“VENNER! What the hell are those?!?” Oxyi yelled out at the top of her lungs, her eyes darting between the multi-monitor station that projected all the CCTV footage on Barru X. All across the station, small dragonfly shaped drones appeared and were flying towards the stairwell, culminating into a swarming mass of perfectly controlled micro-drones.

A ghostly white Venner appeared behind Oxyi, staring at the screens with sunken eyes, shaking slightly in her armour.

“D-don't s-shoot the s-slaves up close... T-tell your team...” She mumbled weakly.

“Is that what the bang was...?” Oxyi turned around to address the rat, glancing over her quivering form. “Are you okay? Do you need a few minutes?”

“I don't... I don't know if I can do this... It keeps getting worse... I just lost someone else - It should have been me! But he took it for me...”

Oxyi glanced over her shoulder to see a medic standing in the doorway to the cell room, and a barely visible, half melted corpse slumped on the floor. Oxyi sighed loudly, shaking her head.

“Were you a quota or nep hire?” Oxyi asked bluntly, eyes narrowing.

“A quo..? N-no.”

“So you were hired for your skills then, I assume?” She said, raising an eyebrow.

“I guess so...” Venner wobbled a bit as she spoke, trying to stay focused. “But I - I just saw a man melt!”

“I watched my cousin melt when I was six years old. Daft fucker stuck his willy into a transformer panel aboard my parent’s spaceship… well, he didn't really melt, he just kinda liquified with a pop, or a bang.” Oxyi shuddered as she recalled the incident. “Scarred me! But you get over it, you have to. You got the rest of your life to get therapy, but right now you need to focus, you have a job to do. You're on the clock, and you need to act like it.”

“But I -” Venner stumbled, but was swiftly cut off by Oxyi once more.

“- You fucked up today, Venner. But unless you've got a second in command you trust to deal with this, your team needs you focused and on their side, or you're gonna lose more people. Take a few minutes to catch your breath, get your head back and sharpen up, jackass. We're in this mess because of you. Go vomit in the toilet if you need to, just do what you gotta do to get back in the game. Do you wanna be remembered as the son-of-a-bitch who sabotaged Barru X or do you wanna be remembered as the girl who did her best and maybe turned this thing around?”

They stared at one another, intensely. Venner slowly clenched and unclenched her fists, breathing  heavily through her nostrils, and the colour slowly returning to her face. Eventually, she nodded firmly and headed to the restroom, her steps becoming more confident and determined as she went. With that dealt with, Oxyi hopped back onto the comms.

“Diego, Seeth, Venner says to not kill the Slaves up close, they'll fry you or something. Also, I think there's a ton of drones heading towards you... I think it might be from our resident creep DA agent... Guys...?”

*

Plasia's feral screech vibrated through her mask filters, echoing up the stairs as she lunged at Seeth, but the purple giant was well prepared for her assault and caught her arms cleanly, dragging her up the remaining stairs and pinning her against the metal wall behind her.

Plasia screamed at the top of her lungs, kicking out and thrashing around awkwardly. Her eyes were mad with anger, goo dripped from her blood stained mask, yet Seeth held her strongly, restraining her arms above her head and pressing up close to her.

“Diego! Get her mask off, I'll hold her until she snaps out of it!”

The lizard leapt up onto Seeth's back, hooking his baton into his back strap with a dexterous twirl and reaching over Seeth's head, towards Plasia's face. The beast screamed even louder, Diego's ears flattening as her nightmarish screech shuddered through his brain. Her straining voice grated into his skull like a ton of rusting metal being dragged over concrete, slowly and painfully.

Struggling as she might, Plasia couldn't fight her way free of Seeth's iron grip around her wrists, their bodies pressed together and crushing the panels behind them.As Diego grabbed the first clasp, a buzzing noise filled the stairwell and the lizard yelped in pain, falling off Seeth's back as several electric blue tasers stung into his flesh.

***No target found on sensors – building analogue prediction model-***

Seeth turned her head as the swarm of dragonfly-like robotic drones charged a barrage of sapphire rounds at her, and immediately fired. The rounds thunked into her skin, and she lost her grip on Plasia long enough for the alien to lash out. Plasia brought her legs up and pushed Seeth back, using the damaged wall behind her for leverage.

The drones buzzed around the fight in a cloud, zapping at Diego as he attempted to stand. He took a deep breath and pounded on his chest, preparing his psyonics, but was suddenly pelted with orange coloured pellets that erupted into a cloud of sour smelling smoke, breaking his psyonic focus.

Nulliphine gas?! Diego's thoughts were panicked as one of his best weapons was suddenly taken offline. The smoke was lodging in his throat, coating his mouth. He tried to speak, but the only sound that came out was a high, painful rasp, completely overshadowed by Plasia's screeching.

Seeth regained her footing, narrowing her eyes as she watched the drones scan the area, trying to locate her and hovering above Plasia in a protective fashion. In a fury, Plasia tore some of the panelling off the wall behind her, grabbing two fists-full of thick electrical cabling and tearing it free from the station with several frantic yanks, before turning back to Seeth. 

“BETRAYER WILL BREAK!” Plasia cackled. The electronics crackled and sparked as she pulled more and more cabling free from the wall, and wrapped it around her hands.

“You're a total asshole when you're mad, Plasia.” Seeth glanced at Diego, trying to see if he was alright, but the drones were still heavily suppressing him. She grabbed a metal panel off the floor and hurled it at the cloud of drones, crushing several of them and dispersing the swarm for a few seconds. At that moment, Plasia threw herself at Seeth, attempting to wrap the cable around her neck, but once again Seeth caught her attack directly, kicking Plasia's leg to break her guard and slamming a heavy fist into her side.

“I don't wanna hurt you, Plasia! But you need to stop this!”

A blast of blue goo erupted from the side of Plasia's mask as the impact crunched into her torso. The insane alien recoiled in pain, losing her balance but Seeth grabbed her by the collar of her protective suit, reeling her back in. As Plasia was yanked back in, Seeth threw her head forward and the two met with a solid, loud crack. Plasia howling in pain and falling to her knees as the strike hit true.

Seeth reached out and grabbed Plasia's head firmly, feeling for the straps when she suddenly felt a rippling wave of stinging pain across her back and legs. The drones buzzed around her menacingly and unleashed another wave of paralysing rounds. Her arms and legs went dead, and froze in place as though made of stone.

In horror, Seeth watched as Plasia pulled herself free from her petrified grip, seizing the length of cable in her hands and wrapped it around Seeth's neck, slipping behind her and pulling it as tight as she could.

Panic slipped into Seeth's mind as she felt the cold rubber and metal tighten against her throat.

Diego roared out behind them, his voice cloudy and weak, his mouth filled with choking orange dust. As he attempted again to get to his feet, the drones fired more orange pellets at him, along with a few taser rounds for good measure, pinning him to the floor.

Seeth and Plasia struggled violently. Seeth threw herself back, trying with all her might to get her limbs to move, and to shake Plasia's grip off of her, but every time she came close a volley of taser rounds would thunk into her body, punching small holes in her suit and zapping the strength out of her attack.

Seeth's vision began to blur as Plasia's arms strained and pulled the cable tighter around her neck. Her eyes felt like they were bulging out of their sockets as the cable pressed deep into her skin, crushing her windpipe and cutting the air to her lungs off. Seeth kicked backwards as hard as she could, trying to smash Plasia against the other side of the stairwell, but her strength was waning.

Diego watched with stinging eyes and dry, powdery breath as Seeth began to lose the fight. Her usually strong form started to limp, her movements becoming slower and sluggish as Plasia held onto the cable behind her for dear life. Her mask was cracked down one of its lenses, and goo dripped profusely from its filters over her suit and body.

Diego heaved himself up in one mighty push. More taser rounds fired into his blood stained skin, his every limb quaking as the drones increased their attack. He slowly reached up and grabbed the baton, inching towards the two fighting aliens with shaky steps as his body trembled violently from the electrical assault.

One heavy and careful step at a time, he raised the baton up and slowly approached his girls, pain surging through every square inch of skin he had as the drones dumped their rapid fire taser shots into his body.

Seeth's face was beginning to run grey.

Finally, he was close enough to strike.

she grabbed weakly at the cable, trying to pull it from her neck.

He raised his baton, and just for a moment, closed his eyes to focus.

But that was long enough.

His eyes flickered open, and Diego stopped, baton in the air. In just the blink of an eye, Plasia and Seeth seemed to have shifted, just a couple of metres away from him.

The drones paused their fire. An otherworldly silence bleached the stairwell for just a brief moment, and in another blink, Seeth and Plasia moved again, still struggling as if nothing had happened. Their struggle seemed to be coming from below now. 

The drones broke their assault on Diego and frantically swarmed the stairwell, splitting up into two streams and flowing both up and down. As the drones surged up the stairs, they were met with high intensity pulse fire from Barru X guards, dispatched to help. Bright red tracers erupted through the air and cut a number of them down, causing the surviving drones to scatter and cloak themselves.

Seeth and Plasia continued their struggle, but everytime Plasia blinked, they shifted location. Plasia’s body would feel a sudden blast of cold air, before immediately returning right back to its normal temperature. She pulled on the cable, even tighter... FOCUS-FOCUS, I MUST WIN! She thought, feeling fear rising through her chest, as she suddenly appeared with Seeth in a completely different part of the station.

The phasing became faster and more drastic as Seeth's life began to ebb, and suddenly, in a flash of bleaching cold, Plasia found herself back within the long stay wing… her cable wrapped around nothing…

And Seeth nowhere to be seen.

She looked down at the cable to see the length that had been wrapped around Seeth's neck was heavily damaged and frozen solid, deformed where it had been pulled against her throat. As she stared at the cable, sitting on the floor in the middle of a stock room, she noticed a crack in the lens of her mask, her vision focusing on the imperfection in her sight. A low growl escaped her throat as she stood to her feet.

As she went to leave, something caught her attention; a beautiful piano melody was tickling her senses, playing from one of the long stay rooms. Try as she might, she couldn't shake it from her attention. Each note plucked at her willpower and she began to follow the source of the sound.

*

Still in the middle of the stairwell, Diego steadied himself against the wall, still holding onto his baton but weak and spitting out mouthfuls of orange dust that clung to his teeth and tongue. Plasia and Seeth were nowhere to be seen now, and yet, he was sure that there was someone here, someone close by… 

Two large taser shots stung him directly in the chest.  

Diego gasped in pain and fell to his knees for the last time, as a lone, white figure uncloaked before him, their body melting into existence and charging up the stairs, holding some sort of collar in their hands.

The figure leapt at him and slapped the collar around his neck. A clear film bubbled around Diego’s head and completely encompassed it, like someone had shoved a plastic bag over him. The air was sucked out his lungs and replaced with a sweet smelling gas that rapidly drained any remaining fight from Diego, and left him close to blacking out.

“You should have been paralysed ten drones ago, lizard.” The figure hissed, watching as Diego tugged at the collar around his neck and slowly choked in the clear bubble around his face. “Will you fucking go down already? I'm on a schedule here.”

As he spoke, Diego rose to his feet again, but fumbled about weakly.

The figure glanced up the stairs, at the sound of multiple footsteps approaching. He glanced back and forth between Diego's stumbling figure and up at the approaching footsteps, before charging into Diego, hauling him up onto his shoulder and activating his cloak. The two disappeared into thin air, leaving no trace behind...

*

Has he ruined my tastes? My desires? I do not understand. This used to be enough.

Moltezz stood within her newly chosen quarters, her eyes scanning over a line of naked new Marks, some of them fearful, others excited, but all silent and waiting for her word.

She had, of course taken the captain’s quarters, the largest on the freighter, and in just the few days they had been on board, she had already made it her own. The walls were adorned with huge, draping, crimson tapestries, cloaking the otherwise plain walls with a fiery hue. The plating on the ceiling had been torn down, exposing the industrial pipework and rigging above, and from which now hung an array of chains and restraints. Several intense spotlights had been stolen from other areas of the ship and installed to shine a dazzling glow over both her throne, and those suspended in the gently clinking metalwork, illuminating their naked, vulnerable bodies for the mistress to enjoy.

Moltezz stifled a sexually frustrated sigh as she contemplated her new toys.

They'll do... but it should be more than that. This merely sates the urge and placates the desire. It doesn't satisfy. I want him.

She pointed at two girls and a young man. The others quickly left, marching towards the door on the far side of the chamber where two Nodes were standing guard.

“Wha-what can we do for you, Mistress Moltezz?” They asked in unison, feeling their arousal build as they approached her cautiously.

Moltezz sat back in her new throne, spreading her legs and undoing her outfit, slowly exposing her curvaceous, charred, ruby body.

“Not another word from any of you. I want to be alone with my thoughts. If I hear anything other than slurping, sucking or moaning, I'll have you sent to the slave pens.” She closed her eyes and rested her head on her fist and scowled as the three approached her waiting sexual assets.

She sat back as she felt warm mouths on her cock and balls, deeply enjoyable as it always was.

“See? It's not so bad to serve, is it?” She relaxed into her throne, placing her hands against the armrests. Her head rolled back as her chosen three got to work.

“I understand why you ran... It's natural. Power can be frightening.” The three ran their hands over her thighs, working together to pleasure her as much as they could.

“Easier when you submit, don't you think...?” Her eyes remained closed as she spoke, sighing in satisfaction. She snapped her fingers and pointed at one of her erect nipples; a warm mouth clamped around it quickly.

“Good boy... See what happens when you serve your queen...?” She moaned loudly as she felt her orgasm build, the attention on her breasts was sending pleasurable pangs coursing through her torso and filling her mind with wonderful images as she continued to indulge her fantasies.

“Seeth may have been good, but now you're with me...” The Marks briefly glanced at each other in confusion, but continued diligently with their duties.

She grabbed the head of the Mark who was nuzzled at her breast and pulled him in tightly, feeling ecstasy swell through her body as she blew her load over the girls down below. As she slowly opened her eyes, the fantasy ended, and she saw only the three Marks in front of her, on their knees, full of lust and waiting for more.

Her face soured as she emerged from her dream, glaring down at the Marks with her fiery gaze.

I need my dark prince. Enough is enough.