Telna System, Niase Sector:

Her ears rang, smoke filled her lungs and her eyes burned a bit. Alarms blared, as she picked herself off the floor. “Damage report!”

“Main shields offline, heavy damage to deck four sections thirty-eight to ninety-seven. Power conduits have ruptured on decks four, six and eight. Fire on decks two, four, eight and twelve. A bulkhead has collapsed, on deck four section sixty-two. Emergency structural integrity fields have been activated and compensated for the damage. The number three and four sublight engines are offline due to ruptures in the fuel lines. Fusion reactor number four has undergone an emergency shutdown.”

She blinked, “Weapon’s status?”

“All weapon banks are offline, Captain.”

She cursed, “What about the rest of the fleet?”

“Looks like they made the jump point without incident.”

“The menace?”

“Looks like they are ignoring us, for now.”

Anai let out a breath, that was the first bit of good news she had heard since the attack on the Core world of Telna had begun. That would give them a bit of time anyway, to do something or at the least escape this system. She turned to the helm, the young lady there just now settling back into the console. “Can you get us a low-powered burst from the engines? I’d like a slow drift towards the jump point.”

“Understood sir.”

A moment later she felt the ship shift as the engines fired. Just two quick short bursts but it was enough to get them on a slow drift towards the jump point. Glancing at the sensor display she was happy to see that hadn’t gained them any extra attention. As the aliens proved content to do whatever it was they were doing.

A hand touched her, drawing her attention to her first officer. Who forced a smile, “I think we might be just fine. Although I do have to wonder why they are ignoring us?”

Anai could only presume one reason, “Hopefully they think we are a floating wreck, but I don’t think we can count on them ignoring us forever.”

Her first officer quickly agreed, “Well we might as well be one. No weapons, heavy damage to multiple sections, deck four virtually destroyed. With all that damage I don’t think we rate much of a threat.”

She scoffed, not much of a threat indeed. At least they were underway and their jump engines were still intact. If they could reach the jump point unmolested, they would be able to make the jump to hyperspace and escape this system. After that was a bit of a toss up, but if they could successfully limp their way home they would likely be facing months in a dry dock. The crew split to other active ships in the meantime. In any case, she would just be content with the minor victory.

Walking to the engineering console, she glanced over her engineer’s shoulder at the display. There was a lot of damage to the ship but the engines were largely intact. Her biggest concern was the structural damage on deck four. Quietly she asked, “How badly damaged are the weapon systems?”

“Some of the mounts are destroyed, but the weapons failure is mainly due to damage to the power grid. We could restore partial main weapons, in six hours I think.”

If they got noticed that wouldn’t be soon enough. “Don’t bother with the weapons. Focus on the structural damage. Shore up deck four, and install bracers to compensate for the collapsed bulkhead.”

“Aye sir,” was the quick reply. Anai figured they needed the ship to hold together more than an intact weapons array. Any combat would be a mistake on their part, and they weren’t going to win if that happened. There were too many hostile ships in the system for a lone battleship to have any chance in a fight.

With that in mind she knew their only chance was to escape unnoticed. As the damage control teams got their new orders she did the only thing she could. Turning to sensors to keep an eye on what the aliens were doing. In the distance she could see a damaged cruiser being boarded. She knew that ship, the Kiergu. A part of Anai wished she could help, but there wasn’t a thing she could do. Instead she helplessly watched as alien boarding shuttles landed on the hull and cut their way in.

Telna Colony:

The young girl darted behind a large metal obstruction as several metal men walked by. Draped over their shoulders were a few young women. Where they were going the young girl didn’t know. She just remembered that the same sort of men had dragged her mother away. That had been a few hours ago, when her entire world had changed. The alien ships, the purple lightning, the metal men, the explosions and even her mom pulling her out of school suddenly. By now she knew why, it was kind of obvious with all the metal men around. They were being attacked by aliens, but there was a lot about this she didn’t know.

She knew a few of her friends had run off trying to reach the woods, but the young girl hadn’t joined them. The image of her mother being taken by the metal men and being told to run stuck with her. The young girl needed to know what happened to her mother. Where they had taken her mother, what they were doing to the people. She just had to know.

As the metal men turned down a corridor, she slipped out from behind the object and made her way down the street. Keeping to the shadows and using objects for cover so that she wouldn’t be spotted. The lack of metal men trying to catch her was her only measure of success, but so far her tactic seemed to be working.

They passed several damaged buildings, meeting up with a second group and their haul of people before arriving at a building the girl recognized. It was the hospital, she had been here with her mother just the other day when Auntie gave birth to a couple of adorable twin girls. The young girl stared at the building for a moment as the metal men filed in, suddenly feeling worried about Auntie. Did she manage to get out? Were the twins okay?

With those feelings she darted into a side alley next to the hospital. The girl recalled that there was a side door here, one she had used to sneak in and out last time she had been here. It wasn’t hard to find the door, which she found to be ajar. A rock was preventing the door from closing, which in turn allowed her to slip inside the building.

The corridor was quiet, above her a light flickered dimly. Not far from the door a cart lay on its side, its contents scattered across the floor. There was no one in sight, but the girl knew where she was. Following the path, she made her way past an open exam room. Inside the room was a mess, objects were scattered all over the floor, and the sheets on the bed were torn. Something had happened inside the room, a struggle perhaps.

Down the hall from there she found a way into the reception room. From the door she watched the metal men as they headed for a different path deeper into the hospital. Knowing where they were, she darted back into the hall and made for a stairwell. Carefully checking to see no one, she made her way up. Remembering that her Auntie had been on the fifth floor, just down the hall from the pediatrics area.

It was weirdly quiet as she made her way up the stairs. Last time she was in this stairwell there had been people going both ways and lots of talking. Instead, it was silent and lonely. She climbed the stairs up several levels all the time wondering if a metal man would suddenly enter and spot her. Yet they never did and soon she reached the fifth floor, pediatrics and obstetrics was written on the plate right beneath the floor number. She pushed the door open and was instantly greeted with the sound of crying and metal men walking about.

She slipped into the short hall and darted into an empty office. The office looked rather orderly. The desk was well kept with a few knickknacks decorating its polished surface. Neatly settled on the surface was an old monitor. Behind the desk were a few rows of shelves stacked with medical books. All far too complicated in her opinion to be worth reading. Ignoring all of that, she moved over to the window and peered out. From here she could see the nursery, with its wide glass walls and rows of labeled beds.

Many of the small labeled beds were home to young infants and some of them were crying. A couple of metal men were in the room, but they seemed to be ignoring the crying infants. One of them left the nursery room as she watched, while a second approached a baby removing it from the bed before following the first.

Closer to her in the corridor, she watched a couple of metal men lead a woman down the hall. The woman was naked, her belly swollen, but what the young girl noticed first was her eyes. They were blank, distant as if she wasn’t really there. The woman didn’t seem to be fighting the metal men that much. She was younger, in her mid-twenties perhaps with a full figure, large breasts, some shiny horns, and long curly auburn hair.

Curious, the girl watched them as they took her to a room at the edge of her sight and entered. She double-checked the hall and, not seeing anyone, left the office. Glancing for a moment at the nursery before heading towards the room. Glancing inside she noticed that they were not looking, so she drew closer hiding behind a curtain in the corner to watch.

The metal men helped the woman up onto a bed. The equipment in the room seemed different from what was normal. Some of it was rather alien. Her gaze took in the many armed apparatus of metal above the bed, which was also metal. There were also a number of restraints built right into the bed. The rear wall had been replaced with banks of alien equipment that reminded her of medical monitors.

The two metal men secured the pregnant woman in the bed, engaging the restraints to keep her legs apart. Once they were apparently happy with her positioning, one of them walked off. Leaving the room, while the second walked over to a console.

A moment later an arm descended from the apparatus above, a needle pushing into her belly. A gasp left the woman a moment later, as her vagina started to twitch. Seeming to swell rapidly. A second arm maneuvered over the opening and began to stretch it. Two smaller ones moving to assist. It wasn’t long before the movements changed and the girl quickly realized what she was watching. The woman was giving birth, but she didn’t look like she had been ready to pop.

The arms moved about assisting the process. In a remarkably short time, the head peaked out of her stretched vagina. A net extended below it and several arms helped as it came out. Soon a young baby who looked far more fragile than the twins lay beneath her. The arms moved back up as the metal man drew close.

It lifted the baby up, clipped the cord connecting it to its mother and took it over to a smaller table by the bank of monitors. Where it was placed down. Several arms ran over it, sweeping it with light. After a moment she heard words, “Barely viable, corrections required. Initiate correction procedure number four and begin standard modifications.”

She watched as the metal man responded, “Understood.”

It picked up a tool and pushed the pointy end into the baby. As it started working on it. The girl let out a gasp, what it saw looked cruel. It was hurting the baby. Not that she heard much crying from the baby. After a moment, the metal man said, “Procedure complete, subject now conforms to female specification, modifications appear stable.”

Then the second metal man came back pushing a cart with a couple of objects on it. She watched as one of them, a wireframe box with something organic stretched through it, one end was notably open. The first picked up the baby it just operated on and placed it inside the opening. Taking some kind of tendril and attaching it to the part of the severed cord that was still connected to the baby. Almost as soon as the metal man removed his hands from the weird box, the opening closed up, revealing some odd alien tech around the opening.

Done with the baby, the first metal man walked up to the console and started work on the formerly pregnant woman. A strange arm descended and positioned itself in front of the still-stretched-open vagina pushing its way in. After a moment she heard a gasp as she heard a cutting sound. A couple of moments later it pulled something else out of the woman, that looked similar to the organic-looking part of the strange box she saw a moment ago.

The girl blinked as she realized what she was seeing. Her mind connected what she had just seen with images she recalled seeing in her textbook during biology class. The metal man had just removed her womb.

The second metal man swiftly collected the womb and added it to the second box it had brought. Which was just full of strange equipment. It was quickly hooked up and then left alone while the arms proceeded to grip the woman’s large breasts. Holding them firmly up, while an arm with a laser proceeded to cut into the underbreast. The girl winced as she saw that and could hear the woman start screaming, but otherwise she didn’t react as her boobs were cut open. Then a second set of more delicate arms entered the opening and extracted the insides.

Insides which were quickly moved to the second box and hooked up. Leaving the woman with a couple of baggy skin sacks for boobs. They were left alone stretched tight by the arms, as the first drone adjusted her legs. Then the laser was back as it started to cut into her leg where the thigh connected to her pelvis. Almost instantly the woman started screaming again, but once again did nothing to protect herself, she just screamed. It grated on her ears, but the metal men did nothing. Just watched as the woman’s left leg was severed and then repeated the process with her right.

The second metal man collected each leg the moment the laser finished separating it and tossed it carelessly on the cart. When the lasers moved on to cutting her arms off at the shoulder, the metal man dutifully did the same with her freshly severed arms. Leaving the woman there limbless, the second metal man left with his cargo of severed limbs, fleshy bits and a baby. What were they doing to this woman?

From where she was she dared not make a sound, now feeling quite afraid. So instead she watched as the metal man used the machines to attach some metal plates to the points where the woman’s limbs had been severed. They looked a bit like mechanical sockets. Her empty boobs were quickly stuffed with alien tech, and more alien tech was inserted via her stretched vagina. Finally, an arm approached her left eye and using a weird tool plucked it from its socket. Something alien was soon fitted around the socket, while a long needle was pushed into her head just behind her ear. With all of that done, the metal man finally left the room. Leaving the woman laying there, but only for a bit as another metal man came in. On a cart he had four limbs, which he fitted into the woman’s prepared sockets.

She lay there for a moment before finally slipping off the bed and speaking, “Medical Drone R23-G reporting for duty.”

The drones produced what looked like a metal bra and panty set colored bronze with blue trim, dressed the woman, and left the room. Leaving the girl wondering what she had just watched.