SCARLETS DOMAIN

We were on a raid to kill a find a group of terrorists that had attacked and
destroyed a civilian colony in one of the Colonized Systems. Intelligence
said they came from an abandoned platinum mine on an asteroid in a belt
between the sixth and seventh planets of a system about 30 minutes away by
hyperspace. Instructions came down from higher to find, identify and
eliminate any threat to intersystem colonization or shipping. That meant
destroying the terrorist base. To do this they mobilized CWM Special
Operations 7th Battalion. Which is where I come in.

I gave the briefing as the girls got in their uniforms. These consisted of
tight black, high heeled boots and sleeveless, silver, high collar, form
fitting "envirosuits" with very high cut leg openings.

Once dressed the troopers looked more like they were wearing very tight
one-piece swimsuits or skimpy leotards than a military uniform. When the
tiny uniforms were first introduced for the Special Operations Forces, there
was a joke going around High Command about how the troops looked like
showgirls, not soldiers. Those jokes stopped after they completed their
first missions with a much better success rate than High Command could have
hoped. In any case, the girls loved the revealing uniforms so no harm was
done. They considered the old envirosuits that the regular soldiers wore,
not flattering enough. Anyway I sure wasn't complaining as I watched them
suit up and change from stark naked to semi naked.

Back on Earth, Congress had passed the new Military Service Appearance Act
and all the girls were expected to maintain certain standards of fitness and
appearance...thus they all took advantage of the free leg waxing, collagen
lip enhancements, breast implants and advanced cosmetic facial surgery that
the government provided free of charge. But theses were hardly ever needed.
Height and weight standards were strictly enforced to a window between
105-120 pounds and 5' 5''-5' 11''. All these factors led to hordes of
already beautiful women becoming literally breathtaking to look at with full
lips, gorgeously long, smooth legs, and museum quality torsos and chests.

For weapons they had their rail pistols belted tightly around their waists
to accentuate their feminine curves. They were further equipped with 30cm
permi-knives they had strapped to their thighs. Those that didn't have their
hair cut short had it either braided tightly to their heads or worn it back
in ponytails to avoid the enemy grabbing onto it too easily if the fighting
became hand-to-hand.

We were told to expect a quick 'in and out' type mission, so I thought only
200 of my best girls would be necessary. I was hoping I wouldn't even need
that many.

The girls came from various Colonies throughout the galaxy and for various
reasons. Some because they wanted to make a difference, others because they
wanted a chance to be like the other heroes of the CWM (Colonial Women's
Military). But most came for the chance to make themselves as beautiful as
they could on the government's tab (again, from where I stood I had no
complaint at all). The CWM had a long and proud history of military service
but still not allowed to be commanded by women yet (which explains what I'm
doing here).
As expected we landed on the huge asteroid without resistance. Any big
changes to the surface, like defensive weaponry would be visible to passing
ships. The airlock to the mine was likewise undefended (which actually
surprised me). The transport docked without incident and my girls and I
disembarked without a hitch. We accessed the main computer through a simple
interface system and found that there was a massive bay acting like a cargo
bay and reactor room. To adequately destroy the place we would have get to
the control room in the bay and set the reactor to overload.

I divided the girls into A and B Companies (100 apiece). I took A company
and set off down the hall to the reactor bay. Company B under the command of
a stunning girl from the Lydian Colony named Gina would stay behind and act
as a reserve.

As we got further down the hall it became more apparent that the base might
just be deserted.

Standing next to me was Lt. Michelle Jones, a particularly ravishing
shorthaired brunette from Obissta. "Where the hell are the terrorists?" she
asked,

"I don't know lieutenant but I don't like this" I responded.

As we got further down the corridor the cavernous bay opened up before us.

We took a few steps further when the first blaster bolts cut through the
air.

Michelle was the first to be shot.

"HNNG!" she cried dropping her pistol as her hands grasped at the small
black mark that was now in her center chest between her breasts.

She staggered for less than a second, I caught her as she fell. I set her
down carefully and cradled her head in my hands and saw her beautiful face
contort briefly in agony. Her deep green eyes closed as she went completely
limp as I held her. Such a waste. I never really liked losing any of my
girls. They were all so beautiful.

"SNIPER!" I heard someone call out.

"Sniper my ass! That's infantry over there!" I heard another girl yell.

I looked up from Michelle's body to see that this was in fact an ambush.
These were no terrorists either. There were about 150 infantrywomen in front
of us. By the look of their uniforms they were Rodeenan girls. The Rodeenan
troopers wore slinky uniforms similar to our girls only the revealing suits
they wore were black not shiny silver.

"We have to get to cover!" I shouted

The closest cover was in front of us. The cavern had very large freight
containers scattered about in it. The Rodeenans were using about 20 of them
lined up into a barricade about 20 meters in front of us. They forgot to
remove 15 or so scattered here and there in front of the massive entrance.
They were using boxes to shoot at us so why not return the favor. I was
about to shout to the company to head for the boxes to our immediate front
but it was not necessary. My girls knew what they were doing. Many had
already begun heading for the containers and relative safety.

Too many didn't make it.

As I dove behind one of the boxes I got a chance to look back at the
entrance where we had come from. At least 25 of my girls were lying sprawled
along the cavern floor between the door and the cargo holders. All were
lying motionless and apparently dead.

Three of my troopers found cover behind the same box as me. One dark haired
beauty I knew as Amy saw the confused look on my face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Besides the fact that we're under fire and that we already have casualties
it looks like none are wounded."

She didn't understand. "What do you mean? Isn't that a good thing?" she
almost giggled.

"Shouldn't there be some wounded or something... I'll be right back..."

Before they could stop me I left the cover of the containers to look among
the bodies of the girls. Instead of arguing or yelling at me to come back,
they covered me while I moved about. The other troopers saw what was going
on and following the three's example.

I had to examine some of the newly dead girls by turning them over as some
had fallen on their stomachs. Checking as many as I could as quickly as I
could I found that they were indeed all dead. Finding what I was looking for
I picked up one of the girls bodies. I put one arm under her back and the
other beneath her thighs. She was still warm but totally flaccid in my arms.
She was a blonde with her shoulder length hair back in a ponytail. Her name
was Debbie. I could tell by the smoothness of her thighs in my arms that she
recently had a leg waxing. Such a damn shame.

I carried her back to the box I came from, as the three troopers behind it
were frantically trying to keep enemy fire off me by picking at targets of
opportunity. One of them, a Restian named Kayla probably exposed too much of
her curvaceous form. She took a shot on her right breast. The gorgeous
auburn haired trooper threw her head back dropped her weapon and screamed in
pain. Clasping at the tiny wound she crumbled neatly to the floor, legs
splayed at the figure 4 positions with one hand on her stomach, the other on
the wound that killed her. Seeing that I had returned, the girls took far
fewer chances with their potshots. Reaching the cover of the cargo container
I set Debbie's body gently down next to Kayla. Amy crept over to check
Kayla's pulse and sadly shook her head as I wordlessly asked her with a
raised eyebrow.

"Look at this," I said getting back to business by pointing to Debbie's
body, "she was only hit in the shoulder. This shouldn't have killed her.
See? It only left a little black mark." I said pointing to the small black
circle about he size of a dime on her exposed shoulder.

It finally came to me

"They're using T type blasters!" I said.

"But those are supposed to be illegal," one of the other troopers, another
pony tailed blonde whose name was Stephanie exclaimed in near panic.

"Tell that to Kayla," said Amy as she lifted the departed trooper's hand off
her breast to discover a small black spot, " But what the hell are they?"
Amy asked replacing the dead girl's hand on top of the other one on her
stomach.

"They're completely lethal," I said as I looked at Debbie's perfect body
lying dead in front of me next to the other voluptuous dead girl, "it
doesn't matter where it hits you, but once it does it sets off every neuron
in your body...your brain is basically overloaded from the pain and shuts
off," I explained.

Looking at Amy directly I asked, "Did you see Kayla's face as she was hit?"

The dead troopers' faces were now expressionless save for their parted lips
partially exposing pristine teeth. Looking down at their bodies Amy nodded
her head indicating she had seen Kayla's final seconds and the expression of
horror and agony on her face just before her eyes closed and her corpse fell
to the ground. It was a look she would probably never forget. I knew she had
a fear of dying inside this rock. We all did. Stephanie's face was like a
mirror of Amy's look; they knew they didn't want to die. They also knew
there was a dangerous mission that they needed to do.

"Fine. We can't stay here," Amy said, determined to finish the mission and
get off this rock.

"Right," I replied smiling at her.

We had to do something to break the stalemate we were in. While the killing
had stopped the firing hadn't. Now that we had found cover we were limited
to taking potshots at the other side, hoping to score a hit. That was better
but not good. There was still a fair number of my dead troopers' spread from
the entrance to the containers. My first look at the enemy told me that A
Company was probably outnumbered even before we lost those girls at the
entrance. Clicking on the CommSet in my ear I called back to B Company.

"Bravo this is Alpha we are pinned down in the forward section of the
reactor room. We have about 150 Rodeenans to our front. Is there any way you
can get around behind them?"

"Alpha this is Bravo," it was Lt. Gina, "okay, I'm looking at the interface
and I see a ventilation shaft that leads to some rafters in the ceiling. We
can get some rappelling gear from the transport and have half my girls down
on the other side of the reactor room."

Looking to the ceiling I saw the rafters she was talking about. There was a
large network of titanium girders supporting the roof about 30 meters up.
"Good job Gina, get on that. Tell whoever you send that we'll do a full
frontal assault as soon as they're on the ground."

"Yessir."

There was nothing much left to do but keep shooting blind at each other from
cover. Neither side could move, the other would simply pick them off in the
open. We traded shots for about 10 more minutes when there was an explosion
on the roof of the cavern. Gina's girls must've had to blow through a
support column or something.

"Damn! They were supposed to get behind them quietly!" I said to no one in
particular.

As if the noise weren't bad enough, the lighting from the cavern reflected
off their body-hugging silver envirosuits as they scurried about the rafters
securing the rappelling lines. They made easy targets and started drawing
fire from the Rodeenans almost immediately. Luckily the T type blasters they
were using couldn't hit much past 25 yards.Gina's girls were at least 30m
away in the high ceiling. Nevertheless I saw at least two of the girls
stagger for a brief second and then fall. I can only hope they were dead
before they hit the ground.

As Gina's troopers descended to the cavern floor the fire became more
intense and a lot more accurate. I counted about twenty of her girls who
were shot and lost control of their ropes. They writhed in mid-air kicking
and screaming before they simply went limp on the ropes. They fell slowly
due to the safety switches on the ropes and rings belted around their
waists, but they fell more quickly than the girls still alive which gave the
Rodeenans a chance to identify which of the girls had been killed and which
were still dangerous.

As the dead girls descended, the emergency safeties engaged on their rings
stopping them just short of the floor. They dangled lifelessly their waists
bending backwards as their dead weight gave way to the artificial gravity of
the asteroid. As the remaining troopers reached the bottom they began to
charge the Rodeenans. As I watched them I got to my feet and motioned for
the rest of A Company to begin the attack.

We all charged forward in a rush. I could tell Gina's girls would have a
rough time. They were in the open with no cover at all. I lost sight of them
as we advanced toward the Rodeenan barricade.

Most of my girls managed to get out in front of the boxes on our side of the
cavern but I heard a panicked intake of breath just behind me. I looked back
in enough time to see Amy, her pistol clanking to the floor clasping her
hands to her chest and the small black mark that found its way there. Her
face the same picture of pain and fear she had so recently saw on Kayla's
visage. The beautiful girl's face quickly lost it's prior expression only to
have it replaced with the look of death as her blue eyes closed, her legs
gave and she collapsed to the ground and lay motionless. Stephanie leaped
over the now dead trooper and began running beside me.

We our weapons as we ran toward the wall of containers and I even saw
several of the Rodeenan girls grabbing at wounds of their own as they fell.
I'm pretty sure I got one or two myself.

Our ranks diminished some more as we covered the open ground between our
positions and theirs'. I could make out some of my girls screaming and
gasping in horror and anguish as they were hit and subsequently died. One
girl just in front of me was hit on her left hand. I was hoping that maybe
she might be spared; she stopped running and I saw her legs start to buckle.
Trying not to lose momentum I wrapped my arm around her hips and dragged her
to the base of the enemy wall where they couldn't fire at us without risking
themselves. I set her down gently and looked at her. She was striking, with
almond shaped eyes, brunette hair and well-tanned skin. Her name was
Danielle. She squirmed in my arms a little before her body seemed to lose
all its bones. Of the more or less 70 girls still alive in Company A as we
started the charge, I think another 10 were killed on the charge to the
enemy wall. As I set Danielle's limp form down I looked to our old position.
It seemed as though the stream of beautiful but dead young women in skimpy
uniforms extended from the cavern entrance to the wall of cargo boxes.
Twenty meters never seemed like such a long way.

Gaining control of my emotions I jumped over the side of the wall of boxes.
The girls began to leap over following my lead. Stephanie, never far from my
side began engaging the now almost panicked Rodeenans.

One advantage of our pistols apart from better range was their higher rate
of fire. Rodeenans were not foolish for choosing Type T lasers. The
projected energy weapons killed whatever they hit and wherever they hit it,
but they had to wait almost a full second before being able to fire again. A
lot can happen in that time and in those seconds, many of my girls had their
lives spared. Our rail pistols fired 1cm long slugs. While the rail guns
didn't have the lethality of the blasters it was close.

We fired volley after volley into the massed Rodeenan infantry. The pile of
bodies, at least inside this wall were wearing black. Mostly. As we
continued to shoot, the enemy girls returned our shots and scored some hits.
But for every girl in a revealing silver uniform that screamed, clutched at
a wound and died, there were about 4 or 5 Rodeenans troopers hit.

The Rodeenans quickly discovered their disadvantage. After a few moments of
being on the receiving end of the slaughter they came charging at us with
their own permi-knives. My girls were well trained with blades and at hand
to hand fighting but the enemy girls proved almost as proficient. Some of my
troopers in the front of the battle didn't have time to shoot all the
Rodeenans coming at them and were stabbed in the ensuing melee. My troopers
collectively decided to drop their pistols and engage the wave of Rodeenans
hand to hand.

One Rodeenan came charging at me with her blade. She was an absolute thrill
to look at. She was very well endowed with shapely legs, curves and breasts.
I forced myself to remember she was an enemy.

I managed to bat her blade out of her hands by kicking at her wrist. I was
then able to force my blade between those two immaculate breasts of hers and
she died instantly. As the dead girl fell off my blade I looked about for
other targets.

It seemed the entire cavern reverberated with the sounds of hand-to-hand
fighting. Girls in both silver and black shouted in fear, pain and disbelief
as they grasped mortal wounds.

I saw two of the Rodeenans ganging up on one of my girls (a very
good-looking Lorian named Sarah) about 5 meters away. I had dropped my
pistol in order to fend off my attacker. There was no time to look for it so
I began sprinting and praying I'd make it in time. As I got there I wrapped
my arm around one girl and kicked the other off balance. Just as I recovered
from my kick, I slipped my blade into the Rodeenan trooper's kidney. She
wobbled in my arms and then went limp just as I began to drop her. Thanks to
my kick Sarah was able to thrust her blade sideways into her opponent's
ribs. Sarah looked at me with her bottomless blue eyes smiled a quick thank
you.

Sarah and I got back to the fighting. I caught Stephanie at the corner of my
eye. She was finishing off her opponent with great skill. She met my gaze as
she withdrew her knife from the enemy girl's stomach. As she ran to me she
threw her blade directly at me. It was too dangerous and moving too fast to
try and deflect so I ducked. Panicking at having one of my own girls trying
to kill me I managed to roll forward, with my own knife ready to kill who I
thought was a Rodeenan sympathizer. Finishing my roll I sprang forward
knocking Stephanie off her feet. I got on top of the luscious girl and put
my knife to her throat. She started to laugh.

"HA! You men!"

"What do you mean?"

Instead of answering she just pointed to the dead Rodeenan trooper who now
had Stephanie's blade hilt deep in her right breast. Recognizing my mistake
I began to blush a little. Which only made her giggle. Then she kissed me.
Quite deeply. Her full red lips were warm and moist on mine.

"That's for sweeping me off my feet hero," She said smiling broadly up at
me.

She must've seen me blush a few shades darker because her smile shone
brighter than her skimpy outfit.

"That's 'hero sir' soldier," I said trying to regain my composure.

That really made her laugh.

We were helping each other to our feet when I saw Sarah standing over us.

"You lovebirds done yet, there's still a lot of fight in these bitches,"

"That's 'lovebirds sir.' oh never mind," I just gave up.

Stephanie, Sarah and I got back to the raging hand to hand combat. The floor
of the cavern was literally covered with bodies of dead troopers dressed in
both silver and black. I looked at the carnage and saw that the number of
their dead girls was at least starting to equal ours.

When I regained my position in the fighting I saw another pair of Rodeenans
trying to gang up on one of my troopers. I thanked my luck that I had to
travel a shorter distance now than I did when I saved Sarah. As I approached
the unfair brawl I recognized my trooper as a Therian brunette named Kate. I
had recently recommended her for promotion. She was smart and a quick
learner; on top of that she recently won the CWM's beauty pageant.no small
task given the competition. She was perhaps the most beautiful girl I had
under my command.

I intended to get into this fight the same way I did with Sarah's. I wrapped
my arm around the closest enemy trooper and attempted to kick the other.
Unfortunately the other Rodeenan was either faster or luckier or both. She
lunged forward tackling Kate as my kick neatly passed into open air. The
Rodeenan woman in my arm tried to make a stabbing motion toward backwards as
the two beauties rolled on the ground, each trying to gain the upper hand.
Instead of sinking into my guts her blade neatly missed as I dodged. With
that the enemy girl made a rearward kick that landed squarely in my groin.
Pain exploded from the injured area. I had to think quickly before I blacked
out. Improvising, I threw my other hand behind her neck and with a pivoting
motion I snapped her neck like a toothpick. Her body becoming dead heaviness
in my hands I dropped her. I fell to my knees and clenched at the agonized
area. Man it hurt!

Looking through the mist of torture, I saw the Rodeenan who had tackled Kate
on her back. She was pinned to the floor by Kate's well-formed thighs. Kate,
having lost her knife at some point in the fight, was struggling to gain
control of the blade that was inching its way toward her chest, powered by
the stronger Rodeenan. Putting both hands on the Rodeenan's knife hand she
pushed it slowly away. Unable to move due to the cloud of misery in my groin
I was forced to watch as the Rodeenan used her now free hand to hit Kate's
windpipe with a chopping motion. Kate gasped for air as her strength left
her. Moving like lightning the Rodeenan regained control of her knife arm a
thrust her blade deeply between Kate's shapely breasts slashing her heart.
She screamed and seized the area around her fatal wound. The Rodeenan pushed
the dying girl off herself and got to her feet.

Seeing another of my girls die in front of me was just too much. My blood
began to boil, clouding over the haze of pain at my groin. I got off my
knees and paced toward the Rodeenan. She was standing over Kate with a
satisfied expression on her face. She pulled the blooded knife from my dead
troopers chest just as I was upon her.

"You BITCH!" I screamed as the clearly terrified girl was instantly overcome
by my almost berserker strength. I slapped her blade right out of her hand
and fastened my hands around her throat I squeezed with all I had in me. She
was still struggling as her beautiful legs gave and she was reintroduced to
the ground. This time I would make sure she would stay there. Her hands
weekend around my wrists. As she died, her arms fell and I finally let the
strangled girl go. Her dead body set right next to Kate's.

I looked over to Kate's body. I stroked her hair out of her soft face. Her
open eyes were unable to see the mournful expression on my face.

Regaining personal control I looked about to see that the battle had moved
to the general area where Gina's girls had landed.

More of my girls were fighting and dying so I moved quicker than I thought
myself capable with the sore members of my anatomy. I saw another gorgeous
Lorian girl I knew as Shannon being outmatched by a swifter Rodeenan. I
promised myself I wouldn't be too late this time.

Just as I was arriving the slender Rodeenan managed to get a spinning heel
kick that planted neatly in Shannon's flat stomach. She doubled over and
fell to the ground. Seeing the Rodeenan about to stab her, Shannon raised
her arm in what she must've realized was a futile attempt to block.

I was just in time.

The black clad girl never saw me coming. I slipped my knife around her
throat spilling blood instantly. She gurgled and collapsed. I helped Shannon
to her feet.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yes sir." She smiled luminously at me as she put her firm statuesque body
against mine, "And I'll show you how okay I am when we get out of here," she
whispered in my ear as her hand took mine and guided it over her breasts.

I took a second to enjoy the feeling. The envirosuits were so tight it felt
like skin I was holding, the fact that they were seamless enhanced the
illusion further. I gently touched Shannon's lovely figure that was so
tightly sheathed in the silver garment, relishing every second of the
softness of her anatomy.

I couldn't enjoy the moment too long.we still had a fight to get back to. As
much as it pained me to do it, I severed myself from her and we immediately
got back to business. I had always made time for the girls. It was always
time well spent.

We separated. She picked up a permi-knife from one of the dead Rodeenans
setting her own in her holster on her naked thigh. She shrugged not
bothering to say 'Can't hurt to have a spare'. I rearmed myself with a blade
from the thigh holster of one of Gina's girls who still dangled by her rope.
I couldn't see where her blaster went and I had no time to look, the blade
would just have to do.

I met Shannon's gaze again. This time she looked over my shoulder behind me.
She smiled and ran off.

Before I could turn to see where she was going I saw a Rodeenan pulling her
freshly planted blade from the stomach of one of my silver clad beauties.
Our eyes met. She ran to me with a fury I had rarely seen. Killing my girl
must've put her in a bloodlust. It was her undoing. As she reached me I
swept my foot out and caught her in the shin. She tripped and fell to the
floor. I threw my knife arm into the woman's torso. Her scream seemed to get
weaker as it carried on. As I pulled the blade from her body she shook on
the ground and lay still.

Finally able to turn and see where Shannon went I caught a glimpse of my
opposite number.the male Rodeenan Army officer. He had about five of my
girls dead and scattered around his feet. He was much bigger than any of my
troopers and a whole lot faster and stronger. Shannon must've wanted to
collect the commendations that came with killing male officers in combat.
She ran to him and attempted a basic 'chorus line' high kick, which he
easily dodged. She slashed downward with her knife. Moving rapidly he
stepped back to miss her attack. He then put his hands on both sides of her
beautiful face and twisted, breaking her neck instantly. Her arms dropped to
her side and her legs would've given way but for the Rodeenan man holding
her up.

"No!" I screamed. It had happened too quickly. I couldn't stop it.

Still holding onto Shannon by her head, he wrapped his arm around her waist.
He must've heard me because he turned her so that she would've been looking
at me if her lifeless eyes were not closed. Her head hanging to one side,
the Rodeenan man smiled mockingly at me as he brought his free hand up to
fondle Shannon's breasts, her lifeless hands hanging by her side unable to
resist the molestation.

I was about to rush forward to kill the bastard when he pulled the blade
that was still in Shannon's thigh holster. He was going to throw it at me
when one of my girls who was closer tried to charge him. He threw the knife
at her instead. The knife sank hilt deep in her left breast. The dying girl
was thrown backward off her feet where she squirmed for a few seconds vainly
feeling at the blade in her flesh before lying dead.

Furiously I sprinted the distance not about to tolerate anything impeding
me.

I managed to kill the occasional Rodeenan who tried to obstruct me as I
went. On the way I saw a black clad girl thrusting her knife into the gut of
one of my troopers. The girl in silver fell writhing and screaming to the
ground. I didn't lose a step as I made a slight change of direction
thrusting my knife into her throat. She tried to scream but instead she
crumbled next to the mortally wounded girl is silver who was still writhing
and screaming.

When I got to where the Rodeenan man was, I saw that Stephanie and Sarah
were behind me fighting off the other Rodeenan troopers who were trying to
interfere.

I stood in front of the massive officer.

"I think you've done enough to my girls today fucker!" I told him.

Saying that, I threw a sidekick to his face. He dodged by bending over, but
I was able to put the knee of my other leg into his jaw. He fell across the
much-exposed legs of one of my dead girls. Rolling back he shot to his feet
and threw himself at me bowling me over. After planting a few good right
crosses on my face I was able to kick him off.

Getting back to my feet as quickly as I could I saw him on his back reaching
over toward one a dead black clad trooper. He was going for the blaster that
she still held in her lifeless hand. Not knowing where my own weapon went I
found that another dead trooper clad in silver lay just behind me. Reaching
for the blade that was holstered in her silky thighs, I recognized her as a
Rembian named Christy. All the girls called her 'The Ravishing Rembian'. She
had the high cheekbones and flawless skin that came naturally to the
colonists born on Rembia. The Rembian girls never had to tan or have the
bikini waxing which made all the other girls jealous. But she was dead now.
I couldn't tell how. I don't suppose it matters. Everyone would be
especially saddened at Christy's death. Everyone liked her.

Retrieving Christy's knife and looking up from her body I saw that the
Rodeenan officer had his girl's pistol. The knife was the only thing I could
find, I would have to hurl it at him, but the time I wound up for the throw
he already had his weapon pointed at my chest.

The next thing I saw was one of my girls jumping in front of me just as the
Rodeenan fired.

"Ahhhh!" she cried as the bolt struck her. As she fell I threw my knife at
the man striking him in the throat. He made a gurgling noise trying to curse
me but he only collapsed next to Shannon's corpse. I swiftly looked to the
girl who saved my life. It took a second for me to realize who it was.

"Stephanie!" I shouted as I watched her weakly writhing on the floor. I ran
over and cradled her head in my hands, her body was still warm in my arms.

"I.I didn't want.you to die," she struggled to say.

With the last of her strength she put her lips to mine and we kissed. Our
lips parted and she looked in my eyes. Her gorgeous eyes closed and her head
fell back to the floor of the cavern.

She was gone.

I took a last look at her flawless body and looked around to get back to the
rest of the fighting. The first person I saw was Sarah.

"Slow down sir, it's over," She said indicating to the rest of the bay
around her.

I looked at the reactor room floor. There were dozens and dozens of bodies
lying throughout the bay. Some sprawled spread-eagle here and there, some
had their legs in various figure-four positions, some on their stomachs, and
some lay on top of the containers previously used for cover. They all looked
so perfect, even as they lay dead on the cavern floor.

I looked back at Stephanie's body and then back to Sarah.

"How bad is it?" I asked her.

She looked intently at my face.

"Aww, I think you'll live it's only a few bruises," she said playfully her
smile beaming.

"I mean the fight damn it! Give me a sit-rep."

"Take a look," she said, her smile becoming even broader as she pointed to a
group of about five or six Rodeenan girls with their hands up. Several of my
own troopers had them surrounded, holding an assortment of weapons from
knives to their rail pistols, one or two even picked up enemy blasters.
Around them was obviously the area where the heaviest fighting took place.
Half-naked dead girls from both sides lay all around them.

I took a better look around and saw that while our casualties were very
high, that we gave better than we got. For every dead Rodeenan that lay
sprawled on the floor, one didn't have to look far to find a dead girl in a
shimmering silver envirosuit. Some girls still clutched wounds they could no
longer feel, some had eyes open even though they could see nothing. I
decided to gauge how well we had done by how many girls were left alive; it
would defiantly be easier to count.

Standing around Sarah and I were about 14 other CWM troopers. Seven guarded
the dozen or so Rodeenan prisoners.

"Well it's better than I thought it would be," I said. We had one, we found
out that the Rodeenans had committed an act of aggression and we even had
prisoners to prove it.

"Yes sir," Sarah said, "By the way, we couldn't see it but just about all of
Lt. Gina's girls bought it out in the open. The must've taken a lot of heat
from us. Take a look." She pointed to where Gina's girls had roped down.
Many of the girls who were killed on the way down were being taken down by
my remaining troopers. Nearby were literally piles of Gina's girls. Most of
them must've been killed seconds after hitting the ground. They lay in small
piles on top of each other having been killed as they tried to get closer to
the enemy or find some cover.

"How many of you came down on the ropes here?" I called out.

No one answered. I could have asked again but I already knew the answer.
Gina was going to be pissed as me.

As bad as I felt for Gina's girls, I felt a lot of relief knowing our
mission was accomplished.

"Sir, this is Lt. Gina," my CommSet sounded off, "We have a problem. I'm
looking at the interface and it looks like someone triggered a self-destruct
for this entire asteroid. We got about five minutes before this rock blows."

"Damn! Okay, I copy, we're on our way back up," I responded, "Evacuate!
Everyone back to the surface!"

"What about them?" asked one of the survivors, indicating the dead troopers,
her friends.

"There's no time! Out now!" As much as I wanted to bring the girls back for
proper burial, and as much as terrible thing as it was we had to get out.at
least for the ones still alive.

The girls began heading back out the entrance where we came in. As we were
leaving I looked around at the carnage arrayed on the floor about us.
Running through the reactor room we had no choice but to step over our own
dead girls. Girls we knew by name, who were our friends, they were dead now,
sprawled throughout the cavern.

I did my best to put my sorrows behind me, I still had about 20 girls here
and another 50 back at the airlock who wanted to go home.

We got to the airlock, boarded the ship being sure to shepherd the prisoners
the whole way. After liftoff, the asteroid rocked with massive internal
explosions. After we felt the immense aftershocks subside, Gina came over
and sat next to me.

"So where are my girls?" She asked with a flirtatious smile.

She saw by the look in my face that I wasn't in the mood for jokes so she
stood back up and over saw the rest of her girls securing the prisoners in
the cargo bay.

Sarah came over and occupied Gina's former seat. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"Isn't it obvious? There's going to be a war! Besides.I lost half my
command! Pretty much my fault."

She gave me another one of those heart-melting smiles I cam to expect from
her. "Why are you thinking like that? I would be dead right now if it
weren't for you. About all the girls who came out of there probably wouldn't
be if you didn't do your part. Did those girls want to die? Of course not!
Who does? But they knew that they were doing something important and they
accepted it."

With that, she took my hand in hers and placed it on her silk-smooth thigh.
I stroked her leg gently feeling better about the future. I looked into her
eyes, she was so beautiful.

"That reminds me," she said teasingly, "I hope you know what you're getting
into when we get back to HQ." Gesturing at the other 20 survivors who seated
themselves around the cabin to relax. They were looking amorously at me,
some giggling and whispering into each other's ears.

That really made me smile. Despite all that happened, I would probably get
promoted for discovering the Rodeenan plot to subvert Colonial shipping (and
bringing back prisoners for interrogating). Besides, I had 20 girls looking
at me the way every man loves being looked at by beautiful women.

The next few weeks were going to be great!