“Aww, already?” Epoc said. She tried to sound casual but she was having a hard time keeping a straight face. Everything else aside, Winter was very, very good at this. Epoc felt like the only woman in the world like this. 

“We’ll just have to make it a good five minutes,” Winter said. “Would you like to continue training?” she asked. There was no pressure in her voice. She was making sure. “If you’re okay with that. I don’t want to bring back bad memories.”

“No, that’s fine,” Epoc said. “Let’s do it.” Right now, she would’ve said okay to pretty much anything, but that was another matter. 

“Let’s see if you remember,” Winter said, and pressed a button on her desk. Vibrations rocked through Epoc from the inside. The cock inside of her stopped being one altogether and coiled. Wait a second, dicks didn’t do that! But then again, they didn’t vibrate either, and she hadn’t complained about that either. The vibration stopped, leaving Epoc a panting mess. “Hmm, I guess you need more training.” She pressed the button again. “Speak.”

Epoc barked as the shape inside her coiled and vibrated again, stretching her and rubbing against her prostate. Her bark turned into a loud groan. 

“Good dog,” Winter said. “Again.”

Again, the vibration rocked through her. Again, she barked loudly and obediently, this time with a smile on her lips. The music pounded in her head, and she was ready to actually give herself up this time, and it wasn’t just because she was horny. Antimony was learning to trust her too. 

With titanic effort, she forced her eyes open and her mouth shut. She wanted to make sure. That what she suspected was true, in more ways than one. 

“Hey,” she said. 

“Yes, Epoc?” her Handler said. “Do you want more?”

“Do you ever get yourself off in there?” Epoc asked. She laughed at her own audacity. The look of horrified, terrified and, above all, guilty shock on Winter’s face told her everything. 

“That– I don’t– That’s–”

“Really? That’s what embarasses you?” Epoc laughed. 

“Epoc,” Winter said, her voice level. “Hound. You are playing a very dangerous game. So I’m going to make a deal with you. Either I let this go, or I let you see how deep this rabbit hole goes. Either I forgot you asked that, or I reward you for taking a risk. And then, when you get back, you get a punishment.”

“I’ll take the stick and the carrot,” Epoc said. “I’ll never learn otherwise.” A little red dot appeared in the corner of her vision. She frowned. “What’s that?”

“That’s a reminder that, no matter what you do during this mission, punishment is waiting for you back at base. Think of it as motivation.”

“What kind of punishment?”

“Let your imagination run wild,” her Handler said. “For now, focus on your reward.” The voice that had been in one ear now shifted around. The pilot chair had surround sound. Neat! The hands on her hips hadn’t moved, and now the cock inside her started its slow and relentless plowing again. Epoc didn’t mind. “Now,” Winter said. “Feel this?”

Something touched the tip of Epoc’s cock. It was wet. Pliable. Slowly, she felt it being pushed against her. Whatever it was, her dick slid inside it, pushing it open. 

“That’s me,” her Handler said. “You know it’s me. You’ve tasted it. You’ve been face-deep inside of it. That’s me, descending onto you.” The sleeve slid over her cock and wrapped around her and Epoc fully did not care if what she was currently fucking was indeed an accurate recreation of her Handler’s pussy or not, she was going to fuck it like it was. What felt like arms wrapped around her, pressed against her back. Gentle pinpricks, like nails scratching. 

She was fucking and being fucked and

“Ejection imminent,” the orbital lift announcer said. 

“I know!” Epoc said. “But she won’t let me!”

That caught Winter off guard. She started to laugh loudly just as, seemingly out of nowhere, the roof of the orbital lift appeared. Well, the outer ring of it. There was no inner ring. 

Nexus Alpha was shunted into space.

It was

everything.

All around

In every direction

Simply

Everything

Briefly, as the sounds of the wind rushing past exploded and then disappeared and Nexus Alpha went fully immobile and the music cut out and there was nothing except

everything.

There were stars. So many stars, so many more than Epoc had ever really imagined. Sure, she’d seen pictures and footage but those were cameras and those could see things the human eye couldn’t, right? And those pictures had been taken by specialized satellites. 

But now there were stars all around her. Billions of billions of them. Epoc opened every outside camera to its maximum aperture. She tried to see all of it, all at once. Was it possible to implant feeds from the outside of the Frame directly to her occipital lobe? 

“-llo?”

Epoc fiddled a bit with the receivers. She actually looked around again. The lower orbit belt was covered in communication satellites, and she’d been cut off from the Mako Group communications systems. She cycled through bands. 

“Hi!” Epoc said. “Come in. Can you hear me?”

“Hi!” The voice on the other end of the line was not Winter. She was picking up another satellite’s transmissions. 

“Who is this?” Epoc asked. 

“I d-” The line cut out.

“-poc? Who are-”

“Hello?” 

“There you are,” Winter said. “We had some interference, but we’ve got a solid lock on you. I’ve got you.” Her voice was warm. “Now that you’re out of eyesight, let’s get you armed up.”

“What?”

“What, did you think we’d send you a couple clicks below sea level with just two fists and a dream? In Nexus Alpha?” Antimony said. Well, if she put it like that. “No, we’ve got a care package on its way to you. Should be coming up on your upper starboard right now.” There was, indeed, something headed toward her. Quite fast, too. “Alright, slave it to Nexus. Your onboard algorithms should take care of that.”

A few quick presses and the satellite’s specifications popped up on her screen. The list of available modification components was extensive. Beyond extensive. “What?! Handler, half of these aren’t even legal! I see at least three war crimes in here!”

“Yes, and you better not tell anyone. There’s a reason we have these satellites in orbit,” Winter said matter-of-factly. “Now, pick something. I’ve highlighted weaponry that might be useful at that depth. I also recommend you take the advanced sonar.

Epoc nodded. Mako Group was a corporation. Of course they were ready for conflict. Of course they were ready to get their hands dirty. Still, she hadn’t really expected them to get this dirty. Mako prided itself on its squeaky clean image. 

While she trusted her Handler with this kind of thing, she had been training for this kind of thing extensively. She knew what kind of weapons she preferred for deepwater missions, even if they’d been simulations. Epoc knew that traditional kinetic weapons were largely useless. Plasma was an active detriment to the person shooting, boiling the water around the gun. At that depth, the thermal blooming would turn a laser into a short-range microwave. 

She selected a torpedo array for one shoulder, and a sonic cannon for the other. Neither would have the satisfying oomph of a cannon or grenade launcher, but she’d just have to deal with that. Finally, instead of occupying her hands with guns, she decided to go for a kinetic gauntlet. It was extremely close range, but her opponent was a creature used to deepwater movement and wasn’t likely to try to engage her in a long range fight. 

After her selection was sent through, the satellite moved closer to her. It was a matter of letting its automated systems slot the weapon systems onto her back, and then on her arms. 

“Satisfied?” Winter asked. 

“Almost,” Epoc said with a little smirk. 

“Bark,” Winter said. 

Epoc groaned in satisfaction. Winter’s hands-by-proxy caressed her all over, grasping at her limbs and stroking her dick. 

“Woof,” she said quietly. “Now I am.”

“Good girl. Now, we’ve got your parachute coming on. Turn 80 degrees to port and 45 up.”

Up in this case being ‘away from the planet,’ Epoc was just in time to see what was barely more than space debris rocketing her way. 

“Uh, Handler? Please advise?” 

“It doesn’t feel like it, Epoc, but the orbit you’re currently in is, well, fast. We’re going to use the parachute to get you going in the right direction and then slow you down when you get there.”

“How?!” Epoc said. “Scanners say this thing isn’t even a Mako satellite!”

“Relax, Hound,” Winter said sternly. Epoc felt a hand on the back of her head and immediately found herself doing anything but relax. It did however pull her attention from the oncoming hunk of metal directly to her Handler’s voice. “Nexus Alpha is the most advanced piece of hardware ever built. Of course it is installed with the strongest encryption and decryption packages we could throw at it. Slave the satellite to Nexus.”

It only took a few presses and the satellite’s internal systems were open to her, as easy as accessing her own coms. Surely this technology wasn’t legal? 

“Don’t worry, we paid for the satellite. They just don’t know what we’re going to do with it, and we didn’t feel the need to pay for access codes,” her Handler said. “Enter these motion coordinates. And  get ready for a shock.”

With trepidation but trusting her Handler, Epoc did as she was told. Nexus Alpha turned its back on the oncoming satellite, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have an eye on it. Epoc could see the estimated point and moment of impact in real-time. 

“Prepare for pitch adjustment, 105 degrees,” Winter said. “Short burst. Now.”

Nexus Alpha spun forward at Epoc’s command at just the right time. Then a sound like a freight train being crushed like a tin can rocked through the entire Frame and the orbit suddenly became freefall. 

“Epoc. The satellite is yours. Adjust your course. Estimated point of impact is 13 minutes and 26 seconds. Let’s turn it into a descent instead of a crash, shall we?”

“Yes… ma’am,” Epoc said, straining against the controls. She was crashing down to the planet, wearing a satellite like a backpack. If she didn’t fire off every single thruster at the right time, she’d be dead. Too early and she would pick up too much speed again after. Too late and the weight of the satellite might throw her off balance or snap Nexus in half like a toothpick. And that was before slamming into the ocean fast enough to turn her into an oil spill. 

All of that while the arms of her handler were wrapped around her, keeping her on edge like a cruel lover, and on her way to fight a creature the size of an oil rig that wanted nothing more than to kill her. 

She laughed. She was having the time of her fucking life.