challenged don’t do anything unless I do it first.”

Odell hefted her own helmet and the three of them donned the sinister devices.

“Let’s go get Diamanti.”

Meanwhile, on the Goddess of Darkness’ massive ship, K’wari has escaped Glamora’s devilish playroom and goes in search of Flock …

K’wari was nearly out of breath as she checked another vast chamber and jogged down another seemingly endless corridor.  The spacecraft was enormous.  It could take days, weeks even, before she stumbled on Flock’s whereabouts.

If she was still alive.

K’wari pushed that thought aside, knowing within her heart that Flock was alive. But for how much longer? Even with her newfound telepathic talents as a full Vicar of Yasu, there were too many souls, too many voices and too vast a distance to even dare hope Flock’s mental call could be heard among them.

However, even in this mounting moment of futility, an opportunity presented itself.  She could hear the scuttling steps of two Black Widdom fighters above her.  Climbing carefully up a ladder to Level 16 of the spaceship, she shadowed the two spiderwomen as they marched quickly onward.

Odell’s pulse thundered in her ears as she shuffled forward, focusing on looking like she wasn’t focused at all. Trying not to show just how unnerving it was to be wearing the deactivated slave-helmet. Though all this had been her plan, that was no comfort once it was time to actually put her head into the sinister device.

Odell kept her arms relaxed and matched stride with poor Irielle at the front of the procession. Yurim and Balohkoth were more impatient. She could hear it in their steps.

The capital’s towering metal doors were growing larger as the group plodded up the avenue toward the capital building. Diamond Warriors loomed ahead, the embedded gems their skin glittered in the bright, morning sun. Sweat beaded under the helmet, trickling down Odell’s neck. Yurim’s breathing rasped loudly behind her and she fought the urge to hiss at him to quiet down.

The smoothly paved street gave way to decorative stone tiles as they stepped onto the grounds of Caput’s former seat of government.  They approached a handmade gate of softly curving metal. Beyond that was the blue-green aura of an energy shield.

A Diamond Warrior inside opened the steel gate just as Irielle arrived. Looking her over, he grunted lustfully. Odell watched as he turned toward the capital building, moved one hand in an arc over his head, then dropped the hand to his chest. Odell watched as another blue-skinned warrior near the large doors waved back, then moved to a mobile control console. A moment later, the blue-green energy dome winked off.

Odell focused on keeping her breaths slow and even as she passed the first of many Diamond Warrior barricades full of leering eyes.

“Tasty morsel,” one said gruffly as she walked past.

There were more barricades and more unsettling words from the Diamond Warriors. But Odell’s concentration was solely on the doors ahead. She was so hyper-focused it barely registered when she reached the wide marble stairs leading up to the entry.

They’d made it.

Barras plucked a stone from the ground and turned it over in his fingers thoughtfully. Leeza’s eyes were on her hand comp. She turned to him. “That’s ten minutes.”

Barras nodded. “Then let us get to work.”

Leeza lifted her hand comp and spoke. “Rebel army, attack. Repeat, all units attack. Eliminate their outer defense force and let’s try to force them to lower the shielding and use their artillery. Then gamma units will get inside and secure the shielding controls.” She checked the screen then looked at Barras. “All units acknowledge.”

“Here we go then.”

Barras went to the edge of the building and watched as the first shots were fired.

Flock was hanging upside-down, sections of her naked body wrapped tightly in spidery filaments.  The bottoms of her feet were bound together forcing her knees wide apart, her wrists tied firmly against the small of her back. She hung from a thick cord made from dozens of iron-strong silk strands. She felt constricted, making it difficult to breathe.  Her temples pounded.

Across from where she hung was a row of large cocoons.  She realized where she was.  This is where Araneae first brought her.  This is where she was tortured.  This is where she was turned into a slave.  And this is where Araneae came to feed …

The cocoons were filled with humanoid bodies – the last of the Warrior Women of Caput.  Flock could barely make out their shapes, their faces. But she could sense their desperation, see their wide eyes frozen in fear through the veils of spider silk.

Flock felt something deep within herself -– remorse. She didn’t know where the emotion came from, after all, she had captured many of these women herself, watched as they were used and abused and eventually devoured by their Black Widdom captors.

She didn’t know how long she’d been hanging there, but every so often a wave of awareness flowed across her mind. Upside-down, her blonde hair dangling beneath her, her heavily beating heart sent blood surging to her brain, mildly diluting the various toxins that had invaded her body.  Milk from the brood weaver. Tiny amounts of venom from Araneae’s huge stinger.  The insidious green poison Hunni had injected into her ear.

Hunni!

Flock’s body trembled.  They had been sharing dreams in an altered reality for months. Now, there were no more pleasure-filled, orgasm-driven dreams.  There were only nightmares. She knew Hunni was dead.

She twisted her body in anguish and frustration. Something fell out of her ear.  Yes! The sensor Zeta had used to feed Flock her own kind of poison – brain-numbing programming.

There was the sound of ripping, then heavy breathing, then sucking.  Flock tilted her head.  There was Araneae. Two of her long, segmented legs had punctured one of the cocoons while her open mouth caught the gushing, bloody remains of her victim as it poured out.  Flock had witnessed this horror many times before, but now it chilled her to her marrow.

Blood and bone washed across the spiderwoman’s contented face, as if luxuriating in a warm shower. As the deflated cocoon’s contents reduced to a trickle, Araneae’s head snapped toward Flock. There was a different kind of hunger in her eyes.

Araneae scuttled up the far wall, then across the ceiling. Each of her eight limbs clicking and clacking across its surface.  Flock’s head turned away from the cocoons.  She strained her neck as far as she could as her eyes met something her mind had been allowed to forget – Johansen Powers’ battlesuit neatly stacked on a shelf in the corner of the room. And beside it … the rayff staff of a Vicar of Yasu!

“K-k-k ….”

There was a tug on the cord above her as the spiderwoman descended.  With her four segmented legs holding her steady, Araneae spread Flock’s knees even wider apart.  Flock could feel wetness on the inside of her thigh as the creature salivated, droplets dripping from her pointed, razor-sharp teeth.  Araneae wriggled downward, close enough to give Flock’s pussy a tantalizingly slow and long lick.

Fingernails dug into her flesh.  The spiderwoman’s perverse ballet above her prey made her appear to almost float on air.  Her spidery legs at once powerful and strong were also deft and agile. She circled the helpless blonde hanging six feet above the ground. Around and around. Toying with one sensitive spot, then another.  Flock had danced this dance before –- but standing! — yet the combination of eroticism and horror this time played at her senses, her flagging awareness.

Her nipples swelled at the teasing touches, her knees shook as she jutted her hips begging for another kiss.

There was gentle clicking in her ears. Araneae’s mating call. She mauled and poked and tickled Flock’s body, taking in her fevered scent, coaxing out her wetness as it rolled downward over her stomach.  Another lick from the spiderwoman’s long tongue captured it.

Flock’s head, rhythmically swaying below her trapped body, was surrounded by black legs and her captor’s bulbous, venom-filled tail. Araneae slid even farther down, nearly defying gravity.  The thick, ebony plates across her chest parted, revealing eight, grayish, swelling breasts. Light gray beads of milk grew on each dark nipple. Flock felt her head pushed from behind and a nipple was thrust into her open mouth.

It was bitter and revolting.  She tried not to swallow but her mouth was quickly filled with jets of the putrid milk.  She felt a buzzing in her head. Her vision grew cloudy.  Her tongue went numb.  She swallowed.

In an instant those feelings of awareness she clung to were washed away. Farther and farther with every gulp of the spider’s milk.  She needed more; she was lost in that need.   

She sucked harder. And came.

The smoke from the barrage cleared. A platoon of rebel soldiers and Vicars stood among the fallen bodies of Zeta’s soldiers. Many Diamond Warriors were among them. Leeza breathed a sigh of relief.

“Outer perimeter secured. We have control of the gate.”

Immediately, there was weapons fire. Barras’ voice barked. “That was from the east!”

Leeza turned her head. “Outside the force shield!” Her hand comp began chirping angrily in her hand. She scanned the screen. “Ground forces! Attacking from all directions!”

Barras and Leeza raced to the rear of the building. “How did they get around us?” Leeza shouted, her eyes fixed on her comp.  “We had clear streets, we made sure.” She stopped suddenly, listening intently to the comm chatter. “Mixed reports. I think the soldiers were hiding in buildings, waiting for us.”

Barras growled in frustration. “Nothing to do then but fight. Have all units engage.”

Leeza looked up at him, panic in her eyes. “We can’t. Oh gods, we can’t engage!”

“What is it?!”

“The enemy ground troops?” Leeza’s face was full of pain and fury. “It’s us! It’s our own prisoners in the drone helmets! My people … they can’t fire on their own.”

She clenched her eyes shut. “Twin suns save us.”

Odell and the two soldiers followed Irielle through the central receiving lobby of the capital, past more enemy units and through a grand ballroom adorned with tapestries and glass art. Once they’d reached the far side, Odell risked turning her head and saw the corridor to her right was deserted.

“Auxiliary stairwell is seven doors down on the left,” Yurim whispered.

Odell led the soldiers down the hallway as Irielle continued walking deeper into the building. Outside, they heard the first shots as Barras’ attack began. They moved quickly down the auxiliary stairs. Odell didn’t hesitate as she marched forward through a set of double doors that swished open as she approached.

They turned a corner and into a hornet’s nest of activity. Where the main level of the capital building had been luxurious, the sub-level was spartan. People in black uniforms were everywhere, suddenly too busy dealing with the attack outside to pay much notice to three drones in helmets.

They continued through what had been a commissary. There were stacks of cases everywhere and portable equipment had been set up on the dining tables. Odell spotted an astro-band radio, an orbital sensor console and other pieces of tactical gear.

They kept to the periphery and away from the main buzz of activity. Suddenly, a door to Odell’s right swished open and the body of a hulking Diamond Warrior slammed into her!

Odell staggered backwards, thinking quickly to not regain her balance too easily lest it raise suspicion. He gave her body a leering look. His eyes stopped at her waist. Her tunic had shifted and revealed the rayff staff hanging from her belt.

Uh oh.

There was nothing she could do but keep to the plan. Odell walked away, sticking to the same slow pace as before. The Diamond Warrior muttered something, a word she’d never heard before: “Rudrub.”

They turned down a long, empty corridor. They were getting close to Diamanti’s location.  A door swished opened and a tall officer with graying hair stepped into view.

He looked in Odell’s direction and barked, “You’re not supposed to be here!” He marched straight for her. “Tactical officers only in this corridor! We went over all this yesterday!”

It was only when he was right next to her that she realized he was talking to someone else, someone behind her. She heard another voice. Gruff, with heavy breathing. “Rudrub.” It was the Diamond Warrior. He’d followed them into the hallway.

“Red what?” the man asked. There was a strange sizzling sound and a whiff of ozone in the air. The Diamond Warrior had drawn his lazerblade. The tactical officer looked directly at Odell. Then down to her rayff.

She realized what the Diamond Warrior had said.

Red robe!

The tactical officer’s eyes narrowed. “We haven’t droned any Vicars. Yet.”

Odell planted her left foot and spun into a kick. Her right boot crunched against the man’s head and he crumpled into a heap. She turned and found Balahkoth charging the Diamond Warrior.

She ducked as he swung the lazerblade and landed an uppercut to his throat. Her brass knuckles left a nasty imprint on the flesh there. Balahkoth jumped onto his back and locked his neck in a chokehold.

“Sword!” she hissed in a low voice.

Yurim moved quickly, wrapping both his hands around the Diamond Warrior’s massive forearm and held it fast. The blue-skinned brute gradually fell unconscious as Yurim snatched the blade before it could clang to the floor.

“We’ve got to get out of the hallway!”

“Here!” Odell whispered harshly.

She grabbed the tactical officer, threw him over her shoulder and moved through the doorway he’d just come through. Balahkoth and Yurim each grabbed a leg and pulled the unconscious Diamond Warrior inside. Odell mashed the button and the door closed.

“Holy bork, he’s heavy,” Yurim whispered.

Odell deposited the tactical officer in the corner. Then she noticed a holo-table in the center of the room. The glowing blue display showed the Te’ Sareez star system.

She moved to the table cautiously. “Is this what I think it is?”

Balahkoth pulled her helmet off and rushed to the controls. “It’s their intel! This is their main tactical network.” She pressed buttons and graphics began appearing on the table. “I’ve got troop deployments, supply transport schedules, fleet location and status. Everything. This is EVERYTHING.” She pulled a hand comp from her pants and began downloading data.

“Yurim, what’s that?” Odell pointed to a triangle moving over the surface of Serpens Caput. He pressed buttons and the planet grew larger. The single triangle became dozens.

“Air wing. Bombers.” He tapped more buttons and called up their orders. “They’re going to hit us. The Vicars and the rebel army.”

Odell looked confused. “But … their ground troops are already engaged? A strafe would kill theirs as well as ours. Why would they do that?”

Yurim tapped more buttons. He looked up at her with anguish in his eyes.

“Because their ground force is our people. The drones in the helmets. That’s who’s counterattacking right now. If they drop bombs into that they’ll kill the rebels, the Vicars and the droned prisoners. They lose no one and we lose everyone.”

“Bork,” Odell growled.

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“I’ve got it. All their intel data. I got everything.” Balahkoth held up her hand comp. “This is the kind of thing that wins wars. If we can get the data to the people who need it.”

Yurim replied, “If there’s no army left to fight, there’s no winning anything. We have to save our people.” He eyed Odell. “And yours. What do we do?”

Odell ran her hand over her mohawk roughly, thinking.

“Three objectives. Three of us. That’s what we do.” She stepped over to the unconscious tactical officer. “Yurim, put on his uniform. You saw the force shield controls on the capital grounds on the way in. You’ve got to shut down the shield and let our army inside. Then get it back up before the bombers get here.”

Yurim kicked his boots off and started pulling off his clothes. “What about the droned captives? How will we get them under the shield?”

“Oh!” Balahkoth held up the hand comp. “I’ve got their control codes on here. I could give them a command to stop fighting and muster under the shield. If I could get to a transmitter.”

Odell nodded. “Then you’re headed for that transmitter on the roof we spotted earlier. Send the command to the drones and then transmit that tactical data off-planet to any of our allies within shouting distance.”

Yurim finished pulling on the black uniform. “And our queen?”

“I’ll get her out.”

The black, segmented legs surrounded Flock like a cage. Araneae licked across her chin and down her neck.  She tasted fear and longing.  Climbing farther up, she began feasting on Flock’s swelling clit.  Flock moaned in desperate need.

Araneae’s fanglike teeth nibbled at the shuddering flesh, then bit into her labia!  Flock’s head snapped up.  The memory from so long ago shouted in her mind.

“K’wari! Stop biting my clit!”

Araneae’s legs scooted downward. Flock could feel panting, lustful breath on her areolas. Then lower. However, Flock’s thoughts clung to that memory. She heard a familiar voice.

“What would you have suggested we do, Flock? Hold hands?”

Clickclickclickclick.  The inhuman sounds of a widdom in heat sped up and intensified.

“You will be mine,” the spiderwoman whispered seductively in her ear. “No matter what occurs today, my slave, you will be the host for 100,000 of my children.  The mother of my progeny.”

Araneae climbed above Flock’s body, twisting her humanoid legs so that the weight of her knees pressed down against Flock’s, spreading her painfully wide.  The fat tail curled under her ass so that it emerged between her legs and pointed directly at Flock’s pink, vulnerable pussy.

The razor-sharp tip of the stinger receded.  She pulled back the furry, black sheath with her fingers and thick, red flesh emerged.  It grew slowly, swelling and engorged. Araneae sighed from the pleasure.  Droplets of shimmering blackness began bathing Flock’s weeping vulva.

“My children will become your children.”

Flock couldn’t see them, but she could feel them. The shimmering pool coating her fur was alive! Thousands of microscopic spiders in search of a host.

Araneae jutted her hips as the red phallus began sliding into her …

“Stop right there, you devil!”

Flock wasn’t sure if she was dreaming or not, but Araneae’s body stiffened. Her head rose.

Across the room, the Vicar of Yasu held the broken end of a spider leg. And in her other, the head of a Black Widdom soldier.

Odell crept down the passage and stopped at a large door. The wall placard read “Ministry of Scientific Inquiry & Application.” She checked her hand comp. Diamanti’s signal was about twenty meters beyond the door. She gripped her rayff in one hand and pressed the control to open the door.

The room was dim, lit only by a powerful light at the center of the circular chamber. There were ten circular levels, each less than a meter tall leading down to a central stage. It looked like a lecture hall that had been converted into a laboratory. There were stacks of equipment everywhere and huge cables humming with electrical power crawling across the floor and hanging from an exposed power junction in the ceiling.

A lattice of metal had been erected forming a geodesic dome in the center of the room. The lights were focused on a machine at the center. Odell crept down quietly. She froze when a woman cried out.

It sounded desperate and very, very sexual. Odell continued toward the center of the room, careful to stay hidden behind the various stacks of equipment. She heard a new voice, another woman.

“Goddess is done with you. You are irr … irr … irrelevant.” The voice was husky and cruel. “You die. I play. First, I play.”

“No! You cannot do this!”

Odell huddled behind a rack of control modules and peered through the gaps. Diamanti, queen of Serpens Caput, was floating upright and spinning slowly within a column of light. Her hair was damp and plastered to her face. Her dark skin was covered in a glistening sheen of sweat.

Odell could see strange orbs covering her body. A line of blacks spheres the size of grapes ran along her spine, others formed cuffs at her wrists and ankles. She appeared to be suspended by the orbs.

Odell could barely see another figure in the shadows just outside the light. The woman gestured and the queen’s limbs were stretched into a X shape as she was forced to face her captor.

“The slave maker is perfect. Many generations on my world. Impossible to resist. Toys mapping your … nervous system, down to your … n-n-neurons.” It was clear the woman had difficulty speaking a language Diamanti could understand. But the meaning behind her words was clear. “You resist, you struggle, you expose another path. They attack and bring you under my control.”

Odell could see the orbs circling the queen’s breasts, others were crawling over and through the swollen lips of her engorged sex. She groaned helplessly. A coarse, blue hand reached out, gripped Diamanti’s jaw and squeezed.

“Rubbing. Mmmm. Sensitive spots. Inside and out.”

The line of spheres at Diamanti’s breasts rolled to her mons and began circling there. Odell could see them pressing firmly into the queen’s supple flesh as they massaged her along with the invaders circling inside her passage. Diamanti moaned her as floating body convulsed in unwanted ecstasy.

For four months, the proud queen of Caput has been Zeta’s sex slave. She debased herself for her enemy. It was the only way to stay alive.  But now, she realized, the situation had changed. She’d heard cannon fire outside the walls of her prison. The shouting.  The march of heavy-footed soldiers. It was war.

She hadn’t seen Zeta for days. Was she dead? Perhaps the Goddess of Darkness had finally seized control of Te’ Sareez.

Diamanti was … irrelevant.

She heaved. She felt her uterus stretched, the nub of her clit swelling from stimulation. She hated what was happening to her, but loved it just the same. She had endured being Zeta’s slave because there was hope. Could she go on as the slave of another now that there was no hope in sight?

Odell crept around the equipment rack and began slowly making her way toward the stage, approaching the mysterious woman from behind.

“Maybe I keep you. Tell Goddess you die. Keep you as MY slave.”

Odell stepped forward, her rayff open to its full two-meter length and already spinning menacingly in her right hand.

“Or you could let her go right now and I won’t give you a limp that lasts the rest of your life.”

The woman stepped out of the shadows and Odell’s eyes widened. “You … are a Diamond Warrior?”

The blue-skinned woman sneered. She was as big as a male Diamond Warrior, her arms rippling with muscles. A large collection of gold chains and colored jewels around her neck clinked musically as she shifted her weight.

“I’ve never heard of one of you leaving your home world before.”

“We stand on my new home world.”

“The Primon promised you a planet?” Odell took a step forward. “Did she mention she plans to burn the entire galaxy afterward?”

The Diamond Woman sneered again. “I mercenary. I hear much. Plans. Dreams. Few come to truth.”

“I’m afraid that your schemes will suffer a similar fate. In the name of the Vicars of Yasu, I call for your surrender. If you turn over Diamanti right now, I promise you will be dealt with justly.”

The Diamond Woman grunted.

“No.”

“In that case, I don’t think there’s anything to say but—” Odell caught movement out of her left eye just as one of the tiny black spheres came streaking right for her head! She shifted her feet and knocked the orb out of the air with her rayff. “Care to try again?”

The Diamond Woman’s grunt sounded amused. She waved her hands in front of her. Odell noticed her strange forearm gauntlets. A swarm of the tiny globes rose into the air and circled around the blue-skinned woman. Three of them suddenly launched at Odell, yet the Vicar’s reflexes were more than equal to the task. She spun her rayff and batted them away as easily as the first.

“I don’t think your strategy is working.”

The Diamond Woman smiled. “Your staff. Heavy? Very heavy.”

Odell lifted her arms. frowned. Her rayff was feeling odd. She glanced down and realized why –the black spheres were stuck fast to the smooth tip like magnets. Odell pressed the small knob on the staff to discharge the energy the rayff had stored. There was an electric crackle, then a dozen more spheres suddenly fixed themselves to the staff!

Odell charged forward. She spun the rayff but the balance was terribly off-center. She made the most of the added momentum and swung for the blue woman’s head. The swarm of spheres suddenly formed a curtain of steel and Odell’s rayff bounced off it with a mighty clang.

The end of her rayff was complete covered now, dozens of globes covered her staff. She saw another swarm of the fiendish spheres floating in the air around the Diamond Woman. Two more streaked at her head. She hefted her rayff and managed to catch them, but three more struck her in the stomach. She coughed hard and dropped to one knee. Then one struck her in the forehead and knocked her onto her back.

The rayff slipped from her fingers and rolled toward the Diamond Woman, who stopped it with her foot.

“There! Better. Now, you stay. I prepare another pleasure field for you. After, I boil your mind in ecstasy until you is nothing but a pleasure husk.” She smiled like a hungry beast. “A Vicar in my harem. Good day.”

Odell felt orbs moving inside her clothes. A ring of them closed around her throat and squeezed slowly. All went dark.

“Gee willikers,” Riesga said, her mouth agape, “that’s a huge ship!”

Jette looked up, noticing that the Goddess of Darkness’ enormous ship cast a 10,000-mile shadow across the morning side of Serpentarius.

“I don’t think our two little ships are going to be able to do much against that, Jette.”  Elexa’s voice over the comm was all business.  “We’re going to need help. A lot of help.”

Riesga’s hand comp beeped. She looked at Jette with surprise before reading the message.  “I don’t get it.”  She handed the comp to her commander.

Jette nodded to herself.  Then a smile appeared.

“Help is on the way, Elexa,” said Jette. “Rendezvous with us at … 224-point-31.”

“Roger that,” Elexa replied. “I hope they’re bringing more than just the cavalry.”

Jette showed the read-out to Riesga. Her eyes lit up.

“Epsilon!”

Araneae scurried up the thick, silk cord, then launched herself into the air. Her legs fanned out like wings and she floated gracefully to the floor.

K’wari tossed the severed head aside.  “How’re you doing, Flock?”

She didn’t answer. She barely moved.  Araneae didn’t look surprised but inside she was enraged.

“I have dealt with Vicars before,” she said sharply. “You are no match for me.”

K’wari looked at the sharpened end of broken leg in her hand.  She tossed that aside as well and nodded toward her rayff leaning against the wall.  “Then what would you say if we made it a fair fight?”

Araneae considered, then bowed her head.  K’wari strode to her rayff, already extended to its full length.  As she turned back to the spiderwoman, she pulled her robes away from her legs and crouched slightly into a fighting stance.

Araneae’s legs raised and bent toward her menacingly.

Then they charged!

To be continued …