Starr vs the Emperor of Space Pt. 13

"Lancer! Leave their remass tanks! The rest...show em how you Venusians say hello!" Jasmine said, grinning as she swung the nose cone of the Atomo underneath - bringing the turreted nuclear pellet coilguns to bear. As their gimbled sweats swung around, Lancer grinned with a firecness that suited the Rocket Rangers of his hot house homeworld!

"Aye, Aye Captain Starr!"

The nuclear pellet coilgun fired streams of hyper-accelerated magneto-harness jacketed uranium into the parked war rockets. Without the vastness of space to hide in, their bodies were protected only by their heavy layering of armor - and even the mightiest of war rocket could not withstand directed, concentrated, pinpoint fire for long. The Atomo twirled like a falling danilion seed, allowing each of her turrets to rake rocket after rocket, while her nose mounted death ray licked out, striking lorries that carried hydrogen - bursting them into orange white flares.

The landing gear touched down and Jasmine shouted to S'hira: "Prep the remass tanks! I'll get the monohydrogen!" She said, then slung herself down the ladder, to find that a small squad of Martian Marines had prepared themselves for their landing - and were rushing up the gangplank, scimitars in their hands. But rather than leaping into the rocket without any hindrance, they were balked by Claudette T.S Grant, who held her own sword in a double fisted grip, shouting as she swung her blade back and forth.

"Get back you batty eared barbarians! Get away from! My! Wife!" She swung and knocked a scimitar free. Jasmine had already dropped, drawn her death ray pistol, and fired. The searing beam smote one Marine in his reflecto-armor, and smoldered harmlessly against the silvery gambeson he wore. It was still enough to draw his attention away from Claudette - to his peril, for Claudette swung her sword down and sliced the bat-man's hand from his wrist! He shrieked with a horrible 'aieee!' and fell to his knees.

Jasmine slung her face mask on with one hand and stepped forward, her magneto-rapier flashing as she struck down another marine through the chest, then bowled off the arm of a third. The fourth stepped back into the airlock, fumbling for his own rocket bolt pistol, but Jasmine smote him in the throat with her knuckles. He choked, gasped, clutched at his neck, then fell, wheezing as Jasmine kicked his pistol up to her hand.

"Protect your missus, Claudette! I'll be back in a flash!" she said, then cycled the airlock and stepped out into the hell of a port in flames. Rocket parts were strewn about, as were bodies. Greasy black flames roared upwards, and her mask's radioactivity sensor was already beginning to click and clatter in her ears. Firefighting crews rushed towards the stricken rockets, while marines ran about, shouting to one another in the thin atmosphere of Mars. Above it all loomed the Mount of Mars, like some foreboding war-god, bearing witness to this fell stroke.

Jasmine spied a lorry full of the precious monohydrogen, the driver having abandoned it when he noticed the effect that being near such a transportation was having on his fellow drivers - many of whom had been reduced to so much ash. She began to bound towards it - only for sparks to flash up behind her on the tarmac. She glanced to the side, and despite the impairment of her piercing peripherial vision, the gallant Earthwoman adventurer spied the source of the impacts: A trio of Martian Marines, their automatic bolt rocket rifles shooting the deadly projectiles at her in a stuttering flare of rocket exhaust. She threw herself forward, rolled, and came to a stop beside the lorry, putting her back to the tire, then ducked around, aiming her own bolt rocket pistol. She fired - and the streaks of her bolts intersected a Marine rushing forward. He threw up his arms and fell...dead!

The others, though, were advancing undaunted, sweeping left and right, seeking to flank her out of her cover!

Jasmine reached up. Her finger twisted the mechanical identification-rod that the driver had left in the electric engine activation slot, and the lorry hummed to vibrant life. Then, with a smile, she picked up a weighty breaking block from the floor of the cab, tossed it onto the acceleration paddle, and then twisted the drive-wheel to angle the front of the lorry around - and it shot off as if driven by a madwoman, straight towards two of the Martian Marines. They cried out in alarm, and their bolt rockets began to slice into the front of the lorry, spearing into the flimsy and weak electronic engine! Were it a hearty and sturdily built Earth car, using the mighty power of internal combustion...it might have survived. As it was, the engine was turned to so much useless scrap and the lorry came to a shuddering stop before even bumping against the Marines' shins.

It still gave Jasmine time enough to finish dispatching the third - having sprung from cover and rushed him, parrying one of his rocket bolts with her magneto-rapier, then thrusting it through his chest. She snapped her pistol around and loosed a flurry of shots at the two other marines, who had emerged from behind the lorry. One fell, clutching his chest, a quivering rocket-bolt piercing into his very heart, while the other flung himself flat, to avoid the flurry of projectiles!

From his belly, the bellicose bat-man pulled back upon his trigger, even as Jasmine resighted with her weapon and pulled her trigger as well!

At the same time, inaudible to the other, but painfully loud to their own ears, both the Marine and the fearless Earthwoman heard the same click - the emptied magazines of their deadly firearms announcing themselves! Jasmine tossed her pistol aside and began to rush forward. The Martian Marine tossed his rifle aside, drawing his space knife from his boot hilt. He came to his feet and thrust! Jasmine parried, twisting to the side, then swept her magneto-rapier up. The Marine dodged backwards, the tip of her blade narrowly missing his chest. He stepped backwards, then thrust with his arm!

His blade seemed to go for Jasmine's unprotected side - and she twisted to evade...

A feint! Cluthced in his other hand, the Marine still held the heavy magazine of his rocket-bolts, meant to reload his now spent rifle! He swung it as a makeshift club, the heavy cluster of self propelled rounds more than enough to stave in a head. But rather than either knife or makeshift club finding their mark, he was shocked to see Jasmine turn her twist into a duck...and thrust! The magneto-rapier bust from his back as he tensed, then gasped, dropping his knife, then clutching at the blade that pierced his heart!

The Marian Marine fell backwards as Jasmine held her sword up in a silent salute, then swept it down, nodding. "Olympic gold medalists aren't that easy to fool, my valiant villain!"

Jasmine jogged to the lorry as another supersonic roar came from the Atomo - the nuclear pellet gun firing to supress or silence some threat she could not see. Fortunately, the lorry had a long, flexible tube - and her aim had been good! The vehicle had come to a stop right near the Atomo herself, and she was able to hook the socket into place, clench it, then begin the pumping with a throw of a lever. Over her communication radio, she heard a laugh.

"There we go! That'll top us off in exactly sixty two seconds!" S'hira said. "But we have more Marines incoming!"

Jasmine lifted her head and saw that the Martian Marines were, indeed, rushing forward with buggies, trying to get beneath the guns of the Atomo. But then one buggy swerved hard - and too late! Dozens of bolt rockets slammed into it, the bladed tips slicing into the relatively flimsy material of the swiftly moving buggy, and causing it to flip, crash, then smash down into the path of another buggy, which swerved hard to avoid, clipped the crash, and then was sent hurtling in the light Martian gravity into the belching, uncontrolled flames of a downed war rocket! A single barrage and it had reduced the attacking Marines by half!

Jasmine turned, and beamed, as she saw that none other than Claudette T.S Grant had emerged, holding one of the downed marine's weapons in her arms. She shouted, fiercely. "Back off, you scoundrels!"

"Yes! That's my maid!" Jasmine cried out, then leaped upwards, shooting into an arc, using her own Earth born might to arc into the air. Bolts rushed up to meet her, but she had already prepared herself for this. By adjusting the bimagnetic liquid and the magnetic field that suspended it, her magneto-rapier could become many forms. It was easy enough to, with a twirling wrist gesture, transfigure it into a monomolecular bladed whip, which she swirled before her like she was a color guard with a tinsel flag - but rather than glittering cloth, it was flashing death she bore, slicing the incoming rocket bolts apart, combusting their unspent fuel in a rippling spread of explosions. She sailed down, unharmed save for a few nicks from shrapnel, and landed before one of the buggies - and brought her now rapidly moving whip down in a curving arc!

The buggy flew towards her - and split in twain! Sliced in half, between the shocked driver and equally shocked passengers on the left and right side! The two halves tumbled to the left and right past her as she stood and used her thumb to adjust the magneto-rapier back to its original setting as the last of the four buggies swung around, stopped, and the marines came out, drawing swords as their rocket-bolt weapons were either spent...or, as they knew, useless at this close range. The Marines showed great courage - charging towards her as she lifted her blade and smirked at them - and then Jasmine leaped up and over their heads!

The martian marines stumbled through where she had been as she landed behind them, then slashed with quick, darting flicks of her rapier's tip! Rather than severing limbs or heads, she instead nicked air valves and tube-piping that led from helmet to backpack air units! Hissing oxygen burst from the little cuts and the marines, as one, clutched at themselves. "You fellows have but a few moments before those tanks run out! I'd suggest you don't dally!" she said, laughing, then turned and rushed towards her rocket!

She came to Claudette, and Claudette smiled at her, and then both of them were into the airlock. As it cycled, Claudette hurried to her wife's side, and then Jasmine began to swarm up the ladder, clambering handhold after handhold. She came to the bridge, swung herself into her chair, strapped down, and flashed S'hira and Lance a smile.

"Three," she said.

The next wave of Marines advanced, hesitantly, having seen the danger of this fearsome female.

"Two," she said.

"Starr!" A screeching voice came from the radio-communicator. "This is Queen Skullra, the Last Vampire Queen of Mars! If you launch, know this...you will launch into the fire of the entire High Fleet's atomic wrath! We shall turn you into dust!"

Jasmine's lips quirked up.

"One," she said. "Blastoff."

The Atomo streaked upwards.

***

Queen Skullra was not sure if she was furious or elated. In a single dizzying hour, not only had her sisters Bloodren and Vorella been slain...but the forces most loyal to them had been massacred. Now, the only force on Mars still flying was the High Fleet: Four combat rockets and a single silo-ship, with enough atomic bombs to reduce every city on Mars to a glittering cinder. With the power to kill a world came the power to rule one - and that was why, even now, she sat on her command throne on the siloship Freedom to Act. She watched through the forward video-screen as the blip that was the upstart atomic rocket that had caused such damage flew towards the red line marked to indicate when the rocket would be...in range.

"Atomic bombs locked in. We have full saturation - ten rockets will do it," her weapon officer said, his voice firm.

"No," Queen Skullra shook her head. "This woman slew my sisters...my...dear sisters..." She managed to seem as if she cared but a wit what had happened to those scheming connivers. She knew to a T exactly when her sister, Bloodren, had planned to have her strangled in her bed...to imagine she could ever feel sorrow at the death of such a conniving backstabber. Best of all, she no longer needed to shepherd her own psyche-sculpted assassin-whore into her sister's bedchambers to strangle her first! Not only was the lying snake dead, she would have her very own psyche-sculpted assassin whore to enjoy to her heart's content!

Still. She had to play the part. And so, she filled her voice with false sorrow as she clenched her fist. "No...ten atomic bombs are not enough for this witch! This void born witch! Fire...everything..."

"My queen!?" Her weapon's officer asked, shocked.

False sorrow was replaced by real rage - red rage that this underling had dared defy her! Her! The last Vampire Queen of Mars!

Queen Skullra sprang to her feet, clutching to the armrest to keep from shooting off into the ceiling thanks to the lack of gravity on the bridge. She thrust her finger at the screen: "FIRE EVERYTHING!"

The siloship shuddered and bucked, rocking as ring after ring of missile burst free, shooting forth into the night, their chemical rockets blazing with a furious heat, shooting towards their target in waves that no point defense, no matter how sturdy, could hope to overwhelm. They came in...and in...and Queen Skullra chuckled softly to herself as she watched the Atomo change course, accelerate harder. They shot towards the moon of Deimos - the moon of Terror. She chuckled, softly, her facial tentacles writhing in pleasure as she caressed them. "Yes, Starr...yes Grant...flee! Flee in terror!"

The green lights of the atomic bombs and the red light of the Atomo inched closer together...

Then!

Impossibly...

A massive swath of the green lights flared out! Vanished!

"What!?" Queen Skullra exclaimed. "Impossible!"

"My queen!" her scopeman cried out from his telescope station. "It was a sandcaster shot! Two! Three! Four!" He cried out as more and more green lights vanished. "Fired from...a second ship! She had retracted her radiators until now - running like space trash! She's showing her radiators now! My queen! She's the Salty Sirius! Her broadside is already incoming-"

Flares of damage signals popped up on the rest of the fleet as precisely fired coilgun roundshot punched into flared radiators and drive cones! In a single terrible moment, Queen Skullra's fleet had been turned into so much useless scrap, and her prey was sweeping away from her, shooting towards the safety of interplanetary space! She had no atomic bombs, but...

"We have death rays on this!" she snarled. "AFTER THAT ROCKET!" She thrust her finger, the gray digit trembling with a terrifying rage, at the screen. "Burn every drop of hydrogen we have, but get me STARR!"

"My lady, our death rays, they're short range-"

"Then get us into range!" Queen Skullra screeched.

The Freedom to Act rumbled. The view-screen shifted to show their intersecting courses, adjusting from an orbital battle in a curved, circular plane of combat to the hyperbolic courses of interplanetary battle. Queen Skullra glared, hard, as the Atomo matched their speed...and then seemed to slow. She chuckled, quietly. "No more remass, eh?" She asked. "Faster! Faster!" The press of gravities shoved her back into her seat as the siloship raced towards the Atomo - acting for all the world like a fast attack rocket, and not like the burly beast it was. The crew sat at their stations as they came to Deimos, and then swept past it.

A sudden squeal came over the speakers - and the scopeman wailed: "We've been radar locked!"

"Are we in range-" Queen Skullra started.

"Not by the Atomo!" The scopeman pointed. "Those!"

On the screen, Queen Skullra saw them.

A trio of small rockets, nestled behind Deimos, concealed from the prying scopes of Mars - concealing not merely their presence...but their intense radioactivity! The three rockets burst to life...and Queen Skullra saw that her course meant that they would not have time to evade before the rockets struck her ship. And then, in that moment, did she see how she had been tricked by the cunning Jasmine Starr and her vile maid, Claudette T.S Grant. She sat back in her seat...and for once in her long, vile life, while hurting past the moon named for the feeling itself, did Queen Skulla feel...

Terror.

She had little time to ruminate on the novel sensation.

***

"She'll be right as rain, don't you worry, lassie," the first mate of the Salty Sirius said, gently placing his hand on Claudette's shoulder. Claduette, who had been pacing as much as she could under the gentle acceleration that, ere now, bore them towards Earth, smiled at him, then breathed a sigh of relief. Jasmine, who had been leaning against the wall leading to the medical bay of the pirate rocket, stepped away from it and smiled.

"If that's the case, please, radio message us if anything changes - like, say, she wakes up," Jasmine said. Claudette nodded.

"Yes, please do. And if she wakes up early, don't let her touch any of the vile booze she likes to drink - it's not healthy with her in this state!" She nodded, sagely, then blanched, feeling a sudden swell of queasiness hit her. She put her hand to her mouth, feeling chagrined. She hadn't been queasy in space since the earliest days of her adventure. She managed to choke back the feeling and followed after Jasmine, to the docking umbilical that connected both vehicles - the two ships burning at the same rate and speed to allow themselves to be continually lashed together like this...effectively turning both rockets into a single large starship for this journey.

Jasmine took her to the small cabins that she had in her Atomo and sat her down - and there, Claudette burst into tears, laying her head upon Jasmine's lap, every pent up emotion she had had since she had learned Jasmine had died, ever since she had woken within the lair of the Vampire Queens, ever since...well, all of it! She cried and cried, and Jasmine gently stroked her long, blond tresses until she was cried out. Then, Jasmine murmured a quiet: "There there, my dearest."

"Oh I'm such a blubbering mess," Claudette whispered, sniffling and turning her face to rub against Jasmine's thigh.

"Yes, but I still love you," Jasmine said, smiling. "I'll have you know, I shed my own tears, thinking of you dead...how did you survive?"

Claudette rolled onto her back, sighing, her hand caressing her own belly as she closed her eyes. "It all started when we both went to ultra-sleep..." She said, and then told every piece of the story, editing only...some of the rougher aspects. She felt a chagrined blush at how uncouth Altair could be - but...that was part of why she loved her, she had such a fierce freedom of spirit. Once she was done telling the tale, she opened her eyes to see Jasmine grinning wryly down at her.

"It seems," she said. "That I will have to train a new maid."

"W-What?! No!" Claudette gasped, sitting up. "Never! I am your maid, mistress, not-"

"Shh," Jasmine said, placing her finger, gently, upon Claudette's lip. "Your family has served mine since I was a child. For that, for your service, I have nothing but gratitude. But I always knew that you were your own woman - and one day, your heart might belong to another." She kissed Claudette, gently, on the cheek. "Not to mention your body."

"W-Well...Altair is fine with...sharing- ahh!" Claudette let out a mewling gasp as Jasmine squeezed her bust, gently, then more firmly. Claudette had never felt so electrically sensitive as she had then, her nipple immediately hardening as her tit overflowed Jasmine's palm. Said palm then went to her other breast, squeezing her there, drawing forth another desperate, wanton moan. Claudette wondered, dizzyingly, if Jasmine would then take her, marriage or no marriage - but then Jasmine released her, chuckling quietly.