The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

The subsequent hours had not been great for Margot’s hopes.

She was dressed, and that was a relief. It was a police uniform, which was not so great, and a man’s police uniform at that, so although it was large enough it fit rather strangely. Also, she had no underclothes, but wearing something was still better than nothing. She had also gotten to sleep: normal, undrugged sleep, for hours. Although that had been on a couch. And she’d eaten, without someone else feeding her. Although that had been vending machine food.

So on the whole things were significantly improved over the day before, but still far from optimal.

She was sitting in the reception area of a remote East Verdis District Police facility. Remote enough that there were no houses nearby, just a thin strip of road running north and south, with jungle in every other direction. Apparently the policemen who had been here when the invasion happened had headed for the trouble spots, or to rescue their families, or something. At any rate, when the AATGV pulled up after driving well into the night, no one was home. The lights had not been on—but of course, there was no power.

Margot rubbed her forehead.

When she’d jumped into the AATGV, with the gunner in the RKT turret and the woman in the green hazmat suit at the door, with a driver and everything, she had hoped—not irrationally—that they were an operation, a team sent by a military command to extract this particular individual, and that they would return to a base or a marshaling area or a fortification or at least some sort of... place. With soldiers guarding it, and a chain of command who had formed some sort of plan. There would be food, drink, someone to talk to. Guards. Safety, even.

As it turned out... it was just the three of them.

It was hot in the police station.

Margot sighed.

They had an AATGV, a military vehicle, and they knew how to use it. It wasn’t too much to hope for that there would be an organized resistance, that the undersized squad was nonetheless going to whisk her away “behind the lines”.

But there were no lines, nor was there any organized resistance that the women in the AATGV were aware of. If there were, it was probably several thousand miles away, east over the mountainous spine of the continent, or across the sea on one of Strand’s other major land masses. Of course, there was no reason to believe that those places had not been hit as hard, or harder.

It was just the three of them.

They’d driven into the night, away from what had been civilization, until the hard-voiced woman driving the AATGV admitted that she needed rest, and they’d pulled over at this empty rural police depot. The front door had been open, but no one had been home. Margot had found the uniform in a closet, pulled it on, and found the couch, and that was it for her. She slept all night and well into the morning. When she woke, there was a pile of vending machine pastries on the coffee table next to her.

She’d eaten them, and found the little kitchen area one room over and made a cup of coffee; the coffee making machine required electricity but they had filters and a filter holder, and one of the three women had left a kettle with hot water in it on the stove. The stove was electric too, so Margot wasn’t sure how they’d heated it, but... coffee.

Her cup full for the second time, Margot returned to the reception area and sat down to sip and to think.

Three of them.

Well, it was better than being stuck at Arc of Sands, waiting for a crawler to hatch and come infest her brain.

A young woman in fatigue pants and a tank top walked in and looked at Margot. “Snack bar?” she asked.

Margot still thought of her as the gunner. Probably not even twenty, short dark hair and brown eyes, arm tattoos on their way to being sleeves. Han-Irinov was her last name. They weren’t on a first name basis yet.

“I’m good, thanks,” Margot replied.

“Suit yourself,” Gunner replied. She sat down on the other low couch, scattered about ten snack bars across the coffee table, and began to peel one open.

They were military, so there was that. Strand Surface Defense Force: SSDF, per the patches on their uniforms. Colonial militia, used for disaster relief, annual parades, and the occasional promotion of particularly capable or stir-crazy members into actual Imperial service. Margot had helped assemble similar outfits on a half-dozen worlds.

She sipped at her coffee and watched Gunner open a second snack bar.

“So what was that big black thing in the pool?” Han-Irinov asked, her mouth full.

Margot blinked. “Uh, Cora called it a converter,” she replied. She scratched her left breast and wished that they’d stopped at a clothing store instead of a police station. “The... the victims were throwing all sorts of organic matter into it, plants, bodies, animals, everything. I guess it dissolved all that stuff and turned it into various sort of chemicals? Because then the women would push the... the crawlers on their heads against it, and the crawlers would refill their venom sacs from it.” Margot decided not to mention the women who suckled at it for nourishment.

Or the other substances the crawlers were capable of spraying.

Han-Irinov clicked her tongue. “Hm. ‘Crawlers’, huh. Suits ’em.”

“What have you been calling them?” Margot asked.

“Little fucks.”

Margot didn’t have a reply to that, so she took the final sip of her coffee. “So... I’m still unclear on why you guys came to Arc of Sands, anyway? Who is this doctor you wanted?”

Han-Irinov shrugged. “Have to ask the Captain.” She rotated in place and lay down on the sofa. “So that other woman, the one who talks, with the freaky eyes. Her name’s Cora?”

“Yes.”

“What is with her fucking eyes?”

Margot shrugged. “I don’t know. One of those crawlers was on her head, then later when it came off, her eyes were like that. It’s something the xenos do.”

“Does she see things? Like normal?”

“She definitely sees things. Normal or not, I have no idea.”

“You know her?”

“Um, a little bit. We only met after the attack. We were together for a while, trying to get away from... from the things.”

“Well I guess that didn’t fucking work out. For her I mean.”

Margot frowned. Tact didn’t seem to be one of Han-Irinov’s strong suits.

“So she’s one of them now?”

“Yes. She’s, uh, she thinks of herself as one of them.”

Han-Irinov whistled, looking up at the ceiling. “That’s all kinds of fucked up.”

Margot snorted. Hard to argue with. “Say, I’ve been wondering... why didn’t you shoot up the landing pod? Or the converter slug? You can’t have been keeping your word to the xenos about not shooting them if they handed over the doctor.”

Han-Irinov laughed. “Naw, I didn’t fucking care. I didn’t shoot ’cause of ammo. How much you think we got left for that RKT?”

Margot felt a sinking feeling. “Not much?”

“Not very fucking much, give the lady a prize. Yeah, I think the Captain and Cruzado-Liu are planning to hit someplace where we can get more. We got RCFR-88s, combat rifles, and they’ll poke a hole in those big ones, but that won’t necessarily stop ’em. Fuckers’ll still murder you, holes and all. Without the RKT we’re pretty much fucked.” Han-Irinov closed her eyes.

“So what are our plans? I mean assuming you’ll take me with you.”

“’Course we’ll fucking take you with us,” she replied, without opening her eyes. “Double pricked whoreson, what kind of people do you think we are? Leave you for those fucking things? I don’t know what we’re gonna do though. Or where we’re gonna go. Shit’s pretty fucked.”

Margot laughed despite herself. “Yeah,” she agreed. “Shit is pretty fucked.”

They sat there for a few minutes, Han-Irinov with her eyes closed, Margot sitting opposite her. She tried to read one of the paper magazines lying on the coffee table—colony worlds still produced some of those—but it was no use, she couldn’t focus. Han-Irinov just lay on the sofa, resting.

Captain Stone stuck her head in the door. “Hey,” she said. “I’m gonna try talking with ’em again. Ms. Belangier, your presence would be appreciated. Han-Irinov, get your ass up.”

“Yes, cap’n,” the gunner replied, and swiveled herself up and off the couch.

Stone was medium tall, with short blond hair, although otherwise she appeared to share the mixed Earth Asian heritage of most of the locals. She hadn’t said much during the long ride into the jungle, and once they’d stopped Margot had been too tired to try and speak with her.

Margot walked out of the waiting area and followed Captain Stone down the hallway to the holding room. This little rural EVDP facility had only one cell, probably empty except for the occasional drunk or poacher. There was a desk and a chair outside the cell for someone to keep an eye on the inhabitants.

Currently the cell held both Cora and Dr. Vanderbruk. They were both sitting quietly on the fold-down padded benches which lined the walls. They were both still completely naked, but in the stifling humidity of the building interior that was almost an advantage.

Stone unlocked the cell door and walked into the cell. Cora looked up at her, but Vanderbruk did not move.

“Captain...” Han-Irinov began.

“If they fuck with me, shoot them both,” Stone said without looking back. She walked over to stand in front of the pale-skinned woman.

“Doctor,” the Captain said. “Have you decided to start talking to us?”

Vanderbruk remained motionless, giving no indication that she had heard.

Stone turned to Margot. “Belangier. Any ideas?”

Margot shrugged. “I... I don’t...”

“She is fighting the seeding drone,” Cora said.

Everyone turned to look at her.

Other than her liquid black eyes, Cora looked almost... normal. Only when you got close could you see the black veins under the skin of her neck and at the edges of her face, or the black circle of chitin on the top of her head.

“What was that?” Stone asked.

“She is resisting her seeding drone,” Cora repeated. “Rather than submitting and obeying, she is resisting its commands. Doing so is hindering her conversion into a slave. It is also taking all of her attention.”

“What about you, then,” Stone asked, stepping over to face Cora, who tilted her head up to face the Captain. “You’re what happens when a person doesn’t resist?”

“That is correct,” Cora replied. “I welcomed the drone into my brain and have been converted into a slave.”

“You can communicate with her?” Stone said, gesturing at Vanderbruk.

“Sort of. I have a... facility, to communicate with other brood minds. I can communicate with the seeding drone, in a limited fashion. But not with her human mind.”

“Are you in touch with other xenos?”

“No. They are too far away.”

Stone rested her hands on her hips. “Well. That’s... something.”

Stone stood in the cell for a moment, then turned away. She nodded her head at Margot. “Come with me. We’ve got some things to talk about.”

As she stepped out of the cell, Cora spoke again. “Captain Stone?”

Stone turned. “Yes?”

“May I have some food? And some water?”

Stone pursed her lips. “Why did you jump into our vehicle?” she asked.

“I... I’m not sure. It was a... spontaneous decision. I wanted to stay with Margot. I had been tasked with minding her until her conversion. I... I wanted to obey that instruction. Also, I wanted to... to stay with her.”

Stone looked at Margot with an arched eyebrow. Margot’s cheeks felt warm.

“Ms. Belangier?” the Captain asked.

“I don’t- I don’t know,” Margot replied. “She was, uh, minding me. That’s true. I guess... I guess she had to keep obeying that command.”

Stone looked at her, then sighed and looked away. “Come on,” she said, leaving the cell. “Get them some food and water,” she said to Han-Irinov, who closed the cell door behind them.

“So,” the Captain said, leaning back in the swivel chair. “Tell me about you.”

They were in one of the police offices. Stone had taken a seat behind a desk, and now proceeded to put her booted feet atop its surface. The name placard next to her soles read “Sgt. Bevlen”.

“I, uh, well. I’m a staff sergeant, Imperial Armed Service. Four years infantry, then the last six behind various desks in pacified systems synthesis. Came to Strand on vacation. With... well, with a friend. And then the... the...”

“—the fucking happened.”

“Yeah,” Margot agreed slowly. “That.”

“Why did you come jump into my AATGV?”

Margot’s eyebrows raised. “To get away. I mean... everyone else was, uh, brain-fucked.”

“But not you.”

“No. They... well, they said they had run out of crawlers. They were waiting for more to hatch, so they tied me up.”

Stone nodded slowly, her face giving no particular clues as to her line of thought.

“So you’re military, but here on vacation.”

“Exactly.”

“Well. As you can tell, Sergeant, we’re SSDF. I was on base, near Helenni, when the attack happened. They hit us directly; two of those big fucking rocks, opposite ends of the base. Killed a dozen people right off the bat.”

She shifted in her chair. “We were in recovery and cleanup when those fucking razorlegs emerged. They started killing everyone. Cut through us like paper dolls.” She gestured. “We did have some heavy weapons, and somehow some folks managed to deploy them, but it didn’t make a lot of difference.”

She pointed at the door. “Cruzado-Liu; she’s the one who was in the hazmat suit. Have you had a chance to speak with her?” Margot demurred. “We’ll chat with her in a bit, then. She saw that slimy shit the things were spraying around, had the presence of mind to go for the hazmat suits. As I understand it, she got into one and got back out to the main yard just about the time that the xenos killed the last weapons crew.”

Stone rubbed her knuckles against her palm and looked up at the ceiling. “I had fallen back into the motor pool by that point. That slimy shit was all over me, my 88 was empty—I got into an ammo cage and locked the door. The big fuckers came up and started stabbing at it, punching right through the mesh. Then... then Han-Irinov opened up on them with the RKT. She had gotten into the AATGV and just vaporized those motherfuckers.”

With a sigh, she looked back at Margot. “Cruzado-Liu pulled me out of the cage. I couldn’t even walk. She threw me into the AATGV and we lit the fuck out. Far as I know, everyone else is dead.”

Margot nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “From the resort tower we could see Helenni. There were... lots of impacts.”

“I live in Helenni, Sergeant Belangier,” Stone said. “Or at least, I did. I have a boyfriend. He’s almost certainly dead. Everyone I know is probably dead, or... like those two in the cell. Brain-fucked. By the grace of a God I don’t particularly believe in, I and two soldiers under my command have escaped.” She kicked her feet off the desk and leaned forward. “Tell me, Imperial Staff Sergeant Belangier, what the fuck should I do now?”

“Run and hide,” Margot replied, without hesitation. “We’re fucked. Everyone here is fucked. I don’t know what those things are but unless and until the Imperial fleet arrives to kick them out of orbit, we have no way of un-fucking ourselves. If I were you... no. I am you. And my advice to is: we run and hide. We find someplace really fucking remote that has enough food for months and we stay there. Set a bunch of booby traps in case the xenos fan out across the planet, and stay there.”

The Captain looked at her wordlessly. She leaned to the side and began to slide desk drawers open.

“That’s really good fucking advice, Staff Sergeant. I’ve never known a cop who didn’t drink, especially in the ass end of nowhere. In one of these—ah.” She lifted up a bottle of some locally fermented alcohol. “Tangier. Not the best, but it’ll do.” She held the bottle up to the light. “More than half, we’re in luck.”

Stone unscrewed the cap and took a swig from the bottle, then held it out across the table to Margot. Margot took it, smelled the stuff, and took a short pull.

“Here’s the thing, Sergeant. I’d like to get the fuck out of Dodge. As much as I hate these things, my desire for revenge isn’t stronger than my desire not to die. But... well, did Corporal Han-Irinov tell you why we visited your lovely resort to steal away with the good doctor there?”

“She said I’d have to ask you,” Margot replied, handing back the bottle.

“Mm.” Stone took another pull. “It was Cruzadio-Liu’s idea. Thing is, she may talk like a rustic but she’s actually pretty goddamn smart. And when these fuckers came down out of the sky, fuck me if she didn’t actually recognize them.”

Margot’s eyes widened.

“Exactly. She reads a lot of weird shit, conspiracies and secret cabals and Imperial experiments, that sort of thing. Well, turns out these xeno fucks are something like a bio-weapon Cruzado-Liu had read about. Something very much like. You should see the pictures. Unfortunately, with the power down, we can’t access the Infonet to learn more. Fortunately—I guess—Cruzado-Liu’s personal datapad had cached some of the relevant articles. Articles which mentioned in passing one Doctor Emilee Vanderbruk.”

“But... how did you know she was at Arc of Sands?”

“We went to her office in Wotao. That’s the capital of the Verdis district, a bit up the road from Helenni. Wotao is fucked, too, by the way. Big fuckers everywhere, murdering everyone, and everyone who’s not dead has one of those little fucks on their head. I’d thought they were dead, too, actually, until we got to Arc of Sands, and they were all walking around. Anyway. There was a note in Vanderbruk’s office saying she’d gone to Arc of Sands, with her communicator address. Not that that information was any fucking good of course.” Stone held up the bottle, considered it, then stood it on the desk.

“Everything’s done by satellite,” she said. “And when those get swept from the sky? No communicators, no Infonet, no nothing.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask about that,” Margot said. “You’re military, don’t you have radio?”

“Short range only in the AATGV. And, well, Cruzado-Liu has been scanning that since we lit out. Doesn’t look like anyone else is out there, at least not in the local area.”

Margot sighed and sat back. “Blessed Martyrs,” she said. “No one?”

Stone shook her head. “Not so far. ’Course without sat we have no way to check with any of the three major bases on the planet. Closest is Loose Horse, which is maybe twelve hundred kilometers east of here. But I’d bet they got it worse than Helenni did. And until now we’ve had no way to check the police bands. By Imperial law, civil authorities have to use separate encryption from planetary military services. Not that I expect much there, either. Those things really fucked us double.”

“So what’s the plan then, Captain?”

“Well, if we’re going to run and hide, we’re going to need more fuel. AATGV runs on petro-chem, though alcohol could do in a pinch. And it wouldn’t hurt to get more ammunition for the RKT, we’ve used most of it. So I’m thinking—”

There was a noise at the office door and Cruzado-Liu stuck her head in. “Captain,” she said. “You should come hear this.”

The room Cruzado-Liu led them to, unlike the rest of the small station, had no windows. Cruzado-Liu had propped open the door with a wireless router.

“There’s some battery backup in here,” she said, sitting down in a chair and rotating to face the Captain. “I didn’t want to waste it on lights or anything so I disconnected it from the main circuit, but you can use the plugs on the side there. I have your, my, and Pearl’s datapads charging now.” She tilted her head at Margot. “So do we trust her?”

Stone shrugged. “She seems all right. For an Impy fuckfeather.”

“Good,” Cruzado-Liu replied. She turned to the desk. “Listen to this.”

She flipped an analog switch on the equipment sitting on the desk; with just the light coming in from the door, it was hard for Margot to make out the details of the various boxes and cables. A voice began speaking.

“—ing in from north Yuidan that the entire Tu peninsula has been overrun. That means that everything west of the Tu-Dan river is xeno controlled. Ancestors be with them all.

“If you are listening, this is Marina Yao, broadcasting from the Naigurh repeater. Make your way to Naigurh if you can; we have a manned perimeter and the xenos have not managed to overrun our position yet. We are running refugee columns over the Spine and will hold here as long as we can.

“Once again, this is Marina Yao, broadcasting from Naigurh. Back to our updates. There’s been no word from the Helenni SSDF base, so we assume it has been overrun. Do not go there. We have had refugees from Helenni come through and they tell us that the town is entirely overrun. If you are in that area, head east.

“Wotao is also—”

Cruzado-Liu flipped the switch. She looked at them. “So. Looks like there’s some resistance. We want to hook up with them? Naigurh is just an hour or so up road 29.”

Stone pursed her lips.

“I bet they could use the AATGV,” Cruzado-Liu said after a moment. “I dunno what kind of weaponry they have, but I don’t know any other bases in Verdis that would have had mounted anti-vehicular.”

“If they’re for real,” the Captain observed slowly.

Cruzado-Liu’s brows knitted. “You think it’s a honeytrap?”

“Yesterday I wouldn’t have, but... we’ve got one them right in that room over there who talks a good game. Tells us how obedient she is. Looks normal, more or less. Who’s to say that Marina Yao isn’t one of them? And they’re using Naigurh to round up strays?”

“Twelve Gods. So what do we do?”

Stone hesitated. Then she pointed. “Hand me my datapad. I need to look at the map.”

Cruzado-Liu handed over the Captain’s datapad; Stone took it and walked out into the hallway.

Margot gestured at the equipment on the desk. “So this is police radio?”

Cruzado-Liu nodded. “Exactly. Law enforcement band. Per Imperial regulations, local law enforcement has to use different bandwidth and different encryption from planetary militia.”

Margot nodded. “And all long-range communication has to be satellite.”

“Stupid bullshit regulations. They’ve really fucked us now.”

“It’s in case of civil insurrection. Goes back more than a century, to the Further Punjab rebellion.” Margot could still picture the instructor, droning on about the centuries of experience that had accumulated to provide the Empire with perfect laws. “Keeps rebels from organizing. F.P. had optical landlines and localized radio towers all over the planet. Apparently that was standard back then. Gives better performance than satellite, easier to deploy piecemeal. But it’s decentralized, hard to shut down. So, after the rebellion, the Empire mandated that all physical lines be torn up and all communication occur through satellite. Easy to set up from space, and easy to shut off when the Imperial fleet arrives.”

“And apparently just as easy to shut off when xeno fucking invaders arrive,” Cruzado-Liu observed. “Which seems a little more fucking dangerous than letting the eighty million folks on Strand have a distributed local comm-net.”

Margot shrugged. “Apparently not, if you’re the Emperor.”

“Sacred Pantheon,” Cruzado-Liu muttered. “And we have exactly zero chance of getting off the planet. The only spaceport on the continent’s in Wotao.”

“Captain Stone said that you went there?”

Cruzado-Liu’s face turned somber. “Yeah. Just the outskirts, but... it was bad. Real bad.”

“Alright, I’ve got it,” Stone said, coming back in. She put the datapad down on the desk.

“We’re here,” she said, pointing at their location, which was simply a spot next to a road through the jungle. “Naigurh is up here,” she said, moving her finger north. “And, there’s a tactical depot here, just three kilometers away. It’s SSDF access only, I’m guessing a single guard squad. We should be able to get fuel and ammo there.”

She looked at the two of them. “Two of us stay here with the prisoners. The other two go to the depot, get fuel and ammunition. While we’re there, we scout out Naigurh. Then we return, see if we’ve gotten anything out of the doctor, and pick our next step. If Naigurh is for real, we link up with them, retreat over the Spine. If not, we head east on our own.

“Your thoughts?”

“Who’s going and who’s staying?” Cruzado-Liu asked.

“I have to go,” Stone said, “as I’m the only one with the authority to get into that depot. Either you or Han-Irinov can come with.”

“That means whoever is staying here, stays with her,” Cruzado-Liu replied, gesturing at Margot. “No offense.”

“None taken. It’s a fair point,” Margot said. “You don’t know me. But would it be better to have me going to Naigurh then? If I’m... bad, do you want me in the AATGV?”

“I’m not worried about you,” Stone said. “But that Cora woman knows you. Might as well get you away from her. So you’re with me, Sergeant Belangier. Andreia, you and Pearl stay here. Can we get this radio to interop with the AATGV?”

“Negative,” Cruzado-Liu said. “Encryption is in hardware and deliberately incompatible.”

“Right, then this will be time based. Hrm. Can the xenos see in the dark?”

They both looked at Margot.

“Uh. I don’t know. We could ask Cora.”

“Might as well. But assuming they can, let’s just pick the best time for us. It’s only eleven hundred hours now. If we wait to move the AATGV in the dark, the lights will draw all eyes for kilometers in every direction. So we go now. An hour and a half to get to the depot, let’s say three to infiltrate Naigurh and exfiltrate if necessary, and an hour and a half back. If we’re not back by dark, assume that our shit’s fucked.”

“And then what?” Cruzado-Liu asked.

Stone smiled wryly. “Up to you. I recommend taking one of the patrol vehicles and heading east. If you want, you can come find out what fucked us and potentially get fucked yourself. Use your judgment. Me, I’m planning to make it back here.”

She looked at Margot. “Belangier, are you in for this? We may be heading back into a hot zone.”

Margot nodded. “The whole planet is hot, Captain. If we stay here we’re just as fucked in the long run. Might as well make the fucking exciting.”

“Good. Exciting fucking, leaving in ten minutes. Be there.”

“No don’t touch that, that’s the fucking spin control. Trigger, vector assist, use your waist to pivot the gun. Don’t mess with the rest of this shit, I don’t have time to explain it to you.”

Han-Irinov was showing Margot how to work the RKT. She had gone through crewed weapons training back in basic almost a decade ago, but never in an AATGV; they were already out of service for Imperial forces even then. Still, the RKT was familiar, even if the emplacement was a bit different. She figured that she could handle it, although not with anywhere near the facility Han-Irinov had shown back at Arc of Sands.

“Remember, if the big fuckers are coming at you there’s no point in buttoning up, I saw them punching those legs right through one of these things back at Helenni base. Either you fuck their shit up on the way in or you are fucked. Got it?”

“Got it,” Margot said, nodding.

Han-Irinov leaned over and stared hard at her. “Listen to me, fuckfeather. We pulled your ass out from the shit back at the beach, so I’m not too impressed with your Impy fucking training. You keep Captain Stone safe, you fucking hear me? She’s worth three of me and a whole fucking sack full of you. You watch her six, you do what you’re told, and you play up the fucking risks so that she doesn’t try anything heroic, understand?”

Margot stared back at her. “I understand. Come back together or don’t come back.”

“You’re fucking right. Glad we understand each other.”

She looked away, breaking eye contact. Margot followed her gaze to see Captain Stone emerging from the low building carrying a couple of duffle bags.

“She gonna be able to fire that thing?” Stone called to them.

“As well as an Impy pigeon can,” Han-Irinov replied. “If you don’t draw any attention she probably won’t fuck anything up.”

“Best I can hope for.” Stone tossed the duffle bags into the open rear doors of the AATGV.

Han-Irinov’s attention fell back on Margot. “You’ve got maybe six hundred rounds,” she said. “Trigger down, that’s about a minute. So use bursts. Any drawn-out engagement, you lose, so blow up a few of the fuckers and hope that scares the rest until the Captain can get you the fuck out of there.”

“Right. Thanks, uh, Miss.”

“’Corporal’ will do. You get back, you can call me Pearl.”

“Thanks, Corporal.”

Han-Irinov crawled off the back of the AATGV. Margot slid down out of the turret, closed the hatch, and clambered into the passenger seat. A moment later, Captain Stone opened the driver’s side door and climbed in.

“You ready?”

“Ready,” Margot replied.

“Hit the head? Gonna be a bit of a drive.”

“Ready,” Margot said again.

“Alright.” Stone fired up the engine, and the AATGV lurched forward.

They saw no one else on their way north. The occasional building went by, a farm house or barn or equipment shed. No people were visible. Mostly they passed through pure Verdis jungle, the black of the road surface almost encroached on by the green undergrowth.

“The road usually this empty?” Margot asked, after they passed only the second intersection in half an hour.

“We’re out in the sticks,” Stone replied. “No, it’s not usually totally empty, but it’s not unheard of either. Normal times you’d get some trucks going by, some folks heading from one place to another.”

Margot nodded and looked out the window.

“Any chance we could pick up an aircar there? I mean, if we’re going to head east—”

Stone chuckled. “An aircar. You really aren’t from around here, are you Belangier? There are probably a dozen aircars in all of Verdis province. Private ownership is forbidden, not that most people could afford one. Government business only. Imperial governor, mayor of Wotao, couple of other bigwigs. SSDF has some, if we haven’t lost Loose Horse... but that’s a long fucking way away. And a big ‘if’.”

Margot frowned. “Damn. I saw one fly over when I was tied up, I thought maybe...”

“Someone important bugging out, I guess,” Stone said. “Which way was it headed?”

“South.”

“Huh.”

“Any chance there’ll be one in Naigurh?” Margot asked.

Stone shook her head. “Almost none.”

“Damn. Small place?”

“Only been there a couple of times. Maybe five hundred people? The only thing there is a small rural hospital, which is where the radio transmitter is. There’s also a goods delivery point. That’s about it. No reason for the xenos to have hit it, and it’s about as far from the inhabited belt along the west coast as you can get before you get into the high Spine forest.”

“Defensible?”

Stone shrugged. “Not particularly. Not a place you would situate a castle, if that’s what you’re asking. But only three roads in or out, and it’s at the top of a hill, so better than nothing.”

“Whose- vehicle,” Margot observed, pointing ahead of them.

“I see it.”

There was an intersection ahead, at which a groundcar was waiting. It was cherry red, although dusty, an electric truck of a standard model favored by farmers and ranchers. It had a trailer hitched up behind it that was stacked with belongings.

“They’re not taking that stuff over the Spine,” Stone said. “Not on the trails around here.”

The driver was waving. Stone slowed the AATGV down and indicated that Margot should lower the passenger side window, which she did.

The driver, a young man with a short beard, was leaning out of his window. “Hey!” he called. “SSDF! Am I ever happy to see you! Are you going to Naigurh?”

“We’re going that way,” Margot replied.

“So it’s true? That’s our evac point?”

Margot hesitated. “We’re not sure,” she said. “It could be a trap. If you’re going that way you should use caution.”

The man looked confused. “A trap? How could it be a trap? Aren’t we being attacked by xenos? That’s what they... that’s what they said. I saw the meteors.”

Margot didn’t know what to tell him. He hadn’t seen, had no idea. “They- they...”

“They take over people’s bodies,” Stone said, leaning across Margot to shout out the window. “I’ve seen it. They’ve got aliens the size of cats that grab onto your head and eat your brain, and then walk the body around. If you’re going to Naigurh, you stay in the car and you keep your eyes open. You see anything weird, get out of there.”

The man’s confusion turned to unhappiness. “Cats? But...” his expression brightened. “Hey, can we go with you?”

“No,” Stone said. “We’re not going to Naigurh. We’re going to an SSDF facility up by Cahuk. Orders.”

“Oh. Well... what should I do?”

Stone sighed. “I can’t tell you, sir. Things are bad, real bad. My best advice is to turn around and try to make your way over the Spine yourself. If you know any hunting cabins, that’s where I’d go. Until the Imperials get here, nowhere’s gonna be safe.”

“Oh. I- guess I’ll go to Naigurh, then.”

“Alright. Well, like I said, keep your eyes open. Good luck,” Stone told him, then leaned back over and started the AATGV moving again. Margot rolled up her window.

“Do you really think it’s a trap?” she asked.

“I have no idea. I really hope not, but your friend in the cell back there... I honestly don’t know. It seems crazy on the face of it, but... I just don’t know.”

“So why are we going there?”

Stone gave her a look. “We’re not. We’re going to the tactical depot, three klicks away. Ammo and fuel. And while we’re there, we will take a look and see if the resistance at Naigurh is for real after all.”

Margot looked into the rear-view mirror on the side of the AATGV. The red groundcar was on the road behind them. “They’re following us.”

“They won’t keep up, not with that trailer.”

“But they’re going to Naigurh.”

“Then I guess we’ll see them there.”