Rafaroy received the message while they were in full combat with the Taucets. It distracted him for a few moments, and that distraction got him a wound on his arm, but he didn’t mind. The news couldn’t be better. Khajal had escaped.
The humans had announced he had died in combat and that they had disposed of the body as they always did, whenever one of them died: retrieving all the cybernetic parts and cremating the rest, before throwing the ashes to the garbage. Such treatment was indignant to the men that fought every day of their lives to free their planet from the Taucets’ plague.
But this time, they were just lying, the way they had lied when Jarcor had finally managed to escape.
According to the news Rafaroy received, Khajal had escaped and was now living in a Taucets’ colony, in the Rocky Mountains. Apparently, the blue bastards were planning to attack a small village, and Khajal wanted them stopped. They would have to find a way to send that information to the humans without revealing their source, but they felt bound to protect the innocent people from the village they mentioned in the message.
“Did you hear it, Raf? Khajal is fine.” The cheerful words of his friend Zandar came across their secret channel.
“Yes, I did, the best news in a long time,” he agreed.
“There’s hope for us, my friend, more than ever.”
“I know, I know…”
“Have you thought about a way to warn the humans about the impending attack?” his friend asked.
“Not yet, but I will don’t worry. If you get any ideas, please share.”
“Will do.”
By the end of the day, Rafaroy hadn't been able to come up with a convincing story, but fortunately, Ibracor had the perfect story.
“Commander Jones, we managed to intercept a few messages from the Taucets related to an attack to a small town in the Rocky Mountains,” he informed his superior officer, and though they received the report with concern, their reaction was not the one they had been expecting.
Instead of sending more soldiers to the small village, they ordered those in the village to retreat, setting a trap for the Taucets. They wanted the Taucets to attack the village and capture as many slaves as they wanted, so the Earth forces could follow them and find the location of at least, one of the Taucets colonies.
The cyborgs protested loudly, but they were blatantly ignored.
“Sometimes, we’re forced to make small sacrifices for the sake of a greater good, and this is certainly one of those times,” General Foster said in an ice-cold tone. “All the Taucets are looking for, by attacking this village, are slaves, so let’s give them the slaves, and in exchange, we’ll be able to follow them to at least one of their colonies and destroy it.”
There were still a few protests from the cyborgs before the General answered them by sending a wave of pain rushing down their bodies, using his main control to discipline them.
“Your opinions were not requested and mean nothing to us. You’re here to do your job, and nothing else,” General Foster reminded the warriors icily before he dismissed the men and returned to his quarters.
“I swear I’ll see him dead, preferably crossed by my weapon,” Zandar muttered as they returned to their quarters.
“Those are useless wishes, and you know it, Zandar. I’ll be the one having that pleasure,” Rafaroy ranted, through gritted teeth.
His friend let out a loud laugh that called the guards attention, and Rafaroy threw his elbow onto Zandar’s stomach.
That morning had started, as usual, Elena had sent Alanna to school, after reminding her, what to do and where to go in case of an attack. Then she had headed to the café like she did every morning. The past two days they had had fewer customers since the small contingent of soldiers watching over the town had been called to help a nearby village.
Elena had been very nervous about their absence and had devised a plan to get Alanna to safety in case they were attacked.
She told her sister she should escape and hide in an ancient mine, just outside town and stay there until she was sure it was safe to come out. She would try to meet her there as soon as possible. She also told her how to get to the nearest village in case she wasn’t able to join her sister.
Alanna had looked a bit scared, but Elena wanted to prepare the girl. She didn’t want her to fall into the Taucets’ claws. “You’re overreacting, Elena,” she had protested, but she hadn't paid attention. She needed her safe, that was all that mattered.
There was an awkward silence in town, and she felt a chill going down her spine as she opened the back door to her café. Johanna was already there, baking the pies she was famous for and Elena joined her in the kitchen, preparing a few other things she sold at the café.
She had just opened the doors for her first customer when the hell exploded outside. They were under attack.
Running, she left the café through the back door, heading to the school as fast as she could, but she quickly realized they were surrounded by armed Taucets.
She was about to reach the school when a group of them appeared in front of her, with their vicious weapons pointing at her, forcing her and all the other people on the streets to walk back to the center of town.
The Taucets took over the small town and its inhabitants so easily it was shameful. They had no means to protect themselves, and the enemy had taken full advantage of that.
They quickly gathered the people in the middle of the main street, separating women from men and children.
The desperate cries of the children were heartbreaking but there was nothing any of them could do.
Elena had tried to see Alanna in the group of kids being taken to the Mayor’s house, but it was impossible to spot her sister in the middle of the chaos. She was mad at herself for not believing her instincts but now it was too late to do anything about it, she was a prisoner of the Taucets, and if the stories people told about them were true, she would soon become a slave, along with all the women captured with her.
Tears of desperation ran down her cheeks when she was forced to board one of the Taucets’ vessels. She knew that she would never see her sister again and she couldn’t bear the idea. Like her, all mothers and sisters around her were going through the same agony, and though they had asked endlessly about the children, the aliens hadn't given them a straight answer.
Instead, they all had their hands cuffed behind their backs, and a gag shoved into their mouths.
They were flown out of the small village, and a couple of hours later the vessels were landing in what looked like an igloo camp. Several structures similar to igloos connected by hallways occupied a huge lot. It seemed they were up in the Rocky Mountains because they hadn't traveled that long, and the place was covered with snow.
They were forced out of the vessels and guided to a huge room where they were separated by age, forming several groups. Elena was put in one with other women ages from twenty to twenty-five and Johanna was taken to another group of women from thirty to thirty-five. She had no idea what the aliens were going to do with them, but she was sure it wouldn’t be anything good.
Her group was taken by three armed guards that guided them through the hallways into another room where four men, dressed in some sort of white jumpsuits, waited for them.
“Chain them to the bar on the wall, and we’ll take care of them from now on.” One of them said, without compassion, as he looked at the approximately thirty women assembled in the room.
“Sure thing.” One of the guards said as they started to obey the other man’s orders. “What do you think they’ll do to these ones?”
“I was told this group would become incubators. They want to start with the youngest, to raise the possibilities of positive results.”
The women gasped and whimpered at the alien’s words, some even tried to escape, but it was useless. They were all forcibly pushed up against the wall and attached to the metal bar there. There was no escape for them, no matter what they tried.
The guards left the room once they were done and the women were left alone with the aliens in white.
“Now, that was something very stupid to do,” one of the men in white said. “If you had been already marked, you would be on the floor now, squirming in excruciating pain. From the moment you were captured by the Taucets, you became our property, and your lives no longer belong to you. Your fate is entirely decided by us, and you’ll accept that as soon as possible, otherwise there will be terrible consequences for you,” the man added, in a grim tone, leaving no room for doubt.
They all grabbed some scissors and approached the women. Elena closed her eyes to hold back the tears struggling to come out. Crying was useless, and she had no intention of showing these bastards just how scared she was of the future they planned for her.
It only took them a few minutes to strip off the women’s clothes and soon they were all completely naked and exposed to the lustful eyes of the aliens. Some groped the women they were stripping, but fortunately, Elena wasn’t one of them.
“This is a good group. It’s a pity they won’t auction them. I wouldn’t mind buying a couple of them for me,” one of the aliens said, as he groped the woman he was stripping.
“I know what you mean, but we need to find a way to reproduce, or we’re doomed,” one of the others replied, as he walked to a metallic examination table and grabbed some sort of gun, similar to the ones people used to tattoo.
The other aliens mimicked him, and soon they were returning to where the women were chained with the gun on their hands.
“This will mark you as Taucet property. This tattoo is also embedded with nano-circuitry that will be activated by any of us in case of disobedience. It will send an extremely painful impulse through your body that will throw you to the floor,” one of them informed, in an icy tone. “It will also prevent you from trying to escape. If you ever try to cross the colony’s walls, the impulse will be automatically activated.”
Some of the women whimpered, but most seemed beyond tears. They had all realized they were doomed.
The aliens proceeded to tattoo the women, at the base of their necks, on the left side. They activated the gun, and some sort of laser beam hit their necks making them feel as if a million needles were pinching their skin.
Once they had marked them all, they unchained two of them and dragged them to the examination tables in the middle of the room.
Elena wasn’t able to see what they were doing to them, but she could guess. A lot of muffled sobs and cries filled the room and those waiting were feeling more and more distressed.
When they were done with the women on the table, they helped them up and handed them a piece of clothing that was a little more than a rag and walked them to the door where a guard waited to take them away to their final destination.
When it was Elena’s turn, she was feeling quite nervous, but she didn’t offer any resistance. It clearly was useless, and she didn’t fight battles she knew were lost. Her mind was focused on trying to find a way to escape so she could go find her little sister. She couldn’t stop thinking about her and how scared she would be.
The alien forced her to lie down on the examination table and quickly restrained her to it. Without uttering a word, two of them started working on her, scanning her whole body, groping her with clumsy and rude movements, as if she was some sort of doll they were inspecting. After a few minutes of the opprobrious examination, one of the aliens examining her grabbed a strange device from a drawer and ran it over her whole body, from her neck down. Though she tried not to cry or even whimper, it was impossible. The damn thing felt as if she was being burned alive. The sensation was terrible and excruciatingly painful, but, incredibly, it left no mark on her skin, other than some redness she was sure would quickly fade. It also removed all hairs from her body.
They washed her after that with cold water, and though it was freezing, it relieved some of the pain she was still experiencing. Seconds later, they blew hot air right after the cold water to dry her off, and she scowled at the contrast.
Praying they were done, Elena closed her eyes for a few seconds, just to open them startled when she felt them touching her nipples.
“We’re installing tracking devices. These are impossible to remove unless you cut open your nipple, so don’t bother trying,” one of them explained to her, as they pulled her nipples hard and pierced them with the devices they both held in their hands. She let out a muffled cry as the sharp needle penetrated her sensitive skin, and soon they replaced it with a metallic ring they welded in place. Even after they finished, her nipples throbbed at the painful invasion.
After that, they gave her the same rags, some sort of tiny dress that left very little to one’s imagination, like those they had given the other women. Soon she was walking out the door, accompanied by an armed guard that guided her through a labyrinth of hallways until they reached some sort of dungeon. It was a huge room, filled with cells, some of them already occupied with some of the women from her own village and others she had never seen before.
The cells were identified with different colors, and soon she realized it matched the color of the rags they were wearing. Like all the women in her group, she was wearing turquoise rags, and the cell she was put in had the same color on the thick door that was closed behind her back.
Inside the small cell, there was only a bunk bed, a sink, and a toilet. Nothing more.
The walls that separated her from the other women looked thick and didn’t allow her to hear them at all. She was completely isolated, and with nothing more to do, all her concerns about her sister returned to the point she was losing her mind.
She wanted to believe Alanna had been able to escape the Taucets attack and that she was on her way to the nearest village in search of help, but she had no idea and not knowing was the worst part.
She still couldn’t understand how they had been so easily attacked, exactly when the soldiers had left town on a mission. That had never happened in all the years they had been there. She tried not to see a conspiracy behind Captain Summers’ actions, but it was very hard not to. They had known the Taucets were in the area and yet they had done nothing to search for them and send them away. Instead, they had left the town unprotected and vulnerable to attack, one that had occurred, only a couple of days after they had left.
Furious, she punched the bed she was sitting on, but allowing her mind to swirl around those theories wouldn’t help her.
She doubted the army would go looking for them and even if they did, what were the chances of them finding this colony?
Sighing, she lay down on the narrow bed and closed her eyes, feeling incredibly tired. It had been a hellish day, and she was sure her future would be filled with a lot more.
Sometime later, a tray with food was slid under the door, by a tiny opening and a voice on the sound system of the place ordered the prisoners to eat the meals served. Any waste or refusal to obey would be severely punished. The trays would be taken back in exactly half an hour.
Elena looked at the food on the tray, finding it disgusting. She was sure it had all the nutrients and proteins a person would need, but it looked like a pile of dreadful purée or something.
She thought about not eating it, but she knew she had to keep herself healthy and strong in case she had the opportunity to escape.
So, she got up and grabbed the tray, and ate the whole thing. As expected, it tasted terrible, but still, she ate it all and drunk the beverage they had sent as well and returned the tray through the hole in the door.