Part 11

This work is the conclusion of Scout, by Warlord, an unfinished story that captured my imagination and demanded a conclusion. Whether or not my conclusion is anything near what Warlord had originally planned, I have no idea, but it is what I came up with. I realize that my writing style differs from his, but I tried to maintain as much similarity as possible for as long as possible.

Several phrases and sections are copied directly from Warlord’s work to maintain more continuity, especially launch and landing sequences.

And yes, before anyone emails me, I can see the irony since my own story, Citizen Miller, remains incomplete. I wrote this BEFORE I started Citizen Miller. And no, I still don’t see myself finishing Citizen Miller.

Chapter 54

Andrea gently kissed my cheek as she asked, “Where next, my Captain?”

Ben echoed her, “Yes, young Ed, what is your next destination?”

An excellent question. Where next should the black queen Shark appear on this chessboard? I turned to them, saying, “Now that we have Rampage and all these troops and bots, it only makes sense that we go to the secret Navy base to re-arm and re-equip everyone. While there, we will review our chain of command and see exactly what we have. After that, a visit to St. Louis and an interview with Cherry is in order.”

Ben nodded, smirking. “I’m looking forward to seeing you and Cherry spar. It should be an interesting contest.”

I asked Ben to personally tell Cherry, face to face, that I agreed to the interview, but only if she would do me one large favor.

He nodded sagely at my strategy, once I explained it to him. “I see that your highborn slaves have taught you some things,” he teased.

“They make me play chess,” I whined, making him laugh.

I motioned Carlisa over and asked her to work with Molly and Cara making sure that the raider’s captives were fed, clothed, and given any necessary medical care. I realized that we might need more medics and doctors in the near future, and made a mental note to have Bev and Agatha program their medical knowledge into several more of Enigma’s bots.

Once each captive’s basic needs were taken care of, I wanted them interviewed briefly to determine if they had any helpful information or skills that might be useful to us. With our number now at four hundred, including the new troops and current crew, plus two hundred fifty bots, who knew what skills would be handy? I wasn’t overly hopeful about any of the women having any useful information since the raiders made it a practice to kill anyone who might have overheard anything.

I motioned to a passing bot that was helping to lead former captives to the staging area near Shark.

“Please contact bots Aurora and Dawn, and ask them not to shut down the AIs from the raider’s ships after they vacuum and clean them. Have them catalog each AI, from strongest to weakest. I might want to add some of them to Rampage, as well as its transports and shuttles. I definitely want to add the AI from Enigma if it is willing to work with us.”

“Yes Sir,” the bot replied enthusiastically as it saluted me. The bots had evidently noted and copied the salute used by the blue-clad Demarest forces. Another mental note: we need names for the bots. Maybe something as simple as what Gran did with Kits two through fifty-whatever. “Sharkling” was too long. I decided to let the ladies deal with that issue.

I decided that it was time to face the music. With no small amount of trepidation, I approached Shark, wondering what my lovely slaves were about to foist upon me, their “Captain Master Darling”. At the base of Shark’s entrance ramp I took a deep, calming breath, and walked up the ramp like a condemned man forced to walk the plank!

“Captain on the bridge,” Aella announced with the usual military command authority in her voice.

“As you were. Continue with what you were doing,” I told Aella. She and Kit were obviously interviewing the first group of the raider ship AIs. I noted that each box holding each AI had a number hand-written on the top of the container.

Having stalled as long as I could, I turned nervously to the crowd that was awaiting me just as nervously. Besides my princess Andrea, Abbi, Anima, and Charlie, there were a dozen women that I didn’t recognize.

“Captain Daggett, welcome,” I told the tall, well-endowed redhead. She was easy to spot wearing a cap with the name ‘Rampage‘ and the Shark logo on the front and the word ‘Captain’ beneath it.

“Were all the Amazons handpicked for their bust size?” I wondered.

“Thank you, Sir. I prefer Nina, if you don’t mind,” she answered, saluting and grinning broadly after watching me take note of her assets.

“Colonel Powell, welcome,” I told the slightly shorter, but no less well-endowed black-haired woman next to her.

“Thank you, Sir, I prefer Trina if you don’t mind,” she answered as she took her turn saluting. “Or Kitty in private,” she added, blushing as she smirked.

Ben had obviously gone all out. She also had a cap, one with ‘Colonel’ beneath the Shark logo. Her long, lustrous hair was pulled into a ponytail and pulled through the back of the cap.

Aside from the cap, both women were deliciously naked. It was now obvious what Andrea meant when she told me that she had ‘explained’.

I allowed myself one deep sigh to show my annoyance. “Slave Andrea, would you please introduce our guests?”

My blonde goddess stepped forward confidently. “Master, if it pleases you, may I present my cousin Idylle Danell, daughter of a minor wife of my Uncle, Admiral Rutger Danell. She requests your protection.”

I could definitely see the family resemblance. She looked to be slightly younger than my princess was. She had the same long blonde hair, large, firm breasts, and those big pink nipples that I loved. While attractive, she was somewhat gaunt and filthy, but nothing a good shower, good food, plentiful food, and sleep couldn’t fix.

I also wondered about the odds against my Princess Goddess Andrea’s cousin also being a captive. Her father had been instrumental in procuring both the upgraded engine and gun for Shark, as well as some of the other special upgrades. I wonder if he knew about the malicious lines of code in Shark’s system and if Shark had been built as his gift to the raiders. His daughter had been captured shortly after my design meeting with him. Two brothers, both admirals, and both possibly in cahoots with the raiders. If so, I wondered how deeply in the family the corruption ran.

Andrea urged a shorter and remarkably (for this group of women anyway) small-breasted woman forward. In actuality, she was average sized, but having been exposed for so long to the tastes of my father and grandfather, well, you get the picture.

“This is Princess Cailyhn Nennis. Her father is the head of the Athens Senate. Tower Nennis and the Nennis family estate are also next to the Emperor’s.”

“FUCK ME!” I thought. I’m sure Andrea correctly interpreted the look on my face because she giggled. I’d finally gotten past my nervousness about having the Princess daughter of the Emperor’s cousin in my bed, and now I had the Princess daughter of another one of the Empire’s most powerful men. One reason I wanted to be a scout was to distance myself from the court and the politics associated with it. As I’d already demonstrated, politics and court intrigue were not my forte.

Nevertheless, even here beyond the Wastes, on an uncharted and otherwise uninhabited planet, I’ve managed to step into court politics much like the explorers on Old Earth could step in animal excrement if they weren’t careful about where they were walking.

A third woman stepped forward, head held high, shoulders back, and a truly regal air about her. Unfortunately, I’d watched her pass out at the end of a leash earlier in the day looking none too regal. I noticed several bruises across her breasts, stomach, and legs similar to the ones I’d seen on her back. “This is Princess Jayden Marline. Her father has large holdings on every planet and lives on Athens.”

Jayden stepped in front of me and knelt. She took my hand, kissed it, and pressed it to her breast. “Captain, I pledge myself to you to be your devoted slave. You saved my life this morning and my life now belongs to you.”

I pulled her to me and kissed her lightly. “Welcome, Princess,” I said.

Andrea motioned to the second redhead in the group and she stepped forward. “This is Perele Stanford, younger daughter of General Riley Stanford. She would have been presented as a new princess to the court of Quintin in two years when she reaches her majority.

“I’m sure you remember our five other new members: Kiera Grudner, Jasmyn Milgram, Malandra Claass, Blanid Winstead, and Verenia Hemler. These women provided information and assistance to us and have requested to become part of our crew, as well as to personally thank you for rescuing everyone.”

“Ladies, welcome aboard Shark and Rampage, your new homes. As my impertinent slave, Andrea, has obviously advised you, Shark is a clothing-free ship. We remain nude except when in port. In port, we dress only as necessary for visitors and to leave the ship and I see no reason not to continue the tradition on Rampage. Captain, Colonel, will that cause any problems?”

“No, Sir,” both replied simultaneously.

“Thank you, ladies, as soon as we’re done here, I’d like cables run between Shark and Rampage to hook their AIs together.”

The questioning look on their faces told me that Ben hadn’t told them about my little experiment. I covered the highlights of combining the AIs and my concern about the possibility of malicious code in Rampage’s programming.

“I want a clean bill of health for all programming on Rampage, both of her shuttles, and both of her transports before we lift off.”

Ashen-faced, Captain Daggett requested and received permission to begin immediately.

“Why don’t you ladies clean up and have something to eat. Andrea, if you could find them something to wear while we’re still here on the planet. Colonel, when the women are ready, please assign a couple of 8-sticks to accompany them to collect their personal belongings. After that, report to Rampage and work out accommodations for everyone. Once we have finished here, we will be going to a secret Navy base to re-supply and make some modifications to the ships. Then we go to St. Louis to meet with Cherry.”

That bit of news was met with an excited outburst from everyone.

I dismissed the ladies to do what they’d been assigned, telling them I’d be in my quarters. I wanted a few quiet minutes to finish planning the next few days.

“Master, may I speak with you privately?” Perele asked hesitantly.

“Of course. Charlie, please wait here to accompany her when we’re done. Aella, you have the bridge,” I announced.

I motioned Perele to my cabin and the ready room door slid closed behind us. “What can I do for you Perele?”

“Ummmmm, this is kind of awkward,” she said.

“Would it be more awkward if you told me while we showered?”

“No, and it might be more fun,” she answered hopefully.

She watched while I carefully replaced my katana and the wakizashi on their special stand, pausing respectfully before closing the glass case. My combat harness and weapons went on the desk. Perele helped me remove the body armor, and then my nanite treated leather uniform.

I paged Aella. “Aella, please send a maintenance robot to my quarters to clean my uniform and armor.”

“Yes, Captain,” she replied.

I pulled Perele into to my big shower. Just watching the intense pleasure she felt from the simple indulgence of a warm shower was a joy.

I squirted shampoo into her hair and scrubbed her scalp and her copper tresses. Next, I rinsed her hair, watching the soap bubbles run down her lithe body, running between her breasts and other curvy parts of her body before cascading to the floor from her sex and the underside of her tight ass cheeks or running erotically down her legs.

She melted into me as I massaged the soap into her skin with my hands, enjoying the slickness of her soft skin.

“Sorry,” I told her when she cried out and jumped as I pressed my soapy hand between her delectable butt cheeks, touching her nether hole. I’d been extra gentle with the purple bruises on her back.

“It’s pretty sore right now,” she apologized.

I pressed my hand against her full lips stopping any further explanation. “No need to apologize. Please tell me any time something is uncomfortable. I never want to hurt you.”

“Would you hurt me once, just a little bit, if I asked you to?”

“Depends,” I replied as I rinsed her off gently. I turned her around and began the immensely enjoyable task of washing her front. “Any sore spots on the front?”

“Just the obvious ones,” she replied, indicating the bruises on her cheek and breasts.

I’m not sure which of us enjoyed her shower and fondling more.

She returned the favor when I finished, surprising me by taking my cock in her mouth and sucking me until I painted her mouth and talented tongue with my cum. Like a trooper, she swallowed it, grinning at me the entire time.

After she rinsed me, I pushed her out into the drying chamber, following closely. I led her from the drying chamber back to the bedroom. “You never did tell me what you need,” I reminded her.

She pulled me down onto the bed and snuggled up against me, her head resting on my chest and one leg across my groin.

“I was promised in marriage two years ago to a prominent businessman my family wanted to cement ties with. He insisted that I be a virgin on our wedding day and I was young enough that I hadn’t had penetrative sex yet. A week ago, I was on my way to his estate on Athens to finalize wedding arrangements. The wedding was supposed to be next week. Obviously, I never made it.

“When the pirates found out I was a virgin, they contacted someone important. He warned them that I’d better still be a virgin when he arrived. They used me anally and orally, but made sure I was still a virgin. The guy got here very late last night and took four women to bed with him. This morning I was to be given to him to deflower but you arrived first. Some of the other women said they killed everyone he took to bed so nobody could identify him. I would have been killed sometime today.

“But you saved me. You and I are the only two people who know that I’m still a virgin. I don’t want to marry the man I’m betrothed to. He’s older than my father and I don’t even like him. If I wasn’t a virgin anymore everyone would just assume that the pirates were the ones who did it and then he wouldn’t want to marry me.”

“So, you’re telling me that you want me to make love to you?” Her hopeful smile answered my question. “And that’s what you meant about wanting me to hurt you a little--once?”

“Please?” she asked as her hand found and fondled my cock.

You know me well enough by now to know that I can’t say no to a damsel in distress--or any damsel for that matter--especially if they’re naked and have hold of my cock.

I rolled her over and went down on her. “Oh, thank you Master,” she howled as she came the first time. I crawled up her body and pressed my cock against her virginal slit.

“Yes, yes,” she cried out. “Do it, now,” she pleaded when I bumped her intact membrane. I pressed forward, feeling her virginity surrendered as I buried my cock inside of her.

“Shit, that hurt,” she gasped while I waited for her to adjust to having me inside. I joined her enthusiastically a couple of minutes later when she began the dance again. We climaxed together, mine first, starting hers as she felt a man fill her pussy with cum for the first time.

“Thank you, Master. I’m going to enjoy being your slave for as long as you’ll keep me,” she sighed contentedly a few minutes later.

“Well, slave; I’ve a battle to clean up after. Take another quick shower and then have Charlie escort you to retrieve your personal belongings.”

“Yes, Master,” she answered, happily, kissing me hard and deep.

I slapped her tight butt lightly. “Naughty slave, let your master get back to work.”

Her giggle was delightful.

“Long conversation?” Charlie quipped as I exited the bedroom. She could obviously see Perele still splayed lewdly across my bed.

“Spoils of war,” I retorted, receiving a giggle from Charlie, too.

“Captain on the bridge,” Aella announced. She reported that the AIs from the raider ships had been vacuumed and washed, and were cooperative, as was the AI from Enigma.

“Aella, how many AI hookups does Rampage have?”

“Six, captain, just like Shark.”

“Crystal, for now, I’d like to transfer Daisy and Melete to Rampage along with the two best AIs we just salvaged. First, however, check the raider AIs for malicious codes. Once they’ve begun integrating, add the next two best AIs to Shark, and integrate them. Once the AIs on Rampage have integrated, update their star charts, and complete the check for bad code on Rampage.

“Once the two new AIs here are integrated, transfer them to the two transports and integrate two new ones. I want three AIs on each transport, five on Shark, and five on Rampage. Then I want a quick-connect harness to hook the ships, shuttles, and transports together when we’re docked inside Rampage. Is that doable?”

“Yes, Captain. AI integration should take about an hour. Checking for and clearing bad code from Rampage, if they find any, should take about three hours. I’ll have the harness begun immediately.”

“Have the transports or shuttles been named?”

“Not yet, Captain, just Rampage and Shark.”

“Keeping with fish names, name the transports Pike and Barracuda. Name the shuttles Gar and Piranha. That should make it easier to distinguish them in the future.”

Laughing, Crystal answered, “Yes, Sir.”

“Thank you, Crystal. I’m going over to Rampage, and then I’ll look around outside. Keep me informed about how things are going. Crystal has the bridge,” I announced.

Andrea, Abbi, Anima, and Charlie were there with our new guests, each of whom was now dressed in one of Shark’s ‘official’ nanite treated leather uniforms. I noticed that the left bicep was bare from the shoulder joint halfway to the elbow to show their slave ‘tattoos’ when they had them done.

“Where did those come from?” I asked.

Andrea laughed. “Your father thinks ahead. He gave every one of your new troops three uniforms and sent enough of the material that the replicators can make more uniforms. The replicators made these for our new crew members, but they won’t have enough to make uniforms for all of Enigma’s bots.”

“He also made a complete set of our favorite weapons for your new troops and sent an additional one hundred complete sets. He included your favorite knife, my throwing knives and throwing axe, Charlie’s two daggers, your compact rail gun, the Scout Model Swiss Army Knives, and the arrow guns. In addition, he sent five thousand more war quarrels for the arrow guns. Each one of your troops also has the two sets of armor, a daisho, and a tanto.”

[Ed’s note: A daisho is the paired swords, the katana and wakizashi. The tanto is a separate blade.}

I was stunned. How much fucking money were they spending on me? I knew they’d make quite a profit from the first planet and the salvaged ships. The slaves would bring in more money, but I was still floored. I still remember how nervous I’d been asking for Shark and how surprised I’d been at all the upgrades they had added. Rampage had to have cost at least eight to ten times as much as Shark had. Throw in the cost of two transports, two shuttles, forty-eight 8-sticks of trained and fully armed troops, a captain, a colonel, and who knows what else, and we were easily talking about more than twenty times the original investment in Shark.

At least this planet would help recoup some of what they had spent. The fifteen ships plus the Enigma, another hundred or so slaves, and the Stepfords would also help. Who knew what was in the warehouses? That reminded me...

“Crystal, leave all the Stepfords with Ben. I don’t want to get into trouble for having them aboard, even though we saved them. Also, have we heard anything about the raider interrogations or the inventories?”

All I received in the way of an answer was negative shakes of heads so I headed for the saloon. On the way I caught the attention of a passing Enigma bot. “Locate bots Aurora and Dawn for me please.”

“Fifth house on the right,” she said pointing across the street from the saloon.

I entered the house and was given the once-over by a couple of the Enigma bots before they let me pass. “Where are Aurora and Dawn?”

The bot on the right responded. “Dawn’s in there,” she said pointing to the room at the back of the ground floor. “Aurora’s up there. First door on the left,” she said pointing upstairs.

“Let them know I’m here and will be coming in.”

I knocked on the door at the back and entered. The guy knew his time was up soon, and he looked like it. “Please don’t kill me,” he begged, looking up at me, pleading.

“If you’ve cooperated and told us everything, and it’s all the truth, I promise I won’t let them torture you. Your death will be quick, painless, and unexpected.”

His head dropped, defeated. “I’ve told them everything ... please,” he sobbed.

I looked to Dawn. “As far as we can tell, he’s told us everything and he’s told us the truth.”

“Okay, take him across the street and lock him in one of the rooms over there for now. Post a guard inside and outside the room, and one outside the window if there is one.”

He looked relieved as Dawn jerked him roughly to his feet. Once he had passed me, I motioned to Dawn, drawing my finger across my throat. She nodded her acknowledgment.

I went back to the bot guarding the front door. “Let the others know to take the raiders into a back room at the saloon and kill them quickly and quietly--no suffering if they cooperated. If they didn’t cooperate, see if any of their former captives would like to ‘play’ with them.”

“Done, they all cooperated,” she answered a couple seconds later.

“Have the interrogators meet me aboard Rampage when they’re done. Can you find Agatha and Beverly?”

“They’re on their way to Rampage right now. Estimated arrival in five minutes,” she informed me.

I thanked her and headed back to Rampage, stopping by Ben’s shuttle. “Want to join me for dinner?” I asked nodding towards Rampage. “Then you can find out just what we’ve captured.”

Ben and Gwen came with me, Gwen glued tightly to my side, pressing her body tightly against me. I checked, but Ben was fine with what she was doing. “Someday I intend to thank you properly for saving me,” she giggled.

“Just make sure that it’s okay with Ben, first,” I cautioned her.

“I already did,” she giggled.

Agatha and Bev saw us approaching and slowed to let us catch up. “How was the hunting?” I asked.

“Unbelievable,” was all Agatha said.

Ben froze in his tracks when we walked in. “How the hell do you concentrate?” he asked, his head twisting around trying to take in all the nude female bodies walking and standing around. I grinned when several went out of their way to provide him with a better view.

“Looks like you may have a long, hard night ahead of you, big brother,” I teased when they did.

Bev directed me to my new “war room” where people were already waiting for me.

“Holy shit,” I commented. The room was easily eight times the size of my ready room aboard Shark. There were long tables, seats for over a hundred, and all types of audio/visual projection equipment. Damn, this really was an honest to goodness war room!

My goddess princess motioned me to the front of the room.

Looking over the room I wondered if it would end up being big enough before this was all over. In attendance were the seven women and four bots who had joined me in this raid, and our now numerous AIs--most of whom were new enough that I didn’t recognize them. Also present were Captain Daggett, Colonel Powell and our nine new crew members. Include Ben and Gwen, a smattering of Enigma’s bots, and dozens of my new Amazon troops, and the crowd overflowed through the door and into the area beyond.

“Crystal, report please.”

“Thank you, Captain Master Darling.”

I buried my head in my hands and shook it while snickering filled the room.

Crystal continued, unfazed. “While none of the raiders we took prisoner knew the name of the VIP, they referred to him as ‘The Trader’. He oversaw conducting business with the black market. All the top raider leaders have guards with orders not to let them be taken alive, or to be identified if they are captured dead. We double-checked, but his ID chip had been removed. We did take a DNA sample, just in case. We had each prisoner do a sketch of him and then had each one look at the sketches from the other four. All five sketches were close, and once all five had been compiled, we had what we felt was a good sketch of the man.”

A holographic representation of the sketch appeared next to Crystal. “Hopefully someone will be able to identify him. Perhaps you should give the picture to Cherry to release when you talk with her. The Trader was here to see to the disbursement of the food and weapons stored here. Evidently, he was a couple of days earlier than usual because a captive who had just recently been captured was a virgin and was being saved for him. We can only assume that she was one of the four women killed in bed with him.”

I glanced over at Perele. She was trying to suppress a smirk when she glanced back at me. Charlie was grinning at me knowingly.

“We have compiled a map with all trips the fifteen raider ships, including Enigma, made for the last six months,” Crystal continued. The hologram changed to a map of the Empire and the area we knew held the hidden planets. Yellow lines appeared showing each trip made over the last six months.

Four planets were suddenly highlighted in red. “We have pinpointed the four hidden planets that received the most traffic. This planet--Bringer’s home world, and the last planet--Reprisal’s home world, were two of them,” she said as the two planets started flashing.

“The Trader’s ship had just come from here,” she continued as a planet much farther away from the Empire started flashing. “We feel this is the raider’s main base. The fourth planet is on the other side of the Empire, and is where Enigma picked up the Stepfords.”

“FUCK YEAH,” I exclaimed excitedly. “That’s where their Stepford factory must be. That’s why Enigma was traveling this way with the Stepfords.”

Crystal smiled indulgently. “We believe the women who were transformed into Stepfords were chosen from the other raider planets and delivered here. Then someone still unknown to us delivered them to Enigma at one of their rendezvous points. Captain Bowen would pick up the Stepfords when the process was completed, and deliver them back to one of four different rendezvous points, along with whatever other cargo she had for the raiders. None of the ships here today had any records of picking up the Stepfords from here or delivering them to the Enigma or to anywhere else.

“This planet seems to have been a central staging area for almost everything. Things from the Empire were delivered here by raider ships. Other raider ships would take the items from here to their other planets.

“As I stated before, we think the fourth planet is their headquarters. Both it and the Stepford planet are heavily fortified and both have over three hundred heavily armed raider troops to augment their bot troops.

“We have installed the additional AIs as you requested. All are fully integrated and functioning together, after clearing the malicious codes from the raider AIs. We have reviewed their names and feel that you will want to change three of them. The two AIs added to Shark are Freyda and Athena.”

Freyda was average of height and exceptional of cleavage. Athena was built like the famous Greek statue of Venus--wide feminine hips and large, firm breasts.

Crystal continued. “Rampage, both shuttles, and both transports are free of the malicious codes.

“All five of the raiders we questioned admitted that this was a trans-shipment point. It was rumored that they were preparing for an invasion designed to cut off the head of the Empire’s government. They were still waiting for something else to happen first, and it was rumored that it would happen soon.”