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The planet was given the provisional designation of AGC-3-Abd .

Andromeda Galaxy Civilization #3.

It was the third such planet the Fordham had discovered on which there were clear signs of civilization. In this case—and as was the case with AGC-1 —the civilization appeared quite advanced.

Large cities dotted the surface, some with skyscrapers that reached from 300 to 500 meters tall, built with advanced materials. Complex road systems interconnected these cities, and there were even signs of underground transport networks. Electrical power stations were common, but so were nuclear power plants.

In short, it was clear that the beings of this world had achieved technological and environmental mastery over their planet.

However, none of those beings could be found. Creatures did exist on the surface, but it was clear they weren’t the skyscraper-building types.

Instead, all of the population centers the Fordham was able to view on the planet’s four continents—from large cities to small towns—were devoid of any intelligent beings living in them, and they were in various states of ruin…nature reclaiming them.

Hence the Abd portion of its designation.

Abandoned.

In Hangar Bay 1 on the Fordham , the pilots of Sabre Squadron had been told to stand down after the starship had been in orbit around the planet for a couple of shiphours. A squadron of Sparrows were flying a screen around the ship, but Sabre was told to remain onboard and be ready to fly only what was called a special assignment , with details to be forthcoming.

And apparently, some details were about to forthcome now, Jane thought, seeing Colonels Mbuwe and Chang stride into the hangar.

“Alright, listen up!” Colonel Chang called out. “Gather around!”

All the pilots formed themselves into a loose group. Mbuwe and Chang stood in front of them.

“Fun times ahead, people,” Mbuwe started. “The captain wants away missions, and we’re providing the ferry service.”

Groans came from the assembled pilots, but Mbuwe crossed her arms.

“Now I know I’m not hearing complaints from my pilots,” she said. “Especially about something the captain wants. We love the captain! In our eyes, the captain doesn’t make any bad decisions! Isn’t that right?”

More groans came from the pilots, but they were more subdued this time. The sound of a group of individuals who knew it was useless to argue.

But one of them did anyway…

“The planet is dead, Colonel,” Steve Corrigan, one of only two men in Sabre Squadron pointed out. “Why can’t they take standard shuttles down?”

“The captain is a very cautious lady, Demon,” Mbuwe said, smirking, and using Corrigan’s call sign, “and the captain wants her people protected on these missions, and because we love the captain, the captain gets what she wants, and that’s the best.” She paused. “Although in your case, Demon, we really scraped the bottom of the barrel to get you on this squadron. Besides, apparently, there is something interesting down there…” She looked at Chang. “Tai?”

“According to the captain, whom we all love,” Colonel Chang began, taking a step forward, “there are faint signals coming from several locations on the surface. All of them in the ruins of cities, and all of them behaving like beacons of some sort.”

“Hey, if it’s another distress signal,” Jane spoke up, “I just want to say that answering the last one didn’t work out so well for us, ma’am!”

Her fellow pilots laughed.

Chang quirked an eyebrow at her.

“A few overgrown pussy cats want to be your friend, and now you’re ready to throw in the towel, Rascal?” she quipped. “Anyway, you’re each being assigned an away team that will investigate these signals. We leave in three hours. Get some rest, get some food, and this time, you’re carrying pulse rifles also, so be sure to check those out from our weapons locker.”

No sooner had the colonel said We leave in three hours when Holly spoke in Jane’s ear.

“Message from Lieutenant Vale,” the AI reported.

Naturally, Jane could neither listen to nor respond to the message right now, but she resolved to the instant this briefing was over with…

***

The message, as it turned out, was, I have thirty minutes free, starting in an hour. Can we meet?

And of course Jane wanted to meet. Her girlfriend excited her on many levels, and was far more important than getting some rest. Besides, if she felt she needed some fuel just before the mission, there were high-energy protein meal packs she could eat just before launching.

She instructed Holly to send Veronica a message, telling her she could definitely meet, but that it would have to be at her place, as Sabre Squadron needed to remain close by their ships in case they were suddenly required to take flight.

Fortunately, Veronica responded right away, stating that would be fine.

Jane headed for the drop chute that would take her back up to her quarters.

The drop chute was a personal conveyance which each of the 122 nd ’s pilots had in their quarters. It allowed them quick and easy access down to the hangar bay from Deck 5. It was especially useful in the event of an emergency scram. However, the platform in the chute also worked in reverse, bringing each pilot back to their berth a few decks above.

Jane rode it upstairs and then hurriedly stripped off her flightsuit once she had been deposited back in her quarters. She immediately got in the shower to freshen up because she had been stuck sitting in her Spacehawk for a couple of hours, waiting for an order to launch that never came.

Once out of the shower, she slipped on loose-fitting pajama pants and a tank top, just so she could enjoy wearing something ultra-comfortable for a little while before having to put on the flightsuit again.

Since she and Veronica would only have thirty minutes or so, she figured they could just relax a bit on the sofa, chatting and snuggling, and talking about these new developments concerning the mysterious rogue planet. Then, maybe once Veronica left, there would still be enough time for a very short power nap.

The door’s announcement chime sounded.

“Lieutenant Vale is outside,” Holly informed Jane, just as Jane had sat down on the sofa to wait.

“Let her in,” Jane instructed, not wanting to get back up.

The door to her quarters slid open and Veronica, wearing her bridge uniform, strode in.

“Hey, babe,” Jane greeted her, smiling and patting the spot on the sofa next to her. “How are things up on the— mmmmph! ”

Her question was cut off by Veronica throwing herself at her and kissing her hard. Soon, Jane found herself pushed back on the sofa, being topped by her girlfriend.

“No time for talking,” Veronica gasped when she broke the kiss…just before mashing her lips onto Jane’s once more.

Of course, Jane had never been the type to complain whenever a sexy woman pounced on her and displayed zero interest in talking, so she just went with it, eventually groaning when Veronica placed a hand on one of her breasts over the tank top, and began fondling it. Granted, she was a little surprised at how forceful Veronica was being, just because it seemed so… next level for the former ensign, but she found it really hot, and her core was reacting. Strongly.

Again, Veronica broke the kiss.

“I need you inside me!” she said, almost plaintively.

“Um…okay!” Jane replied breathlessly.

In the rather pedestrian underwear she had on under her pajama pants her clit was swollen and pulsing, and her opening was already feeling slick with arousal. She couldn’t help but wonder what had gotten into Veronica, but, again, she wasn’t about to complain.

Veronica lifted herself off Jane and then laid back on the other end of the sofa. She immediately set about unfastening her black uniform trousers, and then raised her hips and ass in order to begin shucking them off.

Jane assisted her by taking hold of the garment and pulling it off her legs, noting happily that Veronica’s panties were bunched up inside them.

Once the trousers cleared Veronica’s feet, Jane let them drop to the floor. Veronica then reached forward and pulled Jane on top of her.

“Inside me!” Veronica almost whined.

Jane didn’t say anything, but set about obeying.

Wow!

She had just made contact with Veronica’s pussy with her right hand.

Veronica’s vulva was soaked! Jane almost wanted to ask her if she had already come.

Instead, she pressed her middle and ring fingers together, found Veronica’s opening, and started guiding them into her, feeling the vagina grip them tightly even as it allowed them to slip easily into the flooded passage.

Veronica wrapped her arms around Jane’s back. Jane felt her dig her short fingernails into her.

“Fuck me!” Veronica growled. “I need you to fuck me!”

So Jane did just that. Instinct told her Veronica wasn’t interested in starting off slowly, so she began thrusting her fingers in and out with force, letting the heel of her hand slap against Veronica’s clit each time she drove the fingers in as far as they could go.

“ Unnngh!...Unnngh!...Unnngh! ” Veronica grunted as she submitted to this action. Combined with her grunts were the wet sounds coming from between her legs as Jane continued fucking her, and hearing all of this was making Jane’s pussy react, her inner walls fluttering and her passage filling with arousal that was already starting to make its way past her folds and onto the crotch of her panties.

Veronica was now clawing at Jane’s back over the tank top, and the urgency of her grunts was growing.

Jane sped up the movement of her hand. She could feel Veronica’s essence splashing onto her palm, and feel the rock hard and swollen button of her clit with each inward thrust.

It didn’t take long…

Suddenly, Jane felt her fingers squeezed tightly by Veronica’s walls, a pressure which lasted for about two seconds before giving way to rhythmic clenching.

“ Oh shit, I’m coming! ” Veronica shouted. “ Bloody hell! Jane…FUUUUUUCK! ”

Jane kept pounding her fingers into her. It didn’t take long before she felt absolutely no friction whatsoever in Veronica’s vagina due to the deluge of come that was filling it.

All the while, Veronica cried out and grunted and gripped Jane’s back so hard that even through the cloth of the tank top, Jane felt her girlfriend’s short nails dig into her flesh…

***

“Wow!” Jane uttered when Veronica’s storm had passed.

Withdrawing her fingers from Veronica’s vagina, and lifting herself off the blonde, Jane sat back against the opposite arm of the sofa.

The two fingers she had fucked Veronica with were shiny and coated with streaky essence. An almost animalistic urge made her bring them to her mouth, insert them all the way to their bases, and then suck and lick Veronica’s intimate liquid off them, her eyes closing at the taste, and her clit pounding even harder.

“Fuck, that’s hot!” she heard Veronica mutter.

When the fingers were clean, Jane removed them from her mouth and looked at her girlfriend.

“What has gotten into you?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Veronica grinned.

“Two things,” she said. “One, you’ve got me addicted to you, and I missed you. I don’t like not having sex with you!”

Jane laughed.

“Likewise,” she replied.

“Two…” Veronica went on, “…I’ve just been given command of my first away mission.”

Jane’s eyebrows shot up.

“Seriously?” she asked. “That’s fantastic!”

Veronica nodded, blushing. She explained that Commander Voss was putting her in charge of a team that would go down to the surface and investigate one of those beacon-like signals.

“Myself, three ensigns, and a Marine,” she added. She then shrugged. “Anyway, once Commander Voss told me that was what would happen, I just became incredibly horny!” She giggled. “That happens whenever I get really good news. Like…when I found out I had been accepted into the BOTC, I was super horny! But I didn’t have a girlfriend at the time, so I had to…”

“Take matters into your own hands?” Jane suggested.

Veronica nodded.

“For, like, two hours,” she said. “Anyway, isn’t it cool that I get to lead an away mission? Three ensigns and a Marine!”

“Well, don’t forget the pilot,” Jane replied. She then chuckled. “Blast me, I wonder which one of my unlucky squadmates is gonna get stuck with three ensigns?”

“That’s the interesting part!” Veronica exclaimed. “Turns out the pilot looks a lot like you!”

Jane’s brow furrowed as she tried to think of which Sabre Squadron pilot looked the most like her. She remembered that she and Sleeper were often confused for sisters.

But looking at Veronica’s face now made Jane’s brow furrow even more.

Her girlfriend had a Cheshire cat grin plastered on her face.

“You’re not…?” she began, unable to finish the sentence.

Veronica nodded, the outrageous grin growing even more outrageous.

“No!” Jane exclaimed. “You mean to tell me I’m going to be stuck with three fucking ensigns on my ship?”

“And a Marine and a lieutenant junior grade,” Veronica said.

“What the actual fuck?” Jane spat out. The lieutenant junior grade—the residue of whose come was still making two of her fingers sticky—she didn’t have a problem with. The Marine she didn’t have a problem with…

But she was going to have to babysit three ensigns?

She was about to continue bitching about this when Veronica held up a hand.

“Want to know the best part?” Veronica asked.

Jane glared at her.

“There’ll be a dog too?” she quipped.

“No,” Veronica said. “The best part is that apparently this was the captain’s idea.”

“ What? ” Jane exclaimed.

“I have a theory about that,” Veronica said calmly.

“I can’t wait to hear it,” Jane remarked.

“My theory is that the captain knows about us,” Veronica began, “because she’s, like, an all-knowing goddess. And she wants to see how you and I interact while on an away mission together.”

“Oh fabulous,” Jane said, rolling her eyes and not understanding how that was the so-called best part. “So…she wants to make sure I don’t pull you away for a make-out session while we’re supposed to be working, or make inappropriate comments about your boobs?”

“Probably,” Veronica said. “Oh! I forgot to tell you about my success in the simulation exercise earlier! That probably also contributed to my horniness.”

Jane then listened as Veronica told her about the simulation exercise, during which she had apparently executed an absolutely insane maneuver involving the fermion drive. But that wasn’t the part which stuck with Jane…

“Entirely wiped out?” she asked Veronica when the tale was done, referring to the bit about Sabre Squadron.

Veronica nodded.

“Yep,” she confirmed.

After a moment, Jane shook her head.

“No, no, no…not Sabre Squadron,” she stated. “You must be thinking of those bitches on Yankee Squadron. Or those slags on Magnum Squadron. But not Sabre Squadron.”

“Babe, it was Sabre,” Veronica told her.

Jane scoffed, not believing what she was hearing.

“What the hell kind of simulation was that?” she asked. “One of those I’ve Had Too Much Rum sims? Or one of those Shit That Will Never Happen sims?”

“Nope,” Veronica replied. “Just a regular sim!” She then glanced at the ship’s clock on the wall. “Bugger, I need to go!” But just as she made a move to get up off the sofa, she looked at Jane with an embarrassed expression on her face. “Fuck! I haven’t taken care of you!”

Jane waved that off. Yes, she could do with being taken care of. Her pussy was on fire with need, her clit was still pulsing strongly, and she had soaked through her panties, which happened to be one of the relatively few she owned that weren’t made of smart fabric.

“Nah, horniness makes me more alert,” Jane told Veronica, which was true. “It will make me even more kick-ass once we’re down on the surface.” She pointed at her girlfriend. “Just tell your ensign buddies to stay out of my hair.”

***

In the hangar a couple of hours later, Jane and the rest of Sabre Squadron were making final preparations to launch for their missions down to the surface. The 122 nd ’s technicians were going over each Spacehawk, disconnecting power cables and performing any last minute calibrations, while the pilots were looking over their crafts, visually inspecting them before taking flight.

The pilots and techs of the 122 nd were not alone in the hangar…

There were about eighty other Fordham personnel with them, all wearing environmental suits, and milling about, waiting to board whichever starfighter they had been assigned to. The colors of their spacesuits—which matched the same color scheme of the uniforms worn onboard—indicated that most of them were from the Science division. Insignia on individual suits further identified someone as being part of Planetary Sciences, for example, or Geology or Linguistics or Xenoanthropology. Most of them had transport cases of various sizes with them, which Jane assumed contained all sorts of geeky equipment.

There were also plenty of Marines as well, armed to the teeth. Jane was happy to see Private Swyburne again, and delighted that she had been assigned to the team flying on her Spacehawk.

It turned out that Jane wasn’t the only one who would be ferrying ensigns down to the surface, because there were quite a few of those lowlies around as well, attached to other away teams.

As for her own away group…

Veronica was conversing with three ensigns Jane didn’t recognize, but whose spacesuits marked them as bridge crew.

Jane couldn’t help feeling stirrings in her core looking at Veronica…

Spacesuits had come a long way from the early days of the space program on Earth—which all children learned about in school. Back then, the spacesuits were so bulky and cumbersome that it was impossible to tell a female astronaut from a male.

But the environmental suits worn now were form-fitting, allowing for greater movement and flexibility. This meant that when someone as curvy as Veronica put one on, her curves were still very much on display. And considering how horny Jane was after Veronica’s brief visit a little while ago, it was impossible for certain parts of her body to react.

She forced herself to look away from her girlfriend, closed her eyes, and got herself back into Pre-Flight Mode, visualizing all the actions she would take from launch to piercing the thin atmosphere of the planet and then to navigating her starfighter to the coordinates that marked her destination. Thoughts of Veronica could wait until they returned—alive—from this mission.

Opening her eyes after several moments, she noticed one of Veronica’s ensigns approach Lieutenant Amber Quince—whose Spacehawk was parked next to Jane’s. Amber—Deadeye—was pacing back and forth, looking down at the hangar floor, nodding as she walked, as though she was listening to someone only she could hear. Jane knew she was also in Pre-Flight Mode.

“Excuse me, Lieutenant,” the ensign—a young human woman—said cheerfully, “I am curious about—”

“Hey, drop dead, ensign, huh?” Deadeye snapped at the lowly in her New York accent, stopping her pacing and towering over the much shorter junior officer.

Jane swore under her breath. She hurried over, took the ensign’s arm, and yanked her away from her squadmate.

“Listen,” she said, standing in front of the ensign beneath one of the wings of her Spacehawk, “don’t ever talk to a pilot when they’re getting ready to launch, unless you’re another pilot. Got that?”

Inside her helmet, the ensign nodded with wide eyes.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said. “Sorry, ma’am. That’s actually a curious custom. May I ask—”

“Hey, drop dead, ensign,” Jane muttered, channeling Deadeye. She gestured towards the boarding hatch of her ship. “Get onboard and stay out of my way.”

“Yes, ma’am!” the ensign said, scampering toward the hatch.

Jane shook her head.

Fucking ensigns!

Turning around, she saw Veronica approach.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Veronica said, her voice coming through the speakers in Jane’s helmet. “May I speak with you for a moment?”

Jane sighed.

Was she ever going to get used to this dichotomy? A dichotomy that was superbly represented by situations like today, where she vigorously and almost ruthlessly finger-fucks former ensign Veronica Vale in her quarters, and then shortly thereafter has to be military-formal with her…

“What is it, Lieutenant?” she asked.

Veronica seemed a little hesitant.

“I just wanted to mention…ma’am,” she said, “that, um…this is a little awkward, forgive me…that, um, once we reach the surface, I am in command of the mission.”

Jane wanted to laugh. Not because she couldn’t imagine Veronica being in charge of anything, but because her girlfriend was clearly nervous at having to mention it to her. Jane, of course, already knew that the science geeks and the other Fordham personnel Sabre Squadron would be ferrying down to the surface would have operational control once on the ground.

What was that ancient saying…?

This wasn’t her first rodeo.

Whatever the hell a rodeo was.

She decided to have some fun.

She crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow.

“ You are, Lieutenant Junior Grade?” she asked in a disbelieving tone.

“Yes, ma’am,” Veronica answered. “You see, this is primarily an exploration mission, and it is my job to lead this team. Yourself and Private Swyburne will primarily have support roles.”

Jane made a show of rolling her eyes.

“See, this is why I’m against ensigns being promoted,” she said. She sighed. “Fine, Lieutenant, you’re in charge once we get down to the surface.” She paused. “Just don’t expect me to salute.”

Veronica smiled.

“I wouldn’t dream of it, ma’am,” she said.