The alarms in the northern defense bastion were ringing until new officers shut them down. General Winters had taken command of the retinue of staff officers coordinating the warfront just beyond the wall. Smoke filled the room from cigarettes and cigars, it was among the only things keeping peoples anxiety at bay as new reports continued to generate into their feed. The number of hostile forces deploying and advancing couldn't be right, they simply were not possible. The repulse armies sent to secure the orbital elevator failed to gain any ground and were broken before any large retreat strategy could be implemented. A small number of battalions had successfully evacuated to the narrow gorges and were being ignored. The plains were quickly being seized by occupying hosts.

Munitions were needed at security posts alpha 1 through Beta 12, the major city of Kurr was already under siege and defense battalions were struggling to resist. The numbers were fascinating, the call for resupply and reinforcement were well beyond the limit that the city could naturally produce within a month.

"Attention!" the sergeant at arms called out and General Winters instinctually straightened and saluted. Three Lord marshals entered, each of them he recognized. Lord General Maximus with his grey stained beard and mechanical eyes, he was an old soul general belonging to the Sutherland Death Hounds and had personally fought in three major engagements during the war. Regent Bela Dash with her gilded cane had dark raven hair and sharp eyes. She was a mercenary of the highest renown, one of the few that wasn't Rachean but of Melanthris stock. There were hundreds of stories about her but few truly knew her at length. Personally she terrified him every time he had the pleasure of seeing her. She was a woman of few words, and a certain zeal that had entire commando companies bow to her will. She was a dominant predator, one that commanded all others. The third was Senior Marshall Kyle Alan, the senior representative to the Kai himself. Theoretically he was the most supreme in the room, but his reputation was nothing in comparison.

"General Winters," Regent Bela Dash spoke calmly but sternly, "You are relieved from your post, you are to report to the militia compliments and take command." she handed him a data slate, "They are being raised in Marshall district 117."

This order confused him, he had yet to fully requisition the arms or vehicles of the militia standard. He had only been able to organize a handful of units to combat readiness. "My lord, I am in the middle of-"

"You are dismissed general." There was no arguing with her. The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed. He gave a simple salute and marched out, the new arrivals immediately took up stations in the room. There was mild whispers as if there was a sudden sea change. General Winter walked out from the command center as one of the adjutants announced, "Eye of Sihnon confirmed, repeat Eye of Sihnon confirmed."

Meanwhile

"Was that artillery?" The sound echoed in the distance in vibrant booms. It was like listening to far off thunder, the ground vibrated slightly with each passing sound wave. It was Chloe who asked the question, following him down the borough among empty streets and closed venders. Alexander had seen battlefields, so he knew the immediately. But it did feel strange to hear the familiar sounds in the distance.

"Yep," he shrugged his sweaty shoulders. His leather jacket seemed to stick to his skin, the air was starting to get stifling. He understood why, the force field that had been suspended above the entire city had created its own microclimate, the air inside was contained and prevented to leave. This meant no new fresh air, just days of recycled oxygen and moister generated from a teeming mass of people. The air was going to get warmer the longer the shield was online. When he first arrived he hated the sulfur smell of the world, the off putting electrical stinging smell adding to it did little to make it better. Now the air was beginning to grow sour.

Chloe walked behind him wearing her ridiculously alluring getup, her pale skin could be seen through the thin dark fabric. He knew she had placed a vibrator in her undergarments, and it was currently on a low setting. She seemed remarkably focused despite this. "You really need to explain to me at some point why you want a harem." her voice was straight to the point.

"I thought I explained it to you..." he sighed and kept his hands in his pockets, one hand firmly on the handle of a sidearm. The thunder was continuing to grow, it was clearly from the west and more than likely outside the curtain wall. He wondered if they were targeting the wall itself?

Chloe walked closer until she was within arms reach, "The emperor is coming."

"What!" Alex turned and faced her in shock, he placed a firm hand on her shoulder. Above them a luminescent screen was scrolling a message from the government, asking for civilians to clear the streets and seek shelter. The light reflected off of her in an eerie afterglow, "What did you just say?"

"What is wrong with you!" she tried to pry his hand off her shoulder. She was clearly confused.

"What did you just say!" he screamed. His voice selfishly disturbed the once silent streets.

"I was only asking how we were going to steal the Kai's ship!" she looked up at him in stunned horror. "And I just screamed that in the open damnit."

Alexander wasn't aware just how much he was sweating, he somehow found it difficult to let her go. Her skin was soft and smooth under his touch. She jerked backward and forced him to relieve her.

“Seriously what is wrong with you," Chloe adjusted her sleeve.

He couldn't help but feel guilty, "Its nothing, just thought—“

She kneed him in the groin in a surprisingly fast motion. Alexander nearly threw up and fell to the ground, his precious jewels singing an excruciating song of supreme misery.

"Don't you touch me again!" she walked past him and nearly stepped on his fingers. A sound of tin garbage bin tipping over made her halt. It was foolish to expect their noise would remain undisturbed, down the ally a pair of security guards wearing thick plastic armor emerged. They both wore the livery of the city marshals, albeit the armor was newly printed and devoid of even the smallest of scratch marks or indentures. They were probably brand new, newly raised volunteers. One had a shotgun tucked under his shoulder, while the other had a baton in one hand, a plastic shield in the other.

"Damnit," Alexander Gunn stood up and reached around Chloes waist. He was stronger than he appeared and lifted her from her feat. Carrying her in one arm he ran into an adjacent ally. The guards cried out for them to stop and quickly pursued. Their heavy footsteps echoed and were quickly catching up to them.

Chloe pounded his arm and demanded he release her, but he couldn't. The last thing either one of them could afford was to get indentured into whatever war was starting to happen. Alexander steadied his breathing and closed his eyes. He mentally activated the defense system suite that had been installed in his own mind. With a thought he felt renewed energy in his legs and forearms and sprinted further and faster than should have been allowed. Chloe soon went from trying to free herself to clinging onto his coat as he jumped off the railing of a platform at the end of the road to land on the roof of one of the nooks many shanties. He knew, somehow, the metal was strong enough to hold him.

Still holding onto her, he skidded down the roof and onto the street adjacent and ran down that alley until finally coming to a collection of old shops that had been shut down. He chose the one with multiple exits, the door was locked but the bolt was surprisingly weak under his enhanced muscles. The door opened and shut behind him within seconds. The store was actually a warehouse, one full of supplies with etchings and stamp marks.

"Let...me....go" Chloes voice was sharp. In the excitement and constant movement Chloes outfit had come undone. One of her sleeves had somehow gotten torn exposing the left side of her torso. Her braw was also hanging loosely by a thread, her flesh was peaking out into the warm air. Her glasses were crooked and her hair was a mess. Somehow her clammy skin smelled sweet like cinnamon, her hair like rose petals. Was this her new natural musk?

He released her gently and she wrapped one arm around her chest. Alexander took three steps back, well out of distance of her kill range. His natural bodily functions resumed as the defense programming shut down. He could feel just how swollen his balls were after that.

The sounds of thunder seemed to grow as the pair stood opposed from one another as if studying each other. "I'm sorry..." He began.

Her jaw dropped, her eyes glared. And then she aimed the rail pistol that had been in his pocket at his face. Clever girl, Alexander thought to himself. "Sorry? you're freaking sorry! what the hell was that!"

"Shut up for the love of all the gods, stop attracting attention," he spoke just over a whisper as she continued to point the gun toward him. Subconsciously a defense routine activated and Alexander had to pause and mentally kill the sporadic program. "Just listen to me for a second." he pointed outside, "That is the sound of something really bad coming this way. Right now as we speak the leader of your city, the Kai, is going to his secret bunker somewhere. I guarantee you he has a secret way off world should the unthinkable happen."

"How were you able to run like that? How are you not panting or out of breath..." They were valid questions, ones that Alex simply didn't have time to answer. He rubbed his eyes in frustration. "And why are you so hell bent on drafting me in your little-".

Alexander finally had enough, with a thought he hacked the simple programming in the vibrator she had been so keenly wearing. He jumped started it to the maximum settings.

Chloe's facial expressions did nothing to hide her carnal misery. The sudden explosion of sexual carnage being unleashed from the depths of her womanhood sent her into a passionless fury. She dropped the pistol as her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she lunged forward to fall into a kneeling position. Part of him hated doing it...part of him also couldn't help but enjoy it. Alexander scooped up the pistol and turned the safety back on. He then looked down at her writhing incoherent form. She was soiling the ground under her and moister was pooling down her legs, one hand was clawing at the earth as if pain could anchor a shred of her sanity. She was drooling, tears strolled down her cheeks as she jerked her hips. She cried out, her voice nearly shrieking as she recoiled with each violent orgasm. Her legs seemed to grow weaker by the second.

He turned the device off, but that didn't save her body...not immediately. Like aftershocks, she continued to spasm, one orgasm renewed by another like a continuing collection of earthquakes. Her engorged chest providing her body with a cushion as she laid down on her stomach.

Alexander than knelt beside her, "I have it on good authority that the Kai has something really important that he wants secure before he goes underground. Some sort of new pet in the black markets. We capture that asset, and take temporary control of the harem there, and we win. We bring him his pet and then take his ship and anyone else following us off this cursed world."

He had stated the plan to her already, but he left out one crucial detail, "You asked me how we were going to steal it..." he looked her dead in the eyes, those beautiful blue eyes that he could get lost into, "You wanted to travel the stars, I saw it in your eyes. Only a true explorer at heart has the means to take control of a real void ship. It is you that's going to help me steal it, as for everything else just stick close and leave it to me."

"I hate you," she whispered in a shallow distant voice. It took a few minutes but she eventually found the strength to slowly rise. Her body was still shaking, but already she was showing some renewed strength. She wrapped her arm around her chest again as if caring to protect her decency.

"I think you rather loved it actually, tell me I'm wrong." he knew her body craved the sexual release. Mentally she still might hate it, and she had every right to hate him for taking advantage of her, but physically her body had been hoping he would push it to knew heights of pleasure. Somewhere deep down she had to have known, and even wanted him to abuse her trust this way. After all she knew the vibrator could be accessed remotely, and he already demonstrated that he could hack almost anything. She had to have known he could override the device settings...and still she wore it...

Or maybe he was thinking too much in dark places. Maybe he had a problem after all. He cursed himself and his own cravings. What kind of person was he to abuse her like this? As if reading his thought Chloe slid toward him, he dared look into those blue eyes again. He saw passion, power, yearning, and something else. Something potentially violent.

She leaned into him gently. The smell of her skin was so enticing he couldn't help but grow erect. Her breath grew closer and closer to his neck as if she was about to kiss him. Her soft chest pushed against his firm muscle. She was about to whisper something in his ear. Another sharp pain vibrated from his precious hard shaft up into his stomach. He swore he could somehow feel his penis being pushed back inside his body.

He keeled over and cried out in anguish as pain nullifiers were taking their precious time to travel in his blood stream to combat it. He gritted his teeth and felt her hand grabbing him in the most cruel nature. She leaned over him, "The emperor is coming..."

"What!" That stupid saying again, was it really her or was it something else. Why was he hearing it over and over again? Where was it coming from?

"I told you not to touch me again," she twisted her grip as if prepared to permanently disfigure him. The sound of a door opening followed a ray of light into the warehouse they had occupied. Chloe froze and glanced at two figures looking in at them. Alex was all too aware of how vulnerable he was, Chloe how naked.

One of the two figure entered while clapping his hands, "putting on a show for us darling?" his accent was a thick slick accent that was hard to make out. The light made it difficult to see anything past the silhouette of the tall and burly man, the second figure brought down the light. a woman in grungy battle armor followed behind him. She cocked her head and smirked at them. "ten marks says she rips it clean off, what do you say."

The woman was covered in tattoos from head to toe, "fifty says she doesn't have the stones for it." She stood next to the other man and glared at them with deep yellow tinted eyes. Her voice was raspy, her half shaved head covered in piercings.

Alexander knew by looking at them they were gangers, they had probably stumbled onto their territory. He noticed the female was dragging a chain in one hand, behind her was another female naked and wearing a metal clasp around her throat. So they weren't just gangers but slavers as well.

Chloe seemed to have noticed it too and released her grip, much to his pleasure. He looked at her as if reading her mind and glanced back at the two slavers approaching them, they were blocking the exit. Without a word Alexander fired two rounds from the rail gun, the weapon was of a technological profile uncommon to most colonies. It didn't discharge a solid round like a typical firearm, or superheat and ionize the oxygen around a fixed point like a typical laser based weapon. Instead it sent a small capsule no larger than a bead directly into both of the adversaries skulls through short form teleportation. The weapon sent the small death charges nearly instantaneously, so fast that both captors didn't even register the new foreign object in their brain.

Alexander then pressed the button on the side of the sidearm, detonating the rounds. Both of them collapsed quickly, their deaths were sudden and at least painless. The chain the female slaver held fell to the floor and clattered against the cement. The woman behind them looked at them in stunned and confused horror.

Alexander stood up, patted the dust off his trousers, and holstered the weapon back into his coat pocket. The warehouse no longer seemed safe by any means. The thundering was growing and it wouldn't be long before the next day cycle would begin. People would come to find these bodies soon. Alex advanced toward the dead slavers and knelt next to their bodies. Chloe stood upright from where she knelt before, still covering herself and shivering. After a brief pause he studied the armor and dirty clothes the slavers were wearing. "To think I came all this way to look for a woman, and I end up running into you." he rolled over the dead bodies and began unstrapping their uniforms.

"I'm just going to stop asking questions, I'm too lost for words." Chloe approached slowly, her legs still shaking a little. "Just promise to get me off world, and I'll...pay you somehow."

Alexander looked at her and shook his head, "You have it in reverse, you're going to get me off world and then I'll pay you...however you like."