Wasp Hunt

Maya stepped over the branch and held onto her backpack strap as she felt out the ground beyond, then once clear continued her hike. It was a beautiful day, the alien forest as full of life and all the green around her was such a welcome change from the last few weeks she'd spent in-city. It was nice to get away from-

She faltered, came to a stop, confused. How had she gotten here?

She looked around, she had no memory of coming to this forest. Thinking hard, she took stock. She was on Feiden, the Hazen home world and a bustling hub of the intergalactic Society that humanity had just recently encountered, but beyond that, she couldn't remember anything more recent than checking her calendar for her next appointment at the Clinic. She'd had a job to... her memory seemed to stop, she could remember snippets of walking to catch transport but after that... nothing.

She frowned. Something was fucky, but she couldn't figure out what. She heard a distant rustle and looked around and could see one of the monkey-like Hazen apparently out hiking as well but heading in the other direction. He was about a hundred meters away when she yelled to get his attention but he just glanced at her and kept going. That seemed rude, she thought, but it was hard to tell with other cultures sometimes.

She turned back the direction she'd been heading and saw a hill off to the side. The Scouts had taught her to stay put if possible, but if you had to go anywhere, try to go up so you could get a better look at your surroundings. She picked her way through the light underbrush towards the hill and began to climb. She figured she probably wasn't too far from the spaceport adjacent city where she lived, Breidak, because she couldn't think of a reason to assume otherwise for now and it still felt like the pleasant Pacific Northwest style climate to which she'd grown accustomed so...

She heard something and glanced up through the trees just in time to see a travel pod fly overhead and she nodded her head. Maybe she wasn't too far off the beaten path after all, that was a good sign.

Stepping into a clearing atop the hill, the surrounding area opened up and she stared. Her next hint confirming her theory came as she began to approach the tree line partway up the slope and heard the distinct sound of a freight spacer taking off in the distance. There were acoustic barriers between the port and the city but she'd heard the low throbbing hum enough back on Earth as Society merchants descended into the new post-contact market that it was burned into her brain.

Sure enough, as she reached the very top, she could make out the distinct spires of Breidak's commerce district that she knew was surrounded by the galactic bazaar where she spent most of her time. Off to the side, she saw other buildings and signs of people in all directions that weren't blocked but she seemed to be inside some kind of giant park or something. No worries, maybe she'd taken a tram out to get some nature, she just couldn't figure out why she couldn't remember anything.

Maybe the best plan would be to get home and get a medical checkout, just in case.

Continuing to look, she saw a low, dark organic looking structure a few kilometers away that didn't seem too far but she couldn't tell for sure if it was inhabited or not. Then she saw what she was looking for, the raised track of one of the ubiquitous tramlines and... there it was, a station! It didn't look too far away, maybe two or three klicks so she started off in that direction. There were some clearings along the way she could see so she figured she'd be able to avoid going in circles if she took care.

A few minutes later, she was back in the forest cover. The beauty of her surroundings had taken a little bit of a hit with her confusion about how she'd gotten here, but she decided to make the best of it and to soak in as much as she could while making her way to the transit station.

She looked up once in a while because she still heard the occasional noise but aside from the one taxi pod a few minutes earlier, the skies had been clear but she'd hear a distant humming or buzzing noise she couldn't make out. It was distinct from the sound of any of the usual lift-drives she'd encountered, and it sounded the same, but it was far enough away that she couldn't get a bead on where it was.

There was a flash of motion off to her side and when she looked, she could see something in the trees, far away. There was a break that let her see a few hundred meters and when she squinted, she could make out some kind of big shape flying low and slow between the trees. It was flashing in the sun, she realized that's what caught her attention, and that it must have been at the edge of a clearing to get that kind of light on rapidly moving wings.

She couldn't make it out clearly, but there was something unsettling about the size and shape and she decided to step behind a tree. Some base instinct about big flying insects battled with her rational mind that was trying to avoid being some kind of interspecies bigot, but between the ancient, primal fear of that shape and her confusion about how she'd gotten into that situation, she acted before thinking and stood there for a moment before peeking around the edge of the tree.

Something had caused it to stop where it was and she had a feeling it might have been her own movement. Sure enough, the think, whatever it was, turned in place as it hovered until it was facing in her direction and then began to move towards her.

She swallowed and looked for cover. She knew she was being irrational, but she just wanted to get to the tram station. The relative paucity of undergrowth in the forest suddenly felt like a liability as she darted forward, trying to keep the trees between her and whatever it was that was getting closer as she looked for something new to hide behind.

Between steps, she could hear the humming sound getting closer and realized it must be the beating wings. She huddled behind a big tree, something like what she'd seen in a California forest once. It was probably just one of the many species that lived and did business on this planet like her and she was probably going to feel embarrassed if she got caught hiding. Just as she was getting ready to maybe stand up and step out, the hum began to fade and when she craned her head a little, she could see the creature more clearly as it flew away from her. It looked more like a wasp than anything, but much bigger than anything that had ever lived on Earth. It was a few dozen meters away but even from where she crouched, she could make out the big translucent wings that were holding it up as it flew. Also, it was weaving a little back and forth and she couldn't shake the unmistakable feeling that it was searching, maybe even hunting.

Any remaining thoughts about announcing herself to it went out the window when she also noticed the giant, sharp mandibles or whatever they were called that were on either side of its mouth. With a start, she dropped back down to a crouch, adrenaline coursing through her. As she did, she shuffled her feet and a branch cracked under her weight.

The buzzing stopped suddenly. She sat there, eyes wide and terrified and did her best to think small, quiet thoughts.

There was a rustle, then the noise of something slowly, carefully moving through not-so-distant bushes. From where she hid, she could make out the shape of the creature slowly stalking through the brush, looking back and forth. Her heart was pounding and she held the terror barely in check as she watched it move in and out of sight behind the vegetation. It did, she realized with a sinking feeling, seem to be heading in her general direction.

It stopped, seemed to taste the air, then suddenly turned and looked directly towards her hiding place and that barely contained terror broke free. She burst out of the bushes and leapt over an alien fern of some sort and finally broke out of the underbrush into an area that was more clear than not and started running in earnest. Behind her, the hum started again and she didn't need to look back to know that the giant bug had taken flight. It had made some clicking and hissing noises while it searched and her translator buds hadn't made a sound so she figured it had to be some kind of wild animal. Angling towards the direction where she knew the tram station was she shrugged her way out of the backpack and started to sprint. Maybe it would slow to inspect the bag, she didn't know or care, her body was full of terrorized adrenaline and she ran, she ran faster than she'd ever run before.

The humming noise grew and along with it, she could make out more of that clicking and hissing. Her heart tried to claw its way out of her chest and she pumped her legs as hard as she could.

Up ahead, she saw a flash of white. The tram station! Somehow, she drew on a reserve she didn't know she had and ran straight towards it and safety.

The humming noise suddenly grew painfully loud and against her will, she glanced over her shoulder-

-and tripped on some rock or something sticking out of the ground. She flew forwards and fell to the ground, sliding on her chest and scraping her hands as she sprawled onto the ground. She desperately tried to climb to her feet when something huge slammed into her from behind and somehow held on. Yelling and struggling, she tried to break free but the huge wasp-like creature wrapped its giant pincer legs around her midsection and then there was a sudden pulse of motion and she screamed as the beast jumped into the air and beat its wings. The noise was deafening as they worked to lift both of them free of the ground and then it began racing through the forest, dodging trees. She yelled until she ran out of breath and then, when she could yelled more as the wild, disorienting ride got even worse because it began to climb higher and higher as the trees allowed until it broke free of the canopy and settled into a speedy flight just over the greenery.

She could see the shapes of civilization from where she was being held when she turned her head, but she could mostly just see down and a little ahead.

"PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOOOOWN!" she yelled but she couldn't even beat at the creature carrying her, her arms were locked in at her sides by those same legs that held her from falling to her death.

A shape came into view ahead at the edge of her vision and she tried to get a good look then recognized it as the low, menacing looking structure she'd dismissed earlier from atop the hill. They were heading straight towards it and then they were dropping towards it, almost in a free fall. She screamed again as they fell towards what was certainly their doom before the wings beat again and the huge insect and his prey flew in through a covered hole in the side and suddenly she was inside.

Inside... a hive.

It was unmistakably, the walls were organic looking and other huge wasp-like beings were crawling or flying through the big central open area they'd entered. Before she could truly grasp the scale of things, the creature alighted near one of the openings in the floor and she could see the flaky, mud-colored ground in front of her for a moment before it rapidly walked and crawled down into the tube. As she descended, it began to get darker and darker, the last of the sunlight from above disappearing as they went around a corner.

Her yelling had mostly stopped, terror filled her very being because she knew she was about to be killed in some horrible fashion and in this darkness, she wouldn't even see it coming.

...except that after a few more moments of this clambering, always downwards, she began to make out a glow. She could see the outline of her captor as it climbed downwards because there was some kind of light source ahead and then suddenly they were popping through a ceiling into a big room. The giant wings fluttered for a moment, softening their landing, but it didn't let her go.

The light, she realized, came from some kind of living creature in one of the corners that had been somehow glued to the walls of this nightmarish den. It glowed similar to the lightning bugs she'd read about as a child but never seen in person, and as she stared at it, the creature holding her finally began moving again, finishing something she realized it had been doing out of her sight. It lifted her and then pressed her into some kind of wet lump sticking out of the floor and then released her. She immediately tried to pull herself free but something on the lump stuck to her clothes and it was holding her loosely in place. And fought and struggled, trying to pull free when something suddenly grabbed one of her arms. She turned just in time to see the huge wasp spit something out of its mouth onto her hand where it was being held on the ground and then it released and moved around her. She pulled at her arm but it was stuck solid. As she fought with it, she felt the other arm pulled the same way and then it too was glued down. Now the loose hold on her clothes didn't seem to make a big difference anymore, not with her hands glued in place.

She pulled at it some more and arched her back, trying to get leverage, maybe she could get up on her knees and then use her leg muscles to pull free-

But then the same thing was happening there and before she knew it, she realized she'd been fully immobilized. On her knees, deep inside a monstrous alien hive, something out of a nightmare had just permanently attached her to some kind of mount on the floor with her legs apart and her arms held motionless via her glued hands.

She heard more of that hissing and snapping and then suddenly something was grabbing and tearing at her. She let out another scream before realizing it was tearing at her pants. Not for long, though, because those terrible mandibles got a grip against them and tore most of them free. It now had direct access to the meat of her body and she yelled some more in terror. The next thing she felt would be her death, she knew.

The creature screeched and slammed into her and then crawled up onto her and she knew it was time, she sobbed in terror as beast climbed up over her back and lowered its sharp, ripping mouth towards her. She knew because she could hear it breathing, smell it. It clicked and rumbled against her and she felt something heavy touch her on the small of her back, lift off, then touch again. Above her, the creature maneuvered around and confusion battled the mortal terror filling her as it moved around. What the fuck was it-

The thing slid down between the cheeks of her ass, leaving a cold wet trail she could feel and something clicked in her brain, a irrational voice that suddenly screamed at her that this was even worse than she'd imagine. As her conscious mind slowly processed what that primal part of her was saying, the space wasp's appendage found what it was looking for and thrust into her.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" she shouted in shock and horror but the giant wasp's organ thrust up into her, pulled out a little, then pushed again, going even deeper.

She screamed, this time in outrage as the assault continued. Shifting itself above her to gain a better purchase, the creature pulled out what she had assumed was a stinger and then shoved it back in again. She realized the organ wasn't a stinger after all, but at the same time, it wasn't exactly fucking her. Instead, it shoved into her, seemed to feel around, then the beast changed position again and it repeated the action but each time it sank into her it stopped and felt around.

After a minute of this, it pulled out and she felt something spray onto her vulva and there was a sweet smell. It pulled away but she was still trapped, still stuck. It shifted position again, then again. After a few more moments, she felt the organ slapping against her exposed ass cheeks like before and again like before, it started to drag downwards through the that cleft until it passed over her anus at which point it stopped and moved back. It began to feel around her rosebud and her eyes went wide.

"Oh no, no no, don't you DAA-" she cut off as the fleshy appendage pulled back and then stabbed at her ass, impaling her on an inch or two of it. She yelled in pain and it pulled out. She was breathing deeply, what the hell had that bee-

It stabbed into her again, but this time it slid a couple more inches in before stopping. She tensed and pulled on her arms and legs and tried to move her hips, but it held her solid. After a moment of twitching just inside her asshole, it pulled out for a moment, but this time she wasn't fooled. She clenched her ass and kept trying to shake it off but sure enough, a few moments later it again stabbed into her ass and this time, it sank in deeply.

As it began probing her ass the same way it had her vagina, she tried to understand what was happening. How could she be on a civilized planet yet be grabbed off the ground and sexually assaulted deep underground? What the fuck? Was this some dark secret of Society nobody had told her about? And why couldn't she remember coming to the forest in the first place?

As the appendage probed deeper and deeper into her ass, she also tried to understand something else. Why didn't it hurt more? She'd had anal sex before, of course, but it had taken some time for her and her partners to work out a few things like the importance of stretching and lube but here she was, being dry-fucked by some kind of monster, why didn't her ass feel like it was tearing? The pain she'd felt so far had been more shock than anything and as this prehensile not-a-stinger wiggled around in her bottom, she realized it had also slid in fairly easily. Was it somehow lubricated? What was-

It pulled out of her ass in one quick pull and she grunted, then again, there was that feeling of a spray and that sweet smell.

The creature stood and maneuvered around her, looking her over it seemed but she couldn't see clearly. She could feel its presence as it scuttled and crawled, the mandibles occasionally pulling at or ripping at some piece of clothing as if to check.

"Get the fuck off of me and let me go!" she shouted. As the sudden sound, it turned and looked at her face. Instead of responding, it climbed back onto her and shifted itself and then suddenly to her shock, that organ was in front of her face, questing back and forth as if looking for something and she was afraid she knew what.

From this angle, it looked roughly the size of a human penis, but with a sharper end. It was bright red and it glistened wetly. Forgetting herself, she opened her mouth to say something and suddenly it stabbed inwards and past her teeth. It stopped in her mouth and she could feel the end of it moving about. She wondered if it might be some kind of sense organ and a part of her laughed or shrieked at the idea that she was being analytical. It pulled back and she realized if it repeated what it had done so far, it would-

It did, it thrust again and this time the head pushed into the top of her throat. The sudden sensation triggered her gag reflex and she convulsed and, in a panic, bit down hard on the organ.

The creature howled and pulled the organ out, almost taking some of her teeth with it. It sprayed something acrid that hit her in the face but did nothing else she could notice as she blinked to clear her vision. When she could see again, it was gone and she couldn't feel it behind her anymore.

What had that been about? And why the different smells?

As the minutes passed, her heart began to slow and her mind raced. What had just happened? At some deep level she knew it hadn't actually mated with her. She couldn't remember why she knew, but she did. The mystery of the sweet and sour sprays too, what was that about?

There was a sound behind her, then a quick buzz and a loud THUMP as something dropped through the ceiling above. She knew not to assume she was being rescued and sure enough, a few seconds later a large shape came into view. It was, if anything, an even larger wasp-thing than the one that had caught and penetrated her. There were some other differences but she could tell it was the same species. It leaned in close and those giant mandibles clicked near her face and she felt the cold sweat of terror wash back over her again. The logical brain that had been trying to dissect the situation fled, there was something about the horror that absolutely overwhelmed her capacity for rational thought and she screamed.