Sweet Venom Arc 04

Authors note:

Hey folks! Welcome to arc 4! As per usual, i've sown in several clues to the themes and events of the arc into the front cover, nothing too spoilery obviously but have fun trying to find them and decipher what they mean. Arc 4 has been going really well so far, not sure how long its going to take to complete but the current release schedule is going to be a chapter every two weeks! I can't wait to re-read that half way through the year and see how badly it goes! Hah. Anyway, we're aiming for long chapters on average with that release window, 4000-7000 words based on the feedback we've received over arc 3, so you should have a nice chunk of writing to enjoy with every release.

Comments, favourites and votes are always deeply appreciated, it means a lot to me to see my content being actually read and enjoyed, rather than floating in the ether endlessly. Enough yap for me, enjoy this first chapter and thank you again for your time and support!

Beta_Krogoth.

*

Online Interview - 12:45pm, Synergy Resear -

Goddamnit! Liena shook the pink glittery gel pen furiously in her hand, then scribbled it just as furiously at the corner of the page. After a few tense moments, the sparkly liquid trailed from the rolling ballpoint, smoothly across the paper. The sweet smell of artificial strawberry filled the small room, and Liena's tongue flickered softly for a moment from between her lips, savouring the scent.

She finished writing the entry in her planner, then leaned back with a sigh. The battered old office chair beneath her squeaked and groaned - it had been advertised as 'second hand, but like new.' Absolute lies. It was easily fourth or fifth hand, and looked like it had tried to take a short-cut through an asteroid field to get to her. Stupid Spacebook Marketplace. Liena ignored the creaking protests however, continuing to fidget as she glanced back down at her planner. She folded her legs crossed beneath her. She sat at her desk for a few moments, tapping her pen rapidly against the rusting metal surface, and thinking. With her other hand, she flicked aimlessly through the planner. There were far too few entries in it. As she flicked through the pages, multicoloured notes, equations, formulas, diagrams, annotations, acronyms, molecules, and silly little doodles flashed before her dull, grey eyes, their own unique scents almost faded, but clinging desperately onto their ink. The combined smell of them all however was sickening, almost unpleasant, and Liena crinkled her face, then slammed the planner shut. The pink pen dropped to the desk with a clatter, and she ran her pale pastel-green hands down her face.

This has to pull through... Jeez, I never thought this would be so hard...

Liena hadn't adjusted to nomad life as easily as she thought she would. It should have been easy; she'd had a job lined up with a small starter corp, and everything had seemed perfect - but apparently, things outside of the DA are no-where near as certain as they are on the inside. The opportunity had fallen through just days before she was due to start, but by that point, she'd already announced to her parents that she was leaving, had already had numerous fights with her mother, and taken the brunt of the snears and remarks from her siblings. She'd been so scared. And if it hadn't been for Seres to support her, she would have run straight back to the lot of them with her dreadlocks between her legs.

We told you so... We knew there was no way you could do it...

Seres. God she felt so guilty. She'd been more than happy to leave the DA behind and travel out into the unknown with her friend, but that had been when Liena had a plan. They'd spent the last few months living out of a tiny old spaceship which they'd managed to get cheap off a scrappy, literally minutes before it was due to be scrapped. Liena had to completely rewire all the electrics to get it back online. When they started the engine it made a horrible noise, a loud cross between a concerning-sounding clunk, and a dying man's cough. The integrated minifridge had conveniently packed in a few hours after they'd spent the majority of their remaining dies on groceries. And Seres had had to pay for all of that. And she'd been funding the two of them every moment since, with the little savings she had, and by picking up merc work as they travelled across nomad space. And she said she was fine with it; Seres always did, nothing seemed to bother that girl. Liena felt the butterflies fluttering in her stomach and her cheeks warm at just the thought of her. She always felt safe when she was around, her raging anxiety would quell and her overthinking mind would calm... and her heart would race and she would tingle between her legs, but Seres couldn't know that! Gosh, just the sound of her firm, confident steps echoing through the ship was enough to make Liena's head spin -

- Wait a minute! That wasn't in her head; the airlock creaked and closed loudly, and Sere's footsteps echoed up the main deck. Oh my god!

Liena leapt out her chair and quickly pulled on the black leather jacket she'd thrown onto the mattress-and-blanket combo they called a bed hours earlier, and zipped it up over her baggy plain t-shirt. "Seres! That you? It better be you!"

"Who else would be coming by to see your flat little ass?" Seres poked her head round the door with tired eyes, but a wide grin.

"Hey, my ass could be in high demand! You're never here to know!" Liena retorted with her own grin, and stuck her tongue out at her friend. She was still blushing slightly, but her chest was already swelling with the confidence that just being in Seres' presence gave her.

Her chest wasn't the only thing swelling however, and Liena quickly sat down on the mattress, crossing her legs as casually as she could. "I-I wasn't expecting you back until the morning." She continued shyly.

"That a problem?" Seres plopped herself down on the mattress opposite her. "You got a girl hidden here somewhere?"

"W-What?" Liena laughed awkwardly. "I-I wish!" Liena cleared her throat, desperate to change the subject. "I take it your date didn't go well?"

"Ugh." Seres leant back heavily against the back wall. She was tall for a czarite, around six foot, athletic and well-built too. She unbuttoned her trousers as she sat back, and pulled her bra out from underneath her top as she relaxed. Liena tried her hardest to pull her gaze away from Sere's bouncing cleavage, as she readjusted herself. "Men are an absolute nightmare, Liena. I can see why you like girls instead."

"Ah yes, because I've had so much success." Liena siddled slightly closer to her friend. In comparison, Liena was the complete opposite of Seres, despite them being the same species. Seres was broad and strong, with strong charcoal-grey carapace adorning her body. Nearly all her tops were off the shoulder, and her trousers were specially made with slits to help cater for her carapace. Her skin was a beautiful soft lilac, her eyes a shining bright amethystine, her dreadlocks thick and wavy and sparkling. Liena in contrast was a tiny little thing, five-foot-eight and built like a pencil. Despite her average height, she looked lanky, her hair was long, flat and straight, almost greasy-looking. She was nowhere near as well endowed as her friend, and actually, usually didn't bother wearing a bra at all. Seres said she should consider herself lucky she didn't have to, but looking at Sere's soft and gentle curves of her body, Liena considered herself anything but. She was all sharp edges and skinny limbs. She didn't even have the carapace that most czarites did; she had a pretty little flower-looking crown gracing her face, but that was pretty much it - it was an unfortunate side effect of her Oak's disease and its treatment, the lack of carapace growth. Seres had tried to convince her that she was lucky for that too, that she could wear pretty much anything she wanted, without having to make adjustments or going to special shops. But after a lifetime of teasing for being different, Liena would have given anything for those inconveniences, and just be like everyone else. For a change.

"It's shocking how many guys get weird as soon as they see you're taller than them." Seres was saying. "And then you get to talking, finally a bit of flirting after a few drinks and the subject of penises comes out - apparently it's not well known around nomad space that czarites are hermaphrodites. Honestly, his expression when I told him, he went white as a sheet."

"Not many of them fancy getting pegged by a dommie like you then?" Liena teased with a smile.

"Nope. It would be funny if I wasn't so fucking fed up." Seres sighed. "Oh well. He was kinda ugly anyway. On the plus side, they always pay for dinner." She grinned then. "They're too scared shitless not to."

"Speaking of..." Liena looked up at her hopefully. "Did you get anything for meeee?"

"Of course I did, gotta feed my bestie!" Seres reached into her bag and pulled out a little paper doggy-bag. She tossed it gently into Liena's waiting hands which, of course, she fumbled, missed the catch, and had to scramble to stop the food from spilling everywhere. Finally, she ripped the bag open and immediately shoveled a handful of cold fries into her mouth.

"I wish I could eat like you and stay as skinny as you." Seres laughed, and lay down on the mattress.

They didn't say anything else for a few minutes. Liena finished her food while Seres half-heartedly scrolled through a dating app on her phone. Liena glanced over, and couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. Once she finished eating, she shuffled down and lay next to Seres, anxiously careful not to touch her - even though her body was screaming out for the contact.

"I... I got an interview today." Liena said softly.

"Oh, that's good! Pfft, here's me going on about my crappy dating life when there's more important things going on!" Seres twisted into her side and smiled at Liena. "When is it?"

"Late next week." Liena replied. "Hopefully I'll do better at this one than the last..."

"Don't worry about it! You just gotta take a deep breath, try and stay calm. You're in control, not your anxiety." Seres took hold of Liena's hands and squeezed them tightly. "You got this!"

"Y-Yeah?" Liena said, blushing again in the soft orange light of the singular light bulb, dangling precariously above their heads.

"Yep! I believe in you, Liena."

***

Jace leaned ever-so-slightly forward over the railing in front of him, so as to get a better view of the bay below. There was nothing quite like it, after all. Two hundred dragoons marching in unison, their servos whirring in time with one-another, rifles clutched against their shoulders. Their mechanical march was the pounding drum that kept the Draconic Alliance's hearts thumping in rhythm.

It was almost enough to make the old man smile.

The DA's muscles were being flexed, several different squads had come together to make this battleship their quarters. Specifically, his battleship. There were the specialists of the Riot Control & Psyonic Suppression division, equipped with gas masks and riot-shields, currently tinkering with ice-blue caskets of cryo-fluid and crates filled with cinnamon brown powder. The crates had 'NULLIPHINE CONCENTRATE' stamped in red on their sides, and took up a significant portion of the floor around the RCPS squad. As they tinkered, a fresh batch of equipment descended from above via bright white cargo drone. It landed with a gentle clunk and was quickly unboxed, revealing freshly manufactured high-grade environshields, with a distinctive orange hue to them. Heat resistance.

The squad immediately set about fixing the modules to their rubberized armoured suits. Jace had taken a liking to their odd design of gently clinking scale mail and heavy hazmat plating, it reminded him of his own days as a soldier in the field... He had been assured that they weren't as hot to wear as they looked, thanks to the various life support systems within. It was just a shame that this stuff was needed in the first place.

Above the RCPS division, the gleaming white razor operatives of the Anti-Gravity & Air Superiority division floated weightlessly, marching through the air as though taunting their gravity-constrained cousins stuck marching on the bay's floor. The AGAS division was primarily tasked with planetary air to air combat, and intercepting fights between capital ships in space warfare, but they had landed their expertise to produce infantry battle suits known as razor operatives. Although agents took many years of training to produce, being able to lug vulcan weapons whilst traversing the battlefield at mach-three made them a force to be reckoned with, if expensive to deploy. Aside from their slick-plated armour, they had a pair of ominous glowing ports on their gauntlets, facing towards any would-be targets. These were plasma lances, limited in use but able to generate twenty foot long plasma jets. There and gone in the blink of an eye, they could punch bowling ball-sized holes through the sides of tanks and buildings as though they were little more than butter.

These were just two of the many platoons stationed aboard the battleship, each going about their own preparations and drills. The ship's interior had become a carnival of military activity, each squad as anticipating as the last, mobilized under royal decree. But the dragoons at the back of the hall dominated the soundscape with their every movement and it felt like every other division moved in time with the thunderous applause of their metallic feet against the floor.

Jace was stationed far above the hustle and bustle of the main deck. It was a lean deck that lined the walls of the hall on one side, lined with a glass railing and high above the soldiers below it. A similar deck was positioned on the opposite side of the hall, where Jace could just about see a squad of Royal Praetorian Division soldiers resting. They gave him a friendly wave from across the hall when they saw him, and Jace nodded in return. It was an odd feeling seeing so many divisions united within the same space. It felt like they were about to go to war...

He sighed heavily through his nostrils and pushed himself off the guard rail. Behind him, the cloudy glass doors of his office awaited him. There was no doubt. There absolutely would be more paperwork.

Back to it, I suppose.

He pushed through the heavy double doors, his eyes adjusting to the sudden shift in lighting, from the orange warmth of the hangar's downlighting, to the sterile white office LEDs irradiating his reception area, a mid-sized room, in which his new personal assistant sat to his left. She was currently sighing herself, and pushing the buttons of her keyboard with the tail-end of a pen. Warmth flashed in her eyes however when she noticed the commander.

"Hoi, boss! Great news! There is absolutely no end to the journalists trying to get an interview with you." Aybel grinned sarcastically, resting her pretty face against her palm. She was a slim dragoness, her scales a moody malachite green, which contrasted sharply with her soft pink eyes. Her wings were folded behind her neatly, and she was currently dressed in a sharp looking DA military suit, with white and blue patterning down its lapels. "I swear I'm gonna lose it if they keep phoning, all of them thinking they're the most important person in the whole entire empire."

"All journalists so far?" Jace asked tiredly, making his way towards another door ahead of him.

"Ayup. All looking for their next big story. They're rabid over the attack, and even more rabid over their perfect headlines!" Aybel threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.

Suddenly, there was a sharp knock behind him and Jace glanced over his shoulder to see a familiar silhouette through the clouded glass. Theo pushed his way inside, a roll of newspapers and magazines under his arm. He grinned at Jace, and flipped Aybel a middle finger with his free hand.

"Oi! Don't you give me that!" Aybel protested sharply, standing from her desk. "I don't need attitude from a living zimmer frame, I'm getting enough from these assholes!" Her words were followed with a sharp nod towards the phone on her desk.

"Well, maybe don't do thirty-two flips in a dragoon during a parade, then." Theo laughed heartily. "You got the whole platoon in trouble, they're still washing the paving slabs by hand outside the Sapphire Lane Courthouse."

"Oh piss off, grandad! The crowd was bored! They wanted to see what we can really do! Not just marching back and forth up the same road! I can't help it if I'm just more in touch with the public!"

"And now you're more in touch with the phone!"

"UGH! Theoooo! Stoppit!" Aybel glared, slamming her butt back down on her chair. "I just wanted to inspire people!"

"Enough, the pair of you." Jace finally intervened. "Be glad you still have a wage and a position, Aybel. Theo, stop winding her up please, she's handling the media storm that's battering my gates, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. Come on, my office please."

The rhargnorn snorted with laughter and quickly closed in behind Jace, following him through the next set of doors as they closed softly behind them. Jace's office was revealed in its full glory, an overly spacious room more akin to a trophy room than a traditional office. Glittering marble slabs lined the floor, shimmering in the soft amber downlights that kept the room feeling oddly cosy, all considered. It was on two height levels, separated by a couple of steps that spanned the entire width of the office, with his desk placed on the higher half at the back. Solid wood cabinets and bookshelves lined the edges of the room, along with a solid metal armoury display and a mannequin covered in sleek white armour. The armour matched Jace's broad stature perfectly, and featured a sizable combi-jet-pack array built into the back of the chest plate, designed to work in tandem with functional wings. The armour had been repaired and restored, and fastened to its front were several medals, different-coloured ribbons adorning each one. Behind the armour stand, fastened securely to the wall was an impressive, seven foot long halberd, constructed from thick silver and adorned with various ceremonial sashes tied over its worn handle.

Opposite the armoury and armour display was an imposing filing cabinet, spanning the width of the wall, somehow more intimidating than the weaponry opposite it. The centrepiece of the room, Jace's desk, was hewn of solid obsidian marble, and currently stacked with papers and documents from the last few days.

The commander strolled his way around to his side of the desk and planted himself on the cush black leather chair, inviting Theo to the still impressive but not quite as tall chair on the visitor's side. Theo chucked his magazines onto the desk and quickly helped himself to a seat, happy to take the weight off his feet - foot.

"Some choice headlines for you there." He grinned, rolling his metal ankle and watching Jace eagerly.

The commander leaned over, raising an eyebrow as he picked up the magazines one at a time.

"The Daily Scale. Hmm. Quality reading material here, Theo." Jace scoffed dismissively.

Printed on the front of the paper was a blurry aerial shot of Diego, running for his life with Karen on his shoulder as the horde closed in on him. The headline read Komodo Kapers! Slave saves colony from sudden assault!

A brief skim showed the article to mostly be focused on the sudden nature of the assault, Diego's heroism and the response from the DA, eager to highlight all the detail and drama for readers. It did mention just how rare Diego's species was, with there being only single digit figures of recorded coralith komodos across the entire draconic empire, highlighting just how unusual the event was.