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When he rubbed his cock against her core she let out an anguished scream, the sound burning with fury and injustice. She pulled even harder against her restraints, but they were too strong for her to break. Instead, a sickeningpopsounded as both arms were yanked from their sockets, her shoulders now disfigured as her screams turned into agonised cries.

And then, with a malicious laugh, the evil son of a bitch drove himself home with one thrust, pinning her onto him while tears steadily tracked down her cheeks and her cried petered off. She’d passed out, but the fucker kept thrusting, grunting into her neck before he bit down and marked her with his teeth. When he pulled away, his lips were painted red with her blood that dripped down his chin, and his tongue lapped it up, grinning lecherously at the camera.

A child whimpered in the background and that was what finally broke me.

‘Turn it off,’ I ordered, my voice deceptively quiet despite my inner turmoil.

‘Captain, it’s not over…’ Tarren began, but I cut him off.

‘I said, turn it off.’

‘The end is important, Captain. Why don’t I just skip it?’ he offered instead.

My nostril flared, a small show of my distress leaking through. ‘Fine.’

The video skipped to a part that focused solely on the pirate again. There were various sounds of anger from my crew, but I ignored them to listen to what this fucker apparently needed to say.

‘Alexander Hironimus. Stand down, or your sister ‘ere gets more of my seed, and this time it’ll be down ‘er throat and up ‘er ass,’ he laughed maniacally.

‘What…’ Xander breathed out, horror and terror bleeding through his expression as the video panned back to the beaten, unconscious woman still dangling from the chains. The camera moved closer to give us a clear view of her entire body starting from her toes, all of which were broken, moving up her legs to a bloodied centre, the skin of her torso peeled back grotesquely in too many places to count, lingering on her dislocated shoulders, until it finally came to rest on her face.

‘No…’ Xander choked out. ‘No, please, no.’

I took a closer look at the woman and though I couldn’t see much past the swelling on her face distorting her features, I could picture what she’d look like beneath it all. The image was a familiar one, to more than just me and Xander. She was a famous singer whose songs I heard on a regular basis throughout the Intergalactic Union. This woman was Amarantha Hironimus, Xander’s younger sister.

The man in question bellowed out a roar of pure rage and turned his agonised fury on the line-up of our enemies against the wall. I watched as his eyes clashed with Demari’s, his face twisted into a primal sort of wrath that promised retribution as he stomped over to the scientist that had caused us all some sort of pain and suffering and planted his fist in his face. Over and over he wailed on him, beating him down into the floor while those around him woke up at the ruckus and tried to scuttle out of the way.

‘It’s still not over, Captain,’ Tarren informed me sullenly, the emotion one I never thought I’d see from him.

I turned away from where Xander moved onto the next scientist and began pummelling them one after the other, Addy hovering nearby as she watched on carefully with tears tracking down her cheeks. My attention moved back to the screen where the video was still playing, only it wasn’t Amarantha that was in frame now. Instead, the camera panned over the dirty faces of those in the cages. One by one my fellow friends and crew members gasped in horror as they recognised their loved ones.

Reece crashed to his knees when the camera settled on an emaciated Terran woman clutching desperately, fearfully, to a Yu’Rom male, two words a mere whisper on his lips. ‘Ma… Pa…’

It dawned on me then. We had believed that their loved ones were safe from The Program if we didn’t contact them. It was why Urman moped aboutmost days since he was unable to contact his fiancé and missed her dearly. The same could be said for the others, but we had be so wrong.

The Program had abducted their loved ones and were holding them as leverage to ensure our compliance. But as I took in the wet cheeks and laboured breaths of my friends I was sure of one thing.

They still believed they had us by the balls, but they’d fucked up. They had no idea we were coming for them, and they were going to wish they’d never been born before we were done with them.

It was time to rain hell on our enemies and stamp them out once and for all.

To be continued…