The Voyage of the Astarte Ch. 02

"Bridge to captain. Your presence is requested. We have received a priority transmission from Fleet HQ. Captain to the bridge please."

Captain Mariska Holmes set down the report she was reading and let out a deep sigh as she stood. "Again?" She shook her head as she began the short trip to the bridge. "This is getting out of control."

It has been sixteen days since the GCF Astarte had responded to the incident on Lutra. Since then they had been called in to stop three similar situations. Mariska recalled them each in turn.

"First the goddamn sex robots at the Polytechnic Institute on New Barcelona. Orgy inducing brain slugs on Chiron Prime. And then the aphrodite plants on Evro." She chuckled at little at the last one. They had been interesting, to say the least. Six foot tall flowers with pollen that attracted young women. Once a girl was drawn close enough the petals closed around her and the flower attempted to fertilize her with its stamen. It was apparently quite pleasurable, and they'd had to pry some of the girls out with power tools. "I wonder what it'll be this time."

The bridge crew came to attention as Mariska walked into the room. She waved them back to their seats. "OK, what do we have now?"

Mika Taggart approached and held out a data console. "For your eyes only, Ma'am. Direct from Fleet HQ."

Mariska took the console and punched in her personal cipher. She read the text quickly, eyes scanning down the page. When she was finished she reached for the arm of her action couch, keying in a ship-wide broadcast. "This is the Captain. We've just received word of another incursion, this time on Vorlan. We'll be heading there directly. The situation has been classified at threat level alpha." The bridge crew let out a collective gasp, and she paused to let the information sink in. "We should have more information as we get closer. Until then, prepare yourselves for action. Captain Holmes out."

"Captain." Mariska looked up to see Yralla perched at her elbow. "Threat level alpha? That means..." She trailed off, her unspoken question hanging between them.

Mariska nodded. "It means we're likely to see some combat. HQ didn't give us much intel, but it looks like some sort of life form has landed and it's terrorizing the locals. We'll have to take care of it."

"How dangerous do you actually think it's going to be?"

"I don't know, but HQ thought it was bad enough to warn us." Mariska let out a long breath. "Assemble a ground team. Everyone with good combat ratings. I'm headed down to Engineering. It's been a while since we've had to use our battle armor, and I want to make sure the Chief's been taking care of it."

Engineering was on the other end of the ship, giving Mariska ample time to think about the upcoming mission. She'd been involved in combat actions both large and small, and her training was already kicking into overdrive as she began to go over a mental checklist. The Astarte carried five sets of Fenris combat armor, enough for a fire team. They would need pulse rifles, grenades, first aid kits. She would have to deploy a small fleet of sensor drones and satellites once they reached Vorlan. Mariska was so absorbed in her planning that when she entered Engineering she didn't notice the sounds coming from the Chief Engineer's office.

It took a deep moan and a series of wet choking noises to draw Mariska out of planning mode. She leaned her head into the office, only to see her chief engineer vigorously face fucking an assistant.

Chief Engineer Fatima Rasafani's brown skin was slick with sweat, her chocolate colored nipples as hard as rocks, as she repeatedly drove an artificial phallus down her assistant's throat. Like all members of the New Reformed Muslim faith she was fully nude, except for the black veil which covered her face and hair. A fatwa issued in the mid-21st century had equated space travel with suicide, making it prohibited for practicing Muslims.The New Reformers argued that it was their religious duty to spread the faith to the stars, and split from mainline Islam, choosing to see the universe. Along the way they had encountered the Vollarians, and absorbed some of their ideas about sexual taboos.

Fatima looked up as Mariska entered the office. "Captain," She said, gasping a little. "I didn't know you were coming. I was just testing out a new toy with Lee here." She reached down and gave her assistant an affectionate slap on the cheek. Taking a step back, she began to extract herself from the woman's throat. Chrome metal emerged from Lee's lips, until a thick metallic rod in the shape of a cock hung between Fatima's legs.

Lee turned to the captain, sitting on her knees as she took several deep breaths, trying to find her voice. "Ma'am," she finally gasped, giving Mariska a little wave.

Mariska could only laugh. Jamie Lee had a reputation as the biggest oral slut on the ship. Her slight Asian frame hid an ability to swallow even the thickest of cocks. And in her role as Assistant to the Chief Engineer she had plenty of opportunity to test drive any new contraption that Fatima could build.

"What did you come up with this time?" Mariska asked, gesturing to the chrome dick sprouting from Fatima's crotch.

"Just an upgrade to something I've been working on." Fatima's fingers found a button near the prick's base. A small light flashed green, and then red. She slowly removed the pseudo-cock, a twin equally as thick sliding out of her own pussy. She held it up for her captain to see. "I've tweaked the interface some, and added neuro-stimulators along the base. It isn't perfect, but I've increased sensation along the length of the phallus by about eighty percent."

"So it feels like you actually have a dick?"

"Something like that." Fatima smiled, the barest hint of white teeth visible through her veil. "We aren't all born as lucky as Yralla, but I think this is a step in the right direction."

"I like it," Lee chimed in, still sitting on the floor.

"Well, I'm glad your free time is put to good use," Mariska said, seriousness creeping back into her voice. "But we have a situation now. Did you hear my broadcast?"

Fatima became all business. "Yes Ma'am. Threat level alpha. I haven't seen one of those in a while. What do you need from me?"

"I want all the armor prepped and ready. Full combat loads. A full suite of tactical drones. And run diagnostics on the surveillance satellites, we haven't had to deploy them recently. I wouldn't want to go blind at the wrong time." Mariska tapped a fingertip against her lips as she thought. "That should be it. Lee, I've seen your combat scores. You'll be on the ground team."

The junior engineer stood on shaky legs and nodded. "Yes Ma'am."

It took thirty minutes to get into a set of Fenris armor and run all of the diagnostic tests. And with Lee assigned to the ground team it was up to Chief Rasafani to do all of the work. This gave Mariska plenty of time to plan for the coming battle.

Reports had started to come in from Vorlan. Something had crash landed in the capital city, smashing through the roof of a sporting arena. Emergency personnel had gone in to investigate, but never reported back out. Soon, all transmissions in the area around the crash site had ceased. Local law enforcement had set up a cordon three kilometers out from the arena, but they had decided they weren't equipped to make any advance into the affected area.

She was finalizing her plan of attack when Fatima tapped her on the shoulder. "I'm ready for you Captain."

Mariska's armor was slumped in it's frame, a two and a half meter tall statue made out of grey metal. The back was split open, letting her step right in. She slid her arms and legs in first, and then ducked her head down to get into to helmet. The display came to life before her eyes, green and yellow indicators showing her the condition of the armor's systems.

Fatima's voice came over the communication system. "How do you read me Cap?"

"Loud and clear Chief."

"OK. I'm going to button you up."

The armor integrity indicator went from yellow to green as Fatima sealed the back, locking Mariska in. She felt a brief wave of claustrophobia go over her, but it passed quickly. The remaining indicators in her display turned green as she went down the startup checklist. Communications, servos, sensors, active camouflage, all good. Mariska checked her weapons status as she stepped out of the frame. A pulse rifle attached to the stick point on her right hip. Stun pistol on her left. A microgrenade launcher on each shoulder. She walked over to where the accessory equipment sat and let Fatima ease a drone set onto her back.

The rest of the ground team was waiting for her in the launch bay. Yralla, Taggart, Montrose, and Lee were clad in identical armor. Lee was playing with her active camouflage, cycling it through a dizzying array of colors as Mariska came through the door. She stopped and reverted her armor back to grey as her captain approached.

Mariska looked them over. They weren't marines, and none of them was a ground combat specialist, but they'd worked together for years and she was confident that their training would see then through this day

Mariska opened up the fire team channel. "Alright everyone, we'll be in orbit shortly, here's the plan." She sent the briefing materials to their displays. "You'll see that local law has set up a cordon three klicks out from the incident site. We're going to land at five equidistant point just inside of that cordon and make our way to the arena where whatever it is that we're dealing with landed. Details from inside the cordon are sketchy at best, but the number and location of the reports leads me to believe that we're dealing with more than one hostile entity. This is a threat level alpha situation. That means lethal force is authorized. But there are still a lot of civilians in there, so choose your targets carefully. Any questions?" There was no response from her team. "OK. Let's mount up."

A combat drop was much less pleasurable than a nice slow shuttle descent. Mariska was enclosed in a drop pod, a metal container just big enough for her suit. Her pod, and those of the rest of the ground team slid along rails until they were loaded into the launch tube like bullets in a gun. With a burst of magnetic energy the ship spat them out, flinging them at their target on the planet below.

The inside of Mariska's pod was silent except for her breathing and the whisper of the filter system in her suit. Her display tracked the pod's progress as it dipped towards the atmosphere. It wasn't long before the quiet whistling of the wind began to penetrate the walls of her pod, growing louder as the atmosphere thickened around her. The pod jerked as her parachute popped open, slowing its fall for the last hundred meters or so. Mariska landed with a gentle thud. The walls of the pod opened and fell away, revealing the city around her. She was alone, surrounded by abandoned vehicles. A quick glance behind her showed the police cordon a couple hundred meters away, lights flashing where they had blocked the street. Four blue icons appeared in her display, marking the position and status of the rest of her team. Mariska opened up a com channel.

"Astarte Actual to Ground Team. Deploy drones and mark targets. I'll meet you in the middle. Out." A quick command sent her own drones flying off her back, eight small discs studded with sensors. They went flying ahead of her as she started jogging down the street towards the arena.

It didn't take long for a drone to find something. A new icon flashed onto Mariska's display, this time in the yellow of an unknown target. She changed course, working her way down a narrow alley towards the target location. The sounds of muffled moaning got louder as she approached.

The drone was floating above a woman, tracing a slow orbit around her as she writhed on the ground. There was something on her back. It took Mariska a moment to realize that it was moving too. The creature was dark green, and wet looking. As though it were oozing some sort of slime. Most of it appeared to be an undifferentiated ball of tubes, or tentacles, writhing together until it was impossible to tell where one stopped and another began. Some of the tubes had extended from the main body, wrapping around the woman's limbs and ripping off her clothes. Two of the tentacles had made their way down to her crotch, embedding themselves in her pussy and ass. Another was filling her mouth. The woman shook and jerked, her eyes rolling back as she screamed and moaned around the thick flesh.

Mariska slowed, and looked down at the woman. She couldn't tell if the creature was causing her pleasure or pain. The was no way to shoot it off without hitting its victim. She decided that the best thing to do would be to pull it out. As soon as her armored hands touched one of the tentacles red chemical warnings began flashing in her display. Mariska paused for a moment to let the analysis go through. The results came quickly. Stimulants, endorphins, several compounds known to have aphrodisiac properties. She smirked. Definitely pleasure then.

That wasn't going to stop her from releasing the poor woman from the creature's grasp. Her armor's servos whined as she grasped the tentacles, pulling oozing lengths out of the woman's orifices. It took longer than anticipated, the damn thing kept trying to jam itself back into its victim. Finally, she was done. Mariska held the creature up, its wriggling limbs still reaching out for the woman on the ground. With a flick of her wrist she tossed it down the alley, drawing her stun pistol with her other hand. As soon as it hit the ground she fired, hitting it dead center. To Mariska's surprise, the stun pistol didn't seem to have any effect.The tentacle beast just absorbed the energy blast and began squirming down the alley towards her. It moved surprisingly fast, all those tentacles giving it a high degree of mobility. It had advanced to just a couple of meters away when she got her pulse rifle up and put two rounds into its body. White blood began streaming from the wounds and the creature fell over, twitching a couple of times before it went still.

Mariska watched it for a moment to confirm that it was dead before kneeling down next to the woman. She was young and pretty, in her mid-twenties and wearing the remains of fashionable business clothes. There was a wild look in her eyes as she stared up at the armor clad figure leaning over her. Mariska turned on her external speakers. "Ma'am, are you alright? Its dead now, and I'll make sure you get some help."

The woman reached a hand up towards Mariska's face. "Please. My skin is on fire." Her voice was a raspy whisper. The tentacle beast had probably chafed her throat raw.

Mariska gently pushed her hand away. "Emergency personnel will be here soon, but I can't stay. There are more of those things out there that I need to deal with." She stood, tagging the woman's location and sending it to the nearby police units.

She opened up the team channel again. "Actual to Ground Team. I've encountered one of the target creatures. They aren't too strong but they're immune to stuns. Kill them when you find them."

Yralla's icon flashed green with an incoming transmission. "Ma'am, we've found a number of these things. They seem to be getting more common as we advance towards the crash site."

It was only then that Mariska noticed the increasing number of yellow icons popping up on her display. There must have been hundreds of them.

"OK. Prioritize assisting civilians. But make sure we kill all of these things. I don't want to leave one behind and have to come back here later."

They spent the better part of the next two hours moving from icon to icon, killing tentacle beasts and marking the position of their victims. It would have been amusing if there weren't so many of them. Men, women. Humans, Vollarians, and a dozen other species. The tentacle beasts jumped on their backs, filled any available holes, and proceeded to fuck them into exhaustion. As they go closer to the arena at the epicenter of the event they found more and more people fucked unconscious. Mariska began to worry that it wouldn't be too long until they found a corpse.

Yralla's icon flashed green. "I have the arena in sight." Montrose, Taggart, and Lee quickly chimed in to say that they were in position as well.

Mariska was lagging a little behind the rest of the team. "OK, hold there for me and we'll ..." More icons began appearing on her display, this time in the unambiguous red of a threat. "Scratch that. I've got a situation here. Make entry without me. You should be able to handle it, but be careful."

She looked around. More red icons were blooming as her drones designated more targets, until there were dozens of them crowding her vision. Then she saw them. The tentacle beasts were everywhere, crawling out of windows, swarming on the road, pulling themselves out of storm drains. Mariska was surrounded. The beasts were obviously looking for her, and they paused for a moment as they came close. And then, like a single being, they surged forward.

She roared into combat mode. A spray of flashbangs flew from her grenade launchers, but the strobe of light and the concussive blast had no effect on the tentacle beasts' advance. Mariska switched over to more lethal munitions, lobbing microgrenades into the seething mass of the tentacled horde. Each small explosion killed handfuls of the creatures, but more took their place.

Mariska began firing her pulse rifle one handed. The tentacle beasts were packed so tight she couldn't miss. Her free hand went down to the small of her back, grasping the handle of the combat knife sheathed there. She lashed out, cutting one of the things in half. More fell before her, her blade slicing through them easily. Mariska was gunning them down, their bodies piling up around her. But it wasn't enough.

They slammed into her legs, putting her off balance. She was still stumbling when one of them landed on her back. Mariska's armor whined as she tried to stay upright. She failed, tumbling over into the swarming mass of tentacles. They covered her, slick limbs probing at the joints in her armor. She continued to fire her rifle until the magazine went dry. The empty weapon was swept away. It didn't matter. Mariska reached out and crushed one of the tentacle beasts in an armored hand. And then another. It took some time, but between her knife and her hand she eventually killed them all.

Mariska stood slowly. White blood dripped from her armor. Vents opened along her back, waste heat spilling out in waves, distorting the air above her. She spent a minute searching for her pulse rifle, and found it buried under a pile of bodies. Fully equipped and reloaded, she went in search of her team.

"Yralla, I'm on my way. What's the situation?" There was no response. "All team members, this is the Captain. Report."

A long moment went by, and Mariska began to worry, but then Lee's icon flashed green.

"Ma'am, is that you?" Lee sounded out of breath and a step away from panic. "We need help. It's too big. We couldn't handle it. It got the rest of the girls."

An icy hand gripped Mariska's heart. She started sprinting towards the arena. "What do you mean got them? What's their status?"

"Shit! It found me!" Lee's voice was accompanied by the sound of a pulse rifle firing. "Hurry! It's gonna take an airstrike or... Shit!." There was a wet sound, and the squeal of tearing metal. Lee screamed. And her channel went silent.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." Mariska was muttering to herself as she ran for the arena, her armor bringing her to inhuman speeds. The side of the building was one hundred meters away. She jumped, flying through a second story window, shattered glass falling around her as she came to her feet. The last known locations of her team were highlighted on her display, clustered around the court at the center of the structure.