Delilah's space opera (Tia & ColorWheel)

[Tia Ruby]

Delilah sat in the warden’s office, rubbing her left forearm and flexing her fingers to try and work a little feeling back into them. The guard who had led her to this office had insisted on ‘checking’ her biometric tattoo despite the fact it had already been done. The procedure was supposed to be painless, a slight tingle of current running through the silvery subdermal pattern. The guard had turned the reader up as high as possible though, sending a harsh electric jolt through the inmate’s arm.

It was likely meant as a reminder not to piss of the warden, or else regret it.

The prisoner found herself led through into an unadorned utilitarian room. The floor was the bare metal panelling of the ship’s deck, cold and prone to making the room echo slightly despite its small size. The curved shape of the walls and large panelled window looking out into the black and star-dusted expanse of space were about as close to decoration as the room came.

Despite that, the room was much more pleasant than the human was used to. No harsh red glow of a containment field, no hollering calls from other prisoners, and the smell of acrid bio-matter sanitiser was not so strong. The chair she sat in was even slightly padded.

Somewhat ignoring the earlier ‘warning’, she found herself not really listening to what was being said to her, the offer wasn’t new. Every ten days for the last month the warden had summoned the ebony woman, to make a new iteration of her request.

Delilah rolled down the sleeve on her orange jumpsuit, the tight and clingy material the uniform of all the prisoners abord this ship. Even though it was extremely thin, showing the outline of the human’s toned physique quite clearly, it did a fine job keeping her warm. Only then did her attention turn back to the woman sitting opposite her, separated from the ‘dangerous criminal’ by nothing more than a white desk, bolted down to the deck.

Though the alien sitting across from her cut an imposing figure even sitting down, the human woman was not impressed. The creature was a Silorian. Yes, at around eight feet in height they were certainly tall, but that was the only physically impressive thing about them. Weak for their size, the race typically had long slender bodies and greyish skin marbled with purple swirls. The warden was no exception, though she tried to mask her almost frail looking physique inside loose fitting robe-like clothing.

Two slightly over-large black eyes regarded Delilah, blinking lids moving with a slightly audible wet ‘shlick’. “You… think about offer from my, human?”

The words didn’t carry the tell-tale crackle of feedback of the budget-friendly universal translators used on board, even if the poor grammar hadn’t been a giveaway dead giveaway. The warden of the prison ship prided herself on knowing at least some of the language of each of her prisoners, in a similar way a circus ringmaster might find being able to perform impressions of their animals amusing.

“My prison have… contraband. I want find. I want stop. You help my. I make you sentence… comfortable more. Big cell. Own shower. Gooder food. No share.” Purple lips quirked up into a smile that might have been meant as friendly, though the black eyes were expressionless, impossible to read. The offer might be genuine, but the risks were very real. The expression snitches get stitches was not true in this prison. Snitches who got caught out didn't survive long enough to reach the med-bay.

Delilah pursed her lips, reaching up and rubbing the tip of one of her hair braids between her fingers. As she pondered the decision, she absently wondered if the warden wondered what it was like to have hair – her race being completely bald, though the top of her head was adorned with a trio of fin-like ridges.

Her response to the question:	Her attitude is:
1) Delilah accepts the warden's offer	a) Polite, not wanting to offend the warden or cause trouble
2) Delilah refuses the offer, for what is now the third time	b) Blatantly rude and trying to offend the warden
3) Delilah asks for more information, to delay or help decide	c) Sarcastic and snarky

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: 2 - C

The decision wasn’t a hard one, but Delilah at least pretended as though she was giving the request a little consideration. She quirked her lips and paused for a moment in a pensive expression, but after a moment she shook her head with a smile and a shrug. The danger significantly outweighed the benefits. Hell, even these trips to the warden’s office were dangerous, people might assume she was snitching already.

The human needed a way to make it clear that she was not going to change her mind, so that she didn’t end up getting called back in another ten days. Though if she was too blunt or rude, she might find the result just as painful as agreeing.

“Nah, on your bike, I ain’t down for that” the ebony woman shrugged with a shake of her head. It wasn’t how she normally spoke, but she correctly guessed that the alien woman wouldn’t be familiar with idioms and contractions. The confused way that the warden looked at her and blinked in surprise was priceless. What did bikes have to do with anything?

With a suspicious look, the warden tapped at her wrist mounted computer and reluctantly admitted defeat by activating her translator. When she spoke next, her words seemed to reverberate a little, with a few crackles and pops in the imperfect audio.

“Inmate, by all accounts you are not a fool. My guards have watched you and how you interact with the other prisoners. You are already an outsider though, your race and crimes setting you apart from the rest of the population. Is the respect of your peers truly more important than your own comfort?

Being found guilty of war crimes, your sentence is life, with no chance of parole. You can spend the rest of your life in a tiny cage, or you can live in relative comfort. If you do this one small favour for me, I will make it worth your while”.

Mentioning the human’s crime was a mistake, not that the warden knew it. A large proportion the prisoners claimed innocence and false imprisonment, though in Delilah’s case it was actually true. Well, she might not have been entirely innocent, she had indeed been working as a mercenary during the Thé rebellion, but her only ‘war crime’ was being on the losing side.

Biting back a retort that the warden might be a fool, the human pointed out “And what good does that fancy cell do me if I end up with another inmate’s boot on my throat, hmm? Besides, you’re missing the rather obvious point”.

Drumming her long slender fingers on the table, the warden frowned as she asked “And what obvious point would that be?

With a sigh the ebony woman pointed out “This is a maximum-security prison. The ship’s location is not public information, and it moves constantly to prevent tracking. Prisoners never leave, and visitors are not allowed. The means the only people who come and go from the facility are the guards. Well, and yourself”.

“You think I’m bringing in contraband myself?” the warden spluttered indignantly “I get paid for every live inmate I keep held here. I lose income each time one of you filthy creatures overdoses on narcotics, or stab one another with smuggled-in knives”.

“Whether you have enough credits to assuage your conscience is not my problem” the human scoffed “The only thing I’m accusing you of is a lack of ability to organise a proper system of searching people when they enter the prison. Put the guards who do the searches on a random and unpredictable rota, that way organising a ‘delivery’ to coincide with whichever guard is letting things slip past searches won’t be possible. Not unless all of them are in on it, which frankly wouldn’t surprise me”.

“Hmph… That… might actually work” the warden admitted with a grudging huff.

“Great!” Delilah mocked “Since I solved your problem I’ll go ahead and take the keys to my new hotel room now then please. I’ll just need a moment to get all my belongings together… oh wait. I don’t have any belongings. I guess that means we’re good to go”.

The warden opened her mouth to snap back, but was interrupted by a chiming tone from the computer on her wrist. Tapping a single button, she answered the call. As soon as she did, a voice came from the device – also translated by the cheap technology that wasn’t able to distinguish a private call.

“Warden, there’s an unidentified ship approaching the prison. All attempts to open communications have been blocked. It’s small, but scanners are showing weapon signatures”.

The warden...	The unidentified ship:	Delilah
1) Calls a guard to escort Delilah back to her cell	a) When scanned again, appears to be empty of life signs	red) Tries to help, offering suggestions
2) Handcuffs Delilah to the chair and leaves to address the problem	b) Accelerates, moving towards the docking bay	blue) Tries to find out more, without helping
3) Uses her own personal device to try and establish communication	c) Locks weapons onto the bridge of the prison ship	--------------------​

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: 2 - A - RED

The warden’s eyes opened wider in shock as she heard the news. “A ship? That makes no sense. This is an empty area of space, there is nothing here”. There was of course an unspoken exception, there was nothing here except the prison itself.

“Did you not hear the part about weapons? This doesn’t sound like an accident”. The ebony woman pointed out. A part of her immediately fell back on her training, trying to analyse the situation. Granted Delilah had always been more suited as a ground troop, but every mercenary in the company she had belonged to was expected to know some basic ship-to-ship combat strategy.

The warden made a hissing noise and gestured for the inmate to be silent, still addressing her computer rather than the human. “Scan the ship again, I want a full in-depth summary of its capabilities. Use every scanner. I want to know everything, down to the last time the decks were cleaned. And focus all shielding to the area of the prison directly in the line off fire from the ship”.

“Scan for life signs, see who is on board” Delilah called, loud enough to be heard by whoever was on the other end of the call.

A moment later the voice came back “Initial scans show no life forms aboard the ship, nor any detectable AI”.

The warden’s nostrils flared angrily “Prisoners do not give orders aboard this ship” she seethed and tapped a few buttons on her wrist. When she spoke next, her voice still hurried and sharp, she had reverted back into her own native language, a sharp sounding tongue with clicks and hisses – the translator had been turned off to stop Delilah interfering.

No life signs? Something didn’t seem right to the human. Why would an armed but empty ship just drift out in front of the prison, making no effort to stay hidden. For that matter, why did an unmanned ship need weapons?

Opening a drawer in her desk, the warden pulled out a pair and handcuffs, simple and reliable metal, no technology prone to failing or being interfered with. Silorians were not strong, but they could move quickly when they needed to. And the warden took the human by surprise. She pressed the device in the middle to release it, then flicked one end of it against the arm of Delilah’s chair, then the other end against the prisoner’s wrist. The two metal bands automatically tightened – cuffing the woman to her seat.

Delilah ignored the cold metal, still trying to think her problem through. Suddenly, it dawned on her.

“It’s a diversion!” she blurted out “Whoever is here wanted you to see that ship, and to focus all your resources on it”. The warden paid no attention though, still listening to her own computer and giving a stream of orders. Of course… the translator was off, she might not understand.

“Ambush… Trap…Diversion… Distraction… Bait... “ she tried, using different words in the hopes of finding one the warden would understand and respond to. No such luck. God damn it how could she make herself understood?

Either sick of the interruptions, or needed elsewhere, the warden made her way to the door and pressed her palm against a glass panel. With a hiss the door opened, sliding to one side, and the warden strode out of the room. Just as the door was closing, Delilah had an idea and shouted towards the woman’s back.

“Two ships!”

But it was too late. The door was already closed. There was no way of telling if the warden had heard, or even understood if she had heard. In frustration, the ebony woman tugged hard at the handcuff on her right wrist – and felt her whole chair shift.

Looking down, she realised the warden’s mistake. In her haste to leave, the alien woman hadn’t considered that her own desk and own chair were bolted to the deck, so that if there was a change in gravity, they wouldn’t slide about. The spare chair though? The same time and effort had not been taken.

Delilah was attached to her chair, but that chair wasn’t attached to anything else.

Delilah is locked in the room, but:	The prison ship:
a) Searches the office	1) Shakes violently, and gravity starts to fluctuate
b) Tries to attract the attention of someone outside	2) Goes dark, the majority of the lights turning off
--------------------​	3) Is fired on, by the unmanned vessel

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: A - 1

The human made a growling sound of annoyance, deep in her throat. It was nothing short of foolish to ignore good advice, just because it came from a prisoner. For a moment she considered banging on the door to try and attract the attention of a passing guard, but what would that achieve? Likely a zap one of their stun guns when they noticed she wasn’t properly restrained.

Reluctantly, Delilah concluded that if this was an attack, which was seemingly increasingly likely, the warden and her guards probably had little chance of successfully repelling it. Her own wit and skill were likely her best shot at getting through this unscathed. Not an encouraging thought, given that she was completely unarmed, without a shielding device, and handcuffed to office furniture.

For now she decided that meant her priority was probably to free herself. Using the cuff to drag the chair behind her, the ebony woman made her way around to the other side of the desk. If the warden had been this lax already, maybe it wasn’t too much to hope that she had left a key to the cuffs in there somewhere.

Almost as soon as she opened the desk drawer, she was interrupted in her search by a loud automated tannoy message. “Warning. Incoming impact detected. Brace. Brace”. Barely half a second later, the whole room seemed to shake and lurch, tossing the human woman to the floor in a heap.

What the hell had that been? Not fire from some sort of weapon, that wouldn’t cause the whole ship to move that way. Something large, probably the second hostile ship, had collided with the prison. Delilah had even less time that she had hoped for if that was the case, and redoubled her pace as she rummaged through the desk, tossing useless objects carelessly behind her.

“Damn it. A little late don’t you think?”” Delilah grumbled as she got back to her feet, disentangling herself from the chair. As she pushed herself up, she raised two feet into the air, arms flailing slightly before she settled back to the floor, slowly. It was a strange sensation, almost like being underwater and being more buoyant than expected. “Artificial gravity problems too? Well this is just fantastic” she muttered to herself, taking care to move slowly so that her own momentum didn’t cause her to overbalance.

It seemed that most of the contents of the drawer were simply useless personal effects, but right at the bottom of the drawer was a tablet-like device with an old-fashioned glass screen. Grabbing it, the human looked it over. With a yelp, she nearly dropped it as gravity fluctuated again. Suddenly the device seemed to weigh several kilograms, Delilah’s own weight pressed down on her too, making her feel heavy and slow.

“Fur fuck’s sake, please tell me there is something useful on here” she grumbled, setting it down on the desk and tapping the screen to wake it up. It seemed to be an extreme hi-def photo frame, as on screen was a picture of the warden in more informal civilian clothes. She had one arm wrapped around a male Silorian, maybe a relative or a lover. Then again, with Silorians there was no ruling out that maybe he was both. The warden’s other hand she had raised towards the camera, waving.

An idea came to the human, and she glanced over to the panel by the door. Using the frame, she zoomed on in the picture until that upraised hand filled the entire screen. Holding the tablet in on hand, she dragged her now impossibly heavy chair towards the door with the other. Halfway there gravity seemed to shift back to normal, making her stumble with a lurch of sudden progress.

With a curse, she crossed the last few feet and held up the screen to the reader. Her hope was that the very high-resolution image was detailed enough for the scanner to read as a real palm print.

The plan:	Delilah's first encounter is with:
a) Succeeds, and the door opens	1) A guard waiting outside the office
b) fails, and sets off a tamper alarm	2) The prison vessel's automated defence system
----------------------​	3) A group of prisoners taking advantage of the situation

 

[Tia Ruby]

There was a moment of anxious suspense as the reader seemed to struggle with the 2D image, but after a moment there was a small green flash of light and a hiss as the door to the office slid open once again. The image had been clear and detailed enough to fool the scanner into reading it as a real palm-print. In case she came to another door she needed to open later, the prisoner tucked the photo frame into an improvised pocket she’d made in the front of her jumpsuit. There was no way to hide the obvious square bulge in the tight material.

The warden’s approach of saving as much money as possible by using outdated tech and increase her profits was likely what had allowed a ship to get so close without being detected in the first place, but at least there was some benefit. Now at least Delilah had a chance to do something, rather than just waiting in the office until someone or something found her there.

Heading out into the corridor, the human was forced to pick up and carry the chair. The floors here were platforms of metal grills, dragging the furniture behind her would make it grate and clatter in a way that would let anyone even remotely nearby know where she was. She would just have to hope that the gravity shifts didn’t fuck her over too much.

Glancing down the corridor in both directions, the decision of which way to go wasn’t easy. Left would take her further towards the ship’s bridge, right would take her deeper into the prison and towards the cells. On the one hand the bridge was the place she was most likely to be able to make a difference, but if the ship really was being attacked, it was the most likely target. Before she could make up her mind, she turned around at the sound of feet approaching from the right corridor branch. Urgh… Roaches. Three of them.

Humanoid and around four feet tall, the alien race’s less than flattering nickname stemmed partly from their appearance. Their bodies were covered in a shiny brown chitinous material, except around their joints and faces. It gave them the appearance of being quite thick of limb and heavy set, but thinking of them as slow was a definite mistake. They scuttled towards Delilah, and with her chair as a burden, there was no way she was going to be able to out-run them.

The creatures did have a name of their own of course, but the string of unpronounceable consonant sounds they spoke in prompted most people to simply call them Roaches. The name was fitting in more than just their appearance, the race had a tendency to survive and thrive in the most unlikely places, breeding at an alarming rate akin to an infestation.

As the three got close, it became clear that two of them were male, slightly taller and with knobby spikes on top of their shoulder plates. The female was a little smaller and with softer facial features, her four eyes a little larger. As well as that, her chest under the chitin was more rounded, almost looking like more human curves. All three had stripped out of their mandatory prison jumpsuits, hinting at the lack of guard control deeper in the prison.

After a moment of regarding the human, the leader male took a single step forward, which was mirrored by its two companions. Cocking it’s head to one side a little, it asked in a chittering voice “Why does it have a chair? Does it steal from the warden?”.

There was no real surprise that the Roach spoke Delilah’s language, they were well known for their cunning and resourcefulness, even if they did fall short of outright intelligence. It did take the ebony woman a moment to realise that the question was addressed to her though, not just about her.

Glancing at the still open door, the female Roach asked “We steal too? Warden has shiny things”.

The Roaches are:	Delilah:	When leaving, which way?
a) Assertive and inquisitive	1) Encourages the roaches to enter the office	red) Left, towards the ships bridge and most of the guards
b) Cowardly and fearful	2) Asks what is happening elsewhere on the ship	blue) Right, deeper into the ship's prison
c) Antagonistic	3) Tries to get past, with minimal interaction

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: 1-A-Blue

“The chair?” Delilah asked, adjusting her grip slightly so she could hide her handcuffed wrist and the fact that she was attached to her burden. “Well my cell isn’t very comfy, and with the lock down I guess we’re in for a long wait. I figured that I might as well borrow this, since the warden probably doesn’t have time to sit down right now”.

The lead roach nodded, antennae like appendages on the top of it’s head bobbing as it did. Stealing was something it could understand. “It’s a stupid creature. It should steal small things, easy to hide. Where will it put a big chair?”

“That’s a good idea” the ebony woman nodded placatingly, glancing down the hallway to the right and trying to judge whether she’d be able to simply walk away from this conversation, or if the Roaches would see that as suspicious. Turning back to the alien she suggested “There are lots of small things in there that you could take. Why don’t you take a look?"

The leader considered for only the briefest of moments before gesturing his two companions inside the office. “It will wait here, and watch for guards” the roach announced, again referring to Delilah as ‘it’. The human had heard their inability to grasp the concept of second person stemmed from a lack of empathy, and seeing things from the point of view of others. Whether that was true, or simply inter-species racism she had no idea.

“Actually, I think I’m going to carry this back to my cell before the gravity goes haywire again” Delilah disagreed “but you guys have fun in here”. As Delilah turned to leave, the alien grabbed at her free wrist and caught it, holding her in place.

The creature reiterated “It will wait here, and watch for guards”. The glare it meted out left little room for discussion on the subject.

Delilah looked down at the two blunt claw-like digits that held her arm. She could pull free easily enough, and the notion of battering the creature with the chair in her arms did cross through the human’s mind. She had spent long enough in this prison that she had learned backing down and giving in to demands usually only made further demands more likely. Assertiveness met with assertiveness was usually the best way to go. But If the roaches decided to take offence, three against one was not great odds.

“Sure” the human sighed “I’ll wait here and watch for guards”. Turning around, she set the chair down and sat backwards in it – legs akimbo wrapped around the back support. She would have preferred to stand, and be ready, but sitting was the best way to prove she was complying.

There were several clattering noises in the room as the roaches tossed the place, but a few moments later Delilah felt that same lurching in her stomach again as the gravity once again shifted. This time slightly pulling upwards. There was a yelp and the sound of snickering laughter from behind her.

Turning her neck, she saw that one of the roaches was floating in mid-air, rising slowly towards the ceiling. The other two had taken hold of the desk, anchoring themselves, and were laughing at their flailing companion – the lesser of the males. With a smirk of her own for the spectacle, she took hold of a handrail on the outside wall of the corridor to hold herself down in the weightlessness.

If she wanted a distraction, this was it.

Delilah
a) Uses the photo of the warden's hand to seal the door, with the roaches inside.
b) heads down the corridor to the right, pulling herself along on the hand rail
c) throws the picture frame into the room, trying to make the Roaches let go of the desk to catch it.

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choice: A

The lead roach babbled something to the female in its own language, then let go of the desk. As it floated up, the female caught it’s leg with one hand. It almost looked as though she was flying a roach-shaped kite, holding the leader so that he too didn’t float right up to the ceiling while he tried to reach their now panicking comrade to drag him back down.

Something went wrong though, and the female’s grip on the desk slipped. Suddenly all three of the roaches were flailing around as they tried to find something to grab onto. With a chuckle and a shake of her head, the human woman reached into the front of her jumpsuit and pulled out the photo frame. Still holding the rail with one hand, she pressed it to the exterior scanner and gave a little wave as the door hissed and slid shut.

Without waiting around, Delilah tucked the device back into her suit and started to pull herself hand-over-hand down the right avenue of the corridor. Her grip kept her from floating up to the ceiling, but her legs did gradually start to raise up behind her. A moment later though gravity seemed to flip back to normal, and there was a resounding crash from the office as three heavy bodies clattered back to the ground.

Angry shouts and pounding on the door were only a few seconds behind, but the ebony woman didn’t wait to gloat. With her feet back on the floor, she once again picked up the chair and kept walking. She would just have to remember to be careful around the roaches next time she saw them around the prison.

Actually… that raised a question. By the time this attack was over, was there even going to be a prison left? And for that matter, something that the warden had said was still running through the human’s mind. Her supposed crimes meant that she was going to be incarcerated for the rest of her life. Of course she had fantasised about escaping before, but it had never seemed like a realistic possibility. Now though? The chance of not spending the rest of her life in a cage with a tantalisingly real option.

Delilah reached the guard post that was outside the main cell holding area, and noticed it was empty. Going straight past, she made her way through the door into the brig.

She emerged into a large room, a common room that was used as a dining area as well as recreational space for when the inmates were allowed to leave their cells for a time. Rows of benches running parallel to tables were welded to the floor, some had books or magazines on top - the old fashioned paper kind, since prisoners were not trusted with anything electrical. Packs of playing cards and dominoes were also scattered about.

The surfaces were coated in a slick of spilled food and drink, likely from the way that gravity had been tossing things about. As Delilah made her way further into the room, she still had the freedom to move quickly, as the metal grills on the floor drained away any spillages.

She’d barely paid attention to the hubbub, shouting between cells and hollering for attention was normal. But as she got towards the middle of the room, the noise changed into a series of cheers and whoops. Looking around, she realised that she was the object of the attention, the prisoners in their cages cheering for one of their own who seemingly had managed to escape.

“The fight’s upstairs!” one voice called loudly in English, a human male voice. Delilah’s eyes scanned the openings to the locked cells, squinting to see through the red fields of energy until she saw the source of the voice. Her eyes flickered to the stairwell in the corner of the room next, a spiral that led both up and down.

Up would apparently take her to the next level of cells, towards whatever fight was going on. It was impossible to say what was going on, the sounds of the inmates more than drowned out any sound of battle. Down would lead away from the conflict, and if Delilah remembered correctly the kitchens were down there somewhere. Presumably they were connected in some way to the cargo bay, for receiving deliveries. It might be a way out of the prison.

In the main common room	When ready to leave, Delilah will go:
a) Delilah goes to the human male, to ask what is happening.	1) Upstairs, towards the fighting.
b) Delilah heads straight to the stairs.	2) Downstairs, towards the possible way out.
c) Delilah heads to her own cell, to see if her bunk-mate is inside.	3) Back the way she came, backtracking to the bridge of the ship

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: A-2

The stairs heading down were tempting, but walking blindly through a ship that did indeed seem to be under attack was purely foolish. Reluctantly the ebony woman turned and walked towards the cell that she had seen the other human prisoner in.

“It’s Jad, right? Your name.” She asked, looking at the man and thinking that she recognised him. He was a Caucasian man maybe in his mid thirties, solidly built and with muscular arms, broad shoulders shown off by the tight fit of the jumpsuit. He was handsome in a rugged sort of way, though his nose had obviously been broken at some point, and his hair and beard were in need of a trim. “What do you know about what’s going on up there?”

He nodded to her question but looked quizzically at the chair. “You don’t know?” He asked, sounding surprised. “You’re not taking that up for the barricade?” Delilah responded by shaking her wrist, making the handcuff rattle against the metal of the chair.

With a chuckle he offered “I guess not then, not unless you want to be part of the barricade”. At the woman’s impatient look he quickly explained “a bunch of the prisoners managed to get loose when the guards were escorting us back to the cells, y’know, when the gravity went all over the place. Last I heard, they tried to storm one of the guard stations to get access to a computer, but had to barricade themselves inside when the screws caught up with them”.

Delilah grunted and turned to walk away, it wasn’t the news she had wanted. She had hoped to find out something, anything, about the ship she’d heard about. But it seemed as though the other prisoners didn’t know anything yet.

From behind, Jad called “Hey, how did you get free? Can you get me out of here?”

“I can’t do anything about that containment field” she called back, not looking. That wasn’t true of course, with her hand-print photo she could probably open any door in the prison, including cells. But the last thing she wanted right now was to let a bunch of prisoners know that she was literally carrying a key to their freedom.

Delilah had learned one thing though. If someone had boarded the prison, they hadn’t made it this far into the ship yet. Either the security system was working, or the guards were holding them at bay closer to the entrance. Not great news, considering that was the way she was heading.

Not to be deterred, she made her way over to the spiral stairs and made her way down, an awkward process with her chair being quite a tight fit. At the bottom she rounded a corner to head towards the kitchens and froze, dropping back and peering around the corner from behind cover.

Standing in the path was one of the guards, a tall Silorian figure wearing a full set of padded protective clothing, which made their slim frame look a little bulkier. Its face was covered by a full mask, making it impossible to tell if Delilah knew this particular guard, or if they were one of the new members of staff that arrived on a regular rotation. The guard had a two-handed grip on a small laser pistol, and was watching the opposite direction – the way that any intruders would likely come from. That was lucky, it hadn't noticed Delilah yet.

Delilah decides to:	Gravity
a) Approach the guard openly, hoping to talk	1) Fails completely, there is no gravity at all
b) Charge at the guard, using her chair as a weapon	2) Intensifies, making everything heavier
c) Try to sneak right up behind the guard	3) Reduces, making everything light, but not weightless.
d) Cause a distraction, to slip by unnoticed	4) Completely flips, up is now down.

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: D-4

As Delilah watched and thought about what she was going to do next, the alien tilted its head to one side as if trying to listen to something. A moment later they threw their hands up in a defeated gesture. Technology problems maybe? The human had heard guards grumbling on several occasions about how their devices weren’t very clear. Maybe whatever was interfering with gravity was also jamming the communicators?

If that was the case, that made the ebony woman’s decision easier. She would try to sneak past without getting noticed. The worst case scenario was that she got seen, but even then the guard would not be able to call for backup. With them quite clearly watching the path that the human wanted to take though, she was going to need a distraction of some sort.

After a moment of planning, the ebony woman took off her boots and tied the laces of them together. Holding them by the laces she started to swing them, planning to throw them in the direction of the guard. Not to hit them, but to make them turn around and look for where the footwear had come from. She let go, and tucked herself back around the corner rather than watching the shot.

With a lurch, gravity shifted yet again, and this time Delilah found herself falling… upwards. With a clatter she hit the ceiling, and a moment later heard the sound of her boots doing the same further down the hallway, further than she had intended to throw them. Getting to her hands and knees, feeling shaken but not hurt, Delilah shook her head and caught her bearings. Things looked strange from her new perspective, but she made her way back to the corner, crawling, not wanting to fall on her head if gravity flipped back.

Looking round, Delilah saw that the shoes had indeed gone further than she’d intended, due to the change in gravity affecting her throw. But that wasn’t what took her a moment to understand. The guard was still standing on the floor, which now looked like the ceiling to Delilah. It took a second for her to work out why – magnetic boots. The armour must have included them in case of this eventuality. Irritating. The one place the warden hadn’t skimped on spending money, and of course it was one that might have benefitted Delilah if she had.

The guard looked around, trying to see where the thrown object had come from, but didn’t see Delilah only just peeking her head around the corner, right up at the ceiling. Not seeing the source, the guard started to walk in Delilah’s direction, figuring that there must be someone or something hiding down here.

Her would-be escape had gone better than could be hope for so far, but shit, this was bad.

The human ducked back around the corner again, hiding fully. She could only tell how close the guard was by the sound of heavy magnet-aided footsteps getting closer. And they kept on coming. Closer, closer and closer. It became obvious that the Guard wasn’t going to stop until they came around the corner and checked here too. If it wasn't for the chair she might be able to tuck herself right into the corner and hide, but the larger shape of the furniture was too obvious to miss.

Delilah tries to:
A) Wait until the guard gets close, and then ambush it.
B) Stand up on the ceiling and run, trying to out pace the guard and escape.
C) Intimidate the guard into stopping, by pretending to be the boarding party from the other ship.

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choice: A

Stealth wasn’t working, and as much as she was loath to fall back into her old ways, Delilah realised that in this situation her best bet was to simply rely on a good old fashioned fight. Old fashioned from her point at least, since the only weapon she had to hand was the chair cuffed to her wrist. But what was going to be the best way to use it?

Standing up and still trying to judge her new perspective, the human let go of the chair and instead held onto the middle part of the handcuffs, the part which connected to both loops. Taking a side-on stance to where she expected the guard to appear from, Delilah waited and listened, poised like a golfer ready to take a swing. The sound of heavy footsteps came closer, slowly but surely getting closer to the corner the human was hiding around. With the way the sound echoed in the mostly empty corridor it was hard to judge the distance, but Delilah started a silent countdown in her head.

‘Three…two…one…’ She never reached the word now, as the Silorian rounded the corner. Slightly later than planned, the human started her swing, the chair swinging in an arc over her the ebony woman’s head, and bringing it down into the path of the guard’s helmeted head.

That delay, momentary as it was, gave the guard time to let out a shout of surprise and raise his hands (the shout sounded like a male voice) protectively to protect his face There was no need of course, his shield absorbed the blow with a static fizzle of energy, wavering against the heavy impact, but holding.

It seemed that Delilah’s luck was back as strong as before though, as during his effort to protect himself, the guard had dropped his gun – not affected by the magnets like his boots, this fell upwards to the ceiling and out of his reach… but right into the Human’s.

The ebony woman swung her chair again, this time the guard saw it coming and took several steps back to be out of harm’s way, but that was exactly what the human had wanted. It gave her time to move, lunge for the fallen laser pistol and pick it up. Spinning, she had only time to see the shocked and panicked look on the guard’s face through his visor as she aimed.

With the skill of a practised marksman, Delilah squeeze the trigger and fired a rapid volley of four shots. With an electric sounding crack, blue bolts of laser as thick as finger shot from the barrel of the gun. The first two split into a shower of sparks as they struck the shield, the third broke the shield, the air seeming to shimmer as the protective wall collapsed – and the fourth and final shot slammed home into the Guard’s chest.

Grunting hard as if punched in the stomach, the guard stumbled and … hung there. His boots still anchored him to the floor, but his long body had gone limp, arms dangling up towards the ceiling. Delilah wasn’t worried that she had killed him, the pistols lacked the firepower for that, when shot through padded armour like his. The guard would likely wake up with a very impressively bruised chest though. Nothing worse than he likely deserved for the way the guards treated prisoners.

This time, Delilah felt the tell-tale shift as gravity started to adjust. She managed to land more or less on her feet back on the floor as things returned to normal. There was a thumping sound as the unconscious guard slumped to the floor as well.

With a glance about to make sure that they were still alone (they were) Delilah crouched over the guard and patted at his clothing, trying to find any pockets and see if there was anything else that she could take with her.

The first thing Delilah takes is:	The second thing she takes is:	Does Delilah find a key to her handcuffs?
a) The guard's translator + communication device	1) Magnetic boots	Red: Yes
b) The guard's shield device	2) Shock stick - a stun gun like baton.	Blue: No
-------------​	-------------​	Green: Yes - but she still takes the chair with her

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous Choices: A-2-Green

Delilah didn’t have any moral qualms about stealing from the guards, but putting her hands into pockets in someone else’s clothing always felt strange. She went for the chest pocket first, and with a triumphant sigh of relief she found what she was hoping for most – a key for the handcuffs. Wasting no time, she unlocked both ends of the cuffs and gave her arms a few unencumbered swings to wake it up a little more.

Now free to move more easily, the rest of her search went much more quickly. Delilah quickly stripped off the guard’s belt and fastened it around her own waist, giving her both a holster for her new laser pistol as well as the shock-stick that was counterbalanced on the other side.

Next, she tugged off the Guard’s helmet. It was the wrong shape to fit her head, so she tossed that aside. However, she did help herself to a small device that clipped neatly onto her ear. There was a slight squeal of feedback, and then silence for a moment. A moment later a voice came through the device, still slightly fuzzy due to the built-in translator. “All unassigned guards report to cells block, upper level. Repeat, all unassigned guards to cell block, upper level. Returned escaped prisoners to cells is top priority”.

Delilah breathed a sigh of relief, no guards were going to unexpectedly come her way – down on the bottom level. Hesitating for a moment she reached to her ear and pressed a button to open her mic “Any signs of intruders on lower levels?” then again turned it off. Talking was risky, someone might recognise that her voice wasn’t one of the guards, but she needed to find out more.

“Negative. Scanners are still jammed, Sightings reported, but unconfirmed. If intruders are spotted, report immediately”.

The human sighed, she had been right. There must have been a second ship.

Before leaving, she contemplated cuffing the guard to slow him down if he woke up soon, but decided against it. The cuffs might be useful to take with her. The ebony woman looped these over the belt too and clicked one end shut to make sure she didn’t drop them.

Her gaze turned to the chair next. “Fucking Stockholm syndrome” she grumbled “I am not forming a bond with a goddamn chair”. All the same, she picked it up again before continuing on her way. It might come in handy, whether that was as cover to hide behind, or to reach a high place remained to be seen.

Heading further into the depths of the ship took Delilah through the kitchens, where she didn’t stop to search. Everything here was kept under lock and key – the old-fashioned kind. Her photo frame wouldn’t help here. Instead she headed right out the door on the other side, rounded a corner… and froze.

In the corridor ahead, two equally stunned looking aliens paused for a moment. Instantly Delilah recognised their species – Greymen. They were one of the first alien species humankind had ever had contact with. Back then, people had dismissed stories of people being abducted and ‘probed’ but history had proven them to be the ones telling the truth. This particular pair was armed, wearing shiny black leather suits, and were now recovering from their shock.

One raised a laser pistol much like Delilah’s and fired at her. Battlefield reflexes took over and the ebony woman raised her chair protectively. A split second later there was a muffled thump as the bolt hit the seat, a jolt in her arms, and the smell of singed fabric. Dropping the chair, she dived back the way she had come, narrowly avoiding a second shot. “Stop it!” the other alien called. “She’s a prisoner, maybe the one we’re looking for! You’ll be the one to tell the captain if you kill the bounty we came here for. It’s only worth anything alive”.

There was a quick murmur of conversation, and a moment later the same voice called “Hey, you, Human. Come back, we won’t shoot. We need some information, if you tell us what we need to know, we’ll pretend we never saw you”.

Once again hiding, Delilah wasn’t sure how much she could trust that exchange. Maybe the Greymen were trying to lure her back out into the open where they could get a clear shot, or maybe they genuinely did want help finding someone.

Options:
a) They shot first. If it's a firefight they want, they'll get one. Delilah fires right back.
b) Delilah decides to try come out from her hiding place, and try to talk through this without it escalating.
c) Stay put, and try to talk without coming out.

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choice: C

Delilah peeked out of her hiding space just long enough to get a look at where the two aliens were. They were in the middle of a short section of corridor, with no real cover. Despite the disadvantage of being outnumbered, having something to hide behind while they were exposed was something of a blessing. The creatures were not aiming their guns in her direction, though they hadn’t put them away either.

“I’m good right where I am thanks” she called back archly, not feeling any need at all to put herself back in the firing line. “You tell me what you want, and maybe we can help each other out, how does that sound?”

The was a moment again where the two creatures chattered to each other, the words too quiet to be picked up and relayed to the human woman by her stolen translator. After a moment, one of the two called back “We’re looking for someone. A prisoner. We have no interest in anyone else, but we won’t hesitate if someone tries to get in our way. The person we’re looking for is a female Kirchen. Do you know if there are any on board?”.

After brief pause, the alien realised that the human might not be familiar with that particular species. “Humanoid, short orange-red fur, feline looking eyes and ears… this particular one has a white-tipped tail”.

With a sinking feeling that she knew exactly who these two aliens were talking about, Delilah called back “Got a name? There are several Kirchen in this prison.” that last point was a lie, but she wanted to be sure that she knew as much as possible before playing her hand.

“Charni” the second alien called back.

“I think I might have heard that name” the ebony woman replied, trying to keep her voice neutral. That was a lie too, she had definitely heard the name. After all, Charni was her cell-mate. “What do you want with her?” she questioned.

“None of your business” came the court reply. “Do you know anything, or are you wasting our time?” From the irritated tone it was quite clear that unless that conversation went somewhere useful very soon, the amnesty previously offered to Delilah was likely to be withdrawn.

Delilah's relationship with Charni is:	Delilah decides to:
a) Reciprocatively respectful, but distant.	1) Tell the greymen where to find Charni
b) Mutually friendly and supportive	2) Lie, sending them the wrong way.
c) Cold, distrustful and tense.	3) Refuse to tell them anything at all.

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: A-2

It was a hard choice to make in a way. Lying to the aliens, if she was found out, would likely not end well for the human. Greymen were not well known for having a forgiving nature, or much of a conscience that was worthy of the name. The fact that this group seemed to have boarded and attacked a prison vessel only proved that point.

Well, Delilah did intend to lie, but she was just going to have to make sure that the invaders didn’t work out that she had done, not until it was too late. Risky as it was, she didn’t need her cell mate’s fate on her conscience. If Greymen were willing to risk boarding an armed ship to find her, it wasn’t just for a chat. Charni might have been distant, private and closed off, but she had always treated Delilah fairly. More than could be said for many of the other prisoners.

The ebony woman stuck one hand out of her hiding place and gestured behind her for the two aliens to see, back the way she had just come from. She didn’t want to tell them where to find the woman they were looking for, but if her lie was too obvious, they might immediately suspect. “Back that way, where I came from. Head up one flight of stairs, then…” she continued to explain, hoping that the aliens didn’t have a map of the ship.

The instructions she gave would lead the pair through the cell block, and then up towards the warden’s office. Further still, up to the guard’s quarters. Hopefully there were still some guards in there who would slow down, or even incapacitate the intruders. Finishing her fraudulent directions, Delilah concluded “… and at the far side of that room, you’ll get to a second cell block. I’m not sure what cell she’s in, but Charni is in there somewhere”.

Taking a breath, she sighed and then called “So how’re we doing this? I’m not putting this gun down, but if you do as you say and leave me be, I’ll not get in your way”.

There was a moment of quiet discussion from the other end of the hallway, as the two Greymen seemed to be weighing up what they had been told. Maybe trying to decide if it was to be trusted? After a little while though they spoke up. “Stay where you are, and keep your gun pointed at the floor. If you raise it, or move towards us, we will fire back”.

Delilah hesitated, but called back signalling her agreement. It was the best she could hope for. A few second later she heard the sound of feet moving toward her, and tensed herself to be ready to act. The Greymen came close, and then moved past nearly jogging, keeping their own weapons pointed at the ground in turn. Clearly they had just as little interest in avoidable conflict.

“We won’t be seeing each other again” one of two aliens assured Delilah, before both of them broke into a run and disappeared around the corner into the kitchens. Only then did she let herself relax just a little, releasing a held breath. Leaving her hiding spot, the ebony woman grabbed her chair and inspected the damage, a single burn mark on the back rest, more or less dead centre. Clearly it was useful as shield, and so she still took it with her as she moved on.

Delilah heads towards the:
a) Main hangar - likely to contain a few small ships, but probably heavily guarded at a time with intruders and escaped prisoners.
b) Cargo bay - The most probable entry point for the undetected ship.
c) Medical bay - contains various useful supplies, but notably also a drop pod used for emergency evacuations.

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choice: A

As Delilah walked, there was an uncomfortable, and borderline painful hiss of feedback in her ear. Dropping her chair with a grunt, she tugged the communications device off and adjusted the settings. She could see why these damned things made the guards complain so much. Once she was sure it wasn’t going to deafen her again, she fixed it back in place. Immediately she could tell that her fiddling about had fixed it at least in part.

“Warden, interior scanners are showing a large concentration of liquid tritium in the cargo bay. That wasn’t something we’ve ever stored in there before…”

Delilah ignored the reply to that comment, she understood precious little about physics, other than that tritium was a heavy isotope of hydrogen, and she had no idea about its significance. More importantly, she could hear another conversation in the background, one that to her was much more important.

Grabbing her chair (and realising that she now thought of it as her chair) the human woman let go of some of her caution and started to run, not caring that her footsteps echoed. The faint words she had heard had been ‘Three ships damaged’. She had no idea if that was enemy ships, or if the guards were manning their own to mount a defence, but she planned on getting to the hangar before her chance at an escape was lost.

A few minutes and several corridors later, with her cheeks flushed from the effort of her run while carrying her burden, Delilah slowed. She was only one corner away from the hangar, and she could hear a familiar sound. A series of rapid fizzling cracks, shouting, and a single loud thump followed by the floor shaking a little. The latter she could only guess about, but the first two were obvious to someone who had worked as a mercenary.

Bracing herself and taking deep breaths to settle her heart rate, the ebony woman set down her chair, took her gun in both hands, and peered around the corner into the hangar.

The huge room was a scene of pure chaos.

Eight ships were in the hangar – two were large prison barges, slow and heavily armoured vessels which at a push, could hold the population of most of the prison between them. Delilah didn't have the training or skill to be able fly a vessel of that size alone.

Beyond that there were three smaller unarmed light transport ships – fast, nimble but offering very little in the way of protection. As proof one that, one of them was collapsed in a smoking, sparking heap, metal twisted and bent out of shape.

The other three ships were more of an insurance policy, still small, but armoured and with the visible barrels of torpedo silos underneath. One of these too was already damaged beyond any possible use, and a second was listing heavily to one side. The third, for now, still stood a distance away from the invaders, untouched.

At the left hand side of the room, two prison guards were hunkered down behind a makeshift wall of storage crates, sporadically firing their laser pistols – sometimes blindly, and sometimes peeking out from behind their cover. It was clear that they didn't really know what they were doing.

At the right hand side, there was a much more organised force. Five grey men were behind a projector shield, a shimmering blue wall of light that hummed and vibrated, emitting from a portable generator. It was soaking up any of the shots from the guards that came close, and showed no signs of nearing its limits. The Greymen were not firing at the guards, but were assembling a small device. As Delilah watched, they finished and tossed it over the shield to land next to the fighter ship that was already leaning to one side. A moment later there was a blinding flash, and a bass wall of sound hit Delilah. When her vision cleared, she looked back to see that the second ship was now also a heap of smoking scrap metal - it had been a bomb of some sort.

It seemed that the Greymen were not interested in the guards, they were trying to disable the ships in the hangar. But why? In any event, if Delilah planned on getting her hands on one of those ships, she needed to do it before the invaders had a chance to destroy them all.

Neither group had noticed Delilah yet, but she also had another advantage. The two groups were set up to face one another across the length of the hangar – Delilah on the other hand had come in through a side entrance. Right now, she had a clear shot at both groups, flanking them.

Delilah moves:	Delilah fires:	Delilah tries to talk to:
a) Towards the guards.	1) At the guards	red) Both groups
b Towards the Invaders.	2) At the invaders	green) Only the guards
c) Nowhere. She stays at the door.	3) At nobody, yet.	blue) Only the Greymen

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: B-3-Blue

Deciding only a took a second, which was lucky, since Delilah wouldn’t have too much longer to spare. Heading towards the guards just seemed like a terrible idea from start to finish. With the way they were firing blind they might hit Delilah by accident, or if they did look up, they might see and armed prisoner and fire at her right away without asking questions. Even if she did help them turn the tables, they’d probably escort her right back to a cell afterwards.

Besides, the guards posed no real danger to her plans of escape right now, only the Greymen seemed to be doing that. It was them that Delliah needed to stop. But even with the element of surprise and a superior position, firing at a group that outnumbered her five-to-one was not the best idea. That meant that her best bet was probably to distract them, or simply convince them to let her leave.

With the solid floor of the hangar, there was no risk of the legs of the chair getting caught – and so Delilah crouched, putting it on her left. She moved as quickly as she could keeping it in between herself and the guards, moving towards the invaders. The clattering scaping noise did of course attract the attention of the Greymen, but seeing that Delilah was pointing her weapon up at the ceiling rather than at them, they were too bemused to immediately fire on her.

When the ebony woman got close however, three of the aliens stopped what they were doing and had the presence of mind to point pistols of their own at her. “Hold fire” one of them barked, and older looking specimen with one missing finger, and a small selection of scars on the otherwise smooth surface of its dome-like head. Despite the order, the alien was one of those aiming at Delilah. With a nervous glance at the shield projector he warned “If anyone fires I’ll weld your boots to the outside of the ship before we leave – with you still in them”.

His concern was understandable. The shielding emitted by the device was a robust and nearly impenetrable barrier. Only repeated a high-energy impacts would be able to make it falter. The device that emitted the barrier on the other hand… well even a slight knock could disrupt it for a moment or two. An errant shot from a pistol might disable it completely.

“No need to fire” Delilah agreed quickly, addressing the Alien who had spoken. She assumed he was their leader. “All I want is one of those ships. Give me a minute to get myself on board and I’ll be out of your hair” with a glance at the alien’s bald heads, she chuckled at her own inadvertent joke and added “metaphorically speaking, of course”.

“Not happening” the Greyman snapped with an air of finality. “Go back the way you came and get out of my way”. As he spoke, with his free hand he pulled a serrated blade about a foot long from a holster on his leather outfit and held it ready, making sure that his words were taken as gospel, not a mere suggestion.

“None of that” Delilah grimaced, snatching the shock-stick from her belt and giving a flick of her wrist to activate it. An arc of crackling blue electricity formed between two metal pins at the point, making the fine hair on her arms stand up. Holding the stick forwards like a barrier, she kept her other hand with her pistol pointed upwards. “I don’t want any trouble, I just want to leave.

“Did I forget to say no out loud?” the alien practically growled “Nobody leaves this ship unless I…”

He was interrupted by a crackle of radio static from a device on his shoulder, and a voice announced “Captain, the bomb is set. We’re just waiting for the snatch team to come back with the package, then we’re good to go. I don’t know what’s taking them so long”. Delilah could guess of course, she'd sent them on a wild goose chase for a part of the ship that didn't exist.

But a bomb? Suddenly something that she had heard earlier dawned on Delilah. Tritium… it was an ingredient used in cold fusion devices. If there was bomb like that aboard this ship, there wouldn’t even be any debris left behind, let alone survivors. More importantly to the Greymen, no evidence.

“You little monochrome bastards” Delilah spat in disgust. “There are nearly a hundred people on this ship. You’d kill all of them just for a profit? What do you even want with Charni?”

The captain blinked in surprise that the human seemed to know the reason behind the attack, but sneered and replied “A very large profit”. Explaining their stalemate quite eloquently he pointed out “And letting one person go free to tell everyone what really happened here would defeat the entire point”.

Attack:	Move:	Warn warden about bomb?
a) The Captain and his invader crew	1) Towards the undamaged transport ships	red) Yes
b) The shield projector	2) Towards the undamaged fighter ship	blue) No
c) Nothing.	3) Back towards the exit of the hangar	--------------​

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices:B-1-Red

“Is killing so many people really worth it? Delilah scoffed, gesticulating in an exaggerated way with her right hand, the one holding the gun. She was practically growling as she asked ““How the hell do you sleep at night?”

“I’m nocturnal” was the captain’s smart-ass reply, but his eyes were fixed on the gun that Delilah was waving about so haphazardly… which was exactly what the human wanted, as it turned out.

With him not watching her left hand, the human swung her left hand in a wide arc, the shock-stick crackling as it moved through the air. She wasn’t expecting to hit him, and didn’t, with the Greyman nimbly jumping back out of the way. The other startled Greymen did the same, giving the ebony woman freedom to act, since she no longer had three guns aimed at her.

Her plan was already formed in her mind, and without hesitation she aimed her laser pistol at the shield projector and fired a single shot. There was a loud metallic crunch as fragile components broke, but Delilah didn’t wait to see the effect. The shout of triumph from the guards, who seemingly thought their own ineffectual efforts had succeeded, was enough.

Looping her left arm through the backrest of the chair, she held it behind herself covering her back. It made running a little awkward with her arm twisted behind, but the cover was worth it. A few stray bolts of laser zipped past Delilah, but judging by the shouts, the Guards were keeping the Greymen too busy for them to focus on her.

Delilah reached one of the lighter transport ships first, and hammered against the hatch opening button. To her relief it wasn’t locked and a panel on the side sprang open. Delilah tossed the chair in, then hurled herself into the ship, searching for another button to close the hatch again. Finding it, she pressed, and regained her composure as the door shut, putting a protective screen of metal in between herself and the aliens.

There were always things to get used to, and to find, on a new ship. Delilah would get to that when she had time. Right now though, she made her way to the cockpit. As she moved, she raised a hand to her stolen comms device and activated it. “Warden, that Tritium signature was a bomb. Send someone to find and disarm it. The enemy captain is in your hangar bay currently, hold him there. Seal the doors or whatever. They won’t detonate with him still on board”.

With that, she tugged the device off. She wasn’t interested in anything else the warden had to say for herself, and the device was uncomfortable – not made to fit a human ear. Delilah set the discarded tech down on the console as she sat in the pilot’s seat, running her eyes quickly over the controls…. Shit.

Every screen, every labelled button or lever… it was all written in the Silorian language. The translator would only help with verbal languages, not written. At least the manual controls for the ship were like what she was used to. Delilah started to work, testing knobs, joysticks and other controls. A moment later the ship hummed to life, and was hovering several feet above the deck, ready to go.

A few muffled taps sounded behind the human, and looking back, she saw that three of the Greymen were down. The captain and his last remaining man however had noticed the movement, and were firing on the ship. It was a vain effort; their weapons lacked the firepower to damage the thick hull. Still, she was ready to leave before they managed to find more of those bombs to use.

Delilah pressed the joystick forwards and the ship moved off. The steering was a touch more sensitive than the human would have liked, but she piloted briskly towards the permeable barrier that covered the hangar exit easily enough. Her chest felt tight as she approached, and then seemed to relax with a palpable sense of freedom as she felt gravity shift – her stolen ship leaving the artificial pull of the prison vessel. For the first time in months, she was free. But not out of danger yet.

Pressing hard on the controls, the ebony woman set full acceleration. Her ship lurched forward in a surprising burst of speed, the prison growing smaller and smaller in her rear view. Only then did she realise that she had been holding her breath, and let it out with a whooping laugh of delight.

Freedom!

Does Delilah feel guilty about leaving without disarming the threat?	Her next move is to
a) No - it wasn't her responsibility, warning them was her only obligation.	1) Explore her ship, try to find something to help her pilot it.
b) Yes - practical, realising staying wouldn't help, but wishing she'd been able to do more.	2) Try to figure out the warp controls through trial and error.

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: A-1

Out of sight and out and mind was never going to be the case with a place that Delilah had spent the last six months of her life imprisoned in. All the same, she felt no compunction to return and risk her life to try and help further. For one thing, it was not likely to achieve anything given that she was distinctly under-armed for such a task. But more than that, too much of her earlier life as a soldier-for-hire had revolved around her accepting responsibility for problems that were not hers. The first part of enjoying her new freedom would be to make sure she didn’t fall back into old habits.

After a moment longer of adjusting her course, Delilah released the controls and let the engines grow still. In the vacuum of space, there were no nearby obstacles she was likely to hit, and the lack of resistance meant that her ship would maintain this speed and course until she adjusted it again.

As she got to her feet and wandered back into the main body of the ship, the human had one more thing to be glad of. This transport vessel had a gravity generator of its own, and it still seemed to be functioning properly.

Outside the cockpit the ebony woman found herself retracing her steps along a short corridor, lined on both sides with small cabinets. As she moved she opened each one and peered in, hoping to find something to help her decipher the controls to the ship. Even though she didn’t find anything like that right away, they were a few things of note. Medical supplies, a few sets of neatly folded guard uniforms, a few cabinets full of food and various drinks, and another two completely full of water.

If nothing else she was relatively certain she had enough supplies for a couple of weeks, but notably a few things were absent. There was no suit for vacuum or zero-oxygen environments, nor were there any spare eezo fuel cells for the ship – luckily they tended to last a long time, but spares were always nice to have around.

Finally, in the last cabinet that Delilah opened she found a folded e-book, the casing of which embossed with an image of the ship. Either this was the ship’s log book, or an owner’s manual. She opened it up and the blank screen flickered to life – the text here was unreadable too, but as she used her finger to flick the touchscreen onto the next page a few times, there were various user interface diagrams. It wasn’t clear by any means, but with the pictures, Delilah was reasonably confident that she could puzzle out how to get the warp drive set and active.

Carrying her latest find with her, Delilah made her way into the very back of the ship. Opening a narrow sliding door with her palm against the lock-pad, she revealed a small bathroom with a shower, wash basin, and ‘waste’ disposal unit. With a grunt she noted the lack of any sort of bed on board, not that she’d really be expecting one on a ship this size. In the worst case scenario, she could always sleep in the in the cockpit – the Silorian-sized seats left plenty of room for that.

Right now though, Delilah was too pumped up to consider sleeping, and besides, staying on board this ship for too long was probably a bad idea. There would be some sort of tracker on board, eventually someone would come looking for her.

As she considered her next move, Delilah looked out of a porthole on the side of the ship. She hadn’t really planned ahead this far, and her next move wasn’t immediately obvious.

Out of the window, Delilah sees	Her next move is to:
a) A star closer than most others, a green planet orbits it.	1) Try to use the warp drive to jump somewhere, as quickly possible
b) A ship just like her own, seemingly in pursuit.	2) Take the time to study the manual, trying to find a safe way to warp
c) A field of debris ahead, getting closer	3) Turn off the ships engine and lights, making it hard to track
d) All of the above	----------------------------​

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices D-1

As Delilah watched from her spot at the window, she saw a small object drift into view. Or at least, from her perspective it seemed small. It was mottled green with a few streaks and swathes of blue, and far too round to be anything other than a planet. The sight brought a smile to her lips, planets with life were quite rare, and one so green spoke of a ‘garden planet’ – an uninhabited word, except for plants and maybe some animals. A part of her was tempted to head to the cockpit and steer towards it, once she worked out how to warp in this ship, it would only take a minute or two to get there.

That thought was interrupted by a repetitive chiming sound coming from the cockpit. Guessing it was some kind of alarm, the human sighed and left the window, going to see what it was. Once she got to the flight console, there was no mistaking what it was. For one thing, a panel which showed a radar like display had numerous small moving dots on it, getting closer to the ship icon in the centre. But more obviously, as the ebony woman looked out of the front window, she could see a multitude of drifting shapes, silhouettes mostly, seeming to get larger as they came closer.

Acting quickly, she grabbed the joystick to the ship and pressed the red button in the centre of it, hoping that, like most ships, this button would be the automated stop. Sure enough, the ship’s thrusters fired in reverse, making a few lateral adjustments too, causing the ship to come to a halt. With a sigh Delilah admitted that going forwards was no longer an option. If this was a debris field, it could extent for hundreds of kilometres, or more. And there was no telling how dense it would get. Trying to pilot her way through that manually could be nearly impossible.

A moment later the console started beeping yet again, and with a grumble, Delilah looked at the tracker screen once more. This time it showed something small and fast, coming from the side. Glancing out of the window, Delilah saw something that looked small and silvery, heading right towards her. It was definitely a ship, probably no bigger than her own. She couldn’t be completely sure it was actually intending to come to her, or just happened to be passing by. But why would a passing ship not be at warp speeds? No, that was too much of a coincidence. The most obvious answer was that someone from the prison had come looking for Delilah.

Whether it was the guards, or the piratical invaders, she didn’t exactly feel like having a chat with them right now. So much for taking the time to learn controls... she was going to have to take her stolen ship for a spin right away.

As far as she could Tell, her best option was to attempt a warp jump. A small ship like the one coming towards her likely wouldn’t have scanners that were able to follow a signature like that. So hopefully, once she was far enough away, she’d have lost them.

Getting into her seat and buckling in, Delilah tapped on the largest screen on the control panel – fortunately it was a touch screen, and she didn’t have to try to translate buttons. A portion of a map popped up, a three-dimensional view of nearby stars and planets. Without knowing where her ship was on the map, or any sort of frame of reference, it was pure guesswork. Delilah tapped on one of the planets on the screen, the largest one since she had no other way of telling them apart.

A dialogue box of illegible text popped up on the screen, underneath it were two buttons each other a single alien word inside them – one was green, one was red. Hell... how was she supposed to know what she was doing? For all Delilah knew she was telling the ship to send some sort of distress call to the planet, not to actually warp to it.

With no other available information on short notice, she pressed the green button. Green was for go, right? Crossing her fingers and closing her eyes, Delilah let out a shuddering sigh of relief as she felt the ship momentarily activate the thrusters to set direction, and then a familiar weightless sensation as the warp drive kicked in.

When Delilah opens her eyes, she sees she is near:	Her ship:
a) The green planet she spotted before, now much closer	1) Is hovering in orbit, giving her a closer look.
b) A dark planet which has a strange blue glow about it	2) Is descending toward the planet, automatically landing.
c) A reddy-brown, dry looking landscape.	3) Is descending rapidly... too rapidly. Brace for impact!

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: B-3

Delilah couldn’t help but chuckle as she opened her eyes. She could just imagine the frustration she had caused for the people chasing her. One moment her ship would have been directly in front of them, and the next moment simply gone. Her chuckle faded a little as she looked out of the window, and a moment later was replaced with a slight grimace. The way the light outside seemed to stretch and streak into bright white lines always made her feel a little queasy to watch, it was one of the reasons she’d never really been much of a pilot.

It was pointless to try and guess how far she was travelling, time always seemed to stretch and flow oddly during warps. Besides, the routes plotted by flight computers were vary rarely linear. Rather than dwell on that, Delilah turned her attention back to the e-book in her hands in an attempt to settle her stomach a little.

She barely had time to start trying to piece the images together , as with a bump gravity returned to normal and her backside stopped hovering an inch above the seat, and dropped back into it. It had been a short warp then, perhaps a few hundred thousand kilometres at most. Looking up and out of the window again, at first she wasn’t sure what she was seeing.

The entire clear pane was taken up by a dark vista of tall shapes with bulbous heads, surrounded by an eerie blue glow. At first The human had no idea what it was she was looking at, both the angle and the scale throwing her judgement off. Were they… mushrooms? That was what the shape reminded her of, but the size was completely wrong. At her altitude, Delilah shouldn’t be able to make out clear shapes at all. As she watched, they seemed to be getting larger… or closer.

With a startled cry she realised something important. The ship was still moving! She couldn’t understand why, normally when a shift dropped out of warp it would be stationary. Grabbing the joystick Delilah tugged back on it to slow her descent, but a red message flashed up on one of the screens, and the stick moved limply, not connected to the ship’s steering.

Belatedly, she understood. When she’d tapped on the touch screen, she’d tapped right on the planet, not next to it. Most ships’ computers would interpret that as wanting to warp into the planet’s orbit… but no. This ship was cheap prison tech. It had interpreted the instruction as traveling right to the point where she’d touched… somewhere in the middle of the planet. Her ship was going to autopilot itself right into the ground.

The large shapes outside the window were getting closer, and now Delilah could see that they were indeed large fungal-looking organisms, and those blue glowing lights were veins of some sort of luminescent substance running through them. Well, she was about to get a much closer look. Her ship was vibrating and shaking now as it continued to fall at an alarming speed. With no way to control the ship, Delilah started to panic a little. Most ships would survive an impact like this, through perhaps not entirely unscathed. Would her cheap knock-off ship survive though?

All she could do was double check the straps on her seat, making sure that she was well and truly fastened down in place. That, and give a wry laugh as the proximity sensor on her console started to bleep again – far too little, and too late. Taking a deep steadying breath, the ebony woman clenched her teeth to stop herself biting her own tongue on impact, gripped the arm rests hard, and watched as the ground grew closer… and closer… and closer…

A scraping, slapping sound from the outside of the ship started to sound as ‘branches’ of the strange fungal structures hit the hull of the ship, then several louder bangs and jolts as her ship crashed into and knocked clean through several of them. Delilah forced herself to unclench her muscles, as with a final descent, her ship hit the ground.

Immediately there was a bone-rattling jolt and the screeching sound of tearing metal. The ship’s lights went dark as the metal chassis spun end over end, the human shaken, yet held in place by her seat straps. After what seemed like an impossibly long time of bruising knocks and dizzying movement, the ship came to a holt.

Delilah groaned, feeling as mixed up the drink on the inside of a cocktail shaker. Luckily, she didn't feel injured at all. Though From the way blood was rushing to her head and the straps of the seat pressed into her waist and shoulders – she could tell that the ship was completely upside down.

The ship's lights:	Delilah's first move when free is:	Delilah's ship is:
a) Stay off, leaving Delilah to get herself loose in the dark	1) Collect what useful supplies she can find from inside	red) Surprisingly intact, though some repairs are needed
b) Come back on, letting her see as she frees herself	2) Immediately leave the ship, seeing her surroundings	green) Badly damaged, it will need some serious work to fly
-------------------​	3) Try and attract attention, see if anyone is nearby	blue) Wrecked and ruined beyond any hope of repair

 

[Tia Ruby]

As the ebony woman tried to allow her dizziness to pass, she found the darkness seemed to be allowing her other senses to work in overdrive. She could feel a warm damp breeze playing against her exposed skin, as well as hear the familiar sounds of small animals calling and screeching at each other. With a slightly sickening feeling, Delilah realised what that meant. The hull of her ship had been breached – she had a hole in her ship. Even if she did manage to get it back the right way up, it was no longer suitable for any sort of space flight. She was trapped here, unless she could find a way to repair it.

There was some good news to be thankful for though. The human could still breathe, and actually felt that the air was helping to clear her head. There was oxygen in the atmosphere, maybe a little more than she was used to.

After a few moments more, she slowly started to loosen her restraints one by one, starting with her shoulders, so that she could hold onto something and lower herself back to what was now the floor a little more easily.

Once she was sitting down, she rolled her joints slightly one by one, making sure she couldn’t feel any injuries. Her left shoulder seemed a little bruised, but that was all. Very lucky, considering her circumstances. More reassured, she crawled further into the ship, trying to find the way out. That turned out to be quite easy, as all she had to do was follow that warm breeze and the faint blue glow.

As Delilah reached the gap, she felt a slight relief. She could see the damage now, it was actually in the glass panel on the exit hatch, not in the hull itself. Still just as debilitating, but much easier to repair. She tried to use the button to open the hatch, but after a few failed attempts, ended up having to sit down on her behind, and batter the door open with a few hard kicks.

It fell open then, forming a ramp of sorts down to the ground below, as well as letting more light and a warm humid gust of air spill into the ship. But before Delilah headed out, she used the new illumination to find the medical supply cabinet. Inside was too dark to see what she was doing, she so just grabbed as much as she could carry and brought it outside the ship.

Her boots squished down slightly into damp, soft ground – probably what had cushioned some of the impact from her crash. Dotted around the ship were clusters of blue glowing mushrooms which seemed to give off green spores when disturbed. Luckily, she seemed to have come down in what looked like a clearing of sorts, with no larger structures closer than a hundred feet. Though as the human looked back at the deep gouge her ship had left in the ground, she winced.

At the edge of the clearing, much larger fungal structures shot into the sky, taller, broader and larger than most earthly trees. These too glowed that strange blue hue… except where a cluster of them had been knocked over and broken into pieces – the ones Delilah had hit. The glow here was gone, but the cloud of green spores was thick in the air, like a dense fog.

As much as she wanted to go take a look, the human thought better of it. For one thing she had no idea of those spores were toxic, and she had important work to do first…

==============================================

==============================================​

Delilah’s efforts took the better part of the next hour. She’d started by using a gel-like medical fluid from her bundle of supplies that eased the knot in her shoulder. Over time, the bruised had faded through red, brown, mottle purple, and then returned her skin back to its normal deep caramel tone as if it had never been there.

In the meantime, she had made repeated trips back inside the crashed ship, searching the dark interior primarily by touch, though now making use of the small amount of bluish light that filtered in through the open hatch. Every time she had found something that might be useful, she carried it outside and added it to a growing pile of supplies.

Her stolen chair too had made it outside, and now, Delilah was sitting on the padded cushion as she used the faint light of the glowing mushrooms to work with needle and thread as well as a thermal scalpel from the medical kit. She was busy unpicking and then re-shaping one of the sets of guard uniform – not to wear, but fashioning it into a makeshift backpack. It was lumpy and uneven, and a little smaller than she would have liked, but sturdy enough.

She put her most essential supplies inside: Water, a little food, a small emergency medkit as well as the communications device she’d been able to recover. It wasn’t much, but she wasn’t planning on going to far. Everything she didn't need for now, she tucked back inside a cabinet near the entrance to the ship.

Before Delilah could set out though, nearby sound caught her attention, and drew her eyes to a moving silhouetted shape.

The sound is:	The moving shape is	Delilah recognises it is something alive, and:
a) A deep, low, droning sound	1) Tall and slim	red) Hides, watching to see what it is.
b) Light, quick footsteps	2) large and very wide	green) Calls out to get its attention, but stays where she is
c) A repetitive bass thump	3) Short and a little stocky	blue) Moves towards it, quietly, but trying to see.

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: A-1-Green

The low and constant droning sound that drifted over to Delilah tickled something in her mind, and she couldn’t help but feel she should recognise it. She tried to get a better look at the shape that was outlined against the light, but it zipped away and she lost track of it for a moment. But It was then when the pitch changed slightly that she realised what the sound reminded her of – insect wings. That thought made her shudder a little, of all the planets she could have crashed on, did it have to be one with giant bugs?

In a way it made sense. Delilah remembered hearing once that the reason bugs on earth didn’t grow larger was because their lung-less physiology wasn’t compatible with the relatively low oxygen content in the earth’s atmosphere when scaled up to larger sizes. If this planet really did have more oxygen…

A moment later her eyes managed to pick out the shape again, this time because it was hovering right in the middle of the cloud of green motes. She was forced to change her opinion. The shape while still little more than a distant silhouette, was tall, slim and quite obviously had a humanoid appearance. Although, if Delilah was counting right, it looked as though the creature had two pairs of arms. It was still flitting about, moving in short jerky bursts that made it hard to keep track of, but Delilah got the impression that it was looking around the scene of her crash, trying to see what had destroyed the fungi.

Well, it would see the gouged path leading to her ship in a moment whether the human wanted it to or not. To her, it seemed like the best thing to do was attract its attention. If it was intelligent (which seemed likely from the way it seemed to be inspecting things without interfering), then it might react more kindly if she alerted it to her presence, rather than being discovered hiding.

“Hey, down here!” the ebony woman called, raising both arms and waving them to make herself more visible.

Almost immediately the shape blurred a short distance higher into the sky, as if surprised and pulling away from a potential threat. After a few seconds though, it darted down at a steep angle, heading right for Delilah.

Grimacing, she tensed, resisting the urge to reach for the pistol at her belt. Not unless it seemed like it was going to attack her. The need never arose though, as the winged creature came closer and then landed several yards in front of Delilah. Now that it was closer to the lights of the glowing forest of fungi, it was bright enough for the human to get her first proper look. As it turned out, both of her guesses had been correct.

The creature was about a head taller than Delilah herself, with a slender body that glittered a orangey bronze, with a pattern that almost resembled small plates, like armour. Similar to an insect too was the fact that the xeno’s joints seemed to be segmented and slightly knobbly. It had a long thin tail as well that was banded by rings of what looked like a chitinous material, ending in crescent-shaped barb. Unbidden, a word popped into Delilah’s mind – Dragonfly. That was what this creature reminded her of.

Delilah found herself transfixed, she was used to seeing aliens that looked very dissimilar to herself, but there was something about this alien’s face that looked like her own. She had lips, a nose, and a head-shape topped with metallic green-hued hair that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a human, if not for the colour. The ebony woman realised that she had decided that this Alien was indeed a she – the facial features made up her mind on that. But also, under a strip of silky material that covered the alien’s chest, there was the obvious swell of a pair of breasts. Other than that, she only wore a loincloth like garment seemingly made of the same silk cloth.

“You…” Delilah said with a slight tremble in her voice “… are not at all what I was expecting”. Her cheeks flushed slightly as her mind wandered a little. She didn’t know if it was due to the human looking face, or the exotic and intriguing anatomy, but she couldn’t help but feel an immediate surge of attraction towards the alien woman.

Cocking her head, the dragonfly woman gave the human a considering look over, seemingly quite interested in her too. She asked “And should I ask what you were expecting? Or should we start with you telling me what happened to those trees”.

With a slight yelp the human flinched back. It talked! Or more accurately, it talked in English. Her translator was still inside her bag somewhere.

Delilah:	Ask about:	The alien:
a) Apologises, and explains about the crash	1) The dragonfly alien	red) Seems anxious, wanting to leave
b) Lies, and says that she found the ship here	2) Where she is	green) Seems slightly angry
c) Tries to avoid the question by changing the subject	3) A way to contact people off-planet	blue) Seems very interested in Delilah

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: C-1-blue

The dragonfly raised a quizzical eyebrow at Delilah when she flinched, but waited for the human to answer the question.

For her part, Delilah did her best to regain her composure. There was no way that she wanted to admit that she was responsible for destroying a small patch of the mushroom forest. She needed to change the subject. The only thing that she could see as an escape route that wasn’t blatantly obvious, was her own slip of the tongue from a moment before.

“What I meant” the ebony woman said with a self-conscious smile “was that I wasn’t expecting you to be quite so lovely”. Taking a small step closer to the xeno woman she added “I had been told that the people from this planet were beautiful, but I didn’t realise how true that was until just now”. She managed to keep her smile in place, but felt her cheek twitch slightly as she fought the urge to cringe.

Delilah could feel heat rising in her cheeks. She’d literally crashed on this planet slightly more than an hour ago, shortly after escaping from prison. Hell, she still hadn’t even found any clothes to replace her prison jumpsuit yet! Yet despite that, she seemed unable to stop herself with flirting with the first person she’d met. Besides, that chat up line had been frankly awful.

In a way she did have some excuse. She’d been incarcerated for the last six months, getting by with minimal social interaction to keep herself out of trouble. It was understandable if her flirting game was a little rusty, right? She was about to try and find a way to make what she had said sound less like she was some sort of sex-tourist, but was interrupted by a laugh from the winged woman.

“You make a refreshing change from the rest of your species” the insectoid woman teased. “At first I actually mistook you for one of my own people”. Showing what she meant, she stepped closer, much closer. One long slender arm went around the human’s shoulders, pulling her a little closer still – to the point where the two women were practically touching. With her body almost right up against Delilah, the orange colour of her skin was almost the same the colour of the prison jumpsuit.

The ebony woman realised that the alien must have no idea what the jumpsuit symbolised, but at the same time she did seem to know about humans, which explained the fact that she spoke the same language. Delilah was too distracted to think about either of those things too much however. The taller woman’s presence so close was a little intoxicating.

She couldn’t help herself, Delilah raised a hand and put it on the xeno’s chest, high up near her collarbone. The skin felt smooth, firm, and a little cooler than she was expecting, which made sense of course – cold blooded.

“Your people?” Delilah questioned, letting her fingers play and follow the slightly raised patters on the alien woman’s skin. “Are there more of you nearby, a town, or…?” Her words trailed off again. Damn it, she was really having a hard time concentrating right now. Was her pent-up lust from so long in a sterile environment catching up with her?

Far from moving away, the insectoid woman seemed to lean into the touch, encouraging Delilah to explore with her hands. “You aren’t with them, are you?” the alien asked “The ones who study us, but never come close? The ones who run away if we try to talk to them”. As she spoke, her own hand came up and two fingers took hold of the zipper on the front of the human’s clothing, running it back and forth, up and down – she seemed to be playing with it, actually thinking it was part of Delilah’s body.

“Normally I learn a woman’s name before I let her take my clothes off” the ebony woman teased, gently letting the other woman know about her mistake. “I’m Delilah, and you are…?”

“Silyana” the dragonfly replied, with a smirk added “Maybe you should give me a lesson? What your people look like without clothes, so I know what I’m doing next time”.

Delilah responds by:
a) Doing as suggested, taking her clothes off.
b) Agrees, but to a 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' type agreement.
c) Asking if there is somewhere more private they can go first

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choice: C

Delilah couldn’t help herself but laugh at the request. She’d been shocked at her own actions and own attitude of jumping in with both feet, but the Xeno woman seemed to be just as eager. “Well it would practically be rude of me not to” the ebony woman joked “but I don’t think I should be the only one here stripping down”. Trying to sell her point, she moved the hand that was on Silyana’s collarbone lower. The human’s fingertips traced the outline of the material covering her chest. To her surprise, it didn’t just have the same sheen as silk, it felt like silk.

The insectoid woman shuddered from the slightly ticklish touch. Her lips parted slightly as if she was about to speak, but evidently, she changed her mind. Instead, she answered by dragging Delilah’s zipper all the way down to where it stopped near her waist, and helped the ebony woman to get her arms out of the jumpsuit.

Delilah shrugged out of the material the rest of the way, letting it fall down to hang at her waist. The warm breeze felt wonderful on the bare and toned skin of her stomach, especially in start contrast to the cool sensation of Silyana running her fingers and palm over the slightly visible shape of Delilah’s abs. Four fingers on her hand, Delilah noticed, and she had no idea how dextrous they were. With that in mind, she reached behind herself and unfastened her own bra, letting the fairly plain white garment fall to the floor. Right now she didn’t care if it got muddy.

Almost immediately, the xeno woman’s hands were on the dark skin of Delilah’s breasts, those exploring fingers tracing the outline of her areola and then running over her nipples. From there, she moved onto cupping the small but perky chest, squeezing and massaging. “You’re warmer than I expected, and your skin is so soft” the insect marvelled, continuing her attentions. But the human woman flinched slightly at the sensation of hands on her hips – not because they seemed to be trying to tug her jumpsuit down further, but because in the heat of the moment she had neglected the fact that the insect woman had two pairs of arms. Being touched by four hands at once was a new experience.

“Oh, not so fast” Delilah chuckled, running her hands over the alien woman’s chest cover, until she found a simple tied knot that held it in place. “Your turn” she insisted, working the knot loose and stripping the silky material away. This she did take care with, setting it down atop her own discarded clothes. The human put a hand on either side of Silyana, just above her waist, and ran her hands along her sides. The skin was incredibly smooth, but firmer than it looked; less malleable.

Delilah found out that same was true of the alien woman’s breasts, as she palmed the two mounds, notably larger than her own. The orange hued skin was a shade darker around the insectoid woman’s nipples, and as the human flicked a thumb over both small bunds, Silyana’s wings gave an involuntary flutter that made both women stumble a little.

That was when Delilah felt something press against her leg, something… familiar. Looking down, she noticed a fairly obvious outline in the front of the other woman’s loincloth. Curiously, the ebony woman stopped what she was doing and knelt down, and worked the garment free. As she drew it off and aside, she saw almost exactly what she had been expecting – which was odd in its own right.

Silyana, despite quite clearly being a woman, was looking decidedly phallic between the legs. Her bronze-toned member twitched as Delilah ran a finger down the side of it, up towards the thicker head. Its shape was… well, human. That was what seemed odd about it, even though Delilah knew that evolution had a habit of stumbling onto the same successful traits and shapes numerous times independently. But this was too close, too exact of a replica to be coincidence, surely?

She ran her fingertip over the smooth head, then around the ridge where it joined onto the shaft. In response, Silyana gave a groan and shifted her feet slightly, steadying herself. “You all okay up there?” Delilah grinned, enjoying the effect she was having on the alien.

“More than okay” came the equally grinning reply “It’s just… that’s a very suggestive position you’re in, right there”.

Stop to let Delilah finish undressing first?	Silyana's cock is:	Delilah:
a) Yes	1) five inches long, quite small and cute on her tall frame	red) Stays on her knees, and uses her hands
b) No	2) seven inches long, in keeping with the rest of her	green) Makes the most of her position, and uses her mouth
---------------------------​	3) ten inches long, looking a little over-sized.	blue) Guides Silyana over to the stolen chair

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choices: A-1-blue

Delilah chuckled at the comment, biting her lower lip a little. That wasn’t the reason she’d gone down on her knees, but she could certainly see Silyana’s point. Not quite able to resist temptation, she leaned forwards and slid the flat of her tongue along the side of the small smooth shaft. Yet again the Alien woman twitched, her wings fluttering and making her stumble forwards a little.

Both amused and a little wary, Delilah asked “You sure you’re all good? I feel like you’re going to end up poking my eye out down here…”

The insectoid woman winced slightly and admitted “Normally when my species do this we’re, you know, up there”. She pointed to the sky as she said this and gave her wings a more slow and controlled flutter to emphasise her point. “At this point it’s a reflex”.

The ebony woman got a little rush at the thought of that, and as she stood up again curiously asked “Do you think you’d be able to carry me? That would certainly be a unique experience”. The thought of having her legs wrapped around the alien woman while gliding above the canopy of strange glowing mushroom trees was an oddly enticing one, but Silyana shook her head.

“Well, plan B it is then” Delilah responded. She lowered one hand and took hold of the alien’s stiff cock, stroking along the length with short quick motions. Still with her grip, she started to walk back towards her ship, giving the xeno no choice but to follow. The human didn’t stop until she reached the chair she’d dragged outside, the one stolen from the warden’s office.

“Sit” she commanded, and watched as the insectoid creature seemed to struggle for a moment before working out the best way to comply – long tail poked through the gap between the seat and the back-rest, wings draped behind it.

Delilah made the most of her new companion’s momentary distraction to finish undressing herself too. There really wasn’t a dignified way to strip out of a jumpsuit after all. She left her boots on however. The look was perhaps a little strange, but barefoot on a forest floor seemed a bad choice. Besides, the xeno woman probably didn’t have any familiarity with human fashion.

“Now then, where were we…” the ebony woman smiled as she stepped forward, straddling the sitting alien’s lap and settling down on top of her. Delilah wrapped her arms around Silyana’s shoulders and sidled further forward, until she felt the cool shaft lay flat against the dark and now wet lips of her sex.

This time when the insectoid woman’s wings spasmed, Delilah ground her hips forwards, using the movement to push their bodies together more firmly, the folds of her pussy rubbing firmly against the small but staff rod between her legs.

a) For the love of god....Just put it in already!

b) Is alien cock even safe? Keep it outside! Grinding only.

c) If she wants to put it in, make Silyana beg for it.

 

[Tia Ruby]

Previous choice: C

Delilah rocked her hips forward again and again. The length of the alien’s shaft lined up with her lower-lips, and glided in between the wet ebony folds easily. Before long, she found herself getting wrapped up in the novel sensations. The firmness of Silyana’s skin was evident on her cock as well, and gave it a stiffer and harder feeling than Delilah was used to. For a while she continued to explore the slick sensations as she gyrated her hips and allowed her labia to rub and slide against the small stiff pole.

Finally, a desperate whimper from the insectoid woman snapped the ebony woman out of her slightly spaced-out repetition. Her eyes fixed on Silyana’s expression, seeing the needy and lustful look there. The view sent a delightfully warm shiver of matching desire though Delilah. It had been too long since someone had looked at her in this way, or at least, someone who she returned the feeling towards.

Cupping the Alien cheek and stroking it with a thumb, Delilah asked “What’s the matter? You sound a little… frustrated?” Grinning slightly, she put a bit more of her weight down on top of the stiff rod under her, and moved her hips in a slow teasing circle.

“you feel so hot, so wet” Silyana practically purred “I want to put it inside you”. As she spoke, one pair of hands reached behind Delilah and took hold of her toned and tight backside, squeezing and groping at the rounded muscle. The others took hold of her thighs and pulled slightly, as if trying to manhandle Delilah into place.

Admittedly, the human could enjoy a lover who wasn’t afraid to take what they wanted, but right now she was too entranced by the quavering note of desire in the xeno’s voice to want to give in so easily. Raising up a little, she reached down with her free hand, and positioned the tip of Silyana’s cock against her tight opening. “You can do better than that” she teased “Tell me what you want.

As a little extra motivation, as well as possibly a distraction. She held the alien’s cock like a joystick, and moved it in a figure-eight pattern, letting the thick and now pre-cum coated tip rub against her folds. In response, Silyana pushed her hips upwards, trying to take what she wanted, but Delilah was ready for it. She straightened her knees a little and matched the movement, keeping close enough to maintain the contact, but not to let Silyana penetrate her.

“Naughty” she reprimanded playfully, patting the alien on the cheek twice with the hand the rested there, in a mock slap. The touch had been little more than a tap, but the gesture was obvious. “Use words, tell me what you want, and ask nicely for it”.

“I want to be inside you” the insectoid woman panted, thighs shaking slightly as she tried her best to comply and sit still.

“You want what to be inside me?” Delilah pushed.

“My cock, I want to put my cock inside you”.

“Where?” was the ebony woman’s prompting reply.

“In your pussy”.

Still moving the alien’s tip teasingly against her labia, Delilah added “And what do we say when we want something?”

“Please…” Silyana practically whimpered, hands on the human’s rear and thighs gripping harder, squeezing into the dark skin.

“Good girl” Delilah purred, lowering herself down only half an inch, letting the cock in her hand press against her sex much more firmly, on the brink of pressing inside her. “Now say it all together, and be convincing”.

At the increased pressure the insectoid woman let out a groan of eager anticipation, and blurted out in a rush “Please, I want you to push my cock into your hot, tight pussy. I want it, I need it, I need you, please”.

The desperation in the Alien’s voice was practically palpable, and Delilah decided she’d gone far enough, otherwise she might risk bringing things to a sticky and premature end. Besides, by this point her own needs were demanding to be met. “Well why didn’t you just say so, hmm?” she teased, and then let her knees relax.

Both woman let out an exhalation of breath as the human sank down completely, letting the five or so inches of stiff alien cock press into her pussy in a single smooth motion. Almost in unison too, a twin pair of groans sounded.

Who takes the lead:	The mood / pace is	Is Silyana a little bit too excited?
a) Let Silyana do the work, Delilah	1) Quick, hard, and eager - get each other off, and do it fast.	red) Yes - Delilah took the teasing a little too far
b) Delilah's still in charge, ride that xeno!	2) Slow, sensual and seductive - make it last.	blue) No - She's still got plenty of stamina
c) Both women try to keep control	----------------------​