Chapter 14

Sloo-gata came into view as Kayden stood at the main viewing window of the bridge. The planet was black, made of pure obsidian and seemed to be void of life from their vantage point. If one didn’t know any better, they’d think the planet was completely dead until Rina flew them around to the opposite side of the planet where a single large city glowed with neon light among the darkness. It was located in the center of a crater, the perfect place to defend people from trying to under from above, even better for keeping people inside.

“Whoa ... That’s it.” Ayumi whispered, her eye fixated on the city, the scars on her face pulling taut. “That’s where I started.”

“Taking us in.” Rina said as the Stardust Drifter tilted down towards the planet. Sloo-gata Spaceport was a fortress, built into the very rock wall of the crater. It was a monstrous gateway into the city, all angles and sharp lines from the obsidian. It was lit up by pulsating holographic ads that were selling sin and pleasure. Massive, three-dimensional projections of exotic dancers twisted and contorted in slow motion against the black of the crater’s walls, their bodies sheened in shimmering oils that caught and reflected the neon glow in hypnotic patterns. Between these titillating displays were advertisements for mind-altering substances, vials of glowing liquids, powders that sparkled like stardust, promises of sensory deprivation chambers and hallucinogenic gardens, all broadcasting in a dozen languages through speakers that buzzed and crackled with invasive seduction. They could feel the pulsing rhythm of bass-heavy music thumping from inside the walls. The ship shuddered as the landing clamps locked them into place, a deep metallic clang echoing through the hull. The main cargo bay door opened with a low groan, releasing the ship’s recycled air into the station’s processed atmosphere. An instant wave of alien aphrodisiac incense wafted inside, causing Clessa to inhale deeply.

“Fuck, I’m already horny.” The mechanic giggled. Kayden looked at his crew and the outfits he had put them in, all on purpose to get attention. Ayumi stood with wide-eyed, naive beauty. Her black micro-dress was a sheer smoke over her lithe frame, the opaque patches like dark secrets over her nipples and the gentle swell of her pussy, all paired with her usual studded jacket. Her face was a canvas of youthful innocence framed by the faint evidence of a hard life. Clessa looked like a fantasy pulled from a grimy spacer’s daydreams. Her tits were on display through a ripped ‘mechanic’ top, her ass hanging out of her ultra-short denim shorts, and a smear of something that might have been dried grease or cum stained the fabric, which only served to make her outfit even hotter. Her heavy boots stomped on the ramp with each step. Zlara’s cerulean skin glowed with an otherworldly light that made her a head turner as usual but today it was amplified. Her aqua-silk dress flowed around her body, shimmering, and rippling like living water that made her form both elegant and profoundly obscene. Rina looked angry, defiant, and fuckable all at once. The halter top of her golden dress barely contained her perky breasts, while the front micro-skirt just covered her mound. The rest of her smooth skin was on full display with the dress lacking any back side at all, exposing every inch of her glorious ass and her glistening slit that peeked out from between her thighs. Alexa looked like a walking work of art in her strange ‘nothing but the lines’ dress, which showed the flawless curves and contours of her synthetically perfect body. Only a shimmering hexagonal line over her tits, her perfect pussy, and a few on her legs made her look ‘dressed’. Zynphoria shimmered beside her, but after saying she would materialize an appropriate look for Sloo-gata had done nothing, appearing as she usually did, completely naked.

“Let’s remember the mission.” Kayden reminded them.

“Right. Be slutty but gather information,” Clessa quipped back.

“Close, but with more structure.” Kayden laughed, his back to the open cargo ramp. He crossed his arms and took a breath, his Captain’s demeanor locking into place. “We have three objectives. One: find the Obsidian Serpent or confirm it’s been here recently. Two: find the SGC’s base of operations on this planet. Three: find any trace of Kimmy or my medallion. We do this quietly, we are not here to start a war. We are tourists who like to party, and that’s the story if anyone asks.” He looked at each of them.

“Ayumi.” He started with her. The small girl straightened up, her single eye sharp despite the fear behind it. “You’re the only one of us who has actually been on this planet. You worked at a club here before the SGC recruited you. I need you to retrace your steps. Find that club, or what’s left of it. Talk to the girls who work there. dancers, bartenders, anyone who might still remember you or the man who recruited you and brought you here in the first place. You’re looking for the recruitment pipeline. How does the SGC find their girls on this planet? Where do they take them? Who’s the middle man? You’re the only face they might recognize as one of their own, and that makes you the most valuable person on the ground.” He paused. “But you do not go alone. Rina.” Rina’s golden eyes finally flicked to him.

“You’re with Ayumi. Glued to her. You don’t leave her side for a second, I don’t care if she’s taking a piss. This planet chews up girls like her and spits them out, and we won’t let that happen again. You’re her shadow and her shield. If things go sideways, you get her out first, mission be damned. Understood?”

“Didn’t need the speech. I was going to do that anyway.” Rina said flatly, walking over to Ayumi and placing her hands on the girl’s shoulders. Ayumi looked up and smiled, giving a grateful nod.

“Clessa.” The mechanic perked up, her amber eyes wide. “This planet runs on sin, and sin runs on infrastructure. Somewhere on this rock there’s a network, a mainframe, a server hub, something that keeps the clubs running, the money flowing, and the records buried. I need you to find it. Hack into the spaceport’s docking logs first. If the Obsidian Serpent has been here in the last week, there will be a record somewhere, even if someone tried to scrub it. After that, see if you can get into the city’s broader network. Guest manifests, transaction records, communications, anything with the SGC’s fingerprints on it.”

“Oh, Captain, you had me at ‘hack’.” Clessa grinned, cracking her knuckles. “If this place has a network, I’ll crack it open like a rusted exhaust manifold. Rusty and I work best in dark, cramped server rooms anyway.”

“Rusty is coming with you? Where is he?” Kayden asked.

“Right here,” She said, lifting her top, flashing the crew her breasts and the small rat nestled between them. “Don’t worry, no one will see him.” She said, putting her top back into place.

“Right ... Well, Alexa, you’re with Clessa.” Kayden continued. “You’re her security and her second brain. While she’s elbow deep in their systems, I need you scanning everything. Frequencies, encrypted comms, facial recognition on anyone who matches known SGC operatives from the files you compiled during the jump. If the SGC is operating here, they’re communicating somehow. Find that channel.”

“Understood, Captain.” Alexa responded. “I will also monitor the biometrics of all crew members remotely and alert you to any signs of distress, chemical exposure, or hostile intent from nearby individuals. The aphrodisiac incense in the air, for example, contains a mild psychoactive compound that may impair judgment over prolonged exposure. I recommend limiting time in enclosed spaces to ninety-minute intervals.”

“Good. Everyone heard that. Watch your heads, this air is designed to make you horny and stupid.” Kayden said.

“Zlara.” The Zorphan met his gaze with her calm silver eyes. “You’re on recon at the higher-end establishments. Bars, lounges, VIP areas, anywhere the people with real money and real power spend their time. You’ve got the look and the composure to walk into a room and make people want to talk to you without asking why. Listen more than you speak. The SGC doesn’t recruit from the gutter, they recruit girls who can pass for high society. That means they have contacts in the upscale venues too. Managers, owners, promoters, someone on this planet is feeding them talent, and that person probably drinks expensive wine in a place with a dress code.”

“Understood,” Zlara nodded. “I’ll keep my ears open and my wine glass full. People tend to say far more than they intend to when they think they’re impressing a beautiful woman.”

“Zynphoria.” Kayden looked at the shimmering, translucent form of the Phanso. “You’re our ghost. Literally. You can go anywhere on this planet without being seen, heard, or detected. I want you moving through walls, floating through back offices, VIP rooms, security stations, anywhere we can’t go without raising suspicion. You’re looking for anything with the SGC logo, the name Obsidian Serpent, or any mention of recruitment operations. If you find their base, you do not engage. You come straight back and report. You are our eyes where no one else can see.”

“I will drift through the shadows of this dark world like a whisper through the void.” Zynphoria’s voice was soft and ethereal. “If the SGC hides here, their walls will not protect them from me. I will find what they wish to keep hidden.”

“Good. Now, everyone meet back here in ninety minutes. If you miss a check-in, the rest of us assume the worst and converge on your last known location which the ship is tracking.” He looked at each of them, his gaze lingering. These girls, his girls, his crew, his family. They had come so far from that cramped apartment on Neo-Olamen.

“Any questions?” He asked. He was met with a series of determined shakes of the head.

“Then one more thing.” He said, stepping forward to the open ramp. He gestured out to enterance of Sloo-gata. “This planet is going to try to swallow us whole. It’s designed to. Every light, every sound, every smell in this city exists to make you forget why you came here. Don’t let it. We came here for Ayumi. We came here for every girl the SGC has chewed up and spit out. And we came here for a medallion that belongs to me ... Let’s go take it back.”

“Aye-aye, Captain.” Clessa said, giving a final salute to everyone present before starting her march down the ramp with Alexa at her side, her heavy-duty steel-toed boots making sharp clicks. Zlara gave him a look that said ‘don’t do anything stupid’ and headed down the ramp, her hips swaying in that aqua-silk dress like she owned the place already.Zynphoria’s form shimmered and dissolved like heat haze on asphalt. She was gone, melting directly through the solid floor of the ship’s cargo bay into the dark obsidian ground beneath. As expected, only Ayumi, Kayden, and Rina were left standing at the top of the ramp, who began their decent down the ramp, their feet thudding onto the black ground of the station.

“Hello everyone!” A overly friendly robot approached them. “Welcome to Sloo-gata, your one stop for all things Sinful, Sensational, and Satisfying! I designated as 8008, nice to meet all of you! Are you here for business or pleasure? You do look like you’re here for pleasure!”

“Pleasure, 8008.” Alexa answered for the group.

“Excellent! You’ve definitely come to the right place, then.” The little bot chirped as he started to walk with them. “I’d be happy to escort you through Port Admissions and into the main city. That’s our job as your guide and host, to get you in on the fun as quickly and safely as possible!” Rina rolled her eyes at the robot’s bubbly personality, unimpressed by his manufactured exuberance. They made their way to Port Admissions, Kayden signing in his ship and buying passes for all the girls which were linked to their personal Comm-Links, which also had their communication function disabled by the staff to ‘not interfere with the city vibe’ before a guard pointed them down what seemed to be the only tunnel leading to into the main crater.

“Welcome to Sloo-gata!” The robot cheered as they finally reached the end of the long, dark tunnel. The city hit them like a wall of sound, light, and sin. Sloo-gata’s crater city was a labyrinth of neon and flesh. The obsidian walls of the crater rose on all sides like the inside of a giant bowl, and every inch of them was covered in holographic billboards, pulsing signs, and flickering advertisements that bathed the entire city in a perpetual twilight of pretty pinks, deep purples, burning reds, and electric blues. The city had no sun, leaving it always night time, but it didn’t need a sun. It made its own light, and that light was designed to sell one thing. The main strip stretched out before them like a river of temptation. It was wide, easily fifty meters across, paved in polished black obsidian that reflected the neon above like a dark mirror. On both sides, establishments were stacked three, four, five levels high, each one competing for attention with louder music, brighter lights, and more provocative displays than the last. To their left, a massive club called “The Velvet Abyss” had its entire front wall made of transparent glass, behind which dozens of girls danced on elevated platforms in nothing but body glitter and thigh-high boots. Next to it, “Crimson Tongue” advertised live shows every fifteen minutes with a holographic projection of a girl’s lips the size of a shuttle slowly licking the air above the entrance. Across the strip, “The Dripping Peach” had a waterfall of pink, luminous liquid cascading down its facade, with girls dancing in it, their bodies slick and glistening as patrons watched from tables that lined the sidewalk. Further down, “Galaxia’s Playground” boasted a rotating stage visible from the street where a girl was currently hanging upside down from a pole that extended three stories into the air, her body spinning in slow, hypnotic circles. And everywhere, absolutely everywhere, there were girls. A pair of Telvari girls strolled past them, their emerald-green skin shimmering under the neon lights, their bodies tall, willowy, and almost entirely naked save for thin chains of silver that draped across their hips and between their long legs. Their pointed ears twitched as they laughed, their almond-shaped eyes glowing a soft amber. One of them caught Kayden’s eye and blew him a kiss, her forked tongue flicking playfully between her lips. A group of Kythari females leaned against the railing of a second-floor balcony, their skin a deep, midnight black with bioluminescent markings that pulsed in slow, rhythmic patterns of blue and violet along their curves. They wore nothing but strips of translucent fabric that wrapped around their breasts and hips, leaving the glowing patterns on their stomachs and thighs on full display. Their eyes were large, entirely white, and they watched the crowd. A tiny Fennari girl, barely taller than Ayumi, darted between the legs of taller patrons, her fox-like ears perked and her bushy tail swishing behind her. Her fur was a soft, creamy orange that covered her body in a thin layer, and she wore nothing but a harness of black leather straps that crisscrossed her small frame, strategically covering nothing while giving the appearance of clothing. She disappeared into a club called “Little Foxes” without looking back. Two Draelith women towered over the crowd, easily seven feet tall, their skin a burnished copper, their bodies impossibly muscular and voluptuous at the same time. Their horns, dark and ridged, curved back from their foreheads like crowns. They wore matching outfits of black latex that covered their arms and legs but left their massive breasts and sculpted abs completely bare. Heavy rings pierced their dark nipples, connected by a thin chain that swayed with each powerful step. The crowd parted for them instinctively. A Luminari girl floated just above the ground near a fountain, her body seemingly made of soft, living light. She was completely nude, her form shifting between translucent and opaque, her features delicate and angelic. She appeared to be advertising for a nearby club called “Heaven’s Gate” by simply existing, her ethereal beauty drawing a small crowd of admirers who watched her drift and twirl in silence. Syreni girls sat on the edge of the fountain itself, their lower halves wrapped in iridescent scales that caught the light like oil on water. From the waist up they were humanoid, their skin a pale lavender, their breasts bare and adorned with tiny jewels that sparkled like stars. Their hair was long and wet, flowing down their backs in shimmering curtains of teal and silver. They sang softly, their voices a haunting melody that seemed to pull at something deep inside anyone who walked too close. Everywhere Kayden looked, there were more. Zorphan girls with skin in every shade of blue imaginable, just like Zlara. Pale, slender Gheelian twins with four arms each, using all of them to beckon passersby into a massage parlor. A lone Vexari girl with jet-black skin and glowing red eyes leaning in a doorway, her body wrapped in nothing but smoke that curled and shifted around her like a living garment, occasionally revealing everything before concealing it again. The air was thick with the thumping bass of a dozen different songs bleeding into one another, the sweet burn of aphrodisiac incense, the scent of exotic perfumes, sweat, and something primal that had no name. Street vendors sold glowing drinks, pills that promised enhanced sensation, and tiny vials of oils that were being rubbed onto the skin of willing customers right there on the sidewalk. Laughter, moaning, music, and the clinking of glasses created a constant, overwhelming symphony of indulgence.