Epoc took the rest of the day to haunt the facility, hands in her pockets, exploring what remained of her freedom. A strange feeling, altogether. Sure, Winter had given her the rest of the day to do what she liked, but every time she got close to a door there was a little
*beep*
from her communicator to remind her that she wasn’t supposed to leave the building until all the arrangements were in order.
She received a message in her inbox reminding her that her official name change had been approved, and that her classification – from citizen to property – would be made official at the soonest possible moment.
Well, that was it. All rights granted to her by the state were gone. For the next twenty years. All that was left was what was guaranteed by the contract. Well, okay, it was actually five years. She’d made sure she’d read the fine print.
Every five years there was a renegotiation. Essentially, if she decided in five years that the Hound contract was too taxing, she had the option to switch to another or quit altogether. She’d keep her pay, regain her autonomy, but she’d have to say goodbye to Nexus Alpha. A comforting thought, that.
It made her feel like she had some power here.
Hounds had a very high turnover rate, and it was clear Antimony wanted her around. Not even thirty and able to keep up with a veteran pilot? That
was
something to be proud of. Without the contract, she was likely to be sniped by a competitor. The Mako Group would do its best to keep her happy.
Well, it was nice to have a last name again, at least.
The first person she went to go see after lunch was Diana, who smacked her on the arm hard enough for Epoc to feel something click in her shoulder.
“Glad to hear it, Epoc,” Diana said. “Told you I had a good feeling about you!” The balcony they were on was on the other side of the hangar from Nexus, floodlights illuminating her stern gaze and polished chassis. She was, without a doubt, the most beautiful machine Epoc had ever seen. Diana leaned on the railing. “So, you’ve got full spec control on my b–” She sighed and ran a greasy hand through her greasy hair and grinned apologetically. “I guess it’s
your
baby now.” There was a quiet sadness in her voice.
“Nah. I was thinking, you know, maybe something like shared custody suits me better.” Epoc winked. The visible relief on Diana’s face was so palpable, Epoc almost wanted to reach out and touch it. “I know you’re supposed to tell me what’s possible and what isn’t, but you’ve spent the last, what, two years? Tuning her?”
“Three,” Diana said. “She’s been waiting for someone strong enough to claim her for a while.” Epoc shook her head in disbelief. She was honored. “Anything you’re thinking of right now, though?”
“Without looking at her sheets and diagnostics? Are you crazy?” Epoc said.
“Good answer. I know people who swear by the new AiroNaut X-440 reactor, but all these idiots forget that bigger isn’t necessarily better. Do you know how long it took us to get into space? Tsiolkovsky comes for us all, man. You can’t just plop a fifty ton engine inside of something like this and expect it to not make a difference. That’s a whole-ass plane.”
“But the 430 is way overtuned,” Epoc said. “The output is great, you know, if you want to make trips of up to thirteen seconds.” She laughed. “Nah, AiroNaut is for show ponies.”
“
Thank
you!” Diana said. “That’s what I keep telling people, but they think that bigger is better. You know sometimes, things that are more expensive are
worse.
” She grunted. “But don’t worry, I’m not scared of modifying her. She’s tuned to how
I
like her, right now, but right now she’s standing still in a hangar. You’re the one who has to fly her, so if you need major changes pushed through, I’m happy to listen and make it happen.”
“Well…” Epoc said, “I
have
always been interested in trying a digitigrade frame. Would that be feasible? Nexus is
massive.
And I mean, it’s not like you’d have the parts lying around, right?” She looked at Diana, who looked back with a grin so smug she could see herself reflected in the grease on Diana’s cheeks. “Right?”
“Sweetie,” Diana said, “we have a
lot
of parts here. And when you prove you deserve her through and through, they’re all yours to fuck around with. Obviously, give us a day to make those changes, but yeah. I can do digitigrade.”
“At this size though…”
“Call me Madam Wizard,” Diana said with a wink, and flexed her arm, which had an effect on Epoc’s composure the same way a handgun has an effect on that of a housefly.
“Haha,” she said.
“What’s wrong, Epoc? Handler got your tongue?” She grinned and nudged Epoc with her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell how weak you are to strong women. I’m going to keep that all to myself and let everyone else figure it out on their own. Because you’re so good at hiding it.”
Epoc gritted her teeth and turned to Diana.
“Why?!”
“Because you’re cute,” Diana said. She looked at her nails and pursed her lips innocently. “Because you’re one of us now. Because I was actually sent a copy of your contract and what you agreed to. Because you agreed to ‘punishment and discipline’ by a third party and because I’m a third party and because I like you but if you come home and Nexus Alpha took hits it shouldn’t have, I’ve been authorized by a certain someone to punish and discipline you so it doesn’t happen again. You know. The little things.”
“Ah,” Epoc whimpered. “What does… uh…”
“You’ll have to find that out yourself, aren’t you?” Diana said. “And then it’s up to you to figure out if that’s something you think is worth repeating.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she squeaked the reply. “I, uh, think the other Hounds were expecting me.”
“Sure they were,” Diana. “See you later, Epoc. Talk to you again some time.” As Epoc began to shuffle away, Diana straightened up a little and the tease on her face ebbed away. “Read those specs. I really want to know what you think. Nexus Alpha is going to be your home as much as anywhere else here. She should feel like it.”
Epoc found herself smiling back. “I will.” She turned and speed walked away. Yes, it had been a convenient excuse, but it was also true that she really had agreed to meet with the other Hounds now that she was officially a part of the Mako Group, as a part of the on-boarding traditions. She presumed there would be “do’s” and “don’ts” and “who’s turn is it to clean out the microwave in the kitchenette” type of stuff.
Oh god, she had
roommates.
She hadn’t had roommates in years. She had lived with some friends at the academy, but she had managed to make enough to rent herself a hab container of her own for a while now. Wait, was the rent on that still due? Would Mako Group get rid of that? What about her car? It was still in the building out back.
A thousand and one thoughts went through her head, most of them practical, when she walked into the Hound quarters. She looked around. She was going to be spending some time here.
The room was quite large, divided into three separate pieces by rounded arches and sliding wooden doors. The kitchen was not likely to be used often. It didn’t even have a coffee machine. Sure, they could have coffee brought up to them, but Epoc
liked
the ritual. Maybe she could requisition one?
In the main, central area, which Epoc mentally referred to as the conference room, was a large oval table with chairs, clearly for team meetings and briefings. There was a screen in the middle of it that confirmed her suspicions, and a large screen on the wall she suspected wasn’t for casual movie watching.
The final area was the largest. On one wall were the three doors to their rooms, and the rest of the room was dedicated to recreation. Several large, comfortable L-shaped sofas were pointed at two giant screens, one of which was hooked up to a console. They had a foosball table and even a couple of arcade cabinets.
It was clear that it had, once upon a time, been a pretty sparse room, but over time the Hounds had adorned it with posters – often propaganda shots of themselves or their Frames – as big as fridge doors, various cultural decorations, and all kinds of knick-knacks that Epoc assumed were battle trophies. There was a tooth the size of a human torso hanging from on one of the walls. It was covered in writing, too.
Currently sitting at the conference table were the other pilots, reading something. When she approached, she realized to her horror it was her contract.
“Oh no,” she said quietly to herself.
“Oh
yes,
” Hex said with the kind of grin you didn’t want to see in the dark. “This is
great
reading, Epoc!”
“And that’s saying a lot, coming for her,” Aaliya said, turning the page calmly. “She usually has a hard time with text boxes in her games. For her to sit down and read like this is an achievement.”
“Why are
you
reading this?!” Epoc whined as she approached the table.
“Section 3, paragraph 2. It’s before any of the Stress Reduction tables, so it would make sense that you didn’t think much of it,” Aaliya said matter-of-factly. “Any and all post-mission stress reduction techniques may be performed by a fellow Hound if no Handler is present. If a Handler is present, consent from both parties is required.”
“That means we fuck if Winter’s not around!” Hex said excitedly.
“I think she got that much, you little turd,” Aaliya said with a smile. “But yes. It does.”
“And you need to know what I agreed to,” Epoc said, rubbing her eyes. “Fuck.”
“That’s the idea!”
“Fair,” Aaliya said, “is fair.” She slid two contracts over to Epoc. “Here’s ours. So you get an idea of what we’re down for. It also just makes sense. You know, in case one of us needs stress reduction.” Aaliya’s smile was a little lopsided, courtesy of her scars, but that only made her glittering teeth all the more imposing.
Epoc changed her mind. She’d take Hexacora’s unhinged grin over this one any day. Hex looked like a cartoon villain. Aaliya looked like the thing between the rustling leaves before the jungle swallowed you whole. There was a threat to her existence that was equally attractive and terrifying. There were fangs.
Carefully, Epoc opened Aaliya’s contract, skipping forward to the… relevant passages. A lot of it was what she’d expected, similar to her own choices. Aaliya was down for most of the more vanilla things, as well as some light bondage and various ‘artificial’ stimulations, and clearly into spanking. Everything looked pretty normal to Epoc, until she got to a section she herself had skipped over.
CNC (giving)
Impact play (giving)
Pain play (giving)
Knife play (giving)
It went on like that for a while. She swallowed and looked up at Aaliya with wide eyes. Aaliya smiled back with that smile usually reserved for prey animals. Hexacora’s happy grin popped in from the edge of Epoc’s slowly narrowing vision.
“She’s trying to scare you!” Hex said. “She can’t do anything to you that you haven’t consented to even if you two do fuck!”
Aaliya held Epoc’s gaze for a second longer and then burst out laughing. The tension drained from the room as Hexacora joined her.
“
Damn,
” Aaliya said. “You ruined it, Cora. I’ll get you for that.”
“Promise?” Hex said, leaning on her hands and fluttering her eyebrows.
“This is hazing, isn’t it?” Epoc said. “Fuck, you had me going.”
“Hehehe.” Aaliya didn’t laugh. She
chortled
. “Yeah. Don’t worry. My tastes are a little more… extreme than most, but I have a healthy outlet for them.”
“It’s me,” Hex said, “I’m healthy outlet.”
“You’re a lot of things, Cora,” Aaliya said. “But healthy’s not one of them.”
Epoc opened Hexacorallia’s contract and, as advertised, every single place where one could be on the receiving end of… pretty much
anything,
Hex had put a little tick.
“Testicular impact play?” Epoc asked, wincing and looking at Hex.
“What? You want people to just say good morning and not slap my balls?” Hex said, putting her legs on the table, spreading them. She was wearing shorts. Tight shorts. Her bulge was very visible, even from where Epoc was sitting. “What can I say? I like what I like.”
“It’s the only way she feels loved,” Aaliya said. “So if you ever want someone to give you a tongue bath or use when you can’t sleep, she’s down.”
“The more disinterested you are, the better!”
“Thanks,” Epoc said with a slightly sheepish laugh. She didn’t know what to say. This was all a lot to get used to. “So you two, uh, ‘help each other out’ a lot then, huh?”
“We fuck, Epoc,” Aaliya said. “I need to let off steam from time to time, and Cora needs someone to make her shut the fuck up sometimes and I’m happy to oblige by fucking her mouth with the strap until she can’t breathe and passes out.”
Epoc didn’t even have words. The other women were so frank in their discussion of their sexuality. She frowned. “Is everyone here like this?” she asked. “At Mako Group? I mean, Winter–”
“Handler Winter,” Hex said happily.
“Yeah, Handler Winter. Diana was talking about how she was the ‘third party’. You two…”
“Wait,” Aaliya said, “you think Diana is the
only
third party they can call in?”
“Yeah, no, fair enough. But that’s my point. Is everyone here just horny and fucking all the time?”
Aaliya laughed and shook her head. “No,” she said. “Outside of the Hound program, most people are frighteningly normal. I’m pretty sure a couple of the Cats are fucking but that’s like, gossip stuff. Nobody’s getting fisted in the lounge as far as I know.”
Epoc resisted the titanic pull of the couch to her left as it demanded that she look at it, imagining Aaliya wearing Hex like a sock puppet. “Cool.”
“But the core: the Handlers, the Hounds, I think we’re all a little… different.” She shrugged. “You know. ‘You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps’ type of shit. We’re all a little fucked in the head. Welcome to the party, pal.”
“Thanks,” Epoc said. “So when did–”
She was interrupted by an alarm. The screen in the center of the table lit up, as well as Epoc’s comm and, she assumed, so did Hex and Aaliya’s implants.
“Ochre Alert,” Winter’s voice said. “Megafauna detected on the southern continental shelf. Orbital drop confirmed. Coastal defenses are going to be useless. Wardog, you’re wheels up in fifteen.”