Alien Mine Ch. 18

"You can make her anything you want," Sandy said with heat in her voice, "her, or any of us, even me," she added in a deliciously sexy voice as her eyes met his as if testing him.

Rhys recognized the challenge in her gaze. He had made her his second, and it came with rewards, but it also came with complications. Sandy presented him with a dilemma; the more authority he gave her, the stronger and more effective she became, but also more dangerous. Sandy had flourished as a leader, as his second in command, but he needed more from her. He envisioned Sandy, Mika, Anita, and Nelya governing the Earth, and eventually the Solar System, with Sandy at the top. Rhys recognized that with the additional authority came the urge, the need to dominate. He thought that problem had been solved with the mark and the nanobytes. He could end her with a thought, the nanobytes answered to him, and she knew it. But underneath it all, the challenge to him was still there, driven by the combination of her own ambition and the symbiont. The fusion of the two seemed more potent in Sandy than the others, but Mika might be equally problematic, and then there was Nelya. She had surprised them all, and Sandy and Leslie had warned him of a potential problem. It was unfortunate that each symbiont was a clone of his own, each of them chafing at being subordinate.

"No," he said. It was a command, and Sandy's mind and symbiont recognized it for what it was. Sandy immediately quit her provocative display and stood up. "Of course, Rhys, I'm sorry," she said a little petulantly. "Let me take her for you," Sandy said as her hair flowed out and wrapped around Kiania, lifting her out of his arms and pulling her close.

"Hi Sandy," Kiania said with a smile, "you can put me down; I can walk now."

"It's ok; I would rather carry you; it's the least any of us can do after that incredible orgasm you shared with us."

'Kiania blushed, a little surprised that anything could embarrass her.

"That's cute," Sandy said with a laugh, "but it was spectacular, you woke Mika and Nelya up in the middle of the night, and they are both clamoring for Rhys to come and do the same to them."

"Your dominance comes at a price," Rhys reminded her as she carried Kiania out the door. "I am giving you Anita, but she belongs to me, as do you all. And each time I bind someone to you, your ties to me become stronger," Rhys said, the warning clear in his voice.

"I understand," she replied, confused by the emotions that ran through her in response to the warning. She and her symbiont could never seriously challenge Rhys again, the nanobytes saw to that, and the chains he had added to her mind strengthened his control of her. Sandy focused inward, examining her own desires, and realized she was envious of Kiania. Rhys had never taken her like that, nor had she ever desired it before. Sandy was dominant, always had been, and that was why she had never let herself become serious with Rhys before the symbiont. He was too dominant, too masculine for it to ever work long-term, yet here she was, bound to him and the other girls for at least two expected lifetimes. So why did she feel this way?

Regardless, the warning was clear, but still, she wanted Anita. Something about her brought out the need to dominate, to control. Rhys had promised her Anita but made it clear he had the ultimate control; she could live with that.

***

Two weeks later, Rhys and Yaneta sat in the same sidewalk cafe where Leslie had detected the Om. The situation couldn't have been more different for Yaneta. The last time she was here, she had been a terrified woman, despised by the others and helpless in the face of unknown forces, including the Om. But after two weeks of intensive therapy, as Sandy liked to call it, she had emerged a changed woman, both physically and mentally. According to Rhys and Sandy, therapy meant working twenty hours a day, learning things in two weeks that took the others two months. Unrelenting physical training her new body struggled to cope with, her mind bombarded with information, so much that even with the help of the symbiont, she was still digesting much of it. Every time she had balked or tried to slow down, she was reminded that the Om were established in Moscow, and if she did not want to end up dead, or worse, dissected by the Om to learn about the symbiont, she had better find the strength to continue. It would be her job to protect Nelya from them, with her life, if necessary.

Rhys, Sandy, and Kiania had been superb but harsh instructors. Rhys taught her to shoot the various weapons they used, and he had insisted she practice until proficient with all of them. Kiania had trained her in hand-to-hand combat, knife fighting, and using the monoblade. Sandy was her physical and mental trainer, working and toning her, developing muscles, and teaching her control of her body and mind. The latter was probably the toughest, taming her emotions, forcing self-control and obedience.

Somehow, she had found strength, and it had gotten easier day by day. Not just physically but mentally, and her status rose when everyone realized how hard she worked to meet their expectations. Of course, she still had to follow the Binary's rules; she kneeled and begged; everyone was firm about that. Firm but gentle was a good way of describing it, reinforcing her submission to everyone else. It had been difficult at first, more than humiliating. After a week, though, it got easier; Rhys took pity and changed it to a command. She still had to beg, but now it excited her to beg. Perversely, the shame of everyone seeing how begging now excited her aroused her even more.

Still, the toughest part for Yaneta had been coping with the intense emotions generated through the climax they all shared with Rhys. When she had been allowed, that blending of emotions and empathy between them had left her shattered the first time she experienced it. It had made her realize how much of an outsider she was because the love they all felt for each other was so tangible, with the deep emotions they shared between them. Yaneta had cried, shaken to her core when she realized how empty her life was compared to the others. Sandy and Kiania, and especially the strange combination of Mei and Bao, had taken the time to comfort her. She had spent extra time with Mei and Bao, fascinated by what they were, which had helped, but it was Rhys who had taken her in his arms and told her he believed in her. That had given Yaneta the strength and the drive to meet the challenges they threw at her.

Now she sat here with Rhys in the back corner of an outside cafe, armed and much more confident, waiting for their prey to pass by. Yaneta had a rifle concealed under her coat, a pistol in a holster under her left arm, and a monoblade attached to her right wrist. She also wore bracelets that contained Thea's fire darts for burning the parasites.

The Binary had walked much of the streets of Moscow over the last two weeks, plotting comms traffic and mapping the sources. Unfortunately, it was much worse than they had realized; so far, they had tracked several parasites, moving up through government and security workers and expanding their influence. Even more concerning was detecting some kind of Om aircraft moving between the Om home base and Moscow. Rhys had been sure they moved by air based on the attacks worldwide, but they remained undetected by the satellites.

Still, they knew where the primary source was in Moscow, and Nelya had managed to get old paper records of the underground fortifications in which the Om had made their base. They had been extensive, underground passageways with a series of large areas for supplies that extended three kilometers. No one could guess the extent of modification by the Om, so the attack would have to be flexible. Yaneta felt a moment of fear thinking about the upcoming battle; she would fight with one of the army squads, controlling two heavy drones and providing heavy weapons support.

"There he is," Rhys said, interrupting her thoughts. They could communicate only over her implanted comm gear, she couldn't use the tac-grid yet, so this had to suffice. Yaneta slipped off her chair, following discreetly behind. No one would recognize her dressed like a college student sitting in a coffee shop. Dragonfly drones fluttered ahead and behind her unobtrusively, watching for possible traps. This one was going to meet a senior official; they did not know who, but Yaneta was going to be there to ensure it was recorded. She wondered if this would be another one added to her list to eliminate. It was already a long list and seemed to grow as they discovered how deep the corruption ran. Nelya had met with one of Dmitri's senior executives, and the results had shocked them; Nelya was surprising everyone. Yaneta had not had to face her yet; she would have to kneel and beg to kiss her when she did. Her face flamed with shame at the thought as she pretended to window shop.

Rhys slipped through the shadows, following Yaneta, who was following the Om parasite. He had hung back while she wondered about the high-end shopping district, window shopping, taking her time but keeping the Om parasite in sight. Fortunately, the one she followed was not skilled and seemed oblivious of her, and Yaneta had made no attempt to get close as the Om steadily worked his way out of the crowded areas. It was eleven in the evening, and the weather was turning cool, but many people were still out, some eating a late dinner in the outside restaurants and bars or window shopping. This was the upscale part of Moscow, near the giant mall catering to the wealthy tourists and the local nobility, now called oligarchs.

The man controlled by the parasite was a government functionary, and Rhys wanted to know what he was doing before he launched the assault. The Major and his men were ready, just awaiting his word, but Rhys was not sure they had the entrances covered, and he hoped this Om-controlled human would lead them to it. He was frustrated it had taken this long, but he had used the time to train the two Mossad agents and Yaneta.

The Om parasite seemed to speed up, heading for some destination, and now appeared in a hurry. Yaneta followed along, but then as her prey turned down an alley, all other thoughts disappeared as she came face to face with a Trangrod for the first time.

Rhys watched Yaneta pretend to lose interest in window shopping and strode rapidly after her target, away from the crowds, east in the direction of the Om lair. It was located in a rundown section of town now known as the Mozhaysky District.

When the controlled human turned suddenly into a narrower street, the drones and the sudden taste and smell warned Rhys that there were enemies in both directions, but he was too late to stop Yaneta. She turned the corner and was face to face for the first time with a Trangrod. It leaped for her, a nightmare shape with multiple blade-like arms spread wide. Yaneta's training kicked in, and her weapon came up without a thought, but she was jerked off her feet and thrown into the air before she could fire.

Rhys grabbed Yaneta just as the Trangrod leaped, then dodged to the left, making it a near miss, and threw Yaneta into a second-story window. When he turned back, the Trangrod opened fire, and Rhys felt the rounds hit his armor, staggering him. They hurt but didn't penetrate, so the Trangrod leaped for him. Rhys used one of the bird drones to kill it when it was less than a meter away. He didn't need the drones or his sense of smell to know there were more Trangrods, so Rhys jumped up into the building with bullets flying and into the window with Yaneta.

Yaneta had been too surprised by the sudden attack to be scared, but then she found herself thrown upward by Rhys through a second-story window on the right side of the street. She crashed into a storage room of some kind as sounds of gunfire and explosions shattered the night. Grabbing her weapon from the floor where she dropped it, Yaneta was surprisingly calm; her breathing slowed, and her training seemed to kick in. There was another explosion from below, and then Rhys came flying through the window, rolled across the floor, and then kicked open the door leading to a hallway taking a quick look around.

"Let's go," he calmly commanded, and Yaneta ran to follow him. He led her at a run through a long hallway, past several doors, and then into an empty office that looked out on another narrow street. Yaneta realized Rhys had about ten bird drones following, and he sent four of them out in different directions.

"Damn," he muttered, grabbed Yaneta, threw her over his shoulder, raced through another office, burst through a window, and leaped across the alley. Yaneta held her breath as they flew between the buildings, drawing fire, then crashing into another room. Still, two stories up, Rhys didn't even slow down, using his shoulder to burst into an apartment through a wall, disregarding the startled screams of the people living there. Explosions rocked the wall behind them, and gunfire slammed into the room. Rhys ran, and then they were through the apartment out onto a patio. "Hold on," he told her a leaped upward again across the street. Yaneta braced herself this time, but instead of crashing into a room, Rhys used his muscles to push off again, leaping higher and back the way they had just come. He went back and forth across the street, jumping upward each time before reaching the top of an apartment building.

He dropped Yaneta, pulled his rifle off his shoulder, and leaned over the top of the roof, firing at something. "Watch the other side for roaches," he said, "use your rifle but don't expose yourself." Yaneta looked back the way they had come to see several Trangrods swarming up the side of the building. Rhys began firing again, shooting, then using his insane speed to move to another spot and fire again. He used his grenades sparingly, knowing he would need them later.

Yaneta took up a position on the other side, seeing one Trangrod scurrying around at the base of the building ten stories below. It began firing at her as it seemed to flow up the building, approaching at an incredible rate. Yaneta put her rifle over the edge and fired a long burst using the arms computer like she had been taught. The upgraded rounds ripped into the Trangrod, and she was relieved to see it come apart and fall to the ground.

Rhys had cleared the side of the building, but then gunfire tore through the concrete just below him. Damn it, he swore as the roach swarmed onto the roof. Fuck this, he thought, dodging as the bug leaped at him. His monoblade sprang out, and stooping low, he slashed at the legs as it went by, severing two of them. It tried to take his leg with one of its bladed forearms, but Rhys sacrificed another bird drone to kill it. A second Trangrod leaped to the roof, and Rhys fired his rifle one-handed while bounding away ten meters to open up space. The Trangrod scuttled away with that weird alien motion until it was between him and Yaneta. Rhys held his fire for just a second, moving his head, causing the bullets to miss him by millimeters. Then Rhys dropped his rifle and sprang toward the roach, his arms outstretched, the monoblade held in both hands. The Trangrod tried to rotate its weapon, but Rhys had the speed of a Drans warrior, and he drove his monoblade through the top of its head before it could target him. Drawing his pistol, he then fired several rounds into the body.

Rhys grabbed his rifle, Yaneta, and jumped off the roof just as missiles exploded behind them. Rhys landed on the top of the next building, then jumped again, but this time in a different direction, bursting through a plate glass window and crashing into a wall. Yaneta fell to the floor but was yanked up by the arm and pulled through the apartment. Yaneta registered screams of the occupants, but then explosions tore that side of the building apart, probably killing the occupants.

Fires raged, and sprinklers went off as they ran down a hallway, shoving scared residents out of the way. Instead of going up or out, Rhys found a stairway and went down at a breakneck speed, leaping down stairways and bouncing off the walls. Yaneta raced to keep up but was then stopped by a shout from Rhys.

"Sandy is overhead; we need to hang on for a few minutes. Stay here, kill anything that comes at us from behind," he said, disappearing down the steps. Yaneta heard gunfire below, then explosions. A door burst open on her level, and Yaneta fired before she actually saw the Trangrod. It spun as the bullets tore into it. Men followed, not men but parasite controlled humans. Yaneta's monoblade sprang out and into the belly of the first one. Blood gushed out along with the parasite, but before she could kill it, the one behind him was bringing a rifle to bear. Yaneta snapped her foot out with inhuman strength crushing the man's chest. Flame darts shot out of her wrist bracelets, burning the parasites, while she snapped her palm into a third man's face smashing his nose into his skull, and her monoblade cut his rifle in half. Adrenaline soared, but it was moderated by the symbiont, and her breathing remained steady. Kiania had taught her that controlling your breathing, your rhythm section as she put it, was key to remaining calm until she could go into combat mode. Even so, everyone seemed to be moving in slow motion, and since the last one had no parasite, she sprang amongst the remaining three. Bullets hit her, and though her armor-weave clothes could shed light weapons fire and knife strikes, the dull concussion of impact hurt like she had been punched hard.

Swinging low, her monoblade severed both of the first man's legs. Yaneta stepped back, her feet working smoothly as she ducked under another who tried to use his rifle as a club and took off his head with a backhanded swipe of her blade. She stabbed the remaining man through the heart. A fourth man came through the door, but a bird drone flew through his chest, barely slowing down, and the parasite that reached for her died in a howl of flames. Yaneta heard the mechanical noise of Trangrod claws on the cement floor and yanked her rifle around but was hit with several rounds, knocking her down the stairs. These were heavy rounds that penetrated her leg and torso, but her symbiont stopped the bleeding and pain and kept her from going into shock. Still, Yaneta's body was undeveloped, her muscles just starting to convert to biopolymer of Drans design, and moving was a struggle. Finally, a bird drone killed the Trangrod, but several more burst into the stairwell. Sure she was about to die, Yaneta raised her rifle, but before she could fire, everything seemed to dissolve into explosions.

Master Sergeant Marek led his squad into battle for the first time. Marek had twenty-one years in the Army and was a highly decorated combat veteran, but he had never faced anything like this, and neither had his men. Nevertheless, the five of them deployed from the shuttle into the side of a burning building and immediately into a firefight the likes he had never seen before. There were the Trangrods, two types that had Rhys trapped, and the volume of fire was unbelievable. "Upstairs first, get Yaneta; Sandy can keep these off me," Rhys told him.

"Heavy section forward," he ordered as the tiger drones sprinted ahead, followed by the men holding the auto-cannon and chain gun. "Rifle section through here," he said, marking the entrance on the tac grid, "flank and hold them."

Corporal Wang sprinted up the broken staircase carrying enough firepower to destroy a heavy tank company. "Contact,'' he shouted, bringing his auto-cannon to bear. He saw Yaneta go down, and Wang pulled the trigger, firing just above her prone body. The roar of his weapon drowned out all other sounds as the explosions filled the air and tore into the remaining walls. It was his first time to face a Trangrod outside the simulator, but the training paid off, and he raked the cannon shells around the lower edges of the roaches as he had been instructed. It blew the first roach up into the air, and he sent cannon rounds into the underbody, blowing it apart. Return fire was instant, but the armor held, and then the tiger drones were amongst the Trangrods attacking them directly. Richards opened up with the chain gun, and between them and the drones, the Trangrods began to come apart. An explosion rocked Wang, but his heavy armor was designed to take these direct hits, and he slowly advanced, covering Richards.