Chapter 1 - The Contested Zone

The Galactic Federation was the greatest achievement in the history of humanity, that much was beyond doubt, but long gone were the days when travel was only possible between dozens of stars, now there were thousands within reach and the centralised government that had united humanity for so many centuries was starting to buckle under its own weight. That being said, Lieutenant Zara Cassidy didn’t let the current state of galactic politics diminish the sense of pride she got from serving, she felt it was her duty to do her part in maintaining order. Still, with new star systems always being colonised by settlers, the borders were in constant flux between Federation controlled space and the influence of The Coalition of Free Systems, the only organisation to ever seriously oppose the Federation. Their name was a complete misnomer, as everyone knew the CFS was merely a political front for militaristic trade groups that most Federation soldiers referred to as ‘slavers’. Conditions in slaver controlled space were only spoken of through whispers, but the stories were never good. It was said that the cornerstone of their society was in their treatment of women as less than second class citizens, apparently they had few rights, were bought and sold at will and were sometimes treated as little more than objects. After some major shifts in the last few decades, the CFS controlled more territory than ever before, and a large band of systems were now within what was called ‘the contested zone’, where no one could really claim to be in control. The Federation did everything it could to protect the women in these systems but they were stretched thin by constant raids and attacks from slavers that often made off with stolen women, sometimes whole shipments of them. Like most soldiers, Zara had spent almost all of her time in service in the contested zone, though as yet she had only seen action in a handful of minor skirmishes with scout ships and the like. She had never witnessed the horrors of the slave trade first hand, or encountered the dreaded ‘scarabs’, stolen Federation ships that took slaves by force. Soldiers like her were proud in their role as defenders of the galaxy and she was starting to relent not seeing any real action, but the Federation seemed to be taking a more cautious approach these days, consolidating power and slowly pushing back where it could. It seemed like she was finally getting her chance when Zara’s ‘wasp’ class corvette was sent out to respond to reports of a slave transport ship refuelling in a contested system. The slavers usually relied on stealth in the contested zone, as their limited firepower had to remain in their controlled systems, meaning this transport ship would likely surrender without a fight if they could take it by surprise.

Everything went according to plan until after they had jumped into the system and were approaching the planet, there shouldn’t have been any danger but suddenly the alarms sounded for red alert and the captain’s voice came over the intercom.

“All crew to battle stations, a slaver warship has entered the system. I repeat, all crew to battlestations.” She announced, remaining calm, as any good captain should. Zara felt her pulse climb and her head buzz as she realised what was happening, this was it, a slaver warship meant a scarab. It must have been sent to intercept, but they had another wasp in formation with them, and with two against one there would be enough time to call for reinforcements. As a footsoldier, Zara’s job was to prepare for potential boarders but she didn’t have her standard issue laser rifle on her, as the ship hadn’t yet expected to see action. She raced down the corridors to the combat deck, past throngs of soldiers hurrying to their posts amidst the blaring sirens. She felt the ground lurch beneath her as they manoeuvred to attack, and a few moments later the entire ship rocked back as something hit them hard, almost knocking her off her feet. It seemed like the scarab was putting up a fight even against both the Federation corvettes. A few more quakes hit the ship as the fight went on, wall panels cracking and sparks flying from all directions. When Zara finally reached the armoury she found it in a bad state, having clearly taken major damage. The fire suppression systems had been activated, dousing flames with a clear gel, but there was only one other soldier there. Zara knew her, Private Tiyana, an Arkassian woman who served in ship defence.

“What happened? Where is everyone?” Zara asked, surveying the wreckage in the large room. It must have taken close to a direct hit, there was rubble everywhere and part of the ceiling had collapsed.

“It’s good to see you ma’am, a torpedo made contact and detonated some munitions, a dozen soldiers were hit, the rest took them to medbay. They left me to keep watch.” Tiyana explained. Her blonde hair stuck to her forehead in strands, contrasting with her pale blue skin, her face dotted with clear gemstones in a symmetrical pattern. Her shapely figure was hugged tight by her Federation uniform, a tight grey skinsuit that zipped up at the front, composed of interconnected hexagons that covered her completely from her neck to her toes, save for her bare arms. She wore a thick belt, red to signify her combat role, matching the sharp accents on her knee-high black boots. Zara’s was similar, though in place of a belt she had an overcoat adorned with her rank’s insignia.

“I didn’t think we were hit this bad… They must have focused their fire here.” Zara thought out loud, racing to one of the few consoles still intact in the room. She quickly logged in and surveyed the battle as shown on the status screen, this scarab was heavily outfitted and yet surprisingly quick, running circles around the two corvettes while they struggled to avoid being hit. Still, the Federation ships had gotten a few shots in and distress signals had long since gone out, meaning they could expect reinforcements shortly. She watched as the scarab fired more projectiles, but they were much larger than torpedoes…

“Are there any weapons left here, private?” Zara demanded, but Tiyana shook her head sadly. She may have been about to ask why when the captain’s voice came over the intercom again.

“Boarding ships incoming! Brace for intrusion!” The warning came. Before Zara or Tiyana even had time to react they felt three heavy impacts shake the room and heard the unmistakable sound of a breach from the bay doors nearby.

“Hide!” Zara yelled, sprinting across to a nearby row of lockers. She was worth three slavers in a fair fight, but the two of them wouldn’t be a match for a whole boarding party. Seconds later, the bay doors blew open and thick smoke filled the armoury. Zara had sidled into one of the still intact lockers and closed the door, while Tiyana, in somewhat of a panicked state, had made a dash for the exit. As she ran, a hail of nebulous projectiles flew past her until one struck her side, hitting her like a ton of bricks and sending the Arkassian woman spinning to the floor in a heap. Zara knew what they were; shots from mag rifles, a favourite of the slavers that were both cheaper and less lethal than laser weapons. In this case Tiyana was mostly unhurt, but was left reeling from the blow while a dozen figures emerged from the smoke with weapons in hand. They were slavers, there was no doubt about it, all of them rugged men with no clear uniforms, wearing whatever armour they could piece together over dirty terrestrial clothing, bearing some kind of group insignia. These ones were adorned with shaved heads and face paint that looked almost ceremonial. As suspected, there were far too many to face herself, instead Zara took the opportunity in the noisy chaos to whisper into her comms bracelet.

“Intruders in the armoury, seal the combat deck now!” She hissed into the metallic band around her wrist, taking her laser pistol from its holster inside her right boot and holding it ready inside the tiny locker just in case. She could see through a gap in the locker door as the slavers fanned out, half of them rushing to the exit before a tone sounded and the lights around the blast door turned red.

Deck Sealed. An automated voice announced to a chorus of furious exclamations from the slavers.

“Get that door open!” One of the slavers screamed, probably the leader of the party. He was a tall man with tanned skin, and like the others seemed to get some satisfaction from dressing like Earth soldiers from days long past. Meanwhile, two others had seized Tiyana, pulling her up to her feet. She screamed at them, not giving up without a fight as she kicked her legs, but they were strong enough to keep her arms from reaching her belt, leaving her laser pistol to be easily confiscated.

“Let me go you bastards!” She screamed, her struggle futile as the leader approached with his mag rifle and unloaded another shot straight to her stomach. It must have been on a lowered setting but it still knocked the wind out of the poor girl, making her cry out in pain as the strength left her body. They let go of her and she fell to her knees, tears welling in her eyes as she tried to stand.

“Is this really the Federation’s first line of defence?” The leader asked, laughing with his men as they surrounded her. Tiyana yelled out and launched herself at the closest one but she was quickly knocked down by another shot, eliciting a fresh course of laughter. Looking over at the handful of men trying to work their way through the door with laser cutters, the leader seemed to make a decision.

“Well boys, since we’re not taking any prisoners yet, what say we make use of the brief time we have with this pretty young thing?” He announced to several murmurs of agreement and more jeering at Tiyana. One of the men found a hover trolley nearby and activated it, pulling it up to the woman as the others lifted her again. She had no more fight left in her, and did nothing to resist as they threw her face down over the top of the trolley, her arms and legs hanging limply to the sides. Zara felt sick to her stomach, this was really happening to one of her own soldiers right before her eyes, and she was letting it happen. She knew leaving the locker would only put herself in danger as well, there was nothing she could do but watch in horror and hope that reinforcements came soon, but there was no way of knowing whether this was the only breach in the ship. And what did he mean about not taking prisoners? Even capturing Tiyana and getting back to their scarab would make for a successful raid, Federation citizens were worth a fortune on the slave market, let alone soldiers, so why did it seem like they had something else to do? Surely they didn’t have enough manpower to take the whole ship… Even if they did, Federation reinforcements should be arriving any minute.

All of this speculation meant nothing for Tiyana, as the leader of the party stood behind her and gripped her ass cheeks through the skinsuit, to a chorus of cheers from his men. He took a knife from his side before slowly cutting through the back of the belt, holding it up like a trophy and tossing it aside to one of the others. He held the woman down while she wriggled against the trolley, urging her still weak muscles to fight back. There was nothing she could do to stop him grabbing the tight fabric around her ass and making a tiny incision with the knife, before ripping it wide open, revealing a red pair of panties that contrasted with the dark blue skin of her ass. Arkassians were known by some for their dramatic curves, and everyone in the room could now see why. Unconstrained by the uniform, Tiyana’s ass cheeks were like two perfect balloons, her underwear burying itself deep between them as she struggled anew. With a fresh burst of strength, she tried to get up, only for the slaver to slam her down again with the butt of his rifle, before taking a different weapon from his belt. As Tiyana continued to struggle, he aimed the strange looking pistol at her and fired, launching what looked like a small piece of glowing red string that hit her in the small of her back and quickly wrapped around her, enclosing the trolley in its loop and meeting itself underneath. As soon as it connected at the bottom the glowing loop tightened hard and Tiyana’s arms were trapped against her sides as she was bound to the trolley. The man fired the device again, this time hitting the back of her neck and tying it down as well, before firing one last time at her knees, binding her legs together with one loop. It was unclear what the glowing red material was made of or if it could be broken, but Tiyana’s struggling certainly wasn’t enough. With no way to defend herself she could only scream out in pain as the slaver brought his enormous palm down hard on her ass, turning it a dark shade of purple, before doing the same to the other side, making a show to the others who were now cheering him on. A few of them crowded around her face, grabbing her by the hair or squeezing her cheeks, much to her fury. Try as she might, Zara couldn’t bring herself to look away, feeling somewhat responsible for the scene unfolding before her, even though she knew there was nothing she could have done to prevent it. The leader undid the buckle of his belt and pulled his trousers down to his knees, revealing his quickly hardening cock. Zara had heard tales of slavers using stimulants and genetic tonics to augment themselves sexually, and this guy’s member was truly a monster, easily the biggest she had ever seen, almost twitching with excitement as he brought it closer to Tiyana’s round behind.

“Stop, stop, you monsters! You can’t do this!” The poor woman screamed, now in hysterics, with tears pouring down her face. Her angry tone barely hid the humiliation and despair underneath. Zara watched, wide eyed in shock, as the man yanked down her fellow soldier’s panties, before his huge cock parted her ass cheeks, spreading them open and slowly burying itself in her pussy. If it wasn’t for his length he might not have been able to penetrate her very far at all from behind, but Tiyana’s scream filled the entire deck as he forcefully entered her from behind. A moment later he spread her ass cheeks wide open with his hands, letting him sink in deeper and eliciting an even louder cry of humiliation before one of the others put a hand over her mouth.

“Nothing in this galaxy beats Arkassian ass. Especially when it belongs to a little Federation whore.” The leader grunted as he began to rock himself in and out, Tiyana’s asscheeks jiggling like they were filled with water as he gripped them hard and slammed into them with his hips. As if it wasn’t bad enough, one of the other slavers took out a mag pistol and held it to her head, taking his own cock out and pressing it to her lips. She shook her head desperately, but didn’t dare resist as he forced it inside her mouth, quickly grabbing her by the hair and starting to fuck her throat. Tiyana’s protests were reduced to the quietest muffles as she was fucked from both ends, her hands tightened into fists at her side as every muscle in her body tightened. Over the slapping of the leader’s hips against her ass and the jeering insults of the men, Zara could feel the ship lurching and rocking around her, clearly they were still in the midst of combat, so what were the slavers doing? She turned her attention back to Tiyana, just in time to see the man fucking her throat pull out and explode onto her face, caking her delicate blue features with a layer of his seed as his cock pumped it out over her. She had no more anger left, only tears of shame that mixed in with the mess on her face, oozing down around her pretty gemstones. The leader was still going strong behind her, slamming into her ass again and again, slapping it around until it was bruised a dark purple all over.

“Two fed ships just entered the system, both hounds!” One of the slavers suddenly announced, listening in to his earpiece. Zara had silenced her own comms bracelet to avoid giving herself away, but she sighed in relief at the news.

“About time, how’s that door coming along?” The leader asked between grunts.

“Almost… Done.” One of the crew at the blast door answered, before it finally fell off its hinges with a huge thud. Just as Zara feared, there was no squad waiting on the other side, the ship must have been under a full scale assault. She didn’t like the man’s attitude at hearing that news either, hounds were powerful vessels, two of them would make short work of a scarab, but they didn’t seem worried. Probably knowing it was time to leave, the leader sped up his thrusts, leant into Tiyana’s body harder and yelled out some kind of primal war cry that was echoed by his men as he came inside the Arkassian soldier, his cock pumping out wave after wave of his seed. Tiyana’s moans joined their battle cry as the man quickly pulled out of her and got dressed, charging deeper into the ship, leaving only four of them behind on the deck. One of them, the one who had just finished on Tiyana’s face, took out a binding device of his own and used it to cut her loose, before rolling her onto the ground with a heavy thud, a pool of cum leaking out of her.

“You pathetic Federation slut, no wonder your empire is crumbling, look at you. Don’t think I’m finished.” He snarled, aiming his device at her and firing again, this time shooting a string that was bright orange. He held the trigger and it hit her in the chest, but instead of making a simple loop it wrapped around her body in a more intricate pattern, tying her large breasts up in a harness and crossing over her stomach. The reaction from Tiyana was instant, she started writhing in what looked like agony, and Zara felt like she knew why when the bright orange bindings burned through the uniform, tearing it apart. She started screaming again, trying to struggle to her knees before being knocked down again by a mag pistol shot, the glowing string, whatever it was, clearly putting her in immense pain. The slavers laughed as she arched her back and the fabric fell away from her chest, revealing her naked breasts bound up tightly. Zara still didn’t like her odds against four slavers with just her pistol, but this was the perfect moment to strike, while they were distracted. She closed her eyes and breathed in deep, channelling her energy as best she could. As an officer of the Federation, Zara had an implant buried deep in her brain that gave her abilities beyond what a normal human was capable of; A psionic implant. With a burst of bright green energy, the door of the locker flew off its hinges and was sent hurtling across the room, hitting one of the slavers square in the head and bowling him over. Caught off guard, the others took a few moments to take out their weapons and spot Zara, by which time she was able to dive forward and fire three shots from her laser pistol, blowing two holes through another one of them. The remaining pair unloaded a volley of mag rounds at her but using her implant again she held her hand up and shielded herself with a glowing barrier, before crying out with effort as she released another shockwave of green psionic energy. The mag shots were launched back at the slavers, knocking one of them across the room, leaving only the one who was torturing Tiyana seconds ago. He turned to run but it only took one well aimed shot from the laser pistol to tear a hole clean through him. Zara didn’t bother putting him out of his misery as he slowly bled out on the floor. With all the slavers dealt with, she turned her attention to her crewmate, still writhing and screaming in pain. Her first instinct was to grab one of the glowing loops to try and pull it off but as soon as she touched it a terrible pain coursed through her fingers. It was more than just a burning sensation, it felt like her nerves were on fire. She let go, now slightly panicked as Tiyana continued to scream, tears streaming down through the cum coating her delicate face. Only shreds of her bodysuit and her boots were left intact now. Zara scrambled over to the body of the slaver she had just shot down, finding the device he used to create the bindings and aiming it at Tiyana. Praying she wouldn’t accidentally create any more, she flicked a switch on the device and pulled the trigger, sighing with relief as it effortlessly cut the bindings apart, freeing the woman.

“Th… Thankyou ma’am…” Tiyana groaned, as Zara helped her sit up. This was the first time she had ever witnessed slaver brutality close up, and to her it seemed like all the stories of cruelty had been confirmed. She turned her comms bracelet back on just in time to hear the captain’s next announcement.

“Attention all crew, another slaver ship has entered the system. I repeat, we have multiple enemy contacts and an ongoing incursion.” The sounds of battle could be heard over the message, could the slavers really be assaulting the bridge? She felt sick as she wondered how many were on board, not to mention the arrival of another slaver ship. Another scarab wouldn’t turn the tide against two wasps and two hounds, but it would certainly make cleaning this mess up a lot harder. She scrambled back to the room’s console to take a look and what she saw made her stomach sink. It wasn’t another scarab, it was a manticore. Manticores were spoken of only in rumours, they were lion-class battleships, stolen from the Federation, heavily modified to disable enemy systems and allow for easy boarding. They were among the most powerful ships the slavers had access to. They had stumbled into something very, very bad here. She watched as the manticore immediately moved to engage the two hound-class frigates, firing some kind of energy beam that seemed to envelope the ships completely.

“Can you walk? If the bridge is under attack I need to help defend it, and you need to get to sickbay.” Zara turned to Tiyana, who had cleaned herself up a bit but was still half naked and covered in bruises.

“I’ll be fine but I’ll head to sickbay anyway, make sure it isn’t being threatened.” She said, taking a rifle from one of the incapacitated slavers.

“Alright, good luck private.” Zara told her, before the two women went their separate ways. As she made haste for the bridge, she almost couldn’t believe the scenes around her, there were bodies lying in the corridors, both slavers and federation soldiers, and the ship had taken significant damage. She yelled into her bracelet over the sound of the red alert as she ran.

“Cassidy to bridge, what is our status?” She demanded, but she received no answer at first. Then, half a minute later, the captain’s frantic voice came through.

“Zara get out! They’ve taken over! Take an esca-MMPHH!” She started, before she was abruptly cut off and the message ended. Was that… What it sounded like? Had they gotten to the captain? The ramifications of the message washed over her in waves of dread, they had actually lost the ship, the entire crew were either dead or soon to be captive… With the manticore now in the system the slavers could win the battle and capture everyone. One thing was clear, she had no choice but to escape just as the captain had ordered. With great reluctance, she turned away from the bridge, setting off as fast as she could to the nearest escape pods, passing more wounded and dead soldiers on the way. It killed her to leave anyone behind but she was barely going to make it out of this herself. Just as she made it to the pods she ran into another slaver down the corridor from her, it was the leader from before who had raped Tiyana so mercilessly.

“She’s trying to escape, stop her!” He barked to the squadron of men surrounding him. Zara barely reacted in time to dive out of the way of a hail of mag rounds, desperately throwing herself through the door into the tiny compartment of an escape pod. Without wasting a second she sat down in the single seat and started punching instructions into the tiny screen to her side. Before she could initialise the launch, the slaver came around the corner and stepped up to her, standing right between her legs as he levelled his rifle at her face.

“Don’t move a muscle, you’re coming with me.” He snarled. Zara said nothing, by the time she reached for her pistol the mag round at that range would knock her out, or worse. She only had a limited reserve of psionic power at her disposal, and overusing it was dangerous, but this was a desperate situation. Gathering every bit of remaining energy she had, she released a psionic shockwave, launching the slaver out of the pod right as she sealed the door and initiated the launch. A three second countdown appeared on the screen as she watched the men gather round, trying to force the clear door open to no avail. The burst of energy took almost everything out of her, and she struggled to stay conscious, her whole body weakening. She forced herself to try and stay alert, knowing she would have to pilot the pod, as she heard the slavers talking on the other side of the door.

“Forget it boys, just leave her. We have the captain and most of the crew. And soon we’ll have the Letian princess as well.” She heard him talking as she struggled to keep her eyes open, right before the pod launched and she was suddenly flung out into space. The words processed in her mind slowly, they had the captain… And… A princess? Before thinking on it any further she snapped herself back to reality and looked around through the wide viewport of the escape pod, taking the controls in her hands. As she gained some distance from her ship she could see most of the battle around her, if you could even still call it a battle. Her ship was sitting dead in the water, with the scarab quickly closing the distance, probably preparing to board directly. Further away she could see the manticore, dominating the view with its huge hull. It was a terrifying sight, not least because it had a bright blue tractor beam locked directly onto one of the Federation hounds, slowly pulling the smaller ship in towards itself. The other hound was in two pieces, completely disabled and drifting aimlessly. Hopefully most of the crew survived, Zara thought, but even then they would be captured by the slavers as well. The other wasp was nowhere to be seen and she could only hope they had made it out of the system. As for herself, she had to get away from the slaver ships as quickly as possible so she could stay out of sight until more federation reinforcements arrived to pick up any survivors. The slavers would be long gone by then. The escape pods were designed to be hard to detect but she was worried about the manticore, it could probably pull her in with a tractor beam in a matter of seconds. It was a daring move, but she figured the safest way out of there would be if she slipped right past the huge ship itself, slingshotting around the hull, too close to be seen by scanners. Not long after she activated the thrusters and began to pilot the pod, another wave of exhaustion hit her. She felt as though her brain was slowing down, such were the side effects of overexerting psionic strength. Her vision started to darken, and despite a small part of her screaming in panic, she couldn’t stop herself drifting into unconsciousness.

When Zara slowly came to, she was relieved to find herself still in the escape pod, though she had no idea how long it had been. She could see the scarab was now firmly attached to her ship, probably ready to tow it away, while the manticore was holding both the intact hound and the two pieces of the destroyed one in several blue beams. For a moment she wondered why they were even still in the system, before she noticed a tiny ship being singled out by another blue beam from the manticore and pulled in towards it. They were tractoring escape pods! She had to act fast, turning the controls back on and continuing with her plan. It was a terrifying sensation, sitting in the single seated pod half the size of an elevator compartment as the enormous manticore got closer and closer. Her plan seemed to be working, the console indicated that no one had spotted her as she came right up to the hull of the slaver ship, no more than a kilometre away. As she flew past it, she realised she was also coming close to the captured hound. The Federation ship barely had a scratch on it, such was the power of the manticore, it probably managed to disable the ship's systems without inflicting any damage. She looked carefully, seeing the flag of Letia adorned across the hull. That’s when she finally realised what had happened, and it was far worse than she could have imagined. The whole mission from the start had been a trap designed to lure in Federation reinforcements, but not just any reinforcements, they wanted these ships in particular. They must have known only those two hounds were close enough to get there in time, and they must have known somehow who would be onboard. Zara remembered now, the hounds were on a diplomatic mission in a nearby system, transporting the Letian princess herself. It was a huge risk bringing someone as important as her into a battle, but the Federation didn’t like losing ships, and if they were the only ones in the area they would have been ordered in regardless. Besides, no one would have imagined a manticore was in position to attack. The horror of the day's events sunk into her like a slow poison, this was beyond a disaster. Hundreds of soldiers and crew captured, a corvette and two frigates lost, and one of the most powerful figureheads in a politically unstable Federation region kidnapped. They had been completely outsmarted and outmanoeuvred, this was a big win for the slavers.

Ten minutes later, Zara was almost past the manticore and it seemed like her plan had worked. Now she just needed to put some distance between her and the ships, she could hide on the other side of the sun until they left. But as she started to steer away, the pod’s sensors suddenly picked up on something.

“No… No no no no…” Zara mumbled, desperately maxing out the thrusters. The manticore was activating its loop drive, and she was squarely inside the quantum warp field. The slavers were leaving the system and she was going to be dragged along with them, the escape pod had no loop capability and no way to stabilise itself. She punched the thrusters beyond maximum, blowing one of them out as she tried to escape, but only a few seconds later space itself was compressed around her as the manticore jumped, pulling her tiny vessel along with it. Being pulled into loop drive travel in an escape pod was anything but safe, and if she even made it intact Zara had no idea where she would end up. The craft shook violently around her, the console sparked, then burnt out, and tiny cracks appeared across the glass in front of her. She could see the manticore disappear into the distance as she was ejected from the warp field, starting to spin rapidly, making the blood rush to her head. Combined with the psionic fatigue from earlier, she couldn’t stop the inertia from knocking her out again.

Full version and other stories here