Carefully, Stella climbed up the steep ridge. The gravity on this planet was only about two-thirds that on old Earth. One errant step would be enough to send her several meters up into the air, well above the ridge line and quite visible against the rust red sky overhead. The last thing she wanted was for anyone on the other side to spot her coming. As she got close to the top, she got down on her hands and knees and crawled the last few meters, until she could just peek over the dusty reddish-orange peak into the depression beyond.
Stella was a baseline Terran female, about 40 T-years old, though the anti-aging gene therapies that were common among most strains of humanity meant biologically she was just passing out of adolescence and into full womanhood. She was dressed in a standard spacer’s jumpsuit, sleek and tight fitting against her tall, curvy figure, the color shifting outer layer currently set to a mottled camouflage designed to blend in to the dull, reddish-orange rocks of the planet. It had no name, beyond a standard star-chart designation, though it was at least far enough along its terraforming to have a breathable atmosphere, which meant she’d left the suit’s helmet behind, exposing a narrow, oval shaped face, pale and freckled with dark blue eyes. Her auburn hair was cropped short, spacer-fashion, to avoid the hassle for those occasions when she couldn’t ditch the helmet.
Sprawled across the ridge, Stella reached down to her belt. Her gloved hand went past the synth-leather holster holding her Mark 14 Ray Pistol, to the pair of electro-binoculars. They, along with the other assorted the gadgets and devices slung on the utility belt made up the tools of the trade for a space bounty hunter.
Raising the binoculars to her face, Stella scanned the gorge below. The small, silver object she’d spotted when she flew over, jumped towards her, revealing a space ship. It was saucer shaped, maybe twenty meters in diameter. Painted around the rim of the saucer were icons of circles joined with lines: Martaran pirate sigils. It’s three spindly legs were down, as was the boarding ramp, though there didn’t seem to be anyone around. A set of tracks in the thick dust running from the ramp down deeper into the gorge told where at least some of the crew had gone, and recently judging from the freshness of the tracks.
“Bingo!” Stella said, putting the binoculars away. Three weeks of tracking the Rothoth gang as they carried out their latest crime spree; taking isolated ships and hitting frontier settlements, had paid off. The 10,000 Credit bounty on their heads was as hers now. She drew her ray pistol, holding it at the ready as she ran over the crest of the hill and down the other side.
This time, she didn’t bother taking her time, crawling would do her little good, exposed on the side of the hill. She’d rely on speed and the hope there was no one watching. In the low gravity, it only took her a dozen long bounds to get down to the bottom of the gorge where she could take cover in the larger rocks that had slid down the steep sides and now littered the ground all around. To her relief, there was no cry of alarm, no streak of ray fire.
A bit more cautiously, she approached the ship. Again, she made it to the open ramp without seeing anyone, hopefully without being seen by anyone she didn’t see. Poking her head up inside, she checked the interior, which didn’t take long. Saucer craft like that weren’t big on space. Like most, it had an open deck plan with the control panels on a central pillar and everything else: sleeping couches, food dispenser, refresher and cargo bays placed around the outside.
The cargo bays were empty, but for a few containers of standard supplies and spare parts for the ship. According to Stella’s latest information, the gang had hit an atvarian freighter two T-days ago and made off with a cargo of Quaranian ivory. It was nowhere to be seen.
“They must be caching it here.” Stella thought. Small time outfits like this usually had hidden outposts on isolated worlds where they could stash any stolen loot until the heat had died down enough they could safely sell it of. Stella guessed she’d found theirs.
Leaving the saucer, Stella followed the line of tracks in the dust, winding down from the wider part of the gorge where the ship was landed, to the deeper, narrower end. The sides grew steeper and close together, till it was more of a narrow canyon or even a crevasse.
As she followed them, Stella studied the tracks. They were large, but human sized, with the treads of space boots. The footprints were sunk deep in the dust. Either the wearers were of a particularly heavy breed or they’d been carrying something that was. She kept trying to guess how many there were, but it was futile gesture. They must have made several trips and the footprints were completely intermingled with one another. Most of the reports Stella had followed as she tracked them across the frontier put the gang at three. It seemed about right for the size of the ship, she thought.
A quarter of a miles down the canyon, Stella found the cave. She had to admit the pirates had chosen their hideout well. It was hidden by a bend in the rock face, easy to miss and walk past. The only reason she’d spotted it at all was because the tracks had bent straight towards it, and with the wind blowing through the valley, those would be completely erased a few hours from now. After checking her pistol to make sure it had a charge and was ready to fire, Stella plunged into the dark opening.
For a few moments, the bounty hunter groped through the darkness, feeling her way along a rough stone wall. She didn’t dare turn on the light-stick on her belt, not if she wanted any chance of sneaking up on the pirates undetected. Fortunately, after a few meters, the narrow opening widened into a full cave. While the pirates hadn’t done anything to the outside of the cave to avoid any hint it was anything but a natural rock formation, they’d apparently been at work turning the inside of the cave into a proper base for their raids.
They’d reinforced the rock walls with metal struts, laying down metal grate flooring They’d strung up some bare luminators here and there for illumination, seemingly at random which fortunately left plenty of patches of shadow to let her creep in unseen. At one corner was a small living area filled with chairs and couches ripped from starships. Empty ration packets and other detritus were scattered all over. Clearly the pirates didn’t put as much effort into keeping their base clean. Just past the living area was another tunnel winding off deeper into the rock.
The rest of the cave was filled with scattered pallets of crates and boxes of loot. Stella hid behind a pallet of steel drums that, from their markings, held starship fuel looted from a frontier mining supply ship. From her position, she watched the gang and made her plans.
There were, sure enough, three pirates in the cave. Like all Martarians, they were tall, burly humanoids, hairless with dark green skin. These three were dressed in black jumpsuits, utility belts at their waists, with ray pistols holstered at the side. At the moment, the pirates had their backs to Stella. They were squatting in a tight semi-circle, heads bowed intently on something on the ground in front of them. As Stella heard the rattling of several small objects on the floor, accompanied by excited murmurings from the three pirates. Stella guessed they were rolling dice, divvying up the spoils of their last raid perhaps, or simply gambling to pass the time.
None of the three seemed to notice Stella as she stepped out from behind her hiding place, so intent were they on their game. The bounty hunter raised her pistol. It was almost too easy, shooting them down with their backs turned. She could hit all three before the first one even knew he’d been hit…
Then she hesitated. “Only half the bounty if their dead...” She thought. Stella paused, greed wrestling with practicality. Eventually, greed won out. Instead of shooting, she assumed a confident pose, legs spread shoulder length, one hand set on her hip, while the other kept the pistol trained on the three Martarians.
“Alright boys!” She called in a sharp, confident tone, “Anyone makes a sudden movement, he’s a dead man! Stand up now and raise those hands!”
The pirates gave a cry of alarm and jumped to their feet. Stella wondered if one of them might do something rash, but when they turned and saw she had a gun trained on them, they knew they were caught. Grumbling, they raised their hands.
“You’re going to regret this, bitch!” The largest, burliest and ugliest of the thugs, the leader, Stella guessed, growled angrily.
“I don’t think so.” Stella replied, ordering: “Take your guns out, one at a time, slowly, and toss them across the room. You first!” She emphasized by jabbing her pistol towards the pirate on the right. He grumbled, but started taking out his pistol slowly. He bent down and dropped it on the ground. “There’s a big fat bounty for the three of you!” She added, “I aim to collect it!”
Of the different reactions this could have provoked, Stella wasn’t expecting it to be laughter. A sly grin crossed their craggy faces, revealing mouths full of small sharp teeth. She was about to demand an explanation when the leader spoke up.
“There’s four of us.” At that moment, the bounty hunter heard movement from across the cave. Without bothering to turn and look, Stella flung herself to one side, not a second too soon. A bright green beam blazed through the dim space where she’d been standing, sparking off a metal strut. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted another Martaran standing at the entrance to the other tunnel, a smoking pistol in his hand. He must have stepped out of the main cave for a moment, just before Stella had made her entrance.
“So much for those witness reports...” She thought. The newcomer looked very similar to one of the three she’d held at gunpoint. Brothers, perhaps, maybe even clones. Easy to imagine witnesses, scattered and confused by the chaos of the pirate’s attack, easily mistaking one pirate for another, reporting three pirates instead of four.
At the same time she threw herself to the ground, Stella squeezed off a shot from her own ray pistol towards the leader of the pirates, but the three of them had been just as quick to scatter with the first shot. Two were jumping behind a nearby stack of crates, guns drawn, while the third was scrabbling after the pistol he’d been forced to toss aside. Stella took a second shot at him and he howled as the bright red beam burned a gash across one thigh.
Before she could finish him off though, the other pirates had gotten in place and began shooting back, forcing Stella to jump back behind the metal drums. By the time she’d taken cover and poked her head back out, the wounded Martaran had managed to crawl behind the partially disassembled engine block of a Thyrithan patrol craft.
“Damn!” Stella swore, as a steady volley of ray shots slammed into the stack of drums she was crouched behind, punching holes into the thick metal, spilling the contents, some sort of aquamarine grain, onto the cave floor. When they paused to let their pistol’s charge up again, Stella popped up and sent a flurry of shots herself, one of which was close enough to leave a flash burn across one pirate’s jumpsuit, but aside from making him yelp and duck down further, it accomplished nothing. Their return fire forced her back down into cover and chewed up more of the metal drums. It was obvious they wouldn’t hold back the concentrated ray fire for much longer.
Frantically, Stella looked at her options. Behind her was the tunnel entrance she’d come in, the only escape route open with the late comer guarding the other tunnel entrance. But there was a good five meters of open space between her and it. The shadows would do her little good now and even with the low gravity she’d never make it without being cut down halfway. In the other direction, though, deeper into the cave, were more piles of loot close by, a couple of which looked sturdy enough to give her protection for a while longer at least. It wasn’t much but at the moment it seemed her best option.
When the last volley of incoming fire subsided somewhat, Stella popped up again, snapping off some shots, but wildly as she also took the chance to scrambled up and throw herself toward a couple heavy duty metal trunks that looked to hold spare parts. The pirates quickly realized what was up and opened fire, but by then she was already behind the metal bulk which shrugged off their fire more or less intact.
When it died down again, Stella rose to return fire but as she did, she saw she’d been outplayed. One of the pirates, the captain, had hung back while his men shot, holding fire until she came up again. With a cry, Stella ducked back down but was a second too late. The bright green beam missed her, but it sheered off a chunk from the side of her pistol. With a yelp, she tossed the smoking, sparking wreck aside, though fortunately it didn’t explode.
“Let’s get her!” One of the pirates cried, jumping up from his position. Stella popped back up, her backup pistol in hand, and managed to snap off a quick shot before the other pirate’s return fire forced her back down. It missed, but sent the overconfident pirate scrambling back into cover. The exchange of fire continued, back and forth, with Stella getting the worst of it. Her backup ray gun was just that: a backup. A small holdout pistol, easy to conceal but the charger was slow and the capacitor only capable of a couple weak shots before having to recharge. For every blind shot she snapped off, hurriedly poking out from behind the barrels, a dozen or so shredded her cover. Seeing their advantage, the pirates crew confident again.
“Move around the sides!” The captain ordered. “We’ll cover you!” He put word to action, firing several more shots into Stella’s position. Two of the pirates joined in while the third jumped and scrabbled for another position in cover. Stella tried to shoot as he did, but the incoming fire forced her to snap off her shots quickly, without aiming and duck back down. Both were wide off the mark.
After a pause to let the flanking pirate catch his breath and for the rest to charge their pistols again, they went for it again. Stella tried to shoot, but this time the return fire was close enough to shower her with sparks off the metal drums and she had to duck back into cover while the pirate moved closer to flanking her position.
With a groan, Stella took stock of the situation. Just another dash or two and the pirates would be able to get behind a thick pillar of rock, from where he could shoot at Stella unprotected while being safe himself. Meanwhile the other pirates could keep her pinned down with their ray pistols.
The bounty hunter saw things going against her now. She looked for some other source of cover where she couldn’t be flanked so easily, but any spots were too far off, across open floor. She’d be cut down before she’d taken more then two steps. “Damn!” Stella swore. She was boxed in, only one choice offered her any chance of making it out of this alive. A slim chance, sure, but when every other route she saw led to certain death? What choice did she have?
“Don’t shoot!” She called out, when there was a pause in the volley of ray blasts. A few more thudded into the thick metal casing, but she repeated. “Don’t shoot!” At this, the pirates paused, perhaps more curious then anything.
“Why shouldn’t we?” The captain said, suspiciously. “Way I see it, we’ve got you just about where we want you!”
“You’ve got me!” Stella agreed. “I’m gonna surrender! Just don’t shoot me!”
“If you’re surrendering, toss your gun out!” The pirate leader ordered. “No tricks now! I know all about you bounty hunters and your gadgets.” Stella grimaced. He was right on the money there, but unfortunately such tricks cost credits and after a spell of bad luck, Stella had little enough left over after keeping her ship running and herself fed for anything but a few minor gadgets. None of which would be much use here.
Biting her lip, she tossed her pistol over the top of the case, where it skidded across the decking, coming to rest in the middle between her and the pirates, where they could easily gun her down if she were foolish enough to try and go for it again.
“Alright now, you come on out to, slowly and with your hands raised! And don’t think of trying anything!” The captain shouted.
Suppressing a shiver of fright, Stella first raised her hands up, where they could be seen, then stood up herself. If they were going to put a beam in her, now would be the time to do it. She saw the captain stick his own head up above the crates. His men remained in cover, just in case she did have some trick planned after all. To her relief, all he did was watch her, scowling.
“Step out from behind there...slowly.” He ordered. Stella relaxed as she felt she wasn’t going to be shot out of hand. But only a little. There were still all sorts of things they could still do to her and she was completely helpless now.
“Easy now...” She said, keeping her hands up. “I’m unarmed.”
The green alien snorted. “Take your clothes off.” He ordered.
“What!?!” Stella exclaimed, outraged. “You can’t be serious!”
“Maybe you don’t have another gun...” The pirate said, “But you could still have all sorts of gadgets and tricks. I’m just making sure you won’t be able to use them...” The pirate said, the leering tone in his voice telling the lie. “Now, take your clothes off...or else...” He raised his ray pistol, menacingly.
“Okay! Okay!” Stella hurriedly said, in a placating tone. “She moved a hand to the zipper of her jumpsuit, keeping the other hand raised. Then, she hesitated, still unwilling to strip naked in front of four burly aliens. An angry growl from the pirate made up her mind. Face flushing red, she pulled down the zipper, baring her pale bare chest. It went all the way to the crotch where it stopped, a patch of curly red hair peaking out from below.
Awkwardly, Stella pulled her arms out of the integrated gloves and sleeves, then she pulled the suit down her long legs and slipped it off along with the boots. Tossing the whole mass aside, over by her back up pistol, she straightened up. Her face was bright red as she tried to cover herself with her hands, standing fully naked in front of the four pirates.
The other three had popped up the moment she had started undressing, ready to take in the free show of a pretty girl stripping naked in front of them. Now all four had come out from cover and stood in a loose group a few feet away, ogling their pretty prisoner. If she’d kept a stun grenade back, now would be the perfect time to use it...only she didn’t have a stun grenade. She’d used her last one on a bounty in the Junka system and the bounty had been barely enough to fix up her ship after she’d crashed it chasing him there, much less buy new munitions. Besides, at the moment, the places she could hide such a grenade were somewhat...limited.
“Put these on.” The captain ordered, taking a pair of wrist binders from his belt and tossing them on the ground by Stella’s feet. She bent down, keeping one arm across her chest and picked up the steel manacles. “Behind your back.” He added. The young woman flushed red again, with her hands shackled behind her back she’d have no way to even try to keep some shred of modesty from the leering gazes of the pirates, but she had no choice. The head pirate and two of his men hooted and jeered as she put her hands behind her back, baring her breasts to them and snapped the cuffs, first on one wrist, then the other. She winced as the cuffs automatically tightened until the hard metal rings dug painfully into her wrists.
The fourth pirate, the one Stella had managed to graze with one of her shots, only glared angrily at her. “Let’s jut kill her already and be done with it!” He growled. Stella went pale.
“Hold on a moment, Kordath, let’s not be too hasty...” The captain rebuked him. “Go slap some biogel on that, you’ll feel a lot better.” The wounded pirate growled again, but said nothing. He stomped over to a crate marked with bright red medical symbols, that had come through the firefight unscathed. He threw open the lid, roughly, scattering packages on the floor. Bending down, he grabbed a silver packet from the pile and tore it open, pouring a grey-green goop in one clawed hand. He pressed the substance to his wound, with a sharp hiss of pain which soon subsided. Though it would take some time for the gel’s regenerative properties to fully heal the wound, he instantly felt better, as the pain killers kicked in, some of the green returning to his face.
“He does have a point though...” The pirate captain continued. Stella gulped nervously. “You come here, unannounced and try to kill us, or drag us off to prison which, with as many counts of piracy we have is pretty much the same thing, shoot one of my men and...” He looked around the many containers shot up and smoking. “break a good deal of our hard earned loot. So why shouldn’t we just kill you now?” He asked Stella, a fanged grin crossing his face.
Naked and shackled, she cringed under their cruel, leering looks. “Please!” She said, not too proud to beg when her life was on the line. “I’ve got credits!” Not many sure, but a decent stash saved for emergencies, which this definitely was.
“And we’ll be taking them of course, along with the ship you’ve no doubt got, since I don’t think you walked all the way here.” The pirate chuckled at his captives groan. “But first, you’re going to apologize to us, tell us just how sorry you are for all the trouble you’ve caused us.”
Stella stared, blankly for a few seconds, processing what he’d just said. “Um...ok? I’m...er...I’m sorry?” She said, hesitantly. She tried again, putting as much sincerity into her voice as she could. “I’m very, very sorry for all the trouble I’ve cause. Please...”
The pirate shook his head, grinning. “That’s not the kind of apology I was thinking of...” His men laughed, unzipping their jumpsuits, leaving her no illusions just what sort of “apology” they wanted from her. “You’ve got ten minutes to come over here and show us just how sorry you are.”
Stella bit her lip, a fresh flush of shame coming to her cheeks as she thought about what she had to do, but she knew her life was on the line. With a quiet whimper, she started to take a step forward, but was stopped by the captain.
“Get on your knees.” He told her. “Crawl!”
Stella sank down to her knees, a little awkwardly with her hands cuffed behind her back. She crawled across the metal decking towards the four pirates, the wounded one having rejoined his comrades and seeming just as eager now to take his part in her apology and punishment.
By the time the captive bounty hunter had made it all the way across the cave to the pirates, they had lined up, after some jockeying for position. The captain had pulled rank and now stood in front of Stella. Triumphantly, he pulled down his jumpsuit revealing his large, green manhood. It was ready, pointing out to Stella just a little above face height. She had to crane up to get her lips around it and take as much of the length in her mouth as she could.
“This isn’t so bad...” Stella tried to reassure herself as she began to stimulate the member in her mouth with her lips and her tongue. “I did much worse then this back at the academy...” Though at the time, she had been very drunk...and the only stakes were a drunken wager, the penalty being the loser, as she recalled, having to streak through the campus the next day. Here, though, she was very sober and she had her life on the line if she failed to please four cruel, vicious pirates.
After a few moments, Stella’s efforts began to have some effect. But it wasn’t quite fast enough for the pirate apparently. With a growl, he reached down, grabbed the top of the bounty hunter’s head in one large open palm and pulled her towards him roughly. Stella gagged as the thick, long shaft was suddenly thrust all the way into her mouth, the tip pressing up against the back of her throat. He started sliding out, giving her some brief relief, but then thrust back in, just as far.
This rough pumping continued for another minute. Stella tried to continue her earlier stimulation with her lips and tongue, but by the end was just trying not to choke as the pirate slammed into her mouth again and again. Not that he needed much extra stimulation. His grunts became louder and louder as he quickened the pace of his thrusts. Without warning, he stopped and Stella suddenly found her mouth flooded with a hot, sticky and bitter tasting fluid. Before she knew was she was doing, she’d gulped down most of it. The rest spilled out the sides of her mouth as the pirate slipped his now flaccid manhood out.
Stella was given no time to recover though, as the second pirate stepped forward to take his captain’s place. Following the first alien’s lead, he didn’t bother letting Stella attempt to pleasure him but simply grabbed her head and lifted it up so he could thrust into her mouth, taking his pleasure as he pumped in and out of her. Stunned by what was happening, Stella could only try to hold on and endure what they were doing with her, praying this ordeal would end soon.
When the second pirate had finished, shooting his load into the back of Stella’s mouth, the two remaining aliens stepped forward, neither willing to wait any longer to take their share of her “apology.” But while waiting, it seemed they had decided how to split her between them. Grabbing Stella between them, the two pirates carried their captive towards one of the undamaged pallets of crates. She hunt limply, too overwhelmed by what had already happened to resist what was coming next. Finding a large crate that was about the right height, they roughly dropped her over the top, lying across it on her belly.
One of the pirates stepped in front, raising her head up to his crotch. Meanwhile, the last pirate, the one Stella had shot, stepped up behind. “I’m gonna enjoy this bitch.” He said with an evil chuckle, grabbing her soft ass cheeks and spreading them apart.
“Nnoooonnnn!!!” Stella screamed as she realized what he intended, but her protests were cut off at the moment as the other pirate shoved himself deep into her mouth, muffling her cries. Her body stiffened as she felt the tip of the other alien’s shaft push up against her anus. He made no attempt to be gentle with it, pushing steadily until she gave and he plunged in, roughly penetrating her. She gave an indignant squeal, garbled by the other one filling her mouth, followed by yelps of pain as he pulled out most of the way only to thrust back in, dragging another squeal from his victim.
“Oh yeah! Take this bitch!” The pirate growled, slapping her ass with one hand while he pumped in and out. Stella sobbed, tears welling up. Each thrust felt like sand paper scraping at her insides. It seemed to go one forever, though it was more like a minute or two before he was unable to hold back any longer and came inside of her. The other pirate finished in her mouth as well a moment later. They both slid out, high-sixing each other.
For Stella though, there was no respite. Just as soon as they’d moved away the first two pirates were back, the captain claiming Stella’s fresh pussy while the other pirate used her mouth again. When they had finished a second time, the other two were ready for their next round, trading off ends as they took the helpless captive again. Stella no longer had the strength to react to the continued violation of her naked body. She drifted along in a daze, wondering if the punishing gang rape would ever end.
It took her a moment before she realized, after the last pirate had finished in her ass again, that no one had stepped up to take his place. The four had withdrawn to the other side of the cave and were huddled together in discussion. Though it was certain they were discussing her and what they intended to do with her now, Stella didn’t have the strength to raise herself up from the hard metal crate she still lay splayed across, legs spread, sticky blue cum leaking from both holes. Somehow, she managed to gather her wits enough to be thankful Martarians and baseline humans weren’t genetically compatible.
A few minutes later, the pirates finished their discussion and returned. By that time, Stella had managed to recover enough to life herself off the crate and knelt on the floor, trying to hide her fear as she waited for her fate to be announced. The three pirates stood over her in a line. All wore large, cruel grins as they looked down on the frightened young woman.
“Good news...we’ve decided to accept your apology.” The captain said. Stella sagged, letting out a sigh of relief. She was so preoccupied with her relief that they weren’t planning on killing her, she didn’t notice one of the pirates had stepped around behind her and bent down to fasten something around her neck. It closed with a loud click as the locking mechanism caught and Stella felt a hard metal band encircling her next. She realized what it was at once. She’d seen plenty of other bounty hunters use them, to handle catches. The collar gave off a radio signal that let them track whoever wore it, and it could also be used to remotely shock them if they tried to escape or resist. The other main users of collars like this were slavers to keep their unfortunate chattel in line.
“Hey! What are you-Mmmppphhh!!!” Stella’s loud complaints were cuff as a thick rubber plug was jammed in her mouth. The pirate behind her pulled the traps around behind her head and tightened them until it felt like her jaw was about to break.
“We’re not going to kill you, yes.” The pirate leader said. “I never said we’d let you go though.” He and his men laughed as Stella moaned in despair. Stepping forward, he quickly affixed a leash to the front of her collar. “As good as that apology was, I’m sure we can get a good price for you from some people we know. They’re always happy to buy any good looking females who happen to come our way.” He tugged sharply on the leash. Stella sobbed, but shackled and collared, she had no choice but to struggle to her feet and stumble on shaky legs, after the pirates as they headed for the cave entrance. As they left, the captain turned his head.
“OF course, we may just decide to keep you for ourselves...”