All the King's Horses Pt. 09

"You...fucking...shot me," Tiff hissed. "Isn't that a mutiny?"

"That's not a crime in the Federation," Bryce said, cheerfully. "Murder is. Assault is. But mutiny? Nope. Collective indiscipline is the expected response to a CO whose gone kill happy or fascist. It's actually a class you take - they train you to stop that kind of stuff."

"Ow..." Tiff whined, rubbing her chest. "You shot me."

"Do you want me to kiss it and make it better?" He asked.

Tiff glared at him.

"Sorry," Bryce said, his ears drooping.

Tiff closed her eyes and Chen hissed and jerked her head away from the screen. "Oof."

"What?" Tiff sat up.

"Bruce just pulled out the silver claws," she said, biting her lip. "The buffer's lost an arm and a leg, but he's still going at it. Bruce has taken a few hits, but his regeneration is still going strong. I'm just worried he's going to run out of gnosis..." She said, biting her lip slightly.

Tiff sighed, slowly, then opened her eyes again. She looked at Bryce, biting her lip as she watched him fiddle with his collar - his pheremone masker. It kept him from going completely nutty, being stuck in an enclosed place with a load of humans. Tiff blushed and looked away - furious at herself for thinking, if only for a teny tiny second, about popping that masker off. She was just tense and nervous and scared and...well, that was when she had always gotten horny as fuck back in her vampire hunter days.

"Got him!" Chen breathed a slow sigh of relief, then stood. "Bruce got em."

"Thank Gaia," Bryce murmured, and Tiff found his hand and squeezed him gently. Then she squeezed him harder and he yelped.

In the end, getting the weapons onto the Reliant took fifteen consecutive space walks, with three of them working on the exterior and Chen working on the interior. Of course, getting to the place where they could do the space walks took them a few hours - a few hours of accelerating towards the largest gas giant in the solar system. Sliding into orbit outside of the huge radiation belts that banded the immense ocher planet, the Defiant was able to use the lunar energies of the forty to sixty ("how can you not be sure!?" Tiff had asked and Chen had given her a two hour lecture on paralleling astronomy and how pathetic shitty their telescopes were) moons.

That moons provided the lunar energies for their jerry rigged replicators, and that gave them the parts to work out their weapon scaffolding. The K'na'Ngork, as per the agreement, had given them two nuclear missile launch tubes - which would be taking the majority of the work, as Chen wanted to get them worked up next to missile fabricators, which took three of their four wrist mounted replicators going at full tilt, with Chen programming in new components as fast as her fingers could type. The dorsal ridge of the Reliant was where Tiff, Bruce and Bryce worked to weld in the single railgun that they had been provided.

"So, tell me, Bruce..." Tiff said, grunting as she stood up from where she had been welding another strut into the support infrastructure. "What are our chances?"

"We're going up against a top of the line Deep Space Interdiction starship," Bruce said. "The Fenris class has two railguns that are about twice this size..." He slapped the side of the railgun. "With better cooling and cycling systems, and a targeting computer that can drop a slug the size of a car onto a target the size of a gnat from across the solar system. It's got cloaks. It's got shields. It's got nukes. Oh, also, it happens to have a quantum dyad that will give it near limitless replicator energy, while we're going to be running off tanks of stored vitae like we're a pioneer ship in the dark ages."

He grinned at her through his helmet. "They're pretty good, I think."

"W...e...ll..." Tiff said, slowly. "Wait, wait, there is one advantage you forgot: We're fighting Mike Hodges."

"I thought it was Mark?" Bryce looked over from where he was welding.

"Whatever," Tiff said, flipping her hand gently. "He's a Solar. He ruled all of Asia. Buuuut he must have a total lack of expertise when it comes to three dimensional movement and space battles. Right? Since he fought all his wars on the ground?"

Bruce and Bryce both looked at her.

"Winters," Bruce said. "Two thirds of the conflict in the Eugenics War was in the orbital and trans-lunar theater. Khan wrote the book on three dimensional Newtonian tactics. And then he wrote the second book on theoretical non-Newtonian tactics."

"What!?" Tiff spluttered. "he...fucker wrote a book?" She scowled. "Fucking nerd."

She went back to welding.

Inside the ship, with all four of them beat to hell, Tiff closed her eyes and brushed her thoughts against Shifter-Tiff. Hey, ST.

Hey, Shifter-Tiff sounded tired. I've got the logs on where the DeeDee is heading next. Here's the coordinates... And as she rattled them out, Tiff took the control pad from Chen and plotted them out, frowning as she did so. It looked like the DeeDee was going to be heading straight back to Earth - moving through the Wolf-359 system along the way. Looking at that, Bruce nodded and tapped the panel.

"That's the expected route back. Wolf-359's nearly uninhabited, save for a few science stations, but our orders, before K...before Hodges..." He corrected himself. "Before Hodges took the ship, we were going to swing by and check on them. I think he's trying to brazen his way straight to Earth."

"Then what?" Tiff asked. Then she put her hand up, making her 'I'm talking to shifter-Tiff' hand gesture. "Yo, ST, how many Remans has he gotten from the various stations and bases and such?" She paused, feeling nothing but a faint amusement from Shifter-Tiff. She scowled. "Hello Shifter-Tiff? You picking up? What's up?"

Your boyfriend is fucking a Solar.

"He's WHAT!?"

***

Lisa's hips rose and fell in the small bedroom, her eyes hooded as her fingers slid along Sebastian's bare chest. Her fingers were gentle, and they caressed the nubs of his nipples with an expert's grace, dragging a shuddering moan from Sebastian. Her breasts bounced slightly in time with her rocking motion as she crooned. "Yes...yes...there we go..." She murmured. "Isn't this much nicer?" Sebastian's cold hand cupped her rump, squeezing her, her flesh deforming slightly under the tight grip of his undead strength. Lisa hissed through her teeth, her eyes closing fully as she leaned her head forward, her red hair spilling before her face to conceal her huge smile.

Shifter-Tiff, who was floating in the airvent, watching the scene, had to admit, if only to herself, if only for this singular, fleeting moment...

Solids did have a more entertaining way of enjoying intermingling. Not that she was ever going to say so out loud. There was something feral and raw and aniamlistic in simply...grinding bits filled with nerves against one another. She leaned ever so slightly out of the airvent, her gaseous form tightening just a tiny bit, so that her molecules could brush against one another more than they normally would if given the normal air currents of the ship.

Lisa took hold of one of Sebastian's wrists in her hands and took his hand and placed it against her breast. "Isn't that good?" she crooned, her hips gliding up and down - her sex tightening on the cock that remained buried in her. When her eyes were closed, she could focus upon the most minute movements of musculature and skin - controlling groups of muscles in the body that most women and men didn't even know they had. The end result was pleasure that was nearly impossible to resist, pleasure that was seared across Sebasitan's face. His teeth clenched and his back arched as he rolled his head to the side, groaning as his balls clenched and his cool, vampiric cum gushed into her.

Lisa laughed, huskily, and then hissed as his hand tightened around her breast. Her toughened, Solar body was able to take more strength in her lovers than a normal human would, but that didn't mean that a vampire clinging to her as he came couldn't ride the line between pleasure and pain. But in her mind, she remained focused - focused on the tiny, multilayered tones she worked into her purring voice.

"Do you love me, Sebastian?"

"Yes..." he whispered.

"Do you submit to me?"

"Yes..." he nodded against the pillow.

"Is this not much better than the cell?"

"It is..." His hand slid up and down her back, stroking along her sweaty skin.

"Verrry good..." Lisa purred.

She took his hand, then brought it to her mouth. Her eyes met his. "Would you kill Tiffany Winters for me?" she whispered, softly, her forehead glowing as her caste mark flared to life, glowing as her focus and her efforts grew more intent and honed. Sebastian, unable to look away from her eyes, clenched his jaw. He trembled, then tried to speak - and then, sagging slowly back into his seat, he whispered.

"Yes..."

"Very good," Lisa said, her eyes sparkling. She rocked backwards, then up, his cock sliding from her sex with a long, wet, lewd noise. "For that, I believe that you-"

Wait, go back.

Shifter-Tiff started, almost flying apart into a cloud of undifferentiated particles. Tiffany's voice had broken into her voyeuristic thrill with the same effect as a rock being thrown through a plate glass window. Shifter-Tiff was barely able to enjoy the sight of the Solar beginning to slide her mouth down Sebastian's toned, pale body, licking at his belly button, then kissing past his belly muscles, then finally closing her mouth around the tip of his cock.

What? Shifter-Tiff asked.

Rewind the mental vision! Go back, I thought of something.

I can't just rewind my mental vision! Shifter-Tiff snapped.

Okay, uh...it's just...when he was looking off to the side there - that wall's reflective.

...and?

I swear I saw an eyeflash, Tiff said, sounding more and more certain. Oh my god. Oh my god, Master is a frigging GENIUS!

What?

Okay, so, when a vampire uses their mind mojo fuckery power, their eyes flash. Usually, it's turning from whatever color they were faking before to red, but if their eyes are already red, like Master's, then they glow faintly. Same thing happened when he mind-zonked you, remember?

Shifter-Tiff was silent for a bit. She thought back - but she had mostly been focused on the bounce of Lisa's breasts and the look of pleasure on Sebastian's face as he fucked the solar. She focused and watched as Lisa continued to bob her mouth on Sebastian's cock, her bright red lips a stark contrast against his pale cock.

I think you're imagining things. Why would he use Domination on his own reflection?

WHY INDEED!

Shifter-Tiff tensed. She heard a faint click behind her. Her molecules started to drift more freely as she relaxed on her control on her dispersed self, her vision focusing behind her - and in the deep, dark blackness that filled the air vent, she swore that she could see a physical shape. The Night Caste, the one she had almost been sure had found her a half a dozen times before. The Night Caste began to crawl forward, her eyes narrowed as she came up to the vent, her head brushing through the area that was Shifter-Tiff's body. Shifter-Tiff dared to not even think, let alone move any of her molecular structures.

It was insane. Ludircous, even, that she should have worried at all. The Night Caste had no sniffers, no scanners, no chemical snoops. She had nothing but her own ears, her own eyes, and her own taste buds. And yet, there was such a calm, certain determination in her blue eyes that it filled Shifter-Tiff with bone deep dread.

The Night Caste peered through the slits, at Lisa bobbing her head on Sebastian's cock. She made a soft, disgusted 'tschh' noise, then pushed open the vent and dropped silently into the room. Lisa drew her mouth back, her pale hand blurring along Sebastian's cock with a quick, efficient jerking motion. Her other hand brushed her hair back as she smiled at her Night Caste sister.

"Here to enjoy the show, Jade?" Lisa asked.

The dark skinned woman snorted. "You and Khan are wasting time. This mission is a waste of time. And fucking a vampire is the greatest waste of time of all."

Hey! Tiff thought, mentally.

Lisa snorted, then stood. "You have a problem with reclaiming what is ours?"

"When we left, Earth was an apocalyptic, ecologically devastated hellhole," Jade snorted. "Now, it's a barely repaired apocalyptic, ecologically devastated hellhole run by leftists who would rather buddy up with parasites and monsters than their own kind." She looked down at Sebastian. "He's faking it."

"I can assure you, he is not," Lisa said, her voice growing prim. But Tiff and Shifter-Tiff both - their thoughts intermingling in that moment - could feel the same furious temper behind Lisa's voice. The Eclipse Caste was definitely not happy about having her social engineering and brainwashing to be questioned by an overpaid ninja.

What's a ninja? Shifter-Tiff asked.

Just a fairy tale. They don't exist, Tiff said, distractedly, as she watched Jade step over to the panting, tired, sex-dazed Sebastian. She reached up, adjusted her hair...and...Tiff blinked. In a singular second, just by adjusting her posture and changing her hair style slightly, somehow, Jade had managed to disguise herself to look exactly like Tiffany Winters. That was...a neat and impossible trick, considering how Tiffany was a blond chick with blue eyes and Jade was, A, way taller, and B) black. Tiff was still trying to figure out how she had done it when Jade said, in a remarkable impersonation of Tiff's voice: "Sebastian?"

Sebastian snarled and lashed out at her throat - Jade caught his wrist and slammed him back into bed so fast that Tiff had almost didn't see it. Shifter-Tiff's molecules contracted in fear, even as the disguise that Jade had placed on herself fell away. She shook her head a bit. "Okay," she said. "It worked."

Aahahaha, I think I know what Sebastian did! Tiff said. But first, get your rumpus to the engineering bay. I...okay, this part's going to be kinda dangerous.

Will I get to go back to the Omni-Imperium afterwards?

Yes!

Shifter-Tiff wanted to argue. She wanted to grumble and grouse. She wanted to grouse and grumble. She was here, on a ship full of people she hated, working with a woman she had tried to kill...and yet...and yet, she had this voice whispering in her ear. They were weaker than her. They needed her help. They needed her protection. She couldn't simply step aside. And that voice was able to drag out the facts that she knew but rather wished she didn't. She had seen what the Solars could do. At the upper limit of her abilities, they were still almost able to detect her. She had seen them fight vampires and werewolves with their bare hands. She had seen them talk K'na'Ngork into handing over their guns with nothing but a smile and a promise.

They had to be stopped.

Okay. What do you want me to do?

It's really simple. All you have to do is weaken the following tubes by the exact amount of micro-fracture damage in very specific places! Oh! Also, don't get caught, don't indicate you've mucked with anything, and be ready to then get to the bridge.

...is that all?

Tiff laughed. WE make a good teambo, Shifterella.

Ugh.

***

Tiff slowly laid back into the cot as the engines rumbled - the warp drive was warping and the course was laid in. They had talked it over - the only place they had any chance of intercepting the DeeDee was by laying in straight for Wolf-359 while the DeeDee kept picking up a few more Reman conscripts from K'na'Ngork.

"What's the Wolf-359 system like?" Tiff asked. "What tacmical options do we gotz?"

"It's an incredibly dim red dwarf star," Chen said, sighing as she started to unzip her body armor, rolling her shoulders as she wriggled half out. Underneath, she wore a tank top and Tiff watched her, blushing furiously as she did so. Memories of a sexy shark girl danced through her head. She tried to not oggle as Chen continued to exposit science stuff that Tiff just barely understood. "But it's also a highly energetic variable illumination star - basically, every few hours, it releases a gamma wave burst that sterilizes everything in the solar system. Sometimes, those pulses get way more frequent - they can be as often as once every two, three minutes."

Tiff frowned, slowly. Then she sat up. "Wait...do those fuck with sensors?" she asked.

"No," Chen said. "Well, yes. Kind of. They won't do a damn thing to the optical sensors, but anything based on radio waves might get a lot of interference. It depends on how the sensors are set up. Why?"

"I'm just thinking, we could use that to ambush Mike's ship!" Tiff said, grinning. "We get in close, then BAM!" She punches.

"Yeah, that's not going to work," Chen said, her voice dry as she slid off her leggings - now she was dressed in nothing but her tank top and her panties. Tiff blushed and scowled as Chen continued: "See, it might disrupt one kind of sensor for a little bit, but it takes minutes, hours sometimes, for a ship to finish a pass, get into position, and fire. And if they detect us at any time during our pass and maneuvering..." She smacked her palm together.

"Fine..." Tiff frowned. "...how do we survive getting shot?"

"We d-" Chen stopped. "Well, okay, if the DeeDee uses her railguns, there's a chance. If they're using tungsten slugs without anything fancy, they'll punch holes in our ship, but if the air is vented out, then they won't do anything unless they directly hit us." She said, nodding slowly. "If they're frangible, then, well, they'll hit the hull, shatter, and turn us into a fine spread of minced meat."

Tiff shuddered. "Fuck why is space combat the worst? You can't sneak. You can't dodge. Armor is useless. Guns hit everything all the time!"

"This is why we try to avoid it, yes," Chen said.

Tiff flopped onto her back. Bruce and Bryce emerged from the rear of the ship. "The shower cube's free," Bruce said. "Use it while we're burning."

They were under acceleration - that was the only reason they had anything kinda like gravity. Tiff still thought of the bridge as being at the front of the ship, like the prow of a boat. But they were actually at the top of a skyscraper, hurtling through space. She shivered, then closed her eyes. "Okay. We're going to hope that Operation Pants the Dorkus works." She sighed. "Fuck." She bit her lip. "I'm trusting my life on a flash, a shapeshifter, and Mike Hodges' massive fucking ego. I hate this."

"Hey, if you hate it, think of how we feel about it," Bruce said. He sighed, then checked Chen's tablet as she ambled off into the back for the shower cube. "We've got a day and a half to kill. That's going to suck."

"Yeah," Bryce said, shaking his head. "Fuck, I'm tempted to pop my masker off and throw one big orgy until we get to the Wolf-359 system."

"That's ridiculous," Bruce said, waving his hand. "Regs say you need four for an orgy."

Tiff, her cheeks burning, sat up, her eyes bugging. "Splutter!" she said, pointing her finger at Bryce. "Listen! Master may be currently mind zonked by a Solar and possibly himself, but that's the main reason why he gets a pass on getting some strange. If I just let a big hunky werewolf and a sexy alien rail my ass, then that would be cheating!" She blushed.

"Sebastian never talked to you about being open?" Bruce asked, sounding shocked.