From The Stars (Collector x Yenpointfive)

Ashling stood among the wreckage and corpses of the soldiers that had attacked her. She wasn't entirely sure why they'd attacked, but she'd defended herself appropriately and the field of twisted metal and corpses was the result of her work. Her current theories about why she was under assault were that she'd entered restricted airspace when her ship crashed or that the government of the country she'd landed on had an interest in extraterrestrial life. The latter seemed somewhat unlikely since records showed that her people had had no direct contact with the planet at any point in the past, though she couldn't rule out the possibility that the governing body of the area she'd landed in had an interest in contacting or capturing alien life. This time, the latter seemed more likely due to the fact that soldiers had been sent after her.

Ashling stood at an even seven feet when at her fullest height, but her body was designed so that she could move on her hands and feet just as well as, if not better than she could standing on two legs. She aesthetically resembled a seven foot-tall humanoid wolf with dark gray fur and blue eyes, and while she shared some genetic features with the wolves of Earth, the similarities were minor at best. She wore a dark red jumpsuit with black markings on the shoulders and chest, denoting her military rank, but the markings did not correlate to any used by the Earth's military. Besides her unusual appearance, one other thing stood out about Ashling: her right arm, which was entirely cybernetic.

The wolf had managed to defend her downed fighter with a good degree of success, though her personal shield had been pierced by a few stray bullets, one of which was currently lodged in her gut. She was in the process of scavenging the wreckage of her fighter for a medkit at the moment, now that there seemed to be a lull in the fighting. Ashling had been fortunate to crash atop a hill: it had made it easy to spot hostile forces coming from all directions and the high ground had given her an easier shot at the advancing hostile forces. They had started out with infantry, but had soon graduated to longer-distance attacks and even a few tanks and helicopters when it became apparent that footsoldiers would not be enough. Many soldiers lay dead or dying on the hill and the twisted, burning wreckage of the tanks and helicopters lay where they had exploded or crashed.

Ashling had only two weapons to defend herself since she hadn't been expecting to fight on the ground, both of which were standard kit for emergency landings. The first was a composite bow equipped with a psionic focus that allowed her to create psionic arrows with a number of useful effects ranging from creating an explosion on impact to disintegrating her target. The arrows themselves were comprised of pure psionic energy, so she only had to worry about exhausting herself rather than running out of ammunition. Thankfully, the psionic focus was a high-quality one, so it required little to no effort to create an arrow and select an effect for it. The other weapon was actually a paired set of items: a bastard sword and a shield. Again, both had integrated psionic focuses that allowed her to easily cleave through most metal with her sword like it was paper and block up to light artillery with her shield without harming herself.

The bow was presently resting in a collapsed state on the seat beside her as she scoured the cockpit for the medkit, which had either been knocked loose or destroyed in the crash, while the five foot sword and kite shield rested against the body of her fighter outside. The shield was emblazoned with an emblem of a black, clawed hand grasping a steel gray sword over a red field. The same emblem could be seen on either side of Ashling's fighter, though the red paint that covered most of the craft served as the red field.

Step one had been to relieve the general in command of his duties. He would certainly be losing his position for turning what probably could have been a peaceful first meeting between their species if only he didn't feel the need to send a squad of armed soldiers to greet someone who might have reacted much more favorably to a single unarmed agent. Worse still, the general had limited knowledge of the Conspiracy (the semi-serious catch all term for those in-the-know about the Helios Initiative, the organization started shortly after Apollo 11 discovered signs of alien visitation on Earth's moon). He didn't rank actual Initiative clearance of any sort and as a level-0 clearance individual was only allowed to know about the Initiative's existence in the event his troops would act as first responders. It didn't do him much good since, after making mess of it, he tried to activate the only other Initiative protocols he knew of and declare her a an EOTW (End of the World) Event, probably since such an event would make secrecy a non issue and thus make his troops damnedest attempts to blow their secrecy a forgivable event.

Step two had been determining whether or not she needed to be put down. An SR-71 equipped with a single fuel-air bomb was in the air in the event that they needed to do so. In the end the higher ups determined that she had been fired upon first and she hadn't actually finished off any of the troops that had attacked her once the threat was removed. She certainly wasn't a peaceful species but she could easily be forgiven for reacting appropriately to the situation. Until Initiative forces could arrive containment was to be left to the Level-2 on site, which as of a test conducted a week and a half ago, was Nathan Wright.

Nathan weighed his options. Attack again and she'd break through the weaknesses in their lines. She'd already destroyed too many vehicles to put any others within range of that bow and a frontal assault by infantry was madness. All the options were bad ones and he was the poor bastard who got to pick how they screwed this job up. Seeing her standing atop the wreckage of her craft, ready for a second assault sent a shiver down his spine. There was something primal about her. They'd tried to conquer her and she'd put them in their place. He realized how he was going to keep her here long enough to get the Initiative troops on the ground and looked to the other five agents with him, all Level-1s. "I'm going to need you all to turn out your pockets and one of you needs to run to our dear general. He was carrying his sword on him when I saw him earlier. Get that for me." He said simply. All the options were bad ones and this had gone too far already but the only way to keep it going and stand a chance of getting it under control was to keep going.

This would work, Nathan told himself. She wouldn't fire on someone without a ranged weapon, and if he was wrong about that he was fairly sure she'd wing him. The other agents had been given strict orders not to help him if something was to happen. "Maintain the perimeter and wait for back up" had been his last orders to them. He looked like quite the enticing opponent, tall, fit, and handsome. His hair and eyes were the same shad of deep brown and his hair wasn't cut so short as all the military men she'd previously faced. The Initiative allowed for a bit more freedom from its agents, though the uniform was mandatory. The 'uniform' in this case was a pitch black suit and tie. Truthfully it had been adopted after stories of "men in black" had been spread among UFO conspiracy theorists. If you wanted to pretend you didn't exist you fit yourself into the stories of people no one believed.

He carried the ceremonial saber at his side, having already checked to make sure it was actually sharp. He didn't have his side arm on him, having known that he'd never have a chance to use it. It was more important that she lived through this than that he did so killing her was the surest way to fail. As he approached the downed craft he started to come to the realization that she was a good foot taller than he was. On a more pleasant note, he managed to confirm that she was definitely female, judging by the way she filled out that jumpsuit of hers. He had no idea if she had any way of understanding human speech since everyone who had gotten close enough to speak with her had been more busy shooting than talking and never got a chance to report back whether or not she had said anything. "Assuming you understand me I'd love to work this out without any more violence." He called out, his hand remaining still close enough to the hilt of his sword to draw it as he waited for her to answer, either with her words or her blade.

Ashling smelled Nathan coming long before she actually saw him. She had been unsuccessful in scavenging for a medkit and it appeared that her distress beacon had been destroyed as well. Until she got it working again, it seemed that she was stranded here, which could be a very short time or a very long time, depending on how the next few minutes played out. As Nathan drew closer, Ashling pulled her bow from the seat of her fighter and climbed atop the wreckage, perching atop it and drawing the string back while focusing her psionic power into the shape of a purple, glowing arrow. However, upon seeing that he was armed with only a sword, she dismissed the arrow and collapsed the bow, tossing it back onto the seat before hopping down from atop the wreckage. She picked up her shield in her left hand and drew her sword in her right, leaving the sheath leaning against the fighter. The blade was built from five feet of black nano-carbon: diamond-hard carbon manipulated by nanites into the form of a blade. Unlike Nathan's saber, the blade of Ashling's sword was not reflective, though its edge was sharper than most blades on Earth.

Ashling's neural computer translated Nathan's words easily into her native tongue. Her people had been observing Earth for many years now and even had a monitoring station on the moon at one point, though it had been disassembled and taken back to their homeworld the moment it appeared that the Earthlings were approaching the space age. As a result, any wolf stationed in the Sol system had their neural computers equipped with translation software that could handle any language currently spoken on Earth, as well as a few dead languages like Latin and Mesopotamian. The software would also translate her speech into English, since that was the last language it had registered spoken in her vicinity.

"I too would prefer not to fight anymore," she replied, "but any communication between us must be brief. I have been instructed to reveal as little of my technology to a civilization such as yours in this scenario, meaning that I must leave as soon as possible. So, for the sake of brevity, tell me now if you will be providing me with the materials I need to fix my ship or not, then cease communications."

When she drew her bow he stopped for a moment, weighed his options, and then kept walking. If he stopped she could simply keep the bow drawn and he'd be forced to call what he was hoping was a bluff sooner or later anyway, though in retrospect that might have been a smarter idea. Depending on how long he could keep a stalemate going that might give him time for the rest of his agents to arrive. He took one look at that sword of hers and decided that there was exactly zero chance parrying would be effective. This plan seemed stupider by the moment but unless his radio sparked to life with one of the other agents on it having come up with a better idea it was time for him to do the impossible for a cause he believed in.

Nathan stopped about ten feet away from her, getting a good look at her and the area that would very well serve as their battlefield. He found his eyes lingering longer than they had to on that curve hugging jumpsuit of hers. It was obvious that she was in fantastic shape, a warrior, just like he was. Not to mention that Nathan was a fan of the exotic and you didn't get more exotic than an alien wolf girl.

He sighed when she spoke, glad to know that she understood English or at least had some way to instantly translate between their languages. That'd make things a bit easier. It was a sort of bittersweet moment when he realized that she was actually in a very similar boat to the one he was. She too had to make some bad decisions because of her orders. He drew his sword slowly as he spoke, knowing already that what he was going to say would provoke a fight. "I'm afraid that I can't do that. See, it's my job to make absolutely sure you're not here long enough for the civilian population to find out about you. I give you my word that if you come with me peacefully you'll be treated well and we'll try to get you home as soon as possible." He told her. And this is where the fight would come about. He had orders to move her, she had orders to stay away from him. He'd let her make the first move though. She had to, seeing as time was on his side. And it was better to let her run down the ship than to run up it and let her have the high ground.

Ashling saw how Nathan looked her up and down, but did not let it phase her. After all, what did it matter what he thought of her body if she might have to kill him within the next few minutes? That said, Ashling's body was impressive, even for her species. While not particularly high-ranking, Ashling had her own squad of soldiers and had lead them on one successful mission after another over the course of her military service. She was still young, only twenty five years old, but had already received a number of commendations, which she wore during formal events. As such, she kept herself in incredibly good shape; her every muscle was tight and toned, though it could be difficult to tell under her fur, which only enhanced her stunning figure. If one took her measurements proportionally to a human, Ashling would have been safely in the middle of a C-cup. However, judging from size alone, she was actually on the larger end of a D-cup and she had the proportional hips and narrow waist required to give her an appealing hourglass figure.

"In that case, our goals coincide," she said, letting out a sigh. "If you do not provide me with the parts I need to repair my ship and leave, I will be forced to go into the nearest settlement to look for what I require. If I am fortunate, I can simply scavenge what I need and return here with no further casualties. However, the more likely outcome is that I will encounter multiple humans and be forced to kill them in order to keep my presence a secret. It will be messy and I would rather not have to add any more bodies than I have to to the current death toll, so I would appreciate it if you called off whatever reinforcements you have undoubtedly ordered and call for a list of parts to be airdropped in here. It would also help if said list was destroyed as soon as the parts were requisitioned, but I suppose that would be asking for too much."

Ashling rolled her neck, letting out audible pops and cracks as she did. She kept glancing back in the direction of the camp, ready to spring for her bow if it seemed like anyone was attempting to leave; as part of her protocol, she would have to bombard the makeshift camp into rubble and slay Nathan to ensure that as little information about her and her ship left the area as possible. Ashling disliked the almost senseless violence required by the protocol, but she understood its necessity; the humans needed to grow and develop on their own and any interference on her part, other than to stop the spread of information about herself, her technology and her people, could have potentially harmful effects for the human race and, in the worst case, the universe. Had she crashed with one of the Bright Ones, wolves who had trained extensively and almost exclusively in the use of their psionics, things would have been simpler: she could just have the Bright One wipe the memories of all humans present and the deaths would have been completely avoidable. In fact, the two of them could have simply walked into town, stolen what they needed to repair the fighter and left without anyone so much as noticing that there had been two seven-foot wolves in their midst. But alas, she had not been so fortunate.

"So, I will ask you again," she said, readying her sword and shield, "for the sake of the civilians, will you provide me with the parts I need or am I going to have to go through you?"

Nathan was sure that her visit to the next town over wouldn't work. There was just no way that she could find the parts for what he assumed was an FTL capable vessel here. Maybe if she'd crashed next to NASA or CERN, but the sleepy little farming village nearby would not have anything to help her unless her ship was compatible with tractor parts and ran on fertilizer. Likewise, the longer he waited here the more likely it was that she got discovered by someone they couldn't keep quiet. Night was their ally and time their enemy. "You won't find what you need around here and we don't have the luxury of waiting for you to fix your ship. I'm suspecting that you won't come with us and let us help you fix it up so I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask for you to do the dance one more time." He said with a sigh. He really didn't like the idea of trying to stab their first visitor from another world. Hitting a woman would have bothered him a bit more if she wasn't a foot taller than him and sporting probably another hundred pounds of muscle based on her height.

The nice thing about not having a shield was that it gave him a free hand and while he didn't have a gun on him he did have a couple of tasers conveniently stuffed into the back of his belt. All Helios operatives carried some form of non lethal ordinance in case they had to subdue an enemy. Besides, judging by how much the wound in her stomach actually seemed to bother her it might be more effective. She reacted to being shot like he would to a cut that might need stitches. He drew his weapon quickly and fired it right before he bolted for her. He held the trigger down just in case, by some miracle, it actually hit its intended target with both prods. That wasn't the attack though. That was meant to make her raise her shield so that the real attack could go through. He swung hard with the saber. Based on the fact that only one round seemed to have found any purchase in her jump suit he was assuming that it was at least partially bullet proof, and hopefully would turn the slice of a saber into a blunt smack to her ankle.

The idea wasn't to hurt her, the idea was to put her off balance on the curved and smooth slope of her ship. Without her footing she'd tumble and land directly at his feet. Then he'd... Well, he wasn't really sure what he'd do. He needed a way to get her to surrender, to give up. Tasing her might work since he did have two more spare tasers also tucked into his belt but it seemed a long shot. If she wasn't subdued by a gunshot he hardly thought that a taser would knock her out. He was flying by the seat of his pants and he knew it.

It was here that Ashling's somewhat limited knowledge of Earth weaponry worked against her. She knew the general principle behind most Earth weapons and could judge how much of a threat they were to her based on their size, but she didn't know much about individual weapons. She could easily identify a handgun, a rifle or a shotgun, but she didn't know much about individual models; as such, she didn't actually know what a taser was and assumed that it was just another handgun. So, rather than blocking it with her physical shield, she let the shot go through and hit the energy shield that was powered by her psionics on her belt. The effects were immediate and noticeable: a small, hexagonal device on her belt hissed and let out a series of sparks as the electric charge of the taser shorted it out. The taser itself did nt get through to Ashling or cause her any harm, but she immediately realized that her psionic shield was useless. She made a note of this as she parried Natha's sword aside with her shield, leaving him open for a counterattack from her own sword.

Ashling took a quick step back after her parry, allowing her room to stab at Nathan's gut with her own blade. Regardless of how Nathan fought with his own sword, there was a distinct difference between how Ashling had been trained and how Nathan had been trained. On Earth, once ranged weapons became more efficient than swords, the humans had stopped using swords and a good deal of knowledge about the use of melee weaponry had been lost. The basics of how to properly swing a sword or an ax were easily rediscovered, but many of the advanced techniques, such as how to attack and defend simultaneously, were lost. On Ashling's homeworld, however, swords had never lost their usefulness; warriors never forgot how to gird themselves in psionic armor and the techniques and technology for how to do so had only improved. Likewise, the easiest way to get through psionic armor had been to attack it with a psionicly-enhanced blade for a very long time. Even most plasma weaponry took a good few shots to break through armor whereas a well-placed swordstroke could shatter it in a single blow. Because of this, swordsmanship had never died out and the techniques kept on improving.

As Ashling stabbed, if Nathan was paying particularly close attention, he could notice her gritting her teeth a bit harder. It wasn't that the rifle wound in her gut hadn't hurt her, she was just as susceptible to bullet wounds a human, but she knew how to block out the pain with her psionics. The lull in the fighting had given her a chance to rest and drop her armor, but she had still been using psionics for the past hour straight and was starting to get tired. She hoped that she could deal with Nathan quickly so that she could rest up for her trip into town. If she was unsuccessful in her attempt to get supplies, she would have to arm the self-destruct on her ship and destroy her equipment, including her arm, before throwing herself on her sword. She did not want to die for her planet, but she was prepared to if it was the only option left to her.

He wasn't surprised to see the shield up and was starting to think that his inability to get anything smaller than a lucky shot from a high powered rifle through it would be his undoing. Then the taser connected and it became clear what had happened. Apparently their technology didn't do well with being zapped. A helpful realization but he was no Nikolai Tesla. He had two more taser shots and then the electric hijinx ended. Honestly though, when his sword didn't connect it looked like any sort of hijinx would end then and there. He was off balance for a moment and his options were pretty much entirely to hit the deck. What would have been a gut shot instead sliced through the top of his shoulder as he landed on a knee. He didn't have a chance to check the wound and just had to assume no arteries had been harmed in the making of that incision.

He bared his teeth and grunted in pain as he stood, though the sound came out more as a growl, something to match her bared fangs. In the back of his mind a little voice cried out at him and he realized that he was actually enjoying this. He was standing here with a gorgeous women whose full attention was all his and he was getting to put to use skills that may never have seen the light of day if she hadn't crash landed. He looked up at her bared fangs and all of the sudden it hit him. He knew how to get her to submit. A wicked grin spread across his face, only half intentionally.

He raised his sword again and brought it down. The blow was going to come up a bit short of actually hitting her... until he let go of the blade. It wouldn't hit anything vital, his aim was off because of the pain in his shoulder, but it would force her to react and the issue she was going to run into was that her gut wound hampered movement from just about every part of his body. His right shoulder really only screwed up one arm. He drew both tasers at once and fired as quickly as he could get a bead on her. After having just deflected the sword he doubted she'd manage to catch both sets of prods. And this whole routine had to be done while keeping her footing. Even if nothing hit, all it took was one slip, all Nathan needed was her on his level.

Ashling sidestepped what looked like a swordswipe, keeping her shield arm towards Nathan; though she was confused by why the human had thrown his sword, she would not let the mystery slow her down. In the time that it took him to draw his other tasers, Ashling had more than enough time to line up another strike. This time, rather than attacking with her sword, she kept her shield raised and charged Nathat, bashing the shield into his face. Fortunately for Nathan, Ashling held her sword in her cybernetic arm and not the one holding the shield, otherwise the blow would have broken his neck. As it was, Ashling had about a hundred pounds of muscle on Nathan, and all of that came launching at him with surprising speed and aimed directly at his face.

On Earth, wolves were not necessarily known for pouncing, and for good reason: feline predators tended to do a much better job of pouncing on their pray than wolves did. That said, wolves could still jump; the simple fact of the matter was that a wolf's legs were better designed for speed and mobility than a human's. Ashling's legs shared the design of her feral, Earthly counterparts, with some evolutionary modifications to make it easier for her to stand on two legs. So, when she coiled her legs and bounded forwards with her shield aimed directly at Nathan's face and her sword held high for a stab, she moved far quicker than a human attempting the same maneuver might.

Nathan's life flashed before his eyes as he realized that the tasers were going to be useless. He couldn't possibly score a hit before she caved his head in. The dropped from his hands as he raised his hands to block her strike, fully aware he was about to break both his forearms and lose this fight. He'd live so long as she didn't finish him off but this was the end. Or was, until training kicked in. Agents of the Helios Initiative, like many other military institutions, were trained in martial arts. Every organization had the style it favored and the Initiative was only a little different. They taught styles that worked well with self defense, primarily Wing Chun, but there was always the possibility of this exact situation, in which the opponent was an alien whose species was larger and more physically capable than humans. That was why Nathan was trained in Aikido, one of the few styles where the harder your opponent hit, the harder they got hit.

He grabbed the bottom of the shield with both hands and let the force of the momentum carry him onto his back, bringing his legs up under Ashling and pushing. He had her weight ontop of him when he hit the ground but when he pushed off with his legs the force of her jump would keep her moving, causing her to land in a heap somewhere behind him. The force of the landing fractured something in his arm for certain but it meant he still had a face and was still in this fight, though he was honestly taking a worse beating than she was.

This was the last chance he had to get this under control and he flipped himself upright quickly and lunged for her, intent on getting ontop of her before she could get her barrings. He wasn't worried about his extremities, fully aware that one or more limbs might get caught by claws or teeth at this range. All that was on his mind, primal thought that drove him, was to get his teeth against her neck and that was exactly what he intended to do.

Ashling felt something pop in her shield arm as she was flipped over the human and quickly realized that her shoulder had been dislocated. She grit her teeth and managed to land on her feet, taking a few bounding steps backward to put some distance between herself and Nathan. She tried experimentally to move her left arm, but found it mostly numb. She managed to let go of the shield with her hand and with a shake of her shoulder, managed to jerk the shield off of her arm entirely. Without being able to move the shield to block attacks properly, it would simply wind up getting in her way.

She readier her sword once more. Though she now had the low ground, the sword gave her a distinct advantage: it extended her reach by five feet. Granted, if Nathan was able to get inside of her reach, the sword would be useless, but she was an experience swordmaiden and would not allow that to happen. With a snarl, she charged Nathan again, this time ensuring that she never came close enough for him to grab her. She attacked with a series of controlled strikes, always keeping at least two feet of nano-carbon between herself and the human. She might be injured, but the human was now unarmed.

Watching her swinging that nano-carbon blade of hers about with that cybernetic arm of hers made him worry that he may have been just one trick short of actually being able to live through this. At this rate all he had going for him was being a smaller target than she was used to fighting. A series of stupid decisions had gotten him this far and the list of good ideas pretty much came down to "run away because you've probably bought yourself enough time." That wasn't going to work for him though. Hearing her snarling made him grit his teeth and grin again. This fight could not end in him running away and hiding. She deserved better than that. She deserved a winner, either her or him.

Rather than step back he stepped forward, raising his arm to block the flat of her blade and push it aside (and getting a strip of skin sheered off of his elbow). If her other arm had been working right he'd have gotten himself grabbed and the fight would have been over but since that wasn't the case he could step right up to her, her momentum carrying her right to him. His hands shot out to land wherever they could and keep her close to him long enough for what he had in mind. One gripped her cybernetic shoulder and the other managed to land squarely on her rear, tugging her forward till their bodies were flush against each other and his teeth were resting against her neck. He put a little pressure on them to make certain she'd notice, his breath hot against her fur.

It wasn't until a moment or so after her body touched his that he realized he was hard. How could he not be? He'd just conquered a gorgeous alien woman and had her body pressed right against his. Adrenaline, it seemed, was quite the aphrodisiac as far as Nathan went. If her nose was as good as that of terrestrial wolves she'd be treated to the smell of blood, sweat, and lust from the man who had just beaten her. Whether or not it was she'd feel an ample bulge rubbing against her thigh as he waited with his teeth against her neck, waiting for a sign that she would submit.

Ashling was surprised at the human's daring attempt to parry her blade: had be been even slightly off, she'd have split his arm right down the middle. With the hill working against her now, Ashling fell harder and farther than she would have if Nathan had simply shoulder-tossed her on flat ground. She let out a yelp of pain as her back slammed against the ground and she finally lost control of the psionics she'd been using to keep her pain in check. The bullet wound in her gut, her dislocated shoulder and now the pain in her spine all hit her at once, leaving her stunned more than long enough for Nathan to climb on top of her.

She was surprised, to say the least, when he bit her neck. At first it didn't even register: it was just another sensation in the hurricane of pain that was raging through her body, but when she finally felt his teeth on her neck and his breath on her throat, she began struggling afresh. She wasn't fully conscious of what she was doing: she was operating mainly on instinct, which proved to be her undoing. Had she had her wits about her, she would have calmly grabbed the back of Nathan's neck with her cybernetic arm and clamped down on it until she heard his neck snap. Instead, she let go of her sword and began lashing out at him; she hammered him twice in the kidney with her metal fist and scratched at his back with the claws on her hand, though the latter only really succeeded in tearing his suit beyond repair, but each strike became weaker and weaker as her instinct to submit took over. Soon, she became acutely aware of his hardness against her thigh, causing her nipples to harden beneath her flightsuit and a heat to begin spreading in her loins. Finally, her struggles came to a stop and her head tilted to the side in a display of submission as she began audibly panting, though the sound was pained.

When she hit him in the kidneys his teeth clenched, which wasn't enough to bite through anything, but it'd leave a noticeably sore spot on her neck. When her claws raked his back he became certain that this was the end. Giving claws to her cybernetics had been adding insult to injury (his injuries, of course). Still, he felt the blows becoming weaker and didn't ease his teeth from her neck until they had ceased completely, at which point he sat up, still straddling her waist. His breath was heavy and she could easily see the outline of the bulge in his suit pants. He was well endowed by her people's standards and probably could have had a career in porn if he ever quit the Initiative.

He kept his head high as he reached into the tattered bits of his jacket and pulled out a first aid kit. They were battered, beaten and bloody but right now only one wound on either of them had much of a chance of being fatal. He reached down and began to undo her jumpsuit, taking a second to figure out how it worked before he undid it. The way he looked at her body was far from clinical but after an appreciative glance at her breasts he moved his gaze down further to her gut wound. He slid his hand around behind her and sure enough it came back bloody. It had been a through and through and hadn't hit any organs. He tugged the rest of her jumpsuit off, every now and then guiding her to turn about for him so he could get it off of her, leaving that and the tattered remains of his jacket on the ground for her to lay on. His first aid skills left a bit to be desired, especially since the alcohol was going to burn like hell but he quickly cleaned both the entry and exit wounds. "You should have made this easy on yourself." He commented with a little grin. "But personally, I'm glad that you didn't." He added as he took the time to relocate her shoulder.

Nathan could see how hard her nipples were and read her body language well enough to know what his power over her was doing to her. His instincts were screaming at him to take advantage of this situation, but he needed to keep a clear head and make the appropriate decisions. But tonight the only appropriate decisions had been the bad ones, and why should this one be any different. He didn't have anything that would hold her, save for her own instinct to submit to a more powerful opponent, but he was a male and she was a female, and he could think of only one thing that would occur after this fight among her own species. Couldn't seem weak. "If I told you to present, would you understand me, or would I have to show you what I want?" He asked her softly, his tone actually sweeter than before. His position in this pack had been proven by violence once already and it was time to reinforce it in a different way. The question was whether or not she still had the proper instincts to know that face down tail up was the proper way for her to present herself to her mate.

Ashling wasn't actually wearing anything under her flightsuit, and for good reason: the suit was designed to give constant feedback on her vitals to the command ship so that they could recall her if anything seemed amiss and any clothing worn under the suit would interfere with its ability to do its job. Ashling's entire body was covered in fur, as Nathan soon discovered, but the fun on her stomach, breasts and groin was white, in stark contrast to the dark gray fur that covered the rest of her body. She let out a snarl of pain as her dislocated arm was pulled out of its sleeve without being popped back into its socket, but otherwise submissively did as Nathan wanted her to. As he worked on her, Nathan could see hard, pink nipples poking out from the white fur of her breasts and could easily notice the pink lips of her pussy becoming pink ans swollen. She whined and snarled as he treated her injuries, but knew that the pain was necessary in order to ensure that she didn't die from an infection. She let out an animal yelp of pain as her dislocated shoulder was popped back into place, but was glad that feeling and control quickly returned to her arm afterwards.

She gave him a confused look when he mentioned her presenting; narrowing her eyes and frowning as she cocked her head to the side. "My translator is not perfect," she explained. "It can pick out your meaning most of the time through context, but you're going to have to explain this one to me so that it can understand what you mean in the future. Right now, it sounds like you're asking me to give a demonstration of some kind, which I do not believe is what you mean." She cocked her head to the other side. "Unless it is?"

Nathan did his best to ignore the snarling that occurred every now and then. He didn't think that she'd take a bite out of him at this point. Judging by the way her body was reacting to her situation if things did go bad for him it'd be in an entirely different way. This wasn't what he'd set out to create but it was still something along the lines of what he'd been hoping for. Right now she wasn't an alien, nor he a human. She was a female and he was a male, and he had proved that he was the alpha in this pack of two. Others had begun to approach the site, tending to the wounded and carrying them quickly away. No one dared approach the craft or the two at the base of it however.

He realized that her translator wasn't going to get this one on context alone. Context would have her giving him something, 'presenting' him with some token of her surrender when what he really wanted was something so much simpler. "In a sense, it is right. I won, so you're going to present me with what I want..." He told her as he gently took hold of her hands, pulling her forward so that they rested on either side of them with her head at chest level. He rested his hand on the back of her head and lightly pressed her head down so that it rested right above his lap. She could see the outline of his manhood through his pants and knew he was working with at least twelve inches or however her measurements would be made. It seemed fairly obvious what he wanted till he slid out from under her. "Stay." He ordered as he moved around behind her. "He tapped each of her thighs with his boot, guiding her to spread them. "Legs open, tail up, that's how you present when I win. If and when you win we'll figure out what it is you'd ask for in this situation." He told her. He was shocked at himself for planning to take an alien wolf girl in full sight of his own men and the military but they were both turned on at the moment and he didn't imagine letting this moment go would get her to take him seriously much longer.

Ashling was still confused up until he kicked her legs apart. She was not an expert on human culture, but she'd been briefed enough to understand their general military practices. As far as she was aware, the typical procedure for capturing a prisoner of war did not involve sex, but she didn't care at the moment. She'd deal with it later, once she had some time to rest and clear her head, but for the moment she was operating purely on instinct. Besides, there was something about the way he said the word "Stay" that made a shiver pass down her spine, causing her nipples to ache and her cunt to start lubricating itself. By the time Nathan was behind her, the fur around her sex was already damp with arousal.

She followed his instructions, lifting her tail and spreading her legs a bit wider so that she could get comfortable. She filed away that she'd be allowed to ask for something when she beat him, which she was certain she would once her wounds were healed, but it was fairly clear what was to happen in this situation. After all, she'd gotten her position by beating out her superiors, so to her, this was a perfectly natural way to establish dominance. Of course, she'd never been taken in front of a group of people before, but she also didn't plan on staying on this planet long, so it wasn't like it really mattered.

Body language thankfully didn't require a translator and he could tell that Ashling was loving this every bit as much as he was. He knelt behind her and ran his hands over the soft fur of her thighs up to her delicious rear, giving her a soft squeeze before his hand snaked around to the front to rub her pussy. He was shocked at just how wet she was and found himself grinning again. Somehow he was sure without even knowing her that the idea of giving herself to an alien was just as enticing to her as the idea of taking her was to him. After teasingly brushing over her clit his hand pulled away and she could hear the soft clink of his belt being undone before he leaned back in. She felt the thick head of his member brush against her sex but he didn't enter her just yet, instead he let his manhood grind against her as he drew in close, letting every inch slide past her so she knew what she'd gotten herself into. Nathan measured right around ten inches on a good day and today was a very good day thanks to her. His hands slid over her stomach, enjoying the feel of her abs beneath her fur till they came up to cup her breasts, his fingers immediately finding their way to her hard nipples.

He wanted to be able to reach her throat, to be able to nip at it and remind her who was in charge here but it turned out that the size difference made him too short for that. Bent over her from behind he only came up to her shoulder blades since he was a full foot shorter than she was. It was annoying, but her soft ass and that fluffy tail of hers that was pressed against his chest put him in a good enough mood that he didn't dwell on the thought long. He gave her breasts a nice squeeze as he pulled back, angling his hips so that the next thrust wouldn't just grind against her pussy. He let out a soft sigh before thrusting forward, the sigh turning into a groan as his fat head spread her lips and forced its way into her sex. Where one inch had penetrated, more quickly followed.

Nathan was making many assumptions that were not necessarily correct, though he would have to find out about the error in his thinking later. What was arousing Ashling was not Nathan himself, but the fact that he was in a position of dominance; anyone could have been in Nathan's position and Ashling would have had the same reaction. the fact that he was human and alien to her played no part in the equation and, once she'd had a chance to calm down, she'd begin forming her opinion of him just the same way as a normal person might. Another assumption was that she thought it was a good idea for them to fuck right then and there. She could think of a few reasons why sex was a bad idea at the moment, not the least of which was that she had a very fresh bullet wound in her gut which, while clean, had not had anything resembling the proper amount of time to heal and had yet to actually stop bleeding. Had she been able to find her own medkit, which contained medical nanites, this would not have been an issue, but it appeared that the medkit had been destroyed in the crash. Really, the only reason for Ashling's arousal was because of the way her people had operated for thousands of years. Dominance and submission were a large part of their culture. Asserting dominance, win or lose, was an arousing act to her people and all the assertion of dominance really did was determine who was in charge. A majority of wolves were bisexual as a result, though there were certainly those who favored one gender over the other and simply asserted dominance to establish a social hierarchy.

Most of these thoughts were pushed from her mind as Nathan's hands began roaming her body, but the pain of the wound in her gut did not go away. In her hierarchy of needs, basic survival trumped the need to submit. Even as he teased her, stroking her body and pinching her nipples, she could still feel the pain of the wound. It was strange watching her react to the two competing stimuli: on the one hand, she was panting in arousal and even squirming a bit, but on the other hand, she would let out the occasional whine of pain. Finally, she could no longer ignore it as Nathan began penetrating her: she had to speak up.

"Unless you plan on raping me," she said, trying to sound respectful while at the same time drawing attention to her injury, "I am still bleeding from my gut. I might not be a medic, but I know enough about field-dressing a wound to know that I shouldn't be doing anything too strenuous before having it looked at by a doctor. I have submitted to your display of dominance, so it is now your responsibility to see to my well-being."

As soon as she mentioned the possibility of him raping her, Nathan's hands dropped away from her body and he pulled out of her. He let her say her peace and then gave a soft sigh. "Really..." He said softly. "I should probably be a bit more worried about those hunks of me you took off..." He mused. Adrenaline and hormones had gotten the better of him and he was forced to admit that while neither of them was likely to die from their wounds, neither really ought to be engaging in intercourse right then either.

He reached down to help her up, visibly hesitating just a second before picking the cut limb over the broken one. Once he had her up on her feet he reached down and picked up his pants, slipping them back on. It wasn't comfortable to stuff his manhood back into its wrapping but right about then nothing was all that comfortable. He took hold of Ashling's metallic arm for a multitude of reasons. It kept her from bolting, it showed he was in charge of her, and he could support himself a bit on the limb without the possibility of hurting her. His other hand reached for his radio and switched it on. "You can come out now. We're done fighting, the afterparty has been postponed, and I could use a medic to tell me not to drink before I start." He said. In a couple of moments the other agents had closed the distance between their hiding places and where he and Ashling stood, along with one of the braver army medics who started to immediately rifle through his kit and produced some pills which Nathan stopped him from handing out. "She doesn't get fed any pills till we get a look at her and are fairly sure that won't do more harm than good. I don't take any till she gets some." He said with a sigh, really wishing that he wasn't the kind of person to turn down pain meds on a fair's fair basis. The medic started to check Nathan's field dressings as the sound of helicopters entered their perception.

The agents were doing a great job of looking directly at neither Nathan nor Ashling as they collected her jumpsuit and gear and extinguished any remaining fires around her craft. Right now he was as much an oddity to them as she was. Before the helicopters got too close for them to hear each other the agent in command turned to his former opponent, looking up into her eyes and giving her a slightly pained smile. "I just realized. You've tried to kill me, I've been inside you, and I still have no idea what to call you." He said with a chuckle that reminded him his ribs were at least bruised from when he'd hit the ground. "Nathan." He said, extending his hand to her.