Enryn

by Gerard Whittaker

  "Like I said, you're accident prone," Enryn laughed. "But now you really do belong to me!"

  "When we make it back to town mistress, I really have to bathe you," Fae insisted. "You look terrible."

  "I think you should join me in the bath," Enryn suggested laughing, "you're looking a mess yourself."

  They hid the bodies and ran off towards their prey.

  It was two days later when they made it back to the house, leaving no trace of the patrol.

  Fae kept her word and bathed Enryn, only to be pulled into the bath. And for the first time in years she started to laugh.

  Ceri knocked on the door, and entered to see them both still wet from the bath. "I've been worried, you've been missing for days."

  "Been shopping," Enryn said and emptied the bag of pistols and ammunition on the table.

  Ceri only nodded, "They'll be useful, we can get a few carbines from the turrets, but not hide them in these costumes."

  "So how's it going?"

  "All the girls are accounted for, two had been kept locked in a cellar for some pretty bad reasons, so I explained the faulty reasoning to a couple of sadists and they promised to be good from then on."

  Fae could only look confused.

  "She killed them," Enryn explained. "Eventually."

  "Took a couple of hours to sort the girls out, you know, sawing off their chains and first aid? So we had some free time. They'll be okay, but arn't up to fighting just yet, the Lady knows they are mad enough though."

  "I found the transmitter disguised as a tree, pretty badly."

  "And we found the men. There's a high security prison for captured prisoners, the rich or powerful ones at least."

  "And we can get in?"

  "If we go dressed as slaves we might manage it, oh, wait, we are dressed as slaves," Ceri laughed. "All we have to do is look scared and I'm sure they'll be only too happy to invite us in."

  "Trust a man to think with his balls," Enryn laughed, "and then we geld them."

  "And the Turrets are well on the way back to normal, about five days."

  "Any more news?"

  "Oana got her self in trouble. That nice lady, Sharral, who bought her was waiting for her beast of a husband to return from duty. Anyway, big fight, the creep is dead and Oana has the woman and her two kids tied up. I recommended she resolve the situation, but she refused and showed me the woman's back. Lady, I've never seen so many scars left by a whip, and by her own husband! It's no wonder Sharral wanted to give him Oana."

  "That kid will be the death of me," Enryn sighed. "Okay, it's on her head."

  "I'll take it you are not leaving your new friend," Ceri gestured to Fae.

  "She's earned the right to keep up. And she can run faster than a Marine."

  Ceri gasped in shock, "You're not thinking of enlisting her?"

  "You've got to be kidding, she'd faint at the sight of a drill instructor. I need volunteers for the various parts of the mission, explain it to the girls and pick the best qualified."

  "I'll take the pick up Sergeant," Ceri snapped. "One other thing, have you given any thought to taking one of the civilian ships?"

  "We'll be too busy running to rescue any more, no matter how much I'd like to sweep this cess pool clean."

  "Then we're set," Ceri sighed.

  "Five days and counting," Enryn agreed. "And then these pirates, or whatever they are, will find out what it's like to piss off the Marine Corps!"

  "I wonder, if this works, do you think it will count to our becoming full Marines?"

  Enryn sighed, "If it doesn't work it will count a lot to our being fully dead."

  Eight girls under Ceri made it to the Turrets, and got inside without being seen by anyone who still lived.

  Then Enryn walked calmly in to the high security prison and shot the guards with a carbine. More girls ran to seal off the prison and turn into a fort.

  Dressed in full dancer costumes Enryn and four more girls marched through the prison, snapping to a halt outside a large cell, they turned right and she took two steps forward saluting with the carbine. "Cadet Sergeant Enryn Macintyre, Women's Auxiliary Fifty First Marine Corps, reporting, sir!"

  The bedraggled officers thought it was a joke.

  "General Jones, I hope you will listen?"

  The general, in what was left of his army uniform, gasped, "Didn't I see you dancing with Gunny?"

  "Yes sir! Gunny Macintyre is my partner sir. May I suggest that you all step away from the wall?" A faint hum could be heard, which grew ever louder.

  The General was about to ask why when a EAI came crashing through the wall, piloted by Ceri. "Weapons and armour are in the rear compartment sir," Enryn snapped, saluted, turned right and continued to match to the next cell, shooting the locks off as she marched past.

  "Typical bloody Marine," an Officer gasped. "Only they could turn a jailbreak into a parade!"

  "But I do like the uniforms," a second officer laughed.

  A bunch of guards came charging around the corner, but she didn't even break stride as her bodyguards blew them to bits.

  Four Landers circled the prison, laying down pinpoint suppression fire with Chainguns and hellfire missiles, as their sixteen EAIs were remotely driven to free the prisoners.

  Chaos ruled as the Iowa's crew grabbed armour and weapons and began to fight back. Two Turrets were manned by Marines, one the Army and one Air Force, but all were familiar with the carbines; all they had to do was point and shoot.

  Enryn finally found the Marine cell, and saw Ace sitting patently on a flea infested bunk, waiting for her with a big grin plastered all over his face. "I see you came dressed for the occasion."

  "Camouflage Ace," she snapped, "when in a forest look like a tree, and when in a prison look like a slave."

  "We saw you being sold and I knew it was a trick; you'll never be a slave," he sighed. "But feel free to bring the costume."

  "We're out of EAIs, Too many levels and cells, so we'll have to do this the old fashioned way."

  "You mean run for it."

  She blew the cell door open as her escort were opening all the other cells of a mixed lot of alien civilians. Then the exodus began with everyone running for their lives.

  Outside the EAIs were now fully manned and surrounding the prison, and now in charge of much of the town. Until the Warriors began to emerge one by one, and forced them back to defend the prison.

  As Enryn and Ace burst from the prison three Warriors strode forth surrounded by glowing fields of energy.

  Enryn fired three times and saw her shots absorbed by the personal screens. "I figured that would happed, but these guys are five minutes early."

  "And what happens in five minutes?"

  "We get a lot more targets."

  Fae stuck her cute nose round the corner, and hurried over holding the spear thrower. "I just, like, thought you might need these."

  Ace almost started to laugh, until Enryn took the suggestion seriously. She placed the spear thrower on her right fore arm with her fingers through the leather strap, and placed a lance in the slot, pushing it against the back stop.

  The Warriors strode forth, wondering why no one was shooting at them.

  Enryn took her position and let fly with her first lance, and the wooden shaft slid slowly through the energy screen, to bury the point in the man's guts.

  She loaded again and killed the second warrior, and then the third. Ace could only watch her in disbelief.

  Fae rushed off to recover the lances, making sure the Warriors were really dead by pushing the lances in even further, as Enryn tried to look innocent. "By the way, the girl is called Fae, and she belongs to us. I hope you don't mind?"

  "We'll talk about that after the battle," Ace sighed and saw the alien kid finishing off the last of the Warriors who had once beaten him into slavery. "Then again I can't think of any reason to object."

  A hundred Warriors were converging on the prison, surrounding the EAIs as more came from acros
s the city.

  They rushed to General Jones and his command staff, explaining Enryn's plan.

  The Warriors were held at bay without being fired on, so they could not absorb any more energy. When it was clear they were all there and the Lord came floating up Enryn gave the command to the Landers and a single Hellfire missile was launched beyond the town.

  Oana was crouching in the brush outside the wall, next to three bound figures of her former mistress Sharral and her children; she carefully aimed a laser targeter at the power transmitter as the hellfire missile tore over the wall, locked on to the laser and drove in doing over mach two. The explosion vaporised the tower with a blinding flash. "Target destroyed, two trucks of reinforcements on the way from the landing field. Illuminated." Two more missiles blasted over the wall to hit the security patrols.

  The screens failed as one, leaving the startled men as good as naked, and the Marines opened up with their carbines, tearing through the Warriors in a split second of death.

  Only the Lord now stood in defiance. "Think you have won?" the creature laughed. "Know that we own this galaxy, and none can stand against us."

  Enryn strode forth unarmed. "I've been thinking about that," she mused. "It seems to me that you like us shooting at you, so you can feed off our energy. So what happens when we don't shoot you?"

  "I have power enough."

  She walked right up to the monster, testing the barrier with a finger and pulling it quickly back. "That stings," she laughed. "I'll bet it really hurts if you stick your hand in there."

  "But, but..."

  "That was the wrong answer," she laughed and thrust her left arm through the glowing barrier, forcing her hand to reach for the monster as her arm felt as though it was on fire.

  Feeling blindly through the agony her numb fingers closed in on the bloated neck and began to squeeze. The creature began to thrash in panic as she increased the pressure and her fingers dug into the windpipe, crushing the cartilage. Then she jerked it forward and struck with her right hand, crushing the face and breaking the neck. The bubble snapped out of existence and the golden saucer fell to the ground leaving Enryn holding a bag of skin with her left hand.

  "Somebody get a body-bag will you? I'm sure Ison Percival will want to dissect this thing."

  Ace ran up, "How could you do that?"

  "It was no worse that giving birth, women are designed to withstand pain."

  Oana stood up and turned to Sharral, "It looks like you get to live, as my slave. I do hope you like being tied up?"

  "My children?" she sobbed.

  "Believe it or not it was always about them. I loved them from the start, and I'll free them on the ship."

  "And I? What will you do to me?"

  "You know those little games we used to play when you first bought me?"

  "I thought you liked them," Sharral sobbed.

  "I did, but I hope you will feel the same."

  "Right Ace, I've completed the mission and am now handing control back to you. Tactics I understand, but this is now getting political."

  "We can afford one day to sort out the mess down here, before their ships start to show up. And we can't pull your tricks with a battleship."

  General Jones walked up, "I've been talking to the other survivors. We can fill a passenger ship with the prisoners and slaves, and they have asked for the Marines to guard it. So looks like you'll be travelling first class Gunny, while the Army takes over Turret One."

  "And what happens after sir?"

  "We blow this place from orbit. They'll never again use it."

  "That'll slow them down, but not stop them."

  "With their weapons nothing will stop them, we have to get back to the Iowa."

  "I heard that this is only one of a hundred or more bases," Ace sighed.

  "This galaxy is going down the toilet Gunney, and it's up to us to stop it."

  All four Turrets were now hanging over the town with menacing presence, as the Iowa's crew swept every inch of the town, freeing slaves and rounding up those masters who had adapted better to the life than they should.

  Buying a slave was one thing, using her another, but torture was approaching the worst kind of taste. Everyone knew there had been a number of private executions in dark cellars with girls being lifted to freedom on stretchers.

  General Jones oversaw one rescue mission and told his platoon to carry on as he cut a tall black girl free from a whipping frame, and turned to her captor drawing his pistol. He half carried the girl to find a doctor he had met in prison, who was far from human but very humane. The girl's former master neither needed nor wanted a doctor.

  The Poulum was a luxury passenger ship pirated six months ago, she was fast but had hardly any weapons. The Marines took over one section of the first class deck, mixing with the newly freed passengers, while thousands of slaves that hadn't yet been classified were secured in the vast cargo holds.

  If most of them needed to be tried for their crimes against their slaves, who would testify for or against them. They had only been trying to stay alive, and many slaves had refused to leave their former masters. Whether from gratitude, desperation, fear, training or even love, would be up to the therapists to sort out.

  With only a day to prepare, load and launch her, corners had been cut, but she matched orbit with the four Turrets and saw them destroy the planet with a barrage of plasma cannons and gauss guns.

  It looked impressive until you realise it was useless against the pirates.

  Enryn hung up her black dress and Ace's dress uniform in the cabin they now shared with Fae. She turned to see him on the bed.

  "Are you ever going to take that costume off?"

  "I was hoping you would do it for me," she said brashly. "I've been waiting for this for weeks love. Don't scare me like that again."

  "I'd say it worked out," he laughed. "Enryn, you had your first taste of command, and did a first rate job, no one could have done better."

  "You've no concerns about Fae?"

  "You saved her, and she saved us both back. I'm looking forward to getting to know her."

  "I've had word from Ceri, a few of the girls also made friends down there. Oana brought Sharral and two children."

  "I saw her bringing them on board, the woman was still in chains, but looked happy enough. We'll let the Iowa sort it out."

  "How's Sal? I've not seen her."

  "Pretty badly beaten up, she would not bend no matter what they did. But she'll get over it with Ceri's love."

  "Any idea about clothing? Most of us made it out in our bare skin."

  "I had a word with the steward about that, we can use the tailor to replace our uniforms and for anything else we need."

  "Ace," she sighed, "will you shut up and hold me?"

  "I'm scared Enryn. Fae also saved you life. Will you love her instead of me?"

  "Half the bloody Marine Corps, the Army and Air Force helped save my life. Do you think I'm going to sleep with them all?"

  In the morning they called at the tailor's and came away looking like Marines in Khaki service uniforms. They also ordered battle dress with a light reflecting camouflage pattern. Enryn got a few dresses and some for Fae.

  They spent the rest of the day checking up on their Platoon, which now stood for both branches, male and female. Ceri was looking after Sal, as the teenager struggled to come to terms with her ordeal. Another half dozen girls had been hurt in the battle, and a dozen men.

  Ace collared Captain Simme of the Poulum and asked if he had a doctor on board. And soon they were being treated by an alien who looked like a walking walrus, including tusks and whiskers. However, Doctor Parsnus was highly talented, had a great bedside manor, and really cared for his patients. It was only when you saw him eating fish...

  With the Poulum's advanced sensors linked to the four Turrets, they tracked the Iowa down, but it would be a long trip catching up and they were expecting to meet the Pirate fleet again.

  The five ships fle
d through space.

  A month later the Poulum was starting to look like her old self, with formal dinners and small talk. The passengers consisted of a dozen different races, all humanoid but distinctly different from Homo Sapient Terra.

  Ace had his dress uniform cleaned and Enryn slipped back into her little black dress that was covered in stars. Fae joined them in a simple dress of blue silk. And Army General Jones had crossed over on a shuttle in time to have his uniform replaced.

  The formal celebration wasn't much different from the Percival Ball, with small talk and dancing.

  Enryn, Ace and Fae seated themselves across from General Jones and Doctor Parsnus, with Captain Simme sitting near by.

  Captain Simme saw Fae seated at his table with disbelief. "I know you Earthers are new out here, but I never expected to see that!" He was tall with a blue black face that looked hollow from months of starvation and torture. Six tiny horns emerged in a single line from his brow to the nape of his shaved neck.

  "See what Captain?" Enryn asked politely.

  "The feline. I've never seen one sitting at a table wearing a dress. You trained her well, you'd almost think she was intelligent."

  "She is intelligent," Enryn insisted.

  "What is she?" Ace asked.

  "In the wild they don't have a culture or civilisation, they live in small family groups, playing, hunting and eating. But they are a fad amongst the rich, who like to trap, train and breed them."

  Doctor Parsnus chuckled, "She is lovely, must be a pedigree."

  "If my presence offends you gentlemen I shall withdraw," Fae sobbed.

  "Sit still!" Enryn commanded. "You owe Fae a lot, so I would think a little compassion is due. She was a slave far longer than any of you."

  "Not a slave, an animal," Captain Simme insisted.

  "As you wish," Enryn said dangerously. "But I hope you won't mind me treating her as I wish?"

  "By all means, dress her as you like," Captain Simme said magnanimously. "But I hope you will clean up after her?"