Chapter 16

As the staff officers walked single-file out of his office after the briefing, she politely waited for him. After all, he was the ranking officer present. It was his place to start any discussion. As usual, he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up onto the thick Vendorian steel desktop before saying a word to her. She sat in her usual motionless and expressionless state in her straight-backed chair as she looked across the desk at him, waiting patiently. Finally his feet completed their ponderous journey and reached the desktop. Only then did he speak to begin the discussion. "Well, Major, what do you make of this latest turn of events?"

"Very strange, Colonel. I am not sure what to make of this. The four women have not been incarcerated with the other Terran women who have also been apprehended for the same crime. The Terran authorities never seem to detain such women for very long. Nor are our women detained anywhere else that we have been able to determine. We have not even been able to determine whether they actually have been apprehended by the Terran authorities."

"No, we have not been able to determine where they may be. Our agents have scoured the area. They are not in any of the detention centers in the vicinity. Nor, if they have been injured or killed, are they in any of the hospitals or morgues."

"And there have been absolutely no reports about the incident in any of the Terran news media. Again, I find that omission very strange, Colonel."

"As you did upon the occasion of Meelek's disappearance, Major?"

"I am not suggesting that there is a connection, Colonel. But I also am not suggesting that there is no connection. Though I do admit that taking four Beta women out of action is not in the same category as taking a trained and experienced Warrior Prime like Meelek out of action."

"No, it most certainly is not. But did whoever take them out know that they were not Terran?"

"If they were taken alive, Colonel, it would be hard to hide the difference. If the women had struggled much, that would certainly have given them away. Each of those Beta women would be more than a match for any three Terran men. If they were killed in an accident, say one of those transport collisions so common in that city, then perhaps no one would notice the difference. They usually do not examine the corpses very thoroughly after such accidents, when the cause of death is so obvious."

"But all four of them, in less than one week?"

"I admit, Colonel, statistically that would be completely out of the realm of random chance. I believe that somebody knew that they were working as a group and wanted them out of action. But that somebody would have to be well prepared to take out four of our people, even Betas. That is assuming that it was not some kind of an accident when the four were together. The Terran media seem to take such perverse delight in reporting accidents, especially those with multiple deaths, yet there have been no reports of any accidents involving our people."

"What about their equipment?"

"That is the biggest problem, and the biggest mystery, Colonel. We have not been able to find any of it. The local authorities have done a very efficient job of searching their domiciles. That is normal procedure for them, but the equipment has not appeared in any of their usual evidence rooms. Nor, according to our spies, has the equipment appeared to have fallen into the hands of their military, as we would have feared. Nor have they appeared in the hands of their scientific community." One thing that the Arions had always been careful to do was to keep their advanced technology out of the hands of the people they were trying to conquer. She had personally and thoroughly interviewed the officer responsible for recovering the equipment. Quite thoroughly. He should be ready to go back on duty in a week or so, when he would be released from the infirmary.

She though about something else that she had learned. Well, she couldn't keep the information from her commanding officer. An officer could keep information from her subordinates, but not the other way around. "It is not just their equipment that is missing, Colonel."

"What do you mean, Major, not just their equipment?"

"All of their personal effects are gone, Colonel. Clothes, furnishings, everything. By the time that we were aware of their disappearance and had dispatched agents to find them, their rooms at which they had been living had been leased out to other people, who claimed to have been living there for months. It is as if all evidence of the presence of our four operatives has just disappeared from this world. It is as if they had never been down there on the surface. It is as if they had never existed at all. Or they did not want to be found."

"Are you implying that the women are hiding from us?"

"I am not implying that, Colonel. I am merely suggesting that this is a possibility. The disappearances seem to be too complete to be due to random Terran action."

"I would find it very difficult to accept that all four of them would chose to defect. Every member of this entire invasion force was carefully screened. After the disappearance of Meelek and Koren, every person down on the planet was checked again."

"I am very aware of that fact, Colonel. If you will please recall, I was in charge of the most recent screenings." In fact, she had insisted on taking personal charge of the screenings, interviewing every man and woman assigned to groundside duty personally. "I too would find it difficult to accept such a mass defection. Still, I find it rather hard to accept that the Terrans could have apprehended all four of them so quickly, and also so quietly. It is not their way."

The Colonel nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, even Betas should have put up enough of a struggle that the Terran news media could not have missed it. We have seen the results of attempted interference with our operations, both on this landmass and on the other."

"Yes. The places the natives call Paris and Los Angeles."

"Ah yes, Los Angeles. If my ancient memory cells still serve me correctly, that was Koren's first assignment."

She favored him with one of her rare smiles. "You are not yet so old that your memory cells fail you, Colonel. Yes, Koren was first assigned to Los Angeles. Koren herself eliminated the police interference with her team's operations."

"And you suspect a possible connection?"

"Again, I merely suggest the possibility, Colonel."

"If Meelek was trying to set himself up independently, he could present himself to the Betas. They would follow him without questioning him, would they not?"

"Colonel! I cannot believe that Meelek would do such a thing! He is very ambitious, but he is also fiercely loyal to the Empire. And in his eyes, you represent the Empire. He would never dare to oppose you." Nor would he dare to oppose me, she thought to herself, though she did not voice the thought. He wouldn't dare!

"But if Meelek, or perhaps another Warrior Prime, were to present himself to the Betas, would they not follow him without asking any questions?"

"Certainly, Colonel. They are Betas, and soldiers. They would follow their officers anywhere, without hesitation."

"What would you suggest, Major?"

"I would ensure that our Betas remained under the control of their officers, Colonel."

"Very well. Major, assign one Prime officer to every groundside operation. He or she will have to be groundside with the others. I will want your suggestions regarding the assignments in the morning, along with your plans for their training. We do not want our Primes attracting undue attention to themselves. Or to us."

She stood up and bowed. "As you wish, Colonel." Rising to her feet she saluted and pivoted smartly on her heels, and then exited the office.

Linda and I weren't the only people surprised by the degree of Linda's enhancement. Mom was also stunned. "Twenty times! That's unheard of. Even a Supremis doesn't get enhanced that much!"

"Aw, you're just jealous because my mother didn't enhance you by that much," I winked at her. "Are you afraid that she has better genetics than you do?"

"Between her and you, I did get that much," she smiled back. "And I think that I do have better genetics," she rolled up her sleeve and flexed, showing off a biceps that was much larger than Linda's or mine were. "I did start out stronger, after all."

"And you're still much stronger than I am," Linda said. "You don't have to worry about an office mutiny. At least not from me. Now, from Julie, that's another subject."

"Shhh! Linda! Don't go around giving Julie any more ideas! You don't know what it's like, trying to raise a Velorian."

But later that night, over some hot chocolate, Mom got me to start thinking about something else. "Were you thinking about enhancing Mark as well, my little one?" she asked.

Mmm, that might be fun! But I really hadn't thought about it. "No, I haven't. Not yet."

"Well, perhaps we should. Especially after this much of an enhancement for Linda."

"What do you mean? Oh, I see what you mean. Without enhancement Mark won't be able to keep up with her, huh?" I winked at her.

"Something like that," she winked back.

"So you think that maybe I should enhance Mark?"

"I didn't say that. You're a very potent Velorian, my little one. Your enhancements are obviously quite effective. Keep in mind that the enhancement was intended to create suitable sex partners for the enhancer. I'm certain that Mark would turn out quite well."

"I'm sure he would," I smiled. He wasn't shabby as he was already, with enhancement he should be quite something.

"And that's exactly the problem. Remember, a suitable sex partner for you is not necessarily a suitable sex partner for another woman. Your own husband is almost too much of a man for me to handle."

"Mom! No man is too much for you to handle!"

"I did say 'almost', my little one," she winked at me. "And I certainly do enjoy handling him," she smirked at me.

I couldn't let that go without retaliation. "And I certainly enjoy handling your husband," I smirked back.

After our laughter she continued. "But I'm an Arion. How well would a Terran woman, even one who's been enhanced as much as Linda has, match up with an enhanced man like your husband? Or an enhanced man like Mark might become?"

"Hmm, I think I see the problem." I took another sip of my hot chocolate. "So do you think that my enhancing Linda was a mistake?"

"No, no! Our exobiologist was a fine choice, my little one. And she certainly doesn't seem to have any regrets about it."

"Nor does Mark."

"Nor does Mark," she agreed. "But I think that we should wait. Perhaps Mark isn't the right one for her."

"Mom! How can you say that? Those two love each other."

"Yes, I think that they do. But let's be sure. I seem to recall someone else under this roof who once had quite a relationship with Mark. Even though it was mostly physical."

I refused to take the offered bait. "Karen and Mark knew from the beginning that it wasn't going anywhere. At least not in the long run."

"That's not whom I'm thinking of, and you know it, my little one," she winked as she drank her hot chocolate.

I still refused to take the offered bait. "But you never even got into his bed until after he met Karen."

"Julie," she wagged her finger at me.

I finally gave up. "Okay, okay. I'll admit it. Mark was a lot of fun. And he still is. For such an old man, that is."

"Julie! I seem to recall you saying that you enjoyed handling a man who's even older. And Linda is older than you are."

"Yes, yes, I know. Everybody except Karen is older than I am. Even George, he's got a month on me."

"All I'm saying is that we should wait until they're sure that they want to make a long-term commitment to each other. It might make a good wedding present for them. You've already given them half of it."

"But if a Velorian enhancement is going to be too much for them, then I can't do it. Or can I somehow give him a partial enhancement?"

"No, no. That won't work. It's an all or nothing proposition."

"Then who? Oh, you want to do it, don't you?" I smirked at her.

"The thought has crossed my mind," she smirked back. "If I enhance Mark like I did Steve, I think that that would make them a pretty good match."

"Oh sure. What are you gonna do? After Linda's wedding shower you're gonna pop out of the cake at Mark's bachelor party and fuck him senseless?"

It took us way too long to clean up. We were laughing so hard. Mom trying out her belly dancing routine didn't exactly help, either.

After that one near-escape down at Fort Carson, Mom and I went down there to meet again with the Army authorities. We had warned them about the security measures before, but we didn't want to rub it in. Two good soldiers had died, and two others had been injured, through no fault of their own, but simply because their officers had not heeded our advice regarding the security arrangements.

They gave us a tour of the new facility they had set up to hold our Arion prisoners. We gave them some suggestions for future expansion. We didn't tell them what we were leading up to, but we wanted to be ready to try to hold Primes if we ever caught any. To that end we left several sets of gold-embedded chains at the facility. Those chains had been tested on me; one set was enough to weaken me adequately to keep me from breaking out. Though we didn't tell them exactly what was in the boxes we were leaving with them. We didn't want somebody getting greedy and stealing them for the gold.

We didn't need gold for the Betas. Ordinary bars were adequate, as long as you stayed on the other side, and never were alone with one of them. The one attempted escape had started off with a seduction, as she had lured one of her guards into her cell. She had then easily overpowered him, taken the keys from him, and gotten out of her cell. With the new scheme, there were always several guards on duty, in sight of each other. And some of those guards were women, on the assumption that a woman would be less inclined to be tempted by sex. That might be true for Terran women, I was glad that I didn't have to test that theory.

Mom spoke with the prisoners, trying again to persuade them to come over to our cause. But unlike her and Karen, these women remained loyal to the Empire and their mission. They refused to give us any more than the Arion equivalent of name, rank, and serial number. Not even when we offered them parole if they would turn their backs on the Empire and join with us instead.

The Beta woman who had been shot in the leg had healed, but she would walk with a slight limp the rest of her life.

We visited the two injured soldiers at the base hospital. They were recovering quite nicely; the doctors assured us that they would soon be as good as new. And probably with a new and healthy respect for the 'weaker' sex.

We also asked that our condolences be passed on to the families of the two soldiers who had been killed during the aborted escape attempt.

We kept looking for signs of other Arion operations. Apparently they were really keeping a low profile. Maybe they were operating in other countries around the world, but we couldn't find any more in the US. And we didn't have the connections nor the resources needed to let us search overseas. Though both the State and Defense Departments helped out by giving us access to some of their resources. Some, but not all.

I hoped that they were still keeping a very low profile. I didn't want to think that we had somehow tipped them off. If they knew that someone was actively targeting Arion operations, then it would only be a matter of time before they came after us. And that wouldn't be four Beta women. I was not looking forward to having to face a dozen heavily armed Primes. I really didn't want to face even one unarmed Prime; Meelek had been bad enough. If a bunch of them came after me armed to the teeth....

I would much prefer to try to pick them off one at a time, as I had done with Meelek. And I would much rather try to sneak up on them rather than face them in a fair fight. From what both Mom and Karen have told me, I knew that the Arion concept of a fair fight was one that they're guaranteed to win. And I knew that I couldn't afford to let them win even one fight against me.

As New York had shown us, Betas were not a big threat to us, personally. At least not until they started carrying heavy weapons. We wanted to guard against overconfidence, but we weren't too afraid of purely Beta operations.

I had just gotten back from a weekend in New England. I had been tracking some smugglers bringing drugs in from Canada. After tracing them to their hideaway I had helped the local authorities and we had successfully rounded up the whole lot. All Terrans, no trace of any Arions. A boring case. Not that I minded boring cases too much, they were a lot safer than life-or-death struggles.

Landing on the balcony outside of our bedroom, I slid the door open and went in. My darling husband was not yet asleep, lying in bed reading a computer magazine. He had a whole stack of them on the bed.

"Hey, Jule, close that door! You're letting the cold air in."

"If you don't put those magazines away, I'll throw you out in the snow! Or do you prefer to sleep with a stack of magazines?"

"Yes, Ma'am. Right away, Ma'am." He took the stack of magazines and dumped them onto the floor beside the bed.

"That's better," I told him as I closed the door and began to undress.

"Jule, at least you should be glad that it wasn't a stack of Playboy and Penthouse magazines I was looking through," he said as I climbed into the bed with him.

"Why not? Then I'd know that you had the normal male sex drive." I pulled the covers up to my neck, pretending to try to go to sleep.

He wouldn't let me go to sleep. "And just what's wrong with my sex drive, Jule?"

"What's wrong? A woman flies into your bedroom and climbs into bed with you and you haven't even kissed her, and you have to ask what's wrong with your sex drive?" I didn't wait for his answer. I rolled over onto him and planted my lips firmly on his, my body pinning his to the bed. I left his hands free so that they could do what he liked them to do, wandering all over my breasts.

There really was nothing wrong with his sex drive. Oh no! There certainly was nothing wrong with his sex drive.

It felt SO good to have his hard enhanced body next to mine. It felt even better to have his hard enhanced body in mine. My DEA partner up in New England had been fun, but he just couldn't compare with my darling husband.

In the morning I went into the office to discover that Mom was down in Brownsville, Texas with Nancy and Ted, on the trail of a major drug smuggling operation. Karen was tied up with some experiments in her lab. Since I really had nothing to do here in the office anyway, I decided to take a quick jaunt down to Texas and see whether I could do anything to help Mom out.

I met with Nancy and Ted at their hotel. Nancy was no longer officially with the DEA but she had kept in touch with her friends there. She had often acted as the liaison between our two organizations. In fact it was through her that Mom was helping out on this case. They told me that Mom was still out there in the field. As she wasn't expected to check in until tomorrow morning, we weren't yet too worried. They had worked with Mom enough to know that she could take care of herself. But then, Nancy and Ted had never tangled with full Primes. Even I had trouble with the one Prime I had faced.

But I shared their optimism. We hadn't run across any more Primes in our searches. In fact the only Arions we had run across were still just those four Beta women in New York.

In the morning, Mom failed to check in. Now we were worried. We couldn't imagine what could keep her from reporting in. Well, I could think of one thing, and I didn't want to think about that one.

Nancy and Ted took me out to Mom's last known location, a house out in the suburbs. It was deserted. We couldn't find any clue as to where Mom had gone. There weren't any signs of a struggle, certainly not a struggle as we all knew that Mom could put up.

We drove out to another of the gang's hideouts, a ranch outside of town, near the Rio Grande and the Mexican border. We tried to contact the DEA agents who were supposed to be watching the place, but couldn't reach them on the radio. When we got there, we couldn't find any of our people.

Definitely suspicious. Ordinary drug smugglers have been known to take out DEA agents. But not this many. And they've never been able to take out Mom. Even Betas would have trouble with her. But she wouldn't be much more than an annoyance to a Prime. I was definitely starting to get worried.

Ted checked in with headquarters. They hadn't heard anything from these people all morning. I peeked inside the buildings, but couldn't see anything suspicious. Not even lead walls to hide something from me.

Leaving the two of them in the car, I headed out for some more snooping. Nothing. I even checked out the neighboring ranches. Still nothing.

When I got back to the car it was empty. The coffee mugs had been dumped outside, as if they had left in a hurry. Worried, I looked around for Nancy and Ted. Just in time I saw them being dragged into the old stables. Ted was being bodily carried by a woman; his struggles didn't seem to be making much of a difference to her. Nancy was giving the other two, both men, more of a struggle. I didn't need to see their black hair to see that they were Arions. Nancy by herself should have been able to handle three ordinary Terrans. Yet by the way the captors were struggling with their captives I could tell that they were Betas.

Nancy had been wondering what happened to Julie. It wasn't like her to leave the two of them to be captured. Of course, neither she nor her husband had heard their captors approaching until it was too late.

And what captors! A young black-haired woman was carrying her husband off, seemingly exerting no more effort than she herself used when carrying him off to their bedroom. The two men were having a little more trouble with her. She might have been able to handle one of them, but the two were working together as a team and each had an arm, taking complete advantage of leverage.

She realized that these must be Arion Betas. She knew that she could have taken care of three ordinary Terrans by herself; she had done so on more than one occasion, while still with the DEA. And from what Julie had told her, Arion Primes would not even notice their struggles.

But where was Julie?

I really didn't feel like charging into an Arion stronghold by myself, even though my friends, and possibly Mom, were inside. Or maybe it was because my friends, and possibly Mom, were inside; I didn't want to do anything rash that might endanger them. I may be blonde, but I'm not stupid. If they had managed to take Mom prisoner, then there probably was at least one Prime around, maybe more. Using the radio in the car, I called headquarters and told them where I was and what I suspected I'd run into. They promised to notify the local authorities and the military.

Not wanting to risk their lives, I waited until they were inside. Then I flew to the building and cautiously looked inside. It was empty, except for two horses. Where had they gone? According to Mom and Karen, Arions didn't have matter transporters like they did on Star Trek.

I looked more carefully. There! There was a hidden trapdoor on the floor, covered by the straw.

I listened and looked carefully, until I was sure that they were through the passageway. Seeing no sensors or locks on the trapdoor, I lifted it up and started descending into the darkness. The stairway led down into the solid bedrock. I must have gone down at least two hundred feet before I came to a solid metal door. Peeking through the two inches of steel, I only saw another passageway, this time level.

How had they built this place? The walls were smooth rock, the floor was smooth and level, and the smooth but dim light seemed to come from everywhere. It was like something out of a science fiction movie. A fitting setting for aliens. Technologically advanced aliens like the Arions.

One wall was lined with metal doors. Looking through the first one, I saw four naked men. Suppressing the initial urges, I focused on the important stuff. They were Terrans, probably some of the DEA agents that were missing. Apparently the Arions didn't want to take their prisoners too deep into their secret base.

The next room contained three women, also naked. I couldn't be sure, using my tachyon vision through an inch of steel, but Nancy seemed to be one of them.

The third room also held four men. I was just coming up to the fourth and last door when two men came around the corner. They were armed and wearing the green of Arion security.

Before they could unsling their weapons I struck. Since they were Betas I didn't use my full strength, but I used enough of it to bounce them off of the opposite wall. Checking to make sure that there were no more coming, I grabbed them and kicked in the nearest door, carrying them in.

There was only one person in this room. She was as startled as I was. She was also lying down on a cot. She was also chained to the cot. With gold chains. Mom!

Making sure that the two men were either dead or unconscious, I really didn't care which, I dropped them and rushed to her side. I took hold of the chains and ripped them apart.

After the Orgone rush had passed, she got up, rubbing her arms and then her breasts. "Oh, am I glad to see you, my little one!" She gave me a big hug. "How did you find me?"

"I came here with Nancy and Ted."

"Nancy and Ted? Where are they? Are they all right?"

"They're in the other cells here. There's eleven of them in all. At least that I've seen so far."

"Can you get them out?"

"Sure. The doors are just like this one." I started heading for the door.

"Wait, Julie. Hold on a second." She walked over to the two bodies. She took the two weapons from their bodies. They looked something like rifles, but were much bulkier. Mom hefted one like she knew what she was doing. "Standard Arion laser rifles," she explained to me. "I haven't seen one since I've been on Earth. This won't stop a Prime, but a few of these might slow one down a little. More than effective enough for use on Terrans or Betas." Slinging one over a shoulder and carrying the other one in a ready position, she joined me at the door looking like Ms. Rambo.

Looking out, I saw that the passageway was still deserted. While Mom stood guard I pulled open the first door. Putting my finger to my lips, I gestured for the men to stay quiet and to follow me. I then went to the next door. Opening that door, I freed the women. Finally I freed the four men in the cell nearest the exit.

We all crowded into that room for a hasty conference. The others weren't quite sure what to make of the unarmed golden-haired woman who had pulled the doors open, and the naked and armed black-haired woman with her. Of course Nancy and Ted knew us, and enough of the DEA people knew Nancy, so that eventually they were willing to follow us.

Mom unslung her other laser rifle and handed it to the nearest man, who happened to be Ted. He almost collapsed under the weight of the weapon. Apparently it was heavier than it looked, and designed for operation by Arions, not Terrans.

"Here, darling. Let me. "Nancy reached out with one hand and took the laser rifle from her husband. Mom quickly taught her the rudiments of its operation. A rifle is basically a rifle no matter who made it; you point it at a target and shoot it. The differences are in the details, the location of the trigger, how to get it ready for the next shot, stuff like that.

Ted and Mom led the way out, while Nancy and I brought up the rear. That way we had both a laser rifle and a Supremis at each end of the parade.

Ted saw the door being pulled open. The other three men in the room were ready to jump at the person coming in. Just in time, Ted recognized Julie and was able to stop the other men from charging at her. Just in time, he thought, to keep the three men from getting hurt by the lone woman.

Julie was followed by a group of other men and women, including his wife. Bringing up the rear, he recognized Orion, carrying some unfamiliar weapons.

He realized that the others were mostly DEA agents, many of them recognized his wife from her time with them. Through her, they accepted Orion's and Julie's leadership.

Ted was standing beside Orion, no, he corrected himself. He was standing beside Joan when she unslung the unfamiliar rifle from her shoulder and handed it to him. As she released it he staggered under its weight. Shit! The damn thing must weigh over fifty pounds! How was he going to both carry it and shoot it?

"Here, darling. Let me." His wife walked up to him and with one hand lifted the rifle up out of his arms. He again marveled at the woman who had consented to marry him. She handled the rifle in her strong arms the way he might handle a child's plastic toy rifle. She had no trouble hefting it and turning it over as Joan quickly explained its operation.

At least now they were armed, even if they were all naked, except for Julie. And he couldn't think of two better people to have the weapons than Joan and his wife. Except maybe for Julie, and from what he had seen of her, she probably didn't need any weapons. In fact, weapons would probably slow her down; she could do more damage with her bare hands than with these rifles.

The tail end of the parade had just gotten out of the stables and was headed for the cover of some trees when a strange buzzing sound came from somewhere on the right. One of the men screamed and went down, clutching at his leg. Everybody else hit the dirt, seeking cover behind the scrub vegetation.

I figured that the buzzing sound must have been one of those Arion laser rifles. I looked in the direction from which I had heard the sound. There! Up on a hill and behind a tree about a quarter mile away was a man, wearing the green Arion security uniform and pointing his laser rifle at us. He had the entire hillside covered from his vantage point. We wouldn't be able to get to the tree line with him up there; he could just mow us down if we tried.

Mom had said that a laser rifle wouldn't stop a Prime, so I wasn't going to let one stop a Velorian. I got up and charged up the hill at him. I heard the buzz and felt a light and warm tingling sensation as he fired at me and hit me with the laser rifle.

Then I heard more. And felt more. Damn! There was more than one of them! This dumb blonde hadn't bothered to look any further after seeing the first one.

At least the laser rifles didn't do anything to me, other than to burn off my clothes. And tickle me a little. I picked up the pace some more, putting on enough speed so that they couldn't track me with their rifles.

I reached the first one. One quick punch and his head was separated from his body. I quickly located the next one. I was on him in less than a quarter of a second. Another quarter of a second and his head was gone.

I felt the tickling on my back. Turning around, I saw two more green-clad Betas, a man and a woman. This time I didn't bother to move towards them. Instead my heat vision quickly turned their bodies to smoke.

I looked around for any more Arions. Really looked, behind the trees and the rocks. Not seeing any, I waved an all clear to Nancy, and she got the remainder of the parade to the shelter of the trees without any further incident. I collected the laser rifles from the dead Arions, even the one that I had partially melted with my heat vision. I figured that we could use all of the firepower we could get. If not here, then at another place at another time. Carrying the laser rifles, I quickly rejoined our people. I was now as naked as the rest of them; those laser rifles were definitely effective. At least on Terran clothes, but they hadn't hurt me at all.

A couple of Army trucks and a pair of DEA vans had just pulled up when there was more firing from the direction of the ranch. The soldiers quickly got out of the trucks and set up a defensive perimeter. The DEA people took care of their own. Mom looked even more like Ms. Rambo now, completely naked and with a laser rifle in each arm. Nancy also looked like Ms. Rambo, she had one laser rifle in her arms as she too was completely naked.

The soldiers gave us the once-over. Well, maybe more than once. They did seem to have a little trouble concentrating on the tasks at hand. I returned the favor, literally undressing them with my eyes. After all, a girl's got to have a hobby, and these were fit and trim young men.

Some of the men tried to handle the other two laser rifles, but they were just too heavy for mere men. They ended up setting them down, using some rocks as bases. It still took two men to aim each one.

The fighting degenerated into occasional sniping, as both sides succeeded in keeping the other side pinned down. We were in a small grove of trees while the Arions were behind a low ridge about a mile away across the open prairie. The soldiers' rifles weren't of much use at that range, though the laser rifles didn't seem to be affected by the range. The commanding officer radioed in for reinforcements even as the soldiers set up some mortars and began returning fire. Both sides were managing to keep the other side mostly pinned down.

I was about to go charging after the Arions when there was some shouting behind me. Turning around, I saw that one of the trucks had started burning. I saw the driver jump out as the flames reached for the gas tank. I quickly ran back to the truck. Getting under it, I lifted it up over my head, turned, and threw it at the Arions. I never found out whether I threw it far enough, the gas tank exploded before it got that far, scattering burning debris over a hundred yards. The other driver quickly moved his truck into the cover of the trees.

Just then, I saw some movement among the Arions. One of them stood up and started running towards us. Mom managed to hit him a couple of times with her laser rifles, but he kept on coming. This one wasn't wearing the green. He wasn't wearing much at all, but what he was wearing was mostly black, with a red cape fluttering behind him. A Warrior Prime!

I knew that I couldn't let him get too close to our people. Our weapons would be completely ineffective against him, while with his strength and his heat vision he could wipe us out.

I ran out to meet him. A few shots from the Arions' laser rifles hit me, before they too realized that their weapons were ineffective against me.

When the Prime saw me, he veered off to my left. I went after him. He turned again and started running back, not quite in the same direction from where he had come. I veered and kept running after him.

The coward! And I had thought that Primes liked to fight! From everything I had heard from Mom and from Karen, a Prime wouldn't run from a Velorian. Not even from a Protector. So why was this one running away from me?

Was he really running away from me? But why?

Unless it was a trap. Was he setting me up? I started to slow down. Then something hit me from behind. Hard. I went sprawling onto my face. It had indeed been a trap, and I had fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker. Like only a blonde could!

I tried to get back up and found that I couldn't. The Prime that had hit me from behind was on my back, pinning me, his hands reaching for my throat. The first Prime had turned around and was coming back towards me, an evil grin on his face.

Since I couldn't stand, I got up the only way I could. I flexed my legs to generate flying power and lifted straight up into the air. I quickly rolled over to try to get rid of the one on my back. He did slide off of my back, but managed to grab hold of my legs.

Damn! What is it about my legs that seem to attract Primes?

I managed to shake one leg free of his grasp. I started using that leg to kick him in the head until he let go, falling about a hundred feet to the hard ground below. He rolled with the impact and stood up, looking up at me.

I flew down at him with my arms extended in front of me, just like in the comics, trying to drive my fists right through his body.

Damn! This guy was QUICK. Not to mention strong. I still didn't have much experience fighting against Primes. I was definitely getting some on-the-job training now. He stepped aside as I approached and grabbed my arms, swinging me around and against the ground. The dirt flew in all directions as he buried my body halfway into the ground.

His partner was on me almost immediately. They each grabbed an arm and started playing tug-of-war. That HURT! They were trying to pull me in half. I tried to pull my arms free, but with each of them concentrating on one arm they had more strength than I did. I also couldn't get any leverage to get my arms free.

Well, if I couldn't get any leverage, then the next best thing would be to deprive them of their leverage. I flexed my legs and flew up into the sky again. Now they had no leverage, they were just hanging on to my arms. I continued to accelerate, flying faster and higher.

I quickly left the atmosphere behind. Approaching the orbit of the moon, I suddenly decelerated as I swung my arms over my head. The two Primes hit the hardest objects available, each other. Even in the vacuum I could swear that I heard the impact.

That did it, I felt their grips on my arms loosen. I quickly shook my arms free, leaving them floating in space. They were just far enough apart so that they couldn't reach each other, and slowly drifting apart.

I knew that I couldn't just leave them here. I could only think of one safe place to put them. The same place I had put that Meelek creep. I flew after one of them, grabbing him by the ankle. Then I grabbed his partner's ankle. There, let's see how they like having somebody hanging on to their legs. Again accelerating, I flew towards the sun, swinging my arms out to my sides so that they couldn't bend over to try to grab me.

Swinging my right arm, I flung him towards the sun as hard as I could. Then I flung the one in my left hand at the sun, but not quite as hard. I didn't want the two of them to come too close to each other. At least not until they reached the sun. Or at least until they were far enough away from the Earth so that they wouldn't have any chance of coming back.

I then turned around and headed back.

The copilot was in the shuttle bay, supervising the team of mechanics performing some routine maintenance on the drop shuttle's engines. Stars! Why did he always get stuck with this duty? The pilot was responsible for the shuttle, why didn't she ever see to its maintenance?

She was probably holed up in her quarters with some lucky soldier, he mused. Or rather, with some luck soldier up in her hole, he thought wistfully. He himself had only been in her quarters once, after that last flight to that Star-forsaken frozen place called Alaska. They had gone down there, each with their own private anticipation of a very special person down there, waiting for them.

When they had returned without having found Koren and Korek, at least alive, they had consoled each other. All night. It had been not quite the same as being with Koren. And he knew that for her it also had not been the same as being with Korek. But it had been the only time that she had completely relinquished her command of their relationship to him.

Afterwards she had made it clear to him that the previous night was a one-time event, never to be repeated. Something the natives down below called a 'one-night stand'. He knew that he hadn't been as capable a lover as that half Prime Korek was. But then, the pilot herself really couldn't compare with the half Prime Koren, either.

Not that the pilot hadn't given him a delightful night. But she just couldn't compare with Koren.

Stars! Now there was a woman! So beautiful and so strong! Even though she had been the youngest woman on the crew, she certainly hadn't acted like the youngest. He had later discovered that she had received special training in the art of pleasing men. He was certain that she had graduated at the top of the class. Stars, she was wonderful! So beautiful and so strong!

He still remembered the first time he had met Koren. She had come up from behind him and put her arms around him. He had tried to break free from her embrace, but had discovered that he couldn't. She had quickly gotten him down on his back. It had taken her even less time to get his uniform off of him. As she had taken her uniform off, his mind had quit working. A certain other part of him, however, had worked quite well. At least she had seemed to think so.

Every trip down had had the same scene, with only some minor variations on the theme. Oh, those strong arms of hers! Oh, that delicious body of hers! Oh, Stars! Koren, where are you? Are you all right?

The sound of running feet brought his mind back to the present. Looking around, he saw the pilot running towards him, her uniform still in disarray as if she had been in a hurry putting it on.

"Copilot! Quick! We launch in five minutes!" she told him.

"Pilot! We can not do that. It would take at least twice that long to get the engines back together."

"I want it done in five minutes!"

Even with the pilot's and the copilot's help, it still took the mechanics over eight minutes to put everything back and to get ready for the launch. By the time the last access panel had been closed and bolted shut, four Warriors Prime and two squads of fully armed Beta soldiers were already strapped into their seats in the cargo bay.

"What is it, Pilot?" he asked her as they strapped themselves into their seats in the cockpit. "Where are we taking them in such a hurry?"

"Apparently our base in Texas is under attack."

"Under attack? But if the Terrans are attacking, why do we need to go? They have enough firepower to beat back any Terran attack." A thought suddenly made his knees feel weak. "Velorians!" he muttered under his breath.

"Perhaps. All they know is that this is not just a Terran attack. Drop Shuttle Two is already on its way." From her voice, he knew that the pilot also was not looking forward to flying into potential combat against Velorians.

Shortly after they entered the planet's atmosphere, they received an order from the ship, changing their mission. Instead of dropping off the combat team, they were to pick up everybody they found down at the base and bring them back up to the ship.

With their Primes gone, the remaining Arions didn't put up much of a fight. When the Army reinforcements and I arrived at about the same time, they surrendered, all four of them. The soldiers were definitely surprised that only three men and a woman could command such firepower. We were just herding up the last of them into a truck when I saw something streaking through the sky. I focused my vision in closer.

From Karen's descriptions, I immediately recognized it as an Arion drop shuttle. And it was coming at us awfully fast. It certainly didn't look like they were coming down for coffee and doughnuts. I leaped up into the sky to meet it.

When I got closer they started shooting at me. They had heavier laser cannon mounted on the drop shuttle; they actually stung and burned a little. Fortunately their aim wasn't very good. I also discovered that they couldn't shoot straight down, so that if I flew directly beneath them they couldn't shoot at me at all.

They also realized that they couldn't shoot at me. Instead, the drop shuttle headed for our people on the ground, trying to pick off the targets under the trees.

Still flying directly underneath the drop shuttle, I tried to disable it. I tried to batter my way through the bottom of the craft. Damn! What was this thing made of? I knew that I could put my fingers through even the hardest titanium steel alloy, but I couldn't put my fingers through this stuff. I started to pound away on it with my fists. At least I could dent it some. At the same time I was trying to push the drop shuttle away from our people, south and east towards the Gulf of Mexico, away from Texas.

Just after we reached the coast something came between me and the sun. Startled, I looked around, half expecting to see another Arion drop shuttle. Instead, I saw an ordinary helicopter. Too ordinary. It was a news helicopter, with a camera crew inside pointing a TV camera at me. A couple of miles beyond it was another one.

Damn! What the hell did they think that they were doing? Didn't they know that there was a war going on here?

As if they had been reading my mind, the Arions shot at the nearer helicopter. A blast from the heavy laser cannon sliced the tail clean off. With the tail rotor gone, the helicopter spun away completely out of control.

I knew that I had to make a quick decision. If I continued to attack the drop shuttle, the television crew on that helicopter was dead. But if I rescued them, the drop shuttle was free to escape and kill more people. Probably starting with the other helicopter. And then our people on the ground.

A Velorian Planetary Protector probably would have saved the helicopter and its crew. But I wasn't a Protector. I wasn't about to let the Arions get away if I could help it. Not if they were the type of people to shoot at an unarmed helicopter that wasn't even threatening them.

With a pang of regret I turned away from the helicopter and redoubled my efforts to bring down the drop shuttle, which was trying to get back to land. I barely noticed the explosion as the helicopter came down just off the beach. With my strength fueled by my anger, I ripped up the floor of the drop shuttle, almost tearing it in half and disabling the engine.

I didn't bother to watch the crippled drop shuttle go down. I flew over to the wreckage of the helicopter to see whether there were any survivors of the crash. Unfortunately there weren't. At least the other helicopter pilot had the brains to get the hell out of the immediate neighborhood. I saw him a couple of miles out to sea, circling around so that the cameramen could keep shooting.

Sirren was headed back to the groundside base. She had just spent a few days of R&R back on the ship after finishing her ground-based training. She had thought that it was somewhat unusual, to leave the ground and go back to the ship for R&R. She had always thought that it would be the other way around. But then, she didn't have much personal experience along those lines, and this planet still wasn't conquered. She was still looking forward to her first operational groundside assignment; an assignment that she had been told would be given to her once she was back down on the ground. Yes, she had been looking forward to her first operational assignment.

At least until she had heard the rumors about the presence of a Velorian Planetary Protector on this planet. But the rumors didn't worry her too much. Even though it was a relatively small planet, it was still big enough that the odds of her actually encountering the Planetary Protector were rather remote. And if Sirren did encounter her, well, that was what she had been trained for.

She was thinking about the other big event of the last few days, the R&R part. That had been no rumor. No, the infantry captain had been quite real. And quite different from the soft and weak natives.

Not that she had ever gotten intimate with any of the natives. She knew that they were even softer and weaker than the Betas. Not that she had ever been intimate with any Betas, either.

In fact a major portion of her training had involved learning to be gentle with the fragile and delicate natives. After all, a man couldn't answer any questions nor do any of your other bidding if a flick of your finger had crushed his skull and splattered his brains against the back wall.

The pilot had reported that they were about to make the landing run. Sirren was heading back to her seat when the drop shuttle swerved and began doing some unusual maneuvers. At least none of her other trips down to the planet had involved anything like this. Grabbing on to the seat she started to look around herself, but quickly remembered that she was in the cargo bay, with no windows.

Sirren saw the other occupants also looking around themselves. The others were all members of a combat team, being rotated through for garrison duty at the groundside base. The Betas clutched their equipment. Their leader, a Prime woman a few years older than she was, was squinting as she looked around herself.

Sirren looked enviously at the red cape around the other woman's shoulders. The sight of that cape hardened Sirren's resolve to carry out her operational assignment, in order to earn her own cape.

But there was nothing she could do to earn her cape until she got down to the base. Squinting her own eyes, Sirren looked out through the walls of the cargo bay. She was surprised to see one of the primitive native flying craft not too far off to the side. Even as she watched she recognized the beam from the heavy laser cannon as it sliced the native craft in half, sending it spiraling down out of control.

Moments later she was even more surprised to see the floor beneath her split open to reveal a wide expanse of water underneath. She barely had time to see the back of a young woman, her tanned body apparently completely naked, her muscles flexing as she literally tore the drop shuttle apart with just her bare hands. A woman with golden hair! Stars! A Velorian! Stars! Just her luck!

Then, with the floor literally ripped out from under her feet Sirren was falling towards the blue-green water below. Almost the color of an Orgone beam, she absurdly thought to herself just before she hit.

"I'm not going to earn my cape this way," she thought as she plummeted towards the water.

Even her Prime body couldn't withstand the impact with the water. Perhaps if she had prepared herself for it, tucking her chin in and diving cleanly into the water, she might have fared better. Instead the impact snapped her head back, knocking her out. She was unconscious as she sank to the bottom.

With my heart heavy with the pain of the dead helicopter crew I then went to check out the wreckage of the Arion drop shuttle. There was a survivor there. Apparently all of the Betas had died in the crash. But there was a Prime, trying to work free from the twisted metal. When he emerged from the wreckage, I saw that it wasn't a he at all. It was an attractive young woman, about Mom's height and appearing a little older than Karen was. She was wearing something a little skimpier than the usual bikini, with a red cape trailing behind her.

When she saw me flying towards her, she grabbed a laser rifle from a dead Beta and started shooting at me. Ignoring her shots, I continued to fly at her. Remembering what had happened the last time I went after a Prime, I looked around to see whether there were any more. There weren't, thankfully. One at a time was enough. More than enough.

She quickly realized that the light infantry weapon was of no use against me. Wadding it up, she threw it at me. I avoided the ball of metal and streaked towards her. As I hit her, she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me down to the ground.

This was definitely a new experience for me. I wasn't used to fighting a woman. And this certainly was not like sparring and wrestling with Mom and Karen.

We rolled around on the ground amidst the burning wreckage of the drop shuttle, our nearly invulnerable bodies destroying what the crash hadn't, the twisted metal getting twisted even further. My fists did not seem to have any effect on her face, nor did her fists do much to me, other than to make my head ring a bit.

Then she got in a good blow as she hit my jaw with a powerful right cross. My eyes snapped closed as my head snapped back from the impact. That hurt! She continued to hit my face. That really HURT!

I finally got my eyes open enough to be able to see her. I covered my face, blocking her fists with my arms. Then she started hitting my body. Finally I started to hit her back. I got a shot in at her chin, which snapped her head back as she flew about a hundred feet away, landing on her ass.

I stood up slowly, shaking my head to try to clear it. Then I saw her charging at me. She leaped at me, getting her arms around me as she knocked me over onto my back. We rolled around in the burning wreckage some more, each of us trying to pin the other down on the ground.

Then I felt her hand groping below my left breast. But she wasn't going for the soft flesh of the breast; she seemed to be trying to get her fingers between my ribs. I realized that she was trying to go for my heart! I didn't know whether she could hurt me that way, but I certainly didn't want to find out. She certainly seemed to think that she could indeed hurt me that way.

I tried to get away from her, but her other arm was around my waist, holding me tight. I couldn't break her grip. Under other circumstances I might have enjoyed being in the embrace of an attractive and strong woman, but I knew that this attractive and strong woman was trying to kill me.

I cupped my hands and brought them down on her ears. She didn't loosen her grip, nor did she stop her hand from going after my heart.

Keeping my hands on the sides of her head I started pushing her head back. Her neck muscles bulged as she resisted. I lowered my head and drove it forward, driving my head into her face.

That must have stunned her a bit, I felt her arm loosen slightly. I got out of her embrace and got behind her, with an arm around her neck. Her cape billowed up around her head, restricting her vision. I got my legs around her waist, holding her as tight as I could. I kept squeezing, while trying to bend her neck all the way back to break it.

I felt her hard shoulder blades rubbing against my breasts as she struggled to get free. I could feel my nipples hardening from the stimulation. Drawing strength from my arousal, I forced her neck back even further. With a final wrench her neck snapped.

Then I saw her body practically burst into flames. Mom had told me that Primes and Velorians have such strong regenerative capabilities, that a fatal injury like this could cause their bodies to burn up trying to heal itself.

I stood back and watched as her entire body burned up, until the only remains were her skimpy uniform and some gray ashes.

After looking around again to make sure that there that there were no other survivors, Betas or Primes, I took off and headed back for the Arion base and Mom and Nancy and the others.

Nancy and Joan had been able to scrounge up some clothes from the soldiers. The soldiers hadn't been too eager to see the two women, the raven-haired and the strawberry blonde, covered up, but they were also honored to have them wear their own clothes. Now they and some of the Army officers were discussing taking a party down below into the Arion base.

"We don't know how many more of them there are down there," Joan pointed out.

"My men can take care of them."

"Like they 'took care' of those two men? Colonel, those were Arion Primes. You have seen that your weapons have no effect on them. And don't take the others too lightly, either. Those four had your entire battalion pinned down."

She could see the pain in his eyes. "What do you suggest we do instead, Ma'am?"

"You saw the blonde woman who took them on, Colonel? The one that took on that Arion drop shuttle? The 'Supergirl' that you've heard of? That was my daughter. She's the only thing we have that could stand up to Arion Primes. I suggest that we wait for her return before going in."

Nancy could see that the colonel still looked doubtful. He had an entire battalion of infantry, and he was supposed to wait for one young blonde woman? She knew that if Julie was here, she probably wouldn't even need the soldiers' help. He seemed to be on the verge of protesting, when Joan cut him off.

"Colonel, please don't make me ask you to shoot me with your sidearm. But I can tell you that the bullet would not hurt me. It would sting me, but it would not penetrate my skin. But I would not go up against an Arion Prime. An Arion Prime would not be hurt by an exploding hand grenade. Or by one of these laser rifles." Joan unslung the rifle she was carrying and offered it to the colonel, holding it in one hand.

The colonel reached out to take it from her. As Joan began to transfer its weight to his hands, the colonel started to buckle under the weight. "Good Lord! How heavy is this thing?"

Joan took the weight back from him and handed it to Nancy. "You see, Colonel. There are some people around that have abilities beyond those of ordinary people. I am one of them, and Nancy here is another. Yet the two of us, armed with these weapons, would not be any more than a mere annoyance to an Arion Prime. My daughter is the only one around who could defeat them."

Finally the colonel agreed to wait for Julie's return. No sooner had they returned and passed the word to the men when one of the lookouts shouted and pointed up into the sky. Nancy saw another Arion craft coming. The soldiers scurried for cover. Nancy crouched behind a rock, wondering whether the rifle in her hands would do any good against the Arion craft.

However this one did not attack. It landed about two miles away, near another grove of trees. Through binoculars, she could not see anybody get out of the shuttle. Then she saw a large number of people emerging from the trees. They all got into the shuttle. Then the shuttle quickly took off, returning the way it had come.

When I got back, I found that another drop shuttle had come and apparently taken away all of the remaining Arions. Still, I went down to the underground base alone. Very carefully. I was completely tired out from fighting three Arion Primes and I certainly didn't want to rush into a trap.

Thankfully the place was deserted. They had apparently taken everything of value with them, and destroyed what they couldn't take with them. I came out, then went back in with a platoon of soldiers. We picked up whatever the Arions had left behind.

We left the place under Army guard until we could get our scientists down here. We had the Army also guard the downed drop shuttle until we could retrieve it.

It took us a while to clean up the mess. I stayed around, coordinating the efforts of our scientists and engineers. And serving as the liaison with the military.

Liaison. That was a cool job. At least it could be, if you're liaisoning with the right person. And I certainly was. My counterpart was a young Army captain. He had been there during the battle, and had seen what Mom and Nancy had done. And he had heard Mom tell the colonel about me.

We worked rather closely together. And we put in some long hours. And he saluted me a lot. Though his salutes weren't exactly of the proper military type. But they were of the kind that I preferred from a man. I certainly showed him my appreciation for his saluting. And he didn't mind obeying my orders. Especially when I backed them up with a little muscle.

But I sure hoped that he got hazardous duty pay for being with me. That was a lot rougher for him than the battle had been.

Karen came down briefly to help us sort out the stuff we recovered from the base and from the downed drop shuttle. But I didn't let her touch my captain. She had to go find someone for herself. Which she quickly did.

Our prisoners were packed off to Fort Carson with Mom and Karen riding shotgun. Just like the previous bunch, the women from New York, none of these would even consider defecting from the Empire.

I did pick up a set of clothes out of all of this. Or at least one item of clothing. The Prime woman I had killed at the shuttle wreck had been wearing her field uniform. It was made of a nearly invulnerable material. It had survived the crash and our fight without any damage. And it fit me, with only minor adjustments.

It wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to go around wearing; I'd had bikinis that covered more of me. And the cape took some getting used to. But this could take the strains of hypersonic flights. Now I didn't have to fly naked any more. Not that I wasn't very far from naked when I was wearing this, but at least I wasn't completely naked. But my darling husband definitely liked it. He almost came in his shorts the first time I modeled it for him.

I would have thought that something this skimpy wouldn't stay on me properly, especially if I was to move around in a hurry. But I discovered that it was rather tight and that it somehow stuck to me. I don't mean that it was like it was glued on or anything like that, but that somehow it stayed right where I put it, no matter how much I moved around and bounced and jiggled.

In fact, after I modeled it for my darling husband the first time, he couldn't get it off of me. It was a great way for me to tease him. Even with all of his strength he just couldn't get it to separate from my skin. I would just lie there in bed, not resisting him at all, while he used all of his strength to try to peel it off of me. I had no trouble sliding a finger under the straps and removing them, but he just didn't have the strength to do it. My skimpiest outfit, and it could protect me better than any chastity belt, at least until I chose to remove it. And I always did remove it, at least for my darling husband.

I also modeled it for some of the other people at the office. But never in quite the way that I had modeled it for George. I didn't let any of them even try to take it off of me. And I certainly didn't take it off for them. Not even for Mike and Rob. No, this was reserved for my darling husband.

The color was a minor problem. At least with the lights on. With the lights off neither George nor I had any complaints. After all, it had been an Arion officer's field uniform. But Mom and some of our chemists were working on a way to somehow dye it a different color. All of the ordinary dyes would just come off during a hypersonic flight. I wanted a blue, but I think that Mom would have settled for anything other than the Empire's black and red. Black and red just weren't my colors.

We also did pick up some other Arion clothing. But nothing else intended for Primes. While the Beta clothing was more durable than the Terran, I still couldn't go hypersonic while wearing them. At least not if I wanted to come back wearing it. Still, they were almost knife- and bullet-proof. Quite suitable if we wanted to come out of a fight in a dark alley without completely ruining our clothes.

They weren't suitable for ordinary Terrans, however. At least not as protection in a gunfight. While a few layers might resist a bullet, the force of the impact would still be quite enough to do some serious damage. They resisted bullets mostly by stretching, being designed to accommodate an Arion's incredible muscle expansion. A bullet could still go through a Terran; the clothing just wouldn't tear and rip until the bullet popped out the other side.

Sirren woke up slowly. As she tried to draw in a breath she was surprised to discover that her lungs were already filled with water.

She opened her eyes but couldn't see anything. Just where was she?

Focusing and using her tachyon vision, she determined that she was buried in the sand and silt at the bottom of a lake. No, at the bottom of an ocean, she corrected herself when she tasted the salty water.

At the bottom of the ocean? By the Stars, what was she doing lying at the bottom of the ocean?

It all came back in a flash as she remembered. She had been riding the drop shuttle back down to the groundside base for an assignment, her first operational assignment, when it had been attacked. She remembered seeing the ocean as the floor of the cargo bay had been ripped apart by a woman. A woman with golden hair. A Velorian!

Stars! The entire planet, and she had to run into the Velorian Planetary Protector! And even before she could start her first assignment.

Stars! She didn't even know what her assignment was to be. She was supposed to have received her orders after landing at the base.

The base! Stars, she needed to get back to the base as quickly as she could!

She kicked her shapely and powerful legs, and shot up to the surface of the water. She saw that it was night, not that her vision was much affected by that. She retched most of the water out of her lungs and stomach, gulped down some air, and looked around. There, not too far away, less than twenty miles, was the beach. With long powerful strokes she swam towards it, throwing up a rooster tail behind her.

Swimming at over eighty knots she reached the beach in a few short minutes. She walked up onto the sand a little ways before she dropped to her knees, coughing and wheezing.

On all fours she cleared her lungs and stomach of the remaining water. She then rolled over onto her back, gazing up at the stars and the night sky. Somewhere up there was the ship. Her ship! Her people!

But how could she contact them? She didn't have any communications equipment; all she had was the field uniform she was wearing. An Arion Warrior Prime's field uniform, it was not much more than an assemblage of straps and a cape. All of her personal effects were either up on the ship, or at the groundside base.

Looking up at the stars, she fell asleep.

Again, Sirren woke up slowly. This time, it was the feel of something lightly touching her body that awoke her. She thought that perhaps some insects were crawling over her body. Her eyes opened to the merest slits. She immediately saw that it was light, apparently just after dawn.

She also saw that it wasn't insects that she had felt on her body. There were two men kneeling over her, and they were trying to take her uniform off of her motionless body.

She had known that the natives were pathetically weak, but she hadn't realized that they were this weak. Two grown men, and they couldn't even take off a woman's clothes? When she wasn't resisting them at all? Not that there was much clothing to take off, just her field uniform.

She lay there motionless for a little longer, amused by their feeble efforts. Finally, she decided to help them out a little, to see if they could be more useful once she was disrobed. Quickly slipping her hands underneath the straps she pulled them aside, exposing her nipples.

The men almost fell over backwards in surprise both at her quick movements and at her ease in moving her uniform straps. Before they could back away she quickly got her arms around them and pulled them back down, guiding their mouths to her breasts and the exposed nipples at their centers.

Under the influence of her pheromones, not to mention her powerful hands, they began to suckle at her nipples. Their hands also came up to fondle and squeeze her breasts. Their caresses were so light, so delicate, so totally unlike the caresses of another Prime. She had to make an effort in order to feel them at all.

Yet in their own way they felt good. Despite herself, her amusement soon turned into arousal. She applied more pressure to their heads, pressing them harder against her soft breasts. She was surprised when they resisted, trying to push themselves away from her. What was the matter with them? Didn't they like this? Didn't all men like women's breasts?

With a start, she realized that she was holding them too tightly. They couldn't breathe! She was applying only a slight amount of pressure, pressure that a male Prime would barely feel. Yet these men apparently were in pain from that little pressure.

She loosened her grip, but not quite enough to let them free. She continued to hold them lightly, even lighter than before, against her breasts. After they had gulped down some air, they resumed their suckling and caressing.

Soon she knew that she wanted more. She wanted to see just what else these men could do for her. She rolled over to her right, swinging the one on her left breast through the air to land on the sand beside his partner. Getting up to her knees, she stripped off her uniform the rest of the way. It took her less than a second to rip the shorts off of the two men, their surprised struggles not affecting her at all.

Keeping a hand on one man's chest to keep him pinned down on the sand, she threw a leg over the other one and slowly lowered herself down onto his throbbing cock. She had to relax her inner muscles completely in order to let him penetrate her.

His soft small cock just wasn't enough for her. She reached over and picked up the other man. Getting an arm around his waist she held his face up to her breasts. Her other arm went around his neck. He began suckling at one while his hands closed about the other. There! That was better. With one man between her legs and the other working over her breasts, she was finally starting to feel something. She started climbing towards a climax.

She tried to be gentle with these frail natives, but her orgasm when it finally arrived was too much for them. As her body shuddered with her climax, both her arms and her legs closed together, crushing the two men, their bones crumbling like sand.

As she came down off of her peak she realized what she had done. She looked down and saw what was left of their bodies. Their blood and gore was splattered all over her. She stood up in disgust, both at the mess and at the pathetically fragile men who had been the cause of it. Were all of the native men this fragile? She hadn't even been trying to hurt them. She had merely been holding them as she had reached her climax.

Looking around, she saw no one else on the beach this early in the day. She picked up the two bodies with her left hand and placed them on her right palm. She then hurled them out over the water. They splashed down about half a mile out. She then took a quick swim to wash the gore off of her body.

Coming back to the shore, she let the morning sun dry her off before putting her uniform back on. She then turned and started walking inland, trying to find some landmarks so that she could get back to the base. Her training hadn't included finding the base on the ground. The drop shuttle was supposed to have taken her there.

But would the base and her people be there? If that Velorian bitch had known where to intercept the drop shuttle, then she must have known where the base was. Was returning to the base the right thing to do?

But what else could she do? Where else could she go?

Spying a road that led off of the beach, she followed it inland. Away from the water and towards the people.

She would find something to do. She would find somewhere to go. After all, the people were just Terrans, and she was an Arion Warrior Prime.

She was an Arion Warrior Prime, and would always be an Arion Warrior Prime.