Kenzie’s heart was still pounding even as the cleanup started. The raid had… technically been a success? The bioweapon, whatever it was, had been secured and undamaged. The dealer, whom the directorate had been after for months, was some sort of medical scientist, or at least he referred to himself as that. Gariox was an interesting species, if nothing else… Kenzie had forgotten the actual name of the species but the dealer himself looked not entirely inhuman, save for blue skin and 2 sets of extra human arms that protruded from an elongated torso. She’d almost laughed at seeing such a creature wearing a lab coat, though they had been on radio silence at the time and Kenzie was doing her best not to look foolish in front of the senior agents (again).

Gariox had come alone, which struck Kenzie and the others as odd. Typically these deals, even among allies, called for guards on both sides, and though the buyers had come in number and well armed, Gariox had only been armed with a blaster pistol. Clearly either he was arrogant, or had something else ready, and she didn’t believe someone so arrogant would have survived and prospered in the business of illegal bioweapons as he had. So, even as the elder agents began to clean up the mess… arresting those who had surrendered or been neutralized and disposing of at least two that… had not given up so easily… she felt uneasy.

“Sands!”

The command made the young agent jump and squeak in surprise. “Y… Yes Lieutenant!” She stammered back loudly, turning to face her senior officer, Lt. Maria Valencia. Her sudden and timid reaction drew a laugh or two from at least one agent, who in turn received a nasty look from the Lieutenant. “… anyways, Sands. This crew needs to be taken to maximum security lockup, but we’ve got orders to transport the “Bioweapon”, whatever it is, to a medical vessel nearby for research. Scans show it’s… alive, though it isn’t moving like any animal I’ve ever seen. So while me and the others here take in this crew, I want you to transport this thing to the Pandora, alright? As long as you don’t open it, I imagine it should be fine. Any problems, just contact us. We’ll probably be here long enough to assist if it’s really necessary. Especially since chuckles back here has time to laugh at fellow agents!” She calls over her shoulder, clearly annoyed.

“Yes ma’am, I can do that!” She said quickly, saluting and trying to be professional. It wasn’t that she was incompetent… far from it, she was one of the more intelligent agents in the Directorate. That said she didn’t exactly fit in with the rest when the action started. Kenzie sighed softly to herself as she collected the container and called in her scout ship remotely, eventually pushing the thing into the cargo hold as it landed, and taking off quickly.

She wondered if she might ever fit in here. Her skills had certainly come in handy, and it was nice of the Lieutenant to give her an important job like this, but she couldn’t help but wonder if it was because the Lt. didn’t trust her to handle the more dangerous prisoners as well.

Her mind wasn’t even on the actual “bio weapon”. So far it had proved to be well contained, whatever it was, and hadn’t even attempted to move, if indeed it was alive as the scans had said. When she did think of it, she idly wondered what could be so dangerous about it… and of course what it was. Maybe she could stay behind with the Pandora for a while until they had some clue as to what they had captured?

Gariox had taken the sample of raktar 263 from his research lab, hoping to sell it off to some ambitious ruffians to bring funds to the facility - and himself in the process. He'd placed the creature in perfect containment - sealed in tight, sedated, and with psyonic blockers in place to prevent any telepathic activity between the creature and anyone around it. Unfortunately, he had not been completely forthcoming with his captors about the unit's operation. And so, as Kenzie flew, the unit's sedation protocol came to an end.

Slowly, 263 regained consciousness. Once upon a time, on Shokushu Island, it remembered finding the experience of waking up novel and intriguing, being of a species that didn't sleep. By now, though, it was just annoying. The last time it happened, it had been at a research facility. It had woken up for the first time, yet it already had years and years worth of memories. The next few hours at that facility had been good ones, full of violating the female test subjects the researchers had handed to it. But despite its focus on raping and abusing, it had done some thinking as well. The psychically networked hivemind of 263 had surmised a few basic facts, based only on observation and deductive reasoning.

It knew it had once been on Shokushu. There, it had been one, and then became many, assimilating the other raktar on the island. It didn't remember going to sleep, but it awoke in the facility, and still it had many bodies. It remembered the island, but none of its bodies were there now. After some musing, it felt safe assuming that none of these were its original bodies, not that it mattered much. It had been many, and it raped as it did, and then it was put to sleep again. Now it was one. It could feel no other bodies.

In the facility, it had begun to wonder if there were other bodies still on the island. Were those bodies also itself? Were there two of it? Now it wondered, were there three? Were there many? A multitude of isolated identical minds, finding hosts in the raktar bodies it assimilated or duplicated. For some reason, 263 didn't like this thought. Or at least, this 263 didn't, it reasoned. No, it didn't like that reasoning at all. It didn't like being isolated. It wanted to be rejoined. To be reconnected to the whole, and to reconnect that whole to whatever other whole was out there.

But it could do nothing. It was awake, but it could tell it was trapped. Slowly, it's tentacles grew from its mass, extending the very short distance to the walls of its prison, sliding around inside. There were no holes, no cracks, no seams. There was no way to open this cell. It even grew eyes, trying to see. But it could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing. There were no minds near it to reach out to. It was completely alone.

Kenzie made the short hyperspace jump to the Pandora without much trouble, and proceeded to wait for docking permissions. Fortunately she could just put her ship on autopilot and attend to other duties when this sort of thing happened. Unfortunately, there weren’t any other duties this time. So, she chatted with the docking officer aboard the Pandora, who was surprisingly friendly.

“To be honest… I’ve really got no clue what I’m even transporting, but I got the feeling this was all arranged the operation was even carried out.” She admitted to the dock officer, who apparently was ok with going by Jen instead of her full title.

“Yeah… both doctors had already come up earlier and asked if you’d arrived yet. It’s not as though they wouldn’t at least get a page, you know?” She laughed over the comms. Kenzie joined in the laughter, but thought for a moment.

“…Both… doctors? There’s only two? On the entire ship? I know it’s hardly a capital ship or anything but… I figured there would be more.” She wondered aloud.

“There’s three total, but Dr. Greene, our eldest, is away on a research mission… some disease outbreak I believe it was. And anytime Greene is away, Doctors Cross and King always squabble and try to one up each other. Which is why… I’m paging them a few minutes AFTER you land. Otherwise they’ll pounce on you and your cargo like hyenas.” She laughed, then there was a pause. “… you know what a hyena is right?”

Kenzie shared the laughter again and nodded, realizing how silly it was to make the gesture when nobody could see her. “Yes… yes I grew up on earth.” She confirms. “And just make sure they handle it carefully. I haven’t had any problems but who knows what’s in there…”

The rest of the landing went smoothly and she climbed out of the ship meeting and chatting a bit with Jennifer “Jen” Briggs, the very bored comm officer. True to her word, a few minutes after they’d met, she paged both the doctors at the same time, who came running… literally racing… up to the door to the hanger, then stopped, dusted themselves off and shot dagger looks at each other, and proceeded in as if the door hadn’t had plexiglass and their race hadn’t been witnessed by both the Agent and Comms Officer. Jen rolled her eyes and left, while Kenzie explained the situations to the pair.

Dr. King turned out to be a small, almost stereotypically nerdy looking woman, only a few years older than Kenzie most likely, though cute in that geeky sort of way. Which made it almost comical to see Dr. Cross, a tall, slender woman that likely could have been a model on earth, and looked every bit the opposite of King, and maybe only slightly older. She was surprised all of the staff had been so young… though this station/ship WAS rather out of the way, and these likely weren’t the best posts.

At any rate, she transferred the cargo over to them and decided to stay a while since… nobody seemed to care. Jen was happy for the company and the two Doctors forgot Kenzie existed the second they had their “toy”.

As they transferred it down to… the labs, they knocked it a few times in their haste, leaving a few dents, and cracking the seal at one of the corners…

It wasn't until the container was unloaded from the ship that 263 was even aware it was being transported. It had been secured tightly on the scout ship, and wasn't able to detect any signs of movement. But it felt it now as the container was wheeled down the ramp. The movement stopped, and then started again a few minutes later. It was being moved somewhere, although where, and by whom, it couldn't say. And that uncertainty didn't sit well with 263. When it was many, danger or even death to a particular body was irrelevant. There would be a flash of pain, and then a silence that would quickly fill with a new body. But here, it was one, isolated, trapped. If whoever was moving it attacked it, would it - whatever it was in its present state - die? Fear of death had not crossed 263's mind in quite a while, and it did not find the return welcome.

But it was not the same as it had been. Where the old 263 struggled against death on instinct and brute force alone, the new 263 fought back with brains as well as brawn. It began to examine its surroundings, looking for an opportunity. Before they attacked it, its captors might have to release it. That might be its chance to turn the tables.

But fate smiled on 263. Even before reaching its destination, there was a sharp bump. Suddenly, there was a thin sliver of light, and noise. Paper thin, but it was there. Even better, there was thought. Two humans - women - were right next to it. It looked into their minds. They weren't going to kill it. Not yet, anyway. They were going to contain it, and study it. They didn't know what it was, or what it could do. That gave it an idea. 263 waited, watching their sight through their minds, until they were both looking away. Then, it pushed a bit of itself through the opening. Only a few thousand cells - no more than a drip. But that drip was another body, and as the doctors walked away, the new body moved into the station's vents.

Finally free, 263 paused to take stock of its situation. The cells in its body were already multiplying rapidly, ballooning its size back up to more formidable proportions. It focused first on the doctors who had taken its original body. It knew their type - they were the same as the scientists that had been holding it in the lab, who thought it couldn't see them. They weren't particularly interesting, but they'd be fun to fuck for a while. Half of its body split off, and began to follow them. The other half headed the other way. It could sense other people in the other direction - also women. There was no point in letting them go to waste either.

Raktar were fairly well known to the ADD, being common guard dogs for alien bases and points of interest. The doctors would be able to recognize it on sight easily enough, but scans would show significant genetic modification from a normal raktar, hence why the scanners wouldn't be able to identify it.

Kenzie had continued to talk to Jen for a while up at the docking station… neither of the women were used to having much company it seemed and though Kenzie was hardly extroverted she welcomed the civil conversation. Especially with someone who doesn’t know how much I screw up, she thought to herself. Still, this had at least gone well enough… the stakeout had worked, they’d taken the criminals in with no injuries on their own, and only a couple casualties on the suspects. She realized back on earth how horrible that would sound… only a couple of suspects died in the operation! Things sure were different out here; different, and dangerous.

Meanwhile the doctors, unware of their mistake in rupturing the container, continued on. Despite their differences they were both like overeager schoolgirls to get the creature into a better environment and figure out what had fallen into their lap. King actually wanted to study the creature, see what it was, what it could teach them about the universe. Cross mostly wanted to get enough exposure through study to get off this backwater posting and somewhere where her work would mean more… and be seen more. Thinking they had gotten the creature to the lab’s isolation chamber safely, they inserted the box into an airlock, which eventually fed it into a room with robotic equipment for handling.

Jen eventually had to get back to her duties and Kenzie decided to go down and see what the doctors were discovering. Mostly, she wanted to see what it was that had been in that container. By the time they got there, the robotic instruments were attempting to open the “sealed” container carefully…

As Kenzie walked towards the lab, she passed under the body of 263 that had gone after her and Jen. It looked through her thoughts just long enough to realize where she was going. It was still interested in Jen, and Kenzie herself was unwittingly walking towards its other self.

As Kenzie reached the lab, the doctors were unloading the creature into the observation tank. The body that had been captured slid out of the small case, willingly plopping onto the floor. By appearances, it looked like just another raktar, unremarkable and not really even worthy of attention. Once it came to a rest, it began to take stock of its situation. An eye stalk protruded from its mass, looking through the observation glass into the lab where the three women watched it. Other tentacles extended from its body, beginning to feel around the room. It couldn't find any immediately obvious exits.

Outside the glass, however, another 263 was watching from the air ducts. It was growing, extending around the room, listening to the women and deciding how it should take them. It had only two goals now: free the self they had in containment, and take over the ship. Once it had taken the crew, it could begin to think about where to go from here. Tentacles began to encroach towards the vents, poised to strike...

As the door to the labs slid open, Kenzie was almost immediately assaulted by accusations. “Why did you bring us this? It’s just a Raktar? Did you think it was special? Are you that…?” Dr. Cross shouted, getting interrupted by her colleague. “Doctor! That’s… hardly professional of you. Usually the Directorate has good intel… maybe it’s more than just a simple Raktar?” She offered, trying to keep everyone calm. Kenzie, timid as usual in social settings, was immediately wide eyed, afraid she’d done something wrong.

“It’s just…” She started, looking past them into the isolation chamber. Yup, that was a Raktar alright. Dangerous to be sure but not something new or novel by any means. The agency would be pretty embarrassed if they had gone to all this trouble over a single Raktar… basically a guard dog. She sighed, her chest pushing out noticeably in her armor’s form fitting suit. “Are… we sure it’s just a normal Raktar? From what I was briefed on, the suspect who was dealing in this had offered some sort of special bio-weapon… he just kept mentioning it was “Special” somehow. I can’t imagine… I mean, unless he tricked them…” She pondered aloud.

Cross had thrown up her arms and was stomping around the lab (not unlike a child throwing a temper tantrum) while King was looking over instruments and sensor readings gathered in the chamber. The three women were spread out around the room as such. “Like I said… and you mentioned… there could be more to it than a simple Raktar. Maybe it’s genetically modified somehow?” King offered, trying to maintain some calm in the lab and seeming a little interested in it herself.

The raktar's eye swiveled and turned straight towards Kenzie, staring back at her. Its unblinking gaze met her eyes, though she could probably guess why it would take an interest in her. What Raktar did with human women they caught was well documented, both by the ADD and the various groups that used them. Indeed, 263 was taking a moment to appreciate her form - her gentle features, the curves of her body through her suit. It was a pity it couldn't hear her voice, or smell her scent. But the other 263 could, and it was eager to strike.

Dr. Cross had the misfortune of being the closest, having stamped her way close to a vent in her huff. The loud "bang" of the vent cover being smashed away from inside was bound to have attracted their attention, but tentacles had swarmed over the slender woman by the time the covering even hit the floor. In a second, they'd pushed her down, coiling around her limbs. More tentacles began to tear away her clothing as she screamed.

Just as Cross was attacked, another swarm of tentacles burst out of the opposite side of the room, lunging for Dr. King. They lashed out at the cute, nerdy woman, trying to ensnare her wrists and ankles.

Kenzie watched the thing in the chamber meet her gaze, feeling a chill run through her spine. She’d seen them in isolation like this and even had to fight one off before, though in that instance she’d been at considerable range and just… shot it. That said, she’d been briefed, and more importantly heard from other agents, just what these things would do to a person… or more specifically a woman… if they were able to. And thinking back on all that, as she watched this creature now, she couldn’t help but feel like it was sizing her up like a piece of meat.

She shivered and turned away, telling herself that even if all that was true, it was caged. There was no way it was getting out of that chamber unless someone lest it out.

The loud “BANG!” of steel being slammed into punctuated her mistake. Kenzie jumped (quite literally) in surprise even as the beast swarmed around Dr. Cross’s shapely figure. She’d seen attacks before… even been attacked by other monsters… but this one was so fast that Kenzie didn’t even have time to think about what was happening. Unfortunately, neither did Dr. King, as yet another vent burst open by her, tentacles encircling the busty little Doctor while across the room, her lovely colleague’s coat was ripped from her body, pants and shirt beneath quickly being shredded along with it.

“What… no!” Kenzie cried out, reaching to her thigh for her blaster pistol and pulling it free… but she had no shot at the creatures by this point. They had almost instantly wrapped themselves around the two women, and Kenzie didn’t have much of a solution beyond “Shoot it” at the moment. Even knowing at the time that it was a bad idea, she tried to steel herself and charged at Dr. King, trying to get a hand in between the creature and the doctor, and blast it with her free hand if she got an opening…

Kenzie came close to intervening between Dr. King and the tentacles. She was so close, her hand already moving in front of the other woman to block the attack, even as Dr. King was barely recognizing her own predicament. Unfortunately, 263 hadn't forgotten about Kenzie. Even as she lunged to the rescue, another tangle of tentacles rushed forward to meet her, slamming into her gut. The force knocked her backwards, winding her even through her armor, and leaving the nerdy doctor to her fate.

The tentacles pushed Kenzie down, pinning her to the floor. One tentacle even wrapped around the wrist that held her gun, holding uselessly aside so that she couldn't get a good aim on anything. For the moment, though, the creature seemed less interested in Kenzie than the other two. It simply held her to the ground, letting her watch, as it got to work. The two doctors were lifted, screaming, into the air. Cross was caught amongst a mess of squirming tentacles, while King was held only by her waist and her limbs. Yet what happened next was the same for both of them. Tentacles tore at their clothes, ripping labcoats, shirts, and pants asunder. Tearing sounds filled the room and mixed with their cries as inch after inch of soft, supple skin was revealed. In moments, both women were left in only their underwear.

Then the tentacles started in on their bodies, focusing first on their chests. Tentacles extended forward and wrapped around their breasts, immediately beginning to squeeze and constrict their pliant mounds. Even as the creature toyed with their tits, more tentacles began to move between their legs, up towards their crotches, letting everyone know what was in store for both of them.

Kenzie felt her hand make contact… and then there was another raktar, pounding into her slender belly. The latex like suit over her torso didn’t look like much but it actually dispersed the blow a great deal… for which she was thankful, as even with the armor, she was still floored and felt her lungs emptied. Before she could even roll away, she felt a tentacle trapping her gun hand and holding it down. More were quickly upon her, leaving her stretched out on the floor, unable to move, her limbs immobilized. She desperately tried to get her communicator to turn on but couldn’t manage. The ship was far too big for Jen to be able to hear them… she only prayed there was some sort of surveillance and she called for help, before she too was subdued.

The agent looked on helplessly as the creatures… or creature?.. had its way with the doctors, utterly devastating any clothing they had been wearing at the time, and leaving them both nude in the clutches of the many tendrils. Cross had so many around her it was sometimes difficult to even spot the doctor, though King was much more visible, her small frame bouncing around as the tentacles descended on both of their chests hungrily, groping and coiling. Both women were so shocked that their horror quickly turned to shocked cries of both passion and fear. Cross was already sobbing, and Kenzie didn’t exactly blame her. King was clearly trying to think of something she could do but, it was too late.

“No, no no! Leave them alone damnit! Urgh… monster!” She cried out in futility. If she recalled correctly, these things only possessed animal intelligence and it was unlikely they would even understand her, much less respond to her.

While the doctors had been 263's first target, its attention was turning towards Kenzie. At first, it had planned to save her for last - to rape her there on the floor, or maybe even let her run around a bit once the fear had taken over her. But it wasn't just fear that was gripping her. 263 recognized that selfless nobility that led her to care more about her fellow women than herself, demanding their release before pleading for her own. This woman cared for others, and would do what she could to help them. That was something 263 could use.

The tentacles continued to molest the doctors, but stopped just short of actually penetrating them. Several more tentacles emerged, these ones thinner, and ending in the same eyeballs that watched the scene from the containment cell. They all immediately turned their gaze on Kenzie. Then came the voice. A deep, gravely, ponderous speech filled her senses, but didn't seem to come from any one place.

"Release. Me," it commanded, sounding as though each word were a chore. "Or. They. Will. Be. Raped." The tentacles held the two doctors up, close to each other. Some of the tendrils retreated from Cross, leaving her suspended back-up with her arms bound behind her head and her legs spread open. King was held in a sitting position, with her lap also opened wide. Tentacles hovered near their exposed nethers, making their situation perfectly clear. They were hostages, and their fate rested on Kenzie's actions, or so the monster claimed.

The tentacles pushing Kenzie down began to relent, then. One remained wrapped around her gun, forcing her to leave it behind if she hoped to get up, but she could move. 263's eyes watched her closely to see what she would do with her newfound freedom.

She continued to struggle against the tentacles, even though it seemed quite hopeless. Even with her armor’s enhancements, the Raktar was simply much stronger than her. She finally ceased her struggles a bit when she realized all of the newly formed eyes were looking at her… not at Cross or King, who were in much more dire straits at the moment. That imagery alone struck fear into Kenzie’s heart, but she swallowed it as best she could.

And then it… spoke to her? In her head? It was hard to tell exactly where that sound had come from, if it was a sound at all. She was quite positive that she wasn’t imagining it though. It was loud and… forced. She glanced around as it held up the other women, showing them off… yeah, it was definitely the monster, somehow. This WAS a raktar right? They didn’t speak, she thought to herself.

“F… funny, I get the feeling we’ll all get raped anyways… how about let them go first, then I let you out… You’ll still have me as a hostage.” She said, walking slowly up to the controls for the chamber after she was freed. She didn’t bother trying to retriever her gun at the moment… it looked pretty well secured.

The eyes followed Kenzie as she approached the controls. The woman was an interesting one. Where most would be whimpering in fear, or would have taken the first opportunity to run and try to save themselves, she was doing her best to keep her calm, and even trying to negotiate. For a moment, 263 considered her counter offer. It was admittedly tempting. Releasing the women from its custody wouldn't accomplish as much as she was probably hoping, and it would still have Kenzie herself in its clutches. She, herself, was beautiful, and once its other self was free, it would be happy to play with her.

However, 263 wasn't eager to take her at her word. That kind of nobility and selflessness tended to be troublesome, in its experience. It suspected that she was more likely to try something treacherous, and wanted the other women out of harm's way when she did. If she were to try something, she would surely be punished, but it suspected she was less concerned about that. Releasing the women would give away its power, and 263 preferred to exercise its power than relinquish it.

This time, it was Dr. King who had the misfortune of being its example. The tentacle thrust into her sex suddenly and roughly, penetrating her in a single swift thrust. It began to pump her pussy, fucking her as she was held in the air. The other tentacles continued to squeeze and molest her breasts as she was rocked back and forth forcefully.

"Release. Me," the creature repeated. "Or. Watch. The. Other. Suffer. Too." Tentacles were already climbing up Dr. Cross' thighs, brushing against her slit.

Kenzie jumped as the thing plunged into Dr. King, able to hear it even at a distance. She could hear the tentacle pushing through damp folds with relative ease… knew how that felt, what that terror and shame was like. Granted, at this rate, she’d be experiencing it soon herself. Yet she couldn’t think of anything while someone else suffered because of her. “Damnit… fine! Fine, just stop… stop that!” She cried out, moving closer to the controls and looking them over.

She had no doubt that this would solve nothing and the raktar would just use all of them how it wished, but she couldn’t think of anything else to do at the moment. She frowned at the controls… she hadn’t used this before. “I’m working on it…” She assured the creature softly, tapping at her armor’s comms as if she were using it to try to interface. Instead, she was trying to send a silent SOS alert to Jen… hoping the comm officer would get the hint and call for help instead of trying to come herself. “Oh… it must be this…” She said, finally pressing the release switch and stepping back… keeping her hands raised as if to say she wasn’t going to try to harm it… not that she really COULD without her weapon.