Marauder Aegus

by Aya Morningstar

  I grin.

  Her face reddens, and she raises a finger at me in anger. “I’m the Tsarina of Venus. I will not walk around naked in the jungle. Forget it.”

  I try to hide my smirk, but fail miserably. I will get that dress off of her one way or another.

  We step out onto the docking platform, where the humidity hits me like a wall. My highly evolved body begins to adapt, raising its internal temperature to cool me down, but still I sweat.

  Anya’s thin dress immediately begins to become translucent. I notice this especially over her breasts, as I can easily make out the outline of her nipples. I pretend to double-check my satchel, which allows her to catch up to and pass me, and then I enjoy a new view of her body curves through her dress from behind.

  As we reach the outer wall of the dome, the forest fully overtakes everything. The door to the airlock is barely visible. It’s permanently open, I realize, and filled with vines. The ground is thick with grass and roots, and I take Anya’s hand to guide her through it. It will be difficult for her to walk through the forest with her human woman’s shoes. Fortunately she is not wearing the high-heeled style shoes, but her flat-bottomed shoes are thin and not at all durable.

  I feel the vines and roots beneath my bare feet, and though I’ve never walked in a jungle, my ancestors have, and my instinct takes over.

  Anya trips, but I catch her before she falls.

  Her dress is wet with perspiration, and I can feel every curve of her beautiful body beneath the thin cloth. I smile at her, and make no hurry to put her back on her feet.

  Her face blushes as I maintain a grip on her body, and I realize she’s holding tightly to my arm.

  I set her back on her feet, and we walk on. I take special care to warn her of thick foliage so she doesn’t fall a second time, though I long to hold her against me again.

  We exit the other end of the airlock, and step into the full space of the forest.

  It’s raining when we step in. The water is falling in thick sheets, and it’s difficult to see too far ahead. The trees are as tall as the buildings in Sankt Petersburg, and the canopy blocks out the sky.

  There are flowing streams of water on the ground, and I hear animals hooting from the treetops. The buzz of insects is thick, and combined with the rain, the sound of the jungle is nearly deafening.

  “Wow,” Anya says, holding out her hand.

  Water pools in her palm, and she slurps it into her mouth.

  I do the same. “It’s very fresh and crisp,” I say.

  Then I look down at her. Her dress is completely soaked through. I can see the hardened points of her nipples pressing against the soaked cloth, and I can see the full contours of her panties outlined through her dress.

  My eyes widen, and I can’t help but gawk at her in awe.

  When she realizes I’m staring at her, she puts her hands over her breasts to cover them, and I see them press together, arousing me even further.

  I feel my cock begin to vibrate as it hardens, and then I realize she’s looking down at me. Her eyes are even wider than mine.

  “The dress...” I say.

  “I’m not taking it off,” she says. “And stop doing that!”

  “What?” I ask.

  She looks down at my massive cock, shakes her head, and shudders, “That!”

  “I may as well ask for your nipples to stop pointing then. It’s not something I can control,” I say.

  “Then stop staring at my nipples!” she shouts, shaking a fist at me, causing her hand to fall away from where it had been covering her breast. It exposes her left nipple to me, which jiggles as she shakes her fist, giving me a nice view.

  “Then stop looking at my penis,” I say.

  “Fine!” she shouts, shaking her head in disgust. “Let’s go.”

  She turns to lead the way, which I realize immediately is a mistake. Luckily I reach her just in time to catch her before she falls once again.

  I grab hold of her wherever I can, not wanting her to be covered in mud, but I just so happen to feel her perfect breast mold into my hand. I feel the hard pressure of her nipple graze into my palm, and as I stabilize her, my erect cock presses into her backside.

  The moment I feel her ass up tight against me, my dick vibrates faster and my cock starts swelling, becoming larger and larger.

  We hold each other like this for what seems like forever, and though she’s been pretending not to want me–to be frustrated by my advances–she makes no effort to push me off her.

  Just when I think she will finally push me away and yell at me again, I feel her ass press harder against me, rubbing against my cock.

  I squeeze her breast in response, and grab the other one hungrily in my other hand.

  The scent of her overtakes me, and I press my lips against her neck to drink in her fragrance. We’re both rain-soaked and wet down to our skin, and her body heat warms me like the summer sun on a winter’s night.

  “Aegus…” she moans, and I move my lips against her ear, pressing my tongue gently against her earlobe.

  And then, far behind us, I hear the distinct vibration of a ship’s engines. It’s just on the edge of my ability to hear, which means there’s no way Anya can hear it.

  I savor the taste of her for another blissful moment, but then force myself to pull away from her.

  “Anya,” I say, wishing more than anything that the moment could last longer. “We’ve been followed. They’re here. We have to move fast.”

  Before she can reply, I snatch her up into my arms and start running through the jungle, carrying her drenched and beautiful body close in my arms.

  “How do you know?” she asks.

  “I hear better than you do,” I say. “We need to get away from here as fast as we can.”

  I race forward, keeping on the balls of my feet and taking care to step on vines and roots rather than leaving footprints in the soft mud. I need to leave as little trace as possible that we’re here.

  “What type of tracking devices would they have?” I ask.

  “Everything,” she says. “Heat scanners, bionic ears…”

  “Are they trained to fight in the jungle?”

  “No,” she says. “They never come in here, it’s probably our only advantage.”

  They’ll be slow and awkward as they try to navigate through the unfamiliar terrain. If it was just me alone, I could hunt them in bear form, but I won’t be able to protect Anya like that.

  “We have to find the tribes,” I say.

  I run faster, heading toward the center of the jungle.

  “They probably won’t be happy we brought the Imperials here,” she says.

  “Good,” I respond. “They’ll see that the threat is real, and be more likely to help us.”

  “Or they’ll help the Imperials,” she says. “Just to get them to leave them alone.”

  I push that thought from my mind. I know Anya is right and that it’s a distinct possibility, but there’s no use dwelling on it. If the tribes refuse to help us, we are dead. All we can do is plan on them helping us and do everything we can do to reach them before the Imperials catch up to us.

  I’m moving fast, but I hear the low drone of machinery about a half kilometer behind us.

  I keep running–while still trying to leave no trail–as fast as I can, but the machinery is getting closer and closer.

  “Drones,” I say, setting Anya down. “I need to destroy them.”

  The human soldiers are nowhere near. They probably hope these drones will do the job, and if I keep running, they’ll eventually get the drop on us.

  I point up to a large branch protruding from the tree in front of us. “I will put you there while I hunt the drones,” I say.

  “Shit,” Anya says, eyeing the tall tree.

  “I don’t know what kind of weapons they have,” I admit. “I need to disable them before they get any closer to you.”

  “All right,” she says, “but I can’t climb up there–�
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  I grab her securely around the waist and leap onto the tree trunk. There are no branches, but I grab hold of the trunk, and channeling my sheer brute strength, climb and shimmy my way up the tree. I move Anya onto my back. She grips me tightly, her legs pressed closely against my body. It feels incredible feeling her there, but I cannot lose myself in the pleasure because her life is on the line. I must focus.

  I reach the branch and help her grasp hold of it in such a way that she will be safe. It’s almost twenty meters high, so she’s effectively stranded up here, but hopefully she’ll be safe from the drones.

  The branch is wide, so she’s able to rest comfortably atop it.

  “I will not let them near you,” I promise.

  I slide down the tree, clearing the twenty meters in seconds. The moment I hit the ground, I shift to bear form.

  My senses intensify, and I can smell the oil of the approaching machines. They are close, and getting closer by the second.

  I rush toward the smell of the drones at full speed. I’ve never moved through such terrain in bear form, but it feels as if I’m at home in my natural environment. I move effortlessly across the foliage, and I make little to no sound.

  But the drones must have sensitive equipment, as I can hear them closing in on me even as I run at full gait.

  I let out a ferocious roar, hoping to draw them all to me and away from Anya.

  The trees thin out as I come upon a wide stream, and I see the first glint of one of the drones. It’s a six-legged machine that looks like a mix between a dog and a spider. It’s barely visible, as the colors on its body shift and change, camouflaging it with the surrounding jungle. It’s visible only as a long-legged shimmering shape, and I’m able to track it primarily through smell and sound.

  It turns toward me, but does nothing. I must be out of range of its weapons.

  Something opens from the top of it, and fist-sized, sphere-shaped machine flies out.

  Shit.

  The machine rushes toward me, and before I can react, I feel something penetrate through my fur, and then a sharp, painful prick. Something is lodged into the skin on my paw. I spare a look down and see a dart.

  I leap into the water and dive deep down.

  Holding my breath, I swim swiftly through the steam and toward the cloaked machine.

  I can’t smell or hear anything from underwater, but I remember where the spider-dog machine was, and if I get there fast enough, I can get a jump on it.

  Just as I begin to run out of air, I hit the other side of the stream.

  I swim as hard as I can, and break through the surface, leaping onto the muddy bank.

  I sniff and can still smell the oiled machinery. Behind me, I hear the whirring engines from the hovering drone.

  I need to strike quickly.

  I rush toward the smell of oil. As I approach, the spider-dog begins to scurry away from me, while the flying thing whirrs closer and closer.

  The machine can’t run as fast as me, but the flying thing is much faster.

  Just as I close in on the spider-dog and start leaping toward it, the flying drone dives in on me, firing more darts.

  I feel two or three prick into me, and I knock the spider-dog to the ground. I tear at it with my paws, ripping its limbs off as I bite into the center of its body. I rip out circuits and wires, and suddenly I hear the flying drone crash to the ground behind me.

  I waste no time, as I can smell a second spider-dog back on the other side of the stream. I realize this one is not going for me, but for Anya.

  I dive into the water again, but I’m feeling sluggish. The darts must have dosed me with some kind of tranquilizer or sedative, but my Marauder immune system is breaking them down–mostly.

  I cross the stream again, and once I reach the other side, leave the water and rush back toward Anya. I do the mental calculations, and realize I can intercept the spider-dog a few hundred meters from the tree, but I don’t know what I can do about the flyer.

  I spot the spider-dog just as it’s deploying the flyer, and I can smell Anya’s fear from high up in the branches.

  Faster! Go faster! Destroying the spider-dog will disable the flyer. The darts could contain a deadly poison for all I know, and Anya may not survive if any of the darts strike her. Even if it simply knocks her out, it will make it infinitely more difficult to escape the oncoming soldiers.

  The spider-dog deploys the flyer, and it rushes full speed away from me.

  I run as fast as I can under the numbing haze of the darts. I leap toward the spider-dog, but it dodges me.

  I roll through the mud as it scurries farther away. “No! Get up!” I tell myself.

  Back on all fours, I chase after it, but I realize it’s moving in a wide circle now. It must be at the maximum range for controlling the flyer, and it can no longer run straight away from me.

  I predict its circular path, and am able to successfully cut it off. I spare a glance backward and see the flyer approaching the tree–approaching Anya.

  Using all of my energy for one last burst of speed, I leap directly into the spider-dog. I go straight for its heart and tear out its power-cell.

  I look back and see the flyer plummet to the ground and break to pieces. I let out a sigh of relief, but waste no time in running back to Anya.

  I shift to Marauder form at the tree trunk and leap against the bark. The haze is thickening, but I scale the twenty meters in less than thirty seconds.

  “Anya!” I shout.

  I see her, and her eyelids are drooping. There’s a dart in her neck. I panic. No!

  I’m nearly on her, but suddenly her body goes limp and begins to slide off the branch. I won’t reach her in time.

  I jump off the tree trunk just as her unconscious body drops from the branch. I grab hold of her in mid-air, and we finish free falling together.

  I flex my body, forcing myself to be positioned beneath her to break her fall. I hit the ground hard, but I hold her up, absorbing the impact for her.

  The force of the fall knocks the air from my lungs, and sharp branches cut and dig into my skin, but I feel Anya breathing in my arms and against my chest.

  Thank the Seraphim–she lives.

  But the soldiers must be close behind us, so I shake her gently and call her name. She doesn’t wake up.

  I remove the dart from her neck, but I know the tranquilizer is already circulating in her blood. It may be hours before she can wake up.

  I hoist her body over my shoulder and start to move at a swift pace deeper into the jungle.

  I can’t move as fast as before, as the tranquilizer has numbed me and hindered my coordination. It’s a struggle to get and maintain my footing against the thick foliage, and if I move any faster, I risk falling over and dropping Anya.

  After trudging through the vegetation and undergrowth for twenty minutes, I catch the first scent of human males. It’s coming from behind us.

  I try to push myself to move faster, but hunger tears at me.

  Soon I can hear the Imperial soldiers’ awkward footsteps plodding through the jungle, and I know that I will have no option but to make a stand and fight.

  I continue moving for now, but I search out straight, sturdy branches as I go. I gather as many branches as I can find, holding them in my free hand, while I clutch to Anya’s warm and soft body with my other.

  I start to look for a position to fortify, and soon I reach a raised ridge. The ridge forms a rough convex semi-circle, so that when I look up at it, it’s surrounding me on all sides.

  This is the spot.

  The ridge extends beyond the maximum range of my vision in either direction, which will be good once I am up on the ridge, but for now it means I’ll need to scale it while holding Anya

  I have to leave the thick, heavy branches I’ve gathered at the bottom of the ridge–for now–and I begin to scale the ridge with one hand and two legs. Through the drowsiness, hunger, and exhaustion, my body aches as I climb, gripping to roots
and rock as I go, but I push on. If I fall or give up, Anya is as good as dead.

  I reach the top of the ridge out of breath, sweat-soaked and panting, and I place Anya against a tree. I prop her head against the trunk of a tree and begin descending the ridge to gather my branches.

  I expect the climb to be easier without Anya, but my body is so spent that it almost feels more difficult on the way back up–the branches seem to weigh even more than Anya.

  I barely make it to the top, and tempting as it is to catch my breath and rest, I hear the soldiers still progressing close behind, and know I have only precious minutes left.

  I reach into my satchel for the small knife I found in Tomas’s room. It will serve as a good weapon at close range, but for now I use it to begin carving sharp points at the ends of the branches.

  I cut and hack into the wood, forming rough points. I get them as sharp as I can, but the wood is thick and the knife is small. I hope that the thick density of the wood, and the advantage I gain from the high ground, will be enough for the javelins to cut through the soldiers.

  The footsteps are nearly at the bottom of the ridge now, and I can hear the soldiers’ voices.

  “The alien is on the high ground,” a man’s voice whispers. “Two heat signatures. The Tsarina is still with him and sedated. Kill the alien, but take the Tsarina alive!”

  I sigh in relief. They won’t kill Anya, but if they take her alive, a fate worse than death could await her.

  I need to kill every last one of them to protect her.

  I grab a javelin and listen for their approach.

  “His armor is like a full arsenal!” a soldier hisses. “We need to completely overwhelm him! If you get a good shot, don’t just take it, take ten!”

  “Roger,” another says.

  Fuck. If only my suit were active, I could take them all out with ease. I remember how I bragged to Anya that I didn’t need the suit, but I can hear no less than twenty soldiers, fully armed.

  I have...eight sharp sticks, a small knife, and my ability to shift into bear form. This gives them a slight advantage, depending on their weaponry.

  I wait for them to begin climbing the ridge, but I hear them stop short of the ridge line.