Tadeh Qudas caught just a tiny whiff of anger radiate off of Captain Sardenon at that comment. “So, the PsyOps division cooked up a story about the Gas Giants of Drobile being haunted by twisting the local mythology. The few recon probes that surveyed the planet since have never sighted the carrier directly, only its fighters and defensive platforms that it deployed. Why it doesn’t just take the system? We don’t know. How it keeps getting resupplied? Again, we don’t know. All of the fighters we’ve encountered are unmarked, so we don’t even know what ship it is.”
“What are all these other contacts?” the young technician asked.
Tadeh Qudas was almost impressed that the young man had spoken up. Then he cowered away. “Most are contacts with the Phantom’s airwing, fighters, bombers and the like, but this one,” Tadeh Qudas replied and launched himself back to the center platform.
Captain Sardenon stepped up and the gas giant expanded to take center stage in front of the group. “So, for over a decade we knew there was a ship there, with support, but still didn’t have a clear picture. That’s where I entered the narrative.” The hologram of an older model Ormu-Balhet carrier appeared. “My first assignment out of the academy was to the Strike Carrier Tragle. Shortly after I arrived, the captain retired and his XO, Commander Raif, was promoted to skipper. Commander Raif graduated from Academy 22, in the last class before its destruction, along with about half the command crew.
“For almost two tridecs we hunted the carrier. I later learned that we were in defiance of orders from High Command. We ran into their fighters out on patrol and the defense platforms they’d erected over several of the gas giants. Some were made from our own ships. But the mothership remained hidden. Then the Captain hatched a plan.
“We attacked one of the defensive platforms. It had been constructed from an old Bethesda class frigate with its engines removed, but it still carried its two docked fighters. I held back while a strike package engaged. They downed one fighter, and destroyed the platform. Then they hammered, but didn’t kill, the second fighter.
“While everyone else bugged out for home that beaten little Phantom 4 limped towards the safe harbor of its carrier. I hung outside of his sensor range, kept passive, and followed. It took a few hects, but then... I’ll never forget it. A jet-black Barker emerged from the upper layer of clouds and swallowed the little fighter up before it dipped back down.
“My co-pilot called it in, and before I knew it, the Tragle dropped out of slipstream right on top of us. That was when all Sheol broke loose. Captain Raif launched the whole airwing to go in and destroy the thing, but the interference in the cloud layer blinded all of our sensors. The Tragle opened fire into the clouds. The Phantom launched its fighter wing to engage us. With the way they’d shot out of the clouds all around, you’d think they’d had a dozen carriers in there.
“About halfway through the battle we caught a shadow of the beast. My bombardier still swears to this cycle that he had a lock and we launched our torpedo load. I never received a hit confirmation. After that, we headed home to land, refuel, and rearm.
“We were on final approach when a Razer cannon discharge shattered the upper atmosphere. The Tragle didn’t have a prayer. They caught her dead center, ripped her in two. I evaded for all I was worth, escaping the destruction and saw the Phantom. It sat between the cleaved clouds and disappeared again as its bombers began to tear our battlegroup to pieces.
“I’m not ashamed to say that, when the call came to retreat, I ran. They hounded us all the way to the jump point. Even the inner planets weren’t safe harbor. The Phantom wanted us all dead.”
Tadeh Qudas could read the hunter’s glare in the Captain’s eyes. This was a kill he wanted even more than the Barker itself. “All told, four ships escaped that slaughter, and the next two raids met with similar results. All they served to do was bolster their defenses as they built more platforms out of the wrecks of our own ships.”
“That won’t happen this time,” Captain Sardenon replied and stabbed at the gas giant with an outstretched hand. “High Command has authorized us to go in and excise that beast once and for all.”
“How?” Chief Teblic asked, uncertainty wafting off of him.
The Captain locked eyes with Tadeh Qudas. “We take away their hiding places and draw them out. Tadeh Qudas, get your capture team at the ready. I intend to take the outermost defensive platform to gather intel. Then we launch coordinated strikes against the remaining defensive platforms. Once those are gone, we bombard the gas giant with asteroids from the local belt. We keep our distance until it shows itself. Once that happens, we strike hard, fast and make them regret ever venturing out into space in the first place. We jump in two hects.”
UCSB Date: 1005.195
PQ-452, UCSBS-Wolfsbane, Drobile System
Arion’s father used to say that a bomb could go off next to his head and it wouldn’t wake him. That was before the Kemtil infection had taken him to the brink of death. Ever since, while most noises still wouldn’t rouse him, the soft sounds of someone sneaking about always did. He assumed it was because of how the nurses had tiptoed around in order to run some test or other while he slept. Blazer had joked that when they’d bunked together that he’d had to stomp to keep from waking Arion, even in null-g.
A quiet shuffle intruded into his ears and the universe jogged into focus. He drew in a shallow breath; the feeling of the bed enveloped his right side, his left hand felt only the cloth sheet. He slipped a hand up and down for a moment, felt the indent from where a body had been. The lingering warmth had begun to recede. Another shuffle and a quiet shrug forced his eyes open. Alieha stood before him in her underwear, her bag open, and jumpsuit hanging off his chair.
He grunted loud enough for her to hear. She spun about in shock. “Arion, sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You were planning to say goodbye first, right?”
Alieha came over and climbed back into the bed, snuggled in close. Arion loved the way this felt and could stay like this all cycle. “A few of my top clients buzzed me. They’ve heard that we’re in Drobile. There are some rare commodities here that they’re willing to pay some serious CMU for. Plus, I know that folks on Drobile are willing to pay a premium to get quick delivery out here since most traders won’t make unscheduled stops, for obvious reasons.”
Arion understood and nuzzled her neck. “How long?”
“Will I be gone? At least a tridec.”
Arion stiffened at the news. He hated how long she’d have to leave the ship for these business ventures, but nevertheless knew enough to cherish the time they’d have together.
She’d only been back less than two decles but he knew that, as a trader, she needed to be on the move constantly. In that time however he’d seen that she conducted most of her business over the hyper-weave. She’d arrange with smaller traders to have them move goods on her behalf, or charge them a hefty commission to arrange their trade deals. She also had investments in companies across the Confederation. Her cleverness and business acumen had never failed to impress him.
Then there was her relationship with Captain Sardenon and the often heard of, but rarely, if ever, seen Admiral. They kept her on a special retainer to keep her with the ship as long as possible. This was so she could move ‘special’ cargo to and from the battlegroup outside of ordinary channels and with minimal oversight from High Command. That part always rubbed him raw. But she’d proven instrumental in getting the battlegroup much needed supplies that otherwise would have taken far too long to arrive, or were difficult to produce using onboard nano-assemblers.
“It’s okay love,” she cooed and fingered his chest, walking her hand down his belly. “I’ve got a few hects before I need to leave to hit the markets I need on Drobile.”
Though she had yet to say it aloud, he knew her hearts’ desires. She’d passed over two cargo runs out of Neshid to stay with him, though she’d said it was because they wouldn’t have brought enough profit. That
brought a smile to his lips and he pulled her in close. He kissed her just below her ear, she cooed and shuddered. She always loved when he did that.
Arion resisted his urges to immediately make love to Alieha right there on the spot. Other than sharing a bed, snuggles and kisses, they had yet to consummate their relationship in anything but shared memories.
She pulled away just enough to turn around and face him. She met his eyes and his resolve melted away. He would do anything for that loveliness staring right through to his soul. She gave him a wry smile and before he could ask what she was thinking she let him in on the idea. “There’s this thing that others have mentioned to me, but I’ve not wanted to try it with anyone else.”
Every sexual fantasy Arion had ever had now ran through his mind as he considered the implications. While he wasn’t into super kinky sex acts, except for that one time with Three. They’d had a quickie at the Overlook, near the academy’s core, meaning that any stray glance in their direction would have revealed them. He cast that memory aside, but his body had already begun to react. Doing his best to not show too much anticipation, he asked. “What would that be?”
She reached up and tapped her temple, activating her micomm, then did the same to him, activating his.
“What are you doing?”
“We should link our micomm, full sensory.”
She let her words linger there and the implications washed over Arion. To link their minds and bodies in such a way would be the ultimate connection that two non-telepaths could feel. His psychology classes had touched on telepath sex only peripherally, but that had been enough to make him curious. When telepathically linked during sex, they would become, in essence, one body, sharing every nerve ending, every emotion, every thought, meaning there’d be no barriers, no secrets. The rest of the universe might cease to exist, and in their infinite feedback loop, they’d never know. Even the passage of time could fade away. Telepaths had been found to have literally engaged in sex until they’d died.
Linking their micomms as she suggested would give them just a taste of that, but what a taste. He matched her smile and commanded his micomm to make the full sensory connection.
He almost jumped in shock as the connection took hold. It was surreal. He felt not only the pressure from his own body as it lay on his right side, but suddenly felt that same pressure on his left, or rather, her left. It was oddly comforting, like an all-enveloping squeeze. He pulled her in close, felt not just her against his belly and chest, but himself against hers as well. His whole body tingled as he felt her nipples harden against her bra and his abs. Her gasp of breath forced him to take one as well. He leaned in and kissed her, the sensation was maddening, arousing like nothing else. He ran his fingers up and down her spine, his own tingled in response. He jumped. Fresh waves of pleasure flowed through them both. A pleasant warmth filled his nethers. His already erect phallus screamed with new pleasure, reaching a level of hardness he’d never known.
He could hold back no further and kissed his way down her neck, felt each peck on his skin. He kissed his way down her breasts. Again, the sensation filled his mind as if he had phantom breasts. He tore her bra away and dove between her luscious mounds. He kissed them more, fondled them, suckled. Each new sensation threatened to push him past his pleasure threshold.
He continued his trip south and dove between her legs with an abandon he could scarcely name. His member responded in ways he’d never felt before. He had such a connection to her that in no time at all a pleasant pressure washed over them both. He echoed her moans of pleasure and joined her in it. He continued on, gentle and loving, certain touches forcing him to stop as waves of pleasure flooded over him. He twitched as he pulled, sucked and ran his coarse tongue in and out and around her womanhood. She panted in pleasure and he didn’t need any prompting to apply more pressure, to take them both to the edge. That extra pressure, that slight touch of pain was beyond compare. Waves of pressure and pleasure overcame them both. Alieha cried out in rapture, Arion joining her as he spilled his seed across the side of his bed.
It was unlike any orgasm he’d ever had. He wanted so much more. He jumped back up to kiss her. The tonguing they gave each other brought him back to full hardness before her hand could cup him. She didn’t even need to guide him as he slipped into her wet, silky folds. The pressure filled him with a pleasure he couldn’t describe. His breathing caught in his throat. He pressed on, slowly at first, their rhythms never out of sync. There was no awkwardness, they were completely in tune. He lost track of time, and the rest of the universe. His pace increased, he thrust harder, each movement driving them mad with passion.
The climax was beyond anything he’d ever felt as both their bodies responded. The universe exploded around them, every nerve-ending on fire, yet freezing, every synapse calling out for release. And then it was over. Arion was back in just his body, panting from the exertion. Alieha lay beside him drenched in sweat and fluids, her hair beyond a mess; it was stuck to her flesh and pillow haphazardly. She was beyond beautiful in that moment. He had no idea how much time had passed, and didn’t care. It could have been a few cents or a decade, it mattered not. To be cut off so suddenly though was jarring, the intensity of their final release overloading their micomms.
“Are you sure you’ll be able to fly later?” Arion asked.
Alieha scoffed. Her whole body shook and she arched her back. He wished he could feel that. “I have no idea. But Arion, I want that again, so many more times you cannot imagine.”
He could, and more.
UCSB Date: 1005.225
Monstero Nach 003, Patrol in Force, Drobile System
Blazer had begun to wonder if the Captain was becoming paranoid. When they’d first arrived in Drobile the briefing had made it clear why recon-in-force would be necessary for all patrols. Six fighters would stand a better chance against the hostile forces that they were sure to encounter. And if they didn’t, at least one stood a reasonable chance of making it back to report in alive. It had been a sobering thought at the time. After a tridec in-system however, they’d made no contact with the enemy, despite a solid decle and a half of constant bombardment of the gas giants.
That lack of contact, and the mystery surrounding their reassignment, had compelled Blazer to look up what he could on the so called ‘Drobile Phantom.’ There was hardly anything to find on the hyperweave. At least his security clearance allowed him access to the after-action reports of previous encounters. Even then, the information he found on his own paled in comparison to the Captain’s briefing.
Prior to this operation, no one in the squadron had even heard of the system. With it once being a major trade hub as the Captain had said it had been, he thought he’d find something. It was almost as if the system had been wiped from the hyperweave. All he could find were old charts that revealed an unusually high number of jump points deep in-system. Then there was a legend regarding the system’s primary gas giant that had been ‘discovered’ on one of the previously-inhabited inner worlds.
Blazer looked up at the swirling clouds of the icy blue planet. They orbited high above one of the system’s massive gas giants. Flying this closely tied his stomach up. If the reports were true then the Phantom liked to hide within the atmosphere of the system’s multiple gas and ice giants. He thanked the universe that their patrol had currently kept them clear of the system’s super gas giant. Reports indicated that the Phantom preferred to call that world home.
Shaking off a cold dread in his bones, Blazer looked back towards the habitable worlds in the distance. On one of them the colony had turned out to be an archaeologist’s dream. Beneath the sands of time lay the almost perfectly-preserved remains of a civilization that had learned to harness the atom and the germ and, within a generation, had destroyed itself with weapons of unspeakable terror.
Catranul, as his world had been known before the Great Death, had almost come to a similar fate. It was a curious thing to consider that the forebears of his p
eople had only survived the asteroid collision that had started the Great Death because of their paranoia of worldwide nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare. That preparedness had compelled them to build the thirteen domed cities from which the Anulian people had emerged millennia later. To see worlds that hadn’t been so prepared was a sobering experience.
He forced himself to take a deep breath and to focus his attention back onto the mission. He craned his neck to look back at Arion. Curiously he was out of The Shroud, instead gazing up at the ice giant above with a dreamy look on his face. “You’re eyes up?”
Arion nodded and tapped the side of his head. “New mode on Level 5. It lets you be half-in and half-out, pushing all the automatics into the subconscious. It’s kind of strange.”
Blazer shuddered. His sole experience with the WSO Weave had been overwhelming to say the least. He’d never wanted to intrude on that world again and couldn’t imagine how Arion and the others managed it. “Something on your mind big guy? You’ve been pretty distant since Alieha left on her latest run.”
Arion just shrugged, never taking his eyes from the dark spots on the world above where the asteroids their combat engineers had pushed out of their orbits had crashed. “We’ve been staying in contact but she’s been busier than usual this run. Even when we do get a chance to talk, she keeps going on about the market. I guess some of her investments are doing weird things.”
Blazer just shook his head and grimaced. “I’m not the one to ask about that. Finances have never been my strongest skill.”
Arion laughed. “Oh yeah. Marda told me how you seemed determined to drain your bank account of every CMU when you were back home.”
Blazer’s cheeks flushed. He’d gone a little out of control with his spending buying things for Chrisvian. But then, he hadn’t even looked at his account since he’d joined the academy. To say it had grown considerably with his pay and interest accumulating without him spending a single milli would put it mildly. “That’s what happens you suddenly find yourself swimming in more CMU than you’ve ever seen in your life.”
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