General Winters stood above his table glaring at the pile of reports. He wished he had better assistants, but despite that continued to perform at the peak of his operational awareness. The biggest problem that he had to deal with at the current moment was the lack of all information stemming from the outer defenses of Kurr. The small town was a waystation between the orbital space elevator, and the city of mourning itself.

Life there was distant before the war, and was now chaotic as the skies erupted into chaos. The enemy was approaching far faster and far more organized than all original estimates. The vanguard defense forces sent to repel them failed spectacularly, the survivors were now cornered or in full retreat. It had become obvious from the beginning that Kurr would be the pivotal battle before the enemy reached the walls. Primary, secondary, and tertiary defensive lines were established along with supply lines and communication channels, all of which depended on Kurr being the command center.

The planning was monumental in scope involving thousands of mercenary units along with tens of thousands of new irregular militia outfits. A single large contingent of morning primary were dispatched as well, although they were currently at the secondary trenches. The Air Force was in full rapid response engaging in dogfights that could be seen all the way to the coast.

At first general winters had confidence that the forward commanders knew what they were doing, even as the comms traffic become more and more disoriented. The worst of the reports involved sickness and a growing malaise of distorting confusion. It was expected to some degree, war was always chaos, but not enough to make planning impossible. So far things were seemingly becoming more and more incoherent.

One after the other entire units reported mass infantry formations approaching, cybernetic monstrosities, and bulking sky scrapper sized vehicles grinding forward. The noise of bionic chant played havoc with all sensors and preliminary readings. This made it impossible to verify anything beyond eye witness testimony.

General winters glanced over his artillery stratagems again before giving the all clear. Never before had so much been done in so little time during his career. He had succeeded in a feat few of his predecessors would have comprehended. The formation of Hollidays first, thirty second, and eighteenth artillery core escorted by the ninety ninth Armour division and supplied by the forty first auxiliary corps had deployed in less than twenty four hours. Three million shells and twenty million rounds of ammunition followed all other necessities in rapid succession. They were placed exactly where they were needed and now began firing the first salvo into the oncoming forces.

He bit his lip as he read the damage reports, which were largely speculative. The numbers didn't make sense. How was that possible?

Without realizing it he began pacing the room, air reconnaissance and observation towers continued to feed his terminals. It wasn't the number of enemy war machines or enemy casualties that alarmed him...but the inconsistency of his own fire supremacy. The artillery batteries should be firing three rounds a minute at least, but after the first volley they failed to supply another. Another minute passed without any shells being fired. Five minutes following the first bombardment finally passed before the next!

"This is unacceptable, who's in charge at the front?" His finger nails dug into the table and his eyes fixated on the lag time.

Five minutes became six, then eight, and then ten! His mind struggled to discern where his planning went wrong? He scanned his memory trying to overthink every design flaw in the trench network or supply lines, there were a few but they were accounted for.

A series of requests for more artillery began pouring in. The servers struggled to keep up with the demand. The war network terminals began to lag as mechanical footsteps grew louder in the comms.

Everyone in the rear command bunker knew what was about to happen. No one was willing to say it, but the toxic air was undeniable. General Winters did exactly what he was supposed to do, issued more commands for forward commanders to get off their ass and hurry. The response was cryptic and vague but enough for him to grasp a fragment of the situation. It wasn't that they weren't trying, the cannons simply weren't firing!

The batteries weren't state of the art, but handed down from the Great War. Some of them even had scars going back to forgotten battlefields star systems away. But all of them were designed with both manual and system analytical capabilities. The computers providing this analytical prowess were somehow locking out and failing to sync with the firing commands. They were having to override and manually adjust each round fired.

Winters stood in horror as the next bombardment was entirely out of sync and fifteen minutes apart. At this rate they would become obsolete in the defense.

"How long before enemy lines reach the primary defense line..." Winters asked one of the many adjutants in the room. They each had a specific purpose, each of them cogs in the greater war machine.

The adjutant ran his calculations, and then paused to go over them again. That wasn't a good sign. He finally returned with his answer, "three hours general, at least."

General Winters put on his officers cap and faced the forward window, the distant gloom seemed hellish in the dawning glow. A growing curtain of dust provided a fog of war as fighters appeared like winged angels in the skies.

"Keep firing damnit, keep firing," he spoke at the distant war and couldn't hide the hint of fear in his voice.

Meanwhile

Chloes mind continued to wander as the trio made their way to the black markets. She kept mostly to herself, avoiding the glaring eyes of Alexander's new pet who seemed eager to earn his praise. Katya lead them wearing the chain like a collar devoid of any complaint. She would bounce up and down to make the chain jiggle and strutted about in sexual poses to try to earn a bulge in his pants. Chloe tried hard to fight her own cravings just eating away from the surface. Her legs were soaking wet, and pools of other liquids were staining through her clothes. Her clamp skin stuck to the fabric and she was already working up a sweat keeping her back straight, her full breasts weighing her down.

Her breasts were leaky and swollen. She could feel her their milky contents being squeezed from the tip of her engorged nipple. They had been feeling uncomfortable for a while, but the pain of her swelling glands was becoming unbearable. It had been roughly twenty four hours since she experienced what it was like to soothe and expel the contents of her modified milk glands in the shower. She yearned for that same relief.

Chloe could feel them becoming more engorged with each footstep. Her nipples were giving up trying to contain the rapidly filling milk ducts and were oozing thin streams down her chest and stomach. It was shameful and embarrassing to have her body betray her so disgustingly. Chloe was glad Alex hadn't noticed...what would he say if he knew she was lactating uncontrollably?

At least she knew she wasn't pregnant, after all her sexual appetites continued to grow with each passing moment. Sucking Alexander's manhood did nothing to quiet the quiver in her stomach. She already craved the taste of his bulbous head, to suck it for its salty nutrients. To hear his moans and feel his heart beating against her lips. It was enough to make her salivate. To have her rewards stolen from her so forcefully...by that woman...

Chloe fought back the urge to grab the chain and yank Katya to the ground. A smile grew on her lips with the thought of dominating the skinny harpy. She paused mid thought...what was she thinking about again? She tasted the shallow remains of Alexander's seed under her tongue, the whore couldn't steal it all. Just the remainder of it made her somehow even more wet...she tensed and felt her inner walls grow tight in anticipation. The base of her stomach burned in anticipation.

Shit she needed to get laid, and soon! She no longer hated that fact, no longer resented it. Just as someone couldn't resent having to eat or sleep on a regular basis, or remain hydrated, sex was no different. She looked forward to the next partner and the next. No restraint, no holding back. Even if her fertile womb bore new life it didn't matter, as long as her hunger was sated. Why should she resent this? It wasn't like she had a choice, it was now officially part of her nature! Her bodies genetic code required it just as it required other forms of sustenance, only this one was far more enjoyable.

She spied on Alexander as he was being lead by their new company. She envied her, Chloe envied this creature who stole his attention away from her. What right did she have? The decision was made within minutes...the next chance she had to separating them she would take it. And then she would force him down and not let him go until her hunger was satisfied. She didn't know it but she was drooling.

The entrance to the black markets was surprisingly easy to find, as far as back alley hideouts were concerned. A single purple door leading to underground tunnels. It was likely a founding subway and long abandoned. It was also possibly a shelter constructed during the war in case the fighting met their borders. Whatever it's original purpose the construction no longer resembled its original purpose. Illustrious carpeting decorated the floors and thick gold trimmed wallpaper surrounded them. By the time they had ventured inside to what was a waiting area everything changed however. The carpeting was stained, and the rich smell of copper filled the room.

Bodies...there was several bodies mangled and torn to pieces. Most were machine like, androids or cyborg overseers. A few wore hallmark gang uniforms.

"I wondered why there wasn't a guard..." Alexander murmured while retrieving his sidearm.

The horror was even enough to distract Chloe from her carnal desires. Her plans for fucking Alexander's brains out were diminished for all of three seconds!

"We should go..." There was no way to ascertain what caused this mayhem but whatever it was she had no desire to find out.

"Please master lets go," Even Katya was in agreement.

"Not until we've found what we came for," Alexander advanced seemingly untroubled by the development.