by Calista Skye
But Brox isn’t looking at me. He’s looking back towards the crashed ship.
“Oh,” I say. There’s another ship there too, now. Black and spindly and alien. “The Glup, I presume.”
Brox turns and nods to the hole. “Get inside and hide.”
“And you?”
“I will deal with them. They must already have seen us. They’ll be coming.”
I seriously don’t want to be alone down there. “It’s better if you deal with them down below. The corridors are narrow. They can only come at you one at a time. Out here, they can surround you. You won’t be hiding, of course. It’s just… um... tactics. Yeah! Military tactics.” I don’t know where all that came from. But it sounded kind of good.
He thinks for two heartbeats. “Go down.”
Well, I can’t force him. And I’d love to be out of sight of those Glup. So I climb down into the dark hole, carefully placing my feet on each rung of the ladder. They drilled this entryway deep down into the volcanic rock, and even on Mars a drop of a hundred feet would kill me.
Then the shaft gets much darker as Brox starts climbing down and then replaces the lid on the hole above him.
And for some weird reason, my heart soars.
Damn, what the hell was in that food he gave me?
23
- Brox -
I slide the thin metal lid in place over my head, excluding the red light from the setting sun outside. Still, the shaft doesn’t get completely dark. There are luminous strips all the way down.
What exactly am I doing, going down into a hole like a worm? It’s not in my nature to hide. No warrior likes it. Even if he is injured.
The hole Althea shot in me was bad enough. The projectile is clearly stuck in there, and it must contain some kind of toxic substance. Otherwise, my body would have healed itself better than this. It seems to just be getting worse.
And then I got banged up hard when the ship crashed. If I had been alone, I would have stayed in my posture, bracing myself on the ceiling and the floor and been quite safe. But that was impossible while protecting Althea. I held her close and balled up as much as I could, and then we were thrown around the interior of the ship while it bounced on the surface of the planet. My head hurts, as do my legs and back.
But Althea does have a point. The Glup will come for us with murder and war in their minds. And while I have a Combat form, they have combat machines that can be formidable. If I must encounter them, then a narrow corridor would be better than open terrain. Not ideal, though. Not ideal at all.
Still, that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because my shoulder is aching more and more, and I will not be fighting at full capacity. In battle, it’s important not to give oneself a bad start. Combat is challenging enough in itself. Fighting while injured and in open terrain would not be far from suicide. Which is honorable enough when one is forced into it. But there’s no dishonor in making the most of the circumstances. That is tactics.
I groan. What are these cowardly thoughts I’m having? The only tactics any warrior should have is the immediate frontal assault, in Combat form or with a sword.
“Just a little further and we’re down,” Althea says beneath me. “It’s a pretty large base. But it’s human-sized. Not alien-sized. You’ll have to watch your head. What do you call your people, by the way? I mean, what you are? Your race? Your species?”
“Aen’rrob’xrehr,” I proudly announce. It’s what everyone calls us. The Conquering Terror.
“Oh. Arobser?”
Her mangling of my people’s collective name makes my heart sting more than my shoulder.
I get to the bottom. The corridors are indeed low and narrow, and I have to bend double through the many hatches and doorways that Althea leads us through.
“So, this colony was abandoned years ago,” she says, and her bright voice echoes from the metal walls. “It was supposed to be a mining thing. But it didn’t work out. It was just too hard to be here. People broke down. This was before we had given Mars an atmosphere. They couldn’t leave the base for anything other than short excursions, wearing thick space suits. So when we built our colony, we scavenged some of the materials from here.”
I don’t care much about what she says. But I must admit I like the sound of her voice. And the swing of her hips and the fluid jiggle of her behind in that transparent garment.
Now that I’m seeing the corridors, I’m not enamored with having to fight the Glup down here. If I enter my Combat form in these tight quarters, it will kill me. And even if I don’t, it will be just about impossible to get a good swing with the sword.
We turn a corner, and the corridor widens.
“This is the main common room,” Althea says. “Anyone from the outside has to come in where we just came from. The other corridors here just lead further into the base.”
It’s a big hall carved into the rock. There is alien furniture and objects of all kinds arranged in heaps on the floor, as if the owner has packed the place up, but fully intended to return one day. The walls are covered with colorful depictions of alien landscapes, with lots of green and blue. It’s well done and almost creates the illusion that we’re standing on an alien world. With the right lighting, it might work better. The ghostly yellow lighting strips in here just makes everything look eerie.
Even in here, I can feel the weight of the rock and the mountain above me. It makes me uneasy. I was born to fight and conquer under the open sky, not hide underground.
“Terrible,” I mutter.
“Yeah,” Althea agrees. “Imagine being stuck in here for months and years at a time. And this is the largest room in here, where they would spend most of their free time. No wonder they went stir crazy.”
I consider the room from a defensive point of view. It’s the first time I do that. I usually prefer to be on the attacking side. This place is bad, but at least I can use my sword in here.
“We will close all the hatches on the way in here. This is where we’ll meet them.”
Althea looks up at me with eyes that radiate the prey anxiety that makes it so incredibly tempting to ravage her here and now. “You think they’ll find us here?”
I’ve never fought the Glup in wars or in battles. But they have put a large number of worlds under them by conquest. They must know what they are doing. Their war machines are feared by many races. When I fought them earlier today, I took them by surprise, shocked and awed them so that they could only retreat. Now, they will be prepared to face me. And by all accounts, they’re extremely persistent.
“Yes,” I deem.
“How soon?”
What would I do if I were the Glup? I would find the crashed ship and search it. Bleep will be doing her innocent-speck-of-dust impersonation, so I don’t think they’ll find her. They will realize that their objective is gone, so they will search the surrounding area in ever-expanding circles. The mountain will be the obvious place to go. But they’ll have to be pretty thorough if they’re going to find this place. “Not for a while.”
“Do we have time to build booby-traps and things like that?”
I scratch my chin. I was going to just meet them here in this room, either with my sword or in Combat form. But I’m not used to being on the defending side. Booby traps are probably a good idea. And not too dishonorable if I never tell anyone about it. “We do.”
“Because this is a mining facility. Most of the equipment is still here. It’s heavy and sturdy. We can probably use some of it to keep the Glup out.”
“Show me.”
Althea shows me the mining part of the complex. It’s both strange and uncomfortable to be led around by a small, young female. I long to take charge. But she knows this place, and I don’t. I have no choice.
“These machines will fit into the corridors. Just about.” She indicates a row of yellow vehicles that are clearly robotic. They’re cylindrical and run on wide tracks placed along their sides.
Yes, the circular shafts have clearly
been dug by those.
I run one finger along the side of one. It becomes dirty with grime and dust. “Do they work?”
“It’s been a long time,” Althea says and checks on one of them. “But they have advanced reactors that should still have fuel left.”
“Ah. Antimatter,” I deadpan.
She looks away. “Um. Not that advanced. See the front of this?” She points.
The whole front of the machine is all interlocking metal teeth that probably rotate when it’s running.
“Am I blind?” I grunt as a wave of pain flows from my shoulder.
“Sorry,” she hurries to say. “I know you can see it, of course. Just an expression. Yeah, so if you are a Glup in an unfamiliar underground corridor, and you see this coming at you, just a chaos of huge, rotating diamond-coated drill bits that can chew through hard basalt — do you maybe retreat?”
“I never retreat,” I assure her. “But it might seem the rational thing to do for an inferior species which encounters something like that.”
“And we have five of them. They make a horrific noise when they’re running. Plus, there’s a whole bunch of other stuff. Explosives. Gas torches for cutting metal. High-voltage welding devices. All shipped here from Earth at fabulous cost. It might… yeah, it might slow them down or chase them away. I don’t know.”
She may be an alien, but I recognize something in her voice. “We can probably use some of it,” I agree. “Now, look at me.”
She obediently looks up at me. Her face is drawn. “What?”
I place a crooked finger under her little chin. “You’re exhausted.”
She twists her face away. “Just a little tired. Hey, I have been through a lot today.”
“There were some bunk rooms back there. You will rest while I prepare these things. Then you will be out of my way.”
“But you don’t know how these tools work!”
“Are you saying I’m incompetent?” I boom.
She puts her fists on her hips in a stance I don’t think I’ve ever seen before from any other female than her. “You know, did it cross your mind that we may do things differently than your people? You could kill yourself with one of these things!”
I’m tired, myself, and my shoulder aches worse and worse. She keeps tempting me with her round behind and dark nipples, and I’ve been a model of self-restraint.
But now I’ve had enough. “I don’t think I’ll have any trouble figuring out the workings of these devices from an inferior species. Do you remember what I told you about being demure? That was friendly advice. You have chosen to ignore it. There must be consequences.” I grab the marking strip around her neck.
She rolls her eyes. “Consequences? Let me guess. You’re going to spank me again?”
A flash of pain shoots from my shoulder through my whole torso, and for a moment the world has a green tinge. I have to defuse this before I turn into my Combat form with only Althea here. That would be genuinely disastrous. “The thought had occurred to me. And that tone is not helping you.”
I drag her with me to the sleeping quarters and find a room with a sleeping pad that doesn’t look too dirty. A red disk on the wall comes on automatically, some kind of emergency light that’s much more pleasant than the greenish strips.
I sit down on the small bed, and it creaks and flexes under my weight.
“I’ve tried to explain to you that the universe is extremely dangerous to a small, disobedient female. Still, you persist in your disrespectful ways. This is for your own good.”
She yelps as I lift her by the waist and place her across my knees with her round behind pointing up. “What the hell are you doing?”
“There is,” I hiss, “a degree of respect in some of the ways I have punished you before. The whip is an acknowledgement that you are an adult. There is no such acknowledgement in this. You have not shown yourself worthy of my respect as a decent female.”
I rip the fabric of her suit apart across her wide rear, then give her a good number of slaps on her jiggling behind. It quickly turns red under my hand, which covers both cheeks to a satisfactory degree. Her little pussy is also visible from this angle, and I do suspect she is spreading her thighs a little bit for my viewing pleasure.
Althea kicks and writhes, but I hold her easily with my one free hand, “Ooowww! Stop it! Shit, you’re such a fucking asshole!”
The small room reverberates with the sound of my warrior hand spanking her soft, smooth female behind, and I have to adjust my grip on her to make room for my very eager manhood between us.
Althea also notices. “Fuck, is this turning you on? Fucking pervert!”
I give her a few more spanks, then let one finger slide back and into the tight slit. It slides in with scandalous ease and comes back slick with female juices. “It seems I am not the only one who finds this arousing.”
I readjust her again, allowing me to rub the front part of her slit as softly as an ocean breeze.
She jerks and whimpers at the touch. But when I remove the finger, she lifts her hips and behind in the most fetching way. “It’s not fair.”
24
- Althea -
I’m not sure what exactly I mean by that. Maybe I’m just annoyed with how my own body keeps betraying me, even when I’m being treated like this. First he spanks me like a little brat, and then he rubs my clit with such a tender touch I just about jump off his lap. He’s just too good, too tuned in to what makes me respond.
He teases my pussy with his finger, which feels amazingly soft for a taloned alien digit the size of a cucumber. “I’m astounded at the way you offer yourself,” he says softly. “You have needed this for a long, long time, I think. Never fear, I will give you all you need. But you must ask for it.”
So, all I need is to get fucked. We both know it. And again he expects me to beg for it.
Well, I do have a go-to response for that. “Fuck you.”
He slaps my sore behind again, many times in quick succession until I squeal with the sting and the sensation overload. When he lets up, the soreness turns to heat that spreads to my pussy and makes me shamefully arch my back to open myself again, hoping for his finger.
“I can keep this up for a long time,” he states calmly, not taking my bait. “Can you?”
I wiggle my butt and hump the air in frustration. “Don’t make me do this.”
More slaps hit my butt and make me squirm. “Okay, okay.”
He places his hand on my ass, right above my pussy. “Yes?”
“Fuck me.”
“So near, and yet…” He gives me another few slaps on my ass, harder than before.
“Okay, stop!” I plead. “Please fuck me.”
He squeezes my sore cheeks. “That did not sound very sincere.”
“Fuck,” I groan into the old mattress. “Fine. Please fuck my pussy.”
“I’d like more courtesy.”
“Please, sir, fuck my pussy?”
He gives me one last slap, harder than the others. “Of course. All you need is to ask.”
He takes hold of my waist again and places me on my back on the bed, which is thankfully neither dirty nor smelly. The people that lived here valued cleanliness very highly, like you must on Mars.
The blue alien towers over me in the dim light, and his cock strains skywards like a tower all of its own. I close my legs and put one arm primly across my boobs.
Then the fucker smirks, and the confidence he exudes sends a hard shot of heat to my clit. He knows this is happening.
And I know it, too. I scoot a little backwards so that there’s more room for him on this bed that was made for people half his size. But he grabs my ankles and pulls me down to the edge of the bed so my legs are dangling, then pulls them apart and back so I’m spread open in front of him.
His alien shape is a silhouette against the emergency light, only broken by the twinkling stars that are his eyes.
Suddenly, I see him for what he is. My prey reflexes want
to escape from this predatory alien. My breathing is shallow and rapid, and coldness runs down my back. Suddenly, I can’t contain my instinct, and I twitch and squirm and try to turn around to crawl away, whimpering in half-panic.
But Brox just chuckles and spreads me wider. The fabric down there rips further, and I feel the cool air on my hot girly parts. My whole body tightens, and a shiver goes through me, ending up with a flow of heat to my pussy. I guess now that I can’t get away, my body decides to turn the intuitive fear of the predator into inviting and submissive horniness.
Brox gets on his knees on the floor, and his sensational, dangerously alien cock stands on end in readiness to spear my sex.
“Fuck me,” I whisper, the prey’s final attempt to not be eaten.
But instead, he bends down and whispers into my ear. “Demure and submissive. You’re starting to get it.”
He sniffs my hair like I think a bear would, then rips the fabric over my breasts. They spill out, and immediately his mouth is there and his tongue flicks over the nipple. The jolt of the contact makes me gasp and sends a little rain of happy sparks down on my clit. Yeah, that tongue is pretty special. Really very super special. I have never had a reaction like this to boob play before. When he circles the nipple, I feel each little touch as if that part is finally coming alive after years of being dormant.
He switches to the other nipple, giving it the same treatment and making the nipple so erect I can feel it strain upwards.
He kisses a trail down my front. There’s tenderness in it, but there’s also ownership. He’s enjoying my body just the way he wants to. This is not for my enjoyment, just for his.
The trail of soft little pecks reaches the top of my pussy, and I’m so ready for him I can’t help raising my hips to get him to kiss me there. It crosses my fevered mind that I have never been this needy or slutty with anyone. This guy makes me stick my pussy out for his attention. This alien with fangs and claws and gills, for fuck’s sake.
He kisses and sniffs down my legs and up again. Then he suddenly gives my whole pussy a long lick from top to bottom, warm and wet and textured.