Celine watched the Void Springer, an ugly nearly ramshackle thing of a spaceship, slowly and masterfully land onto one of numerous platforms designed for such landings that span the Vaem tower.
She was utterly disgusted by the boxy exterior and its obvious lack of maintenance. How that thing had saved Mother was beyond her but she was nonetheless grateful for it.
The Void Springer was the size of a small freighter and nearly filled in the entirety of the landing platform, sending leaves and dust flying from its landing exhausts. It rattled from the strain of its overworked engines and Celine was worried it would fall apart before it could disgorge its precious cargo.
The dozen guards seemed to have the same worry as they watched it shut down and go still for long moments. Finally the ramp going into the cargo bay lowered slowly with a satisfied looking veridea soldier holding onto a support at the very tip of the ramp, leaping off once it was a meter off the ground.
Celine moved aside a stray lock of golden hair and approached the soldier. She didn't go under the fuselage of the ship and instead waited for the soldier to come to her. She wouldn't be caught dead being in this ugly thing's shadow.
As befit a daughter of the soldier caste, the woman was tall, strongly-built, well-armed and armored. Her helmet rode on her hip as she approached, a happy and relieved smile on her face. "It is so good to see home again."
"Welcome home," Celine greeted with a smile of her own, quite glad that her sisters had survived their sojourn beyond the Nebula. It was remarkable that the ramshackle ship showed absolutely no signs of damage from going through the acidic space cloud. Celine was no engineer but she'd heard it was due to a strange and effective interstellar drive the ship possessed. "We awaited your return with bated breath."
"You must be Celine. We were told you would be expecting us the most out of all of our sisters." The soldier said with a grin and stopped before the shorter woman, bending low to kiss Celine on the forehead. "Thank you, for that."
Celine blushed and nodded, looking the soldier over and saw the name tag on her armored breast. Ah, so this was Captain Jevelyn. She and her platoon had been personally handpicked by Mother for this important task. "You are most welcome, dear sister."
Jevelyn pulled back and looked towards the loading ramp as multiple hurried and frantic steps and shouting came from that direction. Celine looked there and saw two soldiers holding chains in one hand and rifles in the other as they pulled and tugged a herd of prisoners.
Celine counted around forty of them with around twenty being humans, five tall blue-skinned males with strange pairs of horns, ten rather slim and pretty-looking aliens with black shiny skin and big purple eyes. She was most impressed by the last five, however.
They were tall and imposing females with a ferocity and looking so feral that Celine thought they were humans spliced with white-furred felines or something. They walked on digitigrade paws and were exposed outside of tight tank tops and pants, revealing impressive musculature and patches of snowy fur. They towered over even the soldier veridea and Celine immediately felt intimidated by them as they stomped down the ramp, looking positively pissed.
"How did you capture those?" She whispered to Jevelyn, eyes locked onto the brutish women.
"We're the best of the best, after all." Jevelyn said smugly and guided Celine further back as the prisoners were arranged just in front of the Void Springer. "They're yours."
Celine nodded and gently rubbed the translator bead sticking to her throat as she looked over all of their apprehensive, scared and angry faces. The humans all looked rather meek and of the more intellectual bent. And it pleased her to see they were equally divided in the sex department and outside of their waifish forms seemed perfect for the project.
"The humans were leading what we think is a science vessel as scientists." Jevelyn explained to Celine quietly, subtly pointing at the tallest and most firm-looking man out of the group. He looked to be middle-aged and sported an impressive graying beard.
It would be impressive if she was in any way interested in them, that is.
"What about the black-skinned ones? They look positively adorable." Celine breathed, enjoying the fearful and angry looks they were giving her as they realised she was the one running the show.
"They really are." Jevelyn hummed, looking over the short and slim humanoids who looked so positively innocent with those big purple eyes. "We have been given orders not to get too personal with the prisoners so we've left the up-close examination to you."
Celine nodded and looked over the tall blue-skinned men with impressive horns. They looked apprehensive but in full control of themselves. They were firmly built and reached over 6 feet. Just a bit larger than their female counterparts.
Guess it's time to begin with the 'welcome'.
"Ahem, welcome to the Vaem Matriarchy. I am Celine and will be overseeing some of you during your time here." She introduced herself in perfect galactic standard. It was a hideous and coarse language when compared to the sing-song and flowing language of the veridea. She hated what it did to her voice.
The bearded man plucked up the courage and spoke up. "Who are you, and where have you taken us?"
Celine smiled sweetly and answered, "You are on the veridea homeworld and on the property of the Vaem Matriarchy. You have been brought here to become part of the glorious matriarchy."
Her words had them all frowning and the bearded man asked some more. "You mean kidnapped. And as fascinating as it is to meet new cultures and races, this is simply unwarranted."
Celine nodded in mock understanding. She hardly cared that a male was inconvenienced or what he thought of the situation. "Please refrain from further questions. Your hideous voice is too much to bear."
She didn't expect him to keep his mouth shut after her sickly-sweet insult and then her eyes widened when the five cat-like females began to roar and struggle in their bindings.
"You take that shit back!" One shouted as she tried to break the manacles but with no result. Half dozen guards rushed over to pacify the large females with electrified batons. The rest of the prisoners watched in horror as they were pacified ruthlessly and effectively.
"Even your big cat females are defenceless against us, so I would suggest you cooperate as best you possibly can. Escape is impossible and should you fully cooperate, we will treat you fairly and justly." Celine said, wanting to use the cat females as an example.
Indeed, the Vaem tower is a veritable fortress and thus far has no recorded escapes of any kind.
