Steampunk Harlots Ch. 31

"I needed that," Emma sighed. "Thanks, I also have a dress that needs mending."

****

"Everyone listen up!" Hannah started her briefing. "For some reason, Trixy left me in command. She and Cat have convinced the garrison commander to bring them to the farm. He had been told about Cat, but she explained to him that Liddy was the one who pissed off his boss and is being taken as a prisoner after being drugged. Thankfully he didn't recognize Cat from whence she pulled Emma away from him."

Everyone was paying close attention, without distraction.

"Inky and I have formulated our battle plan. Ving and Hope are, pardon the pun, hopefully on the way with backup. If everything goes according to plan, we should have the jump on them and be able to roll this whole thing up quickly. Now, for the specifics..."

****

Vile heated the water a bit. It was a lot smaller than the deck pool, but that made it easier to heat. Of course, had she known Leira was under the surface, she would have skipped it.

"Oh, fuckity fuck!" Leira yelled, leaping out of the water.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry!" Vile responded.

"It's alright. You should have assumed I am always in there. I should stop trying to surprise people by hiding under the surface."

Vile watched Leira's hair shift to a more comfortable colour. Leira noticed how intently Vile was eying her up. Her breasts started to inflate, gathering more attention from Vile, who stood up to face the mermaid. The powerful frame towered over Leira who moved to stand on the edge so their eyes met. Their breasts touched and Leira let hers grow bigger, big enough to almost match Vile.

"Alright, I'm impressed," Vile commented, taking them in her hands and rubbing the nipples against her own.

"I bet you fucking are. They hurt like fuck to make them this big but they are so much more sensitive. How sensitive are yours?" Leira took Vile by the nipples and pinched hard while she twisted and yanked.

Vile let out a hoarse scream as if she had lost her voice. She retaliated by driving her tails into Leira. "VeryI Inky is too focused on what's to come to de-stress me. My job is simply to show up wherever something goes wrong. Think a little slut like you can do anything about it?"

Leira felt Vile grip her puffer tits in her giant demoness hands, "I think I am an expert at letting myself be used. This slut is ready to see what you can do to her."

Vile flicked her forked tongue over the massive breasts in her hands and bit down all over, watching the dents in the sparkly scales disappear as she moved over them. The tails worked inside the mermaid, filling all the available space they could before ripping out of the body to make Leira scream.

****

Hope could tell Ving was tense. She kissed her on the neck, sliding her hands over her breasts and squeezing gently.

At first, Ving didn't respond, too focused on holding onto the controls even though they were locked in place. She felt her pants being unfastened so that Hope could slide her hand down the front. It didn't feel like the right time to be doing anything like that, but she never told Hope to stop.

"You need to have faith that everything that can be done is being done," Hope soothed softly into Ving's ear.

"I know. If I wasn't doing this right now, then things would be worse. But it still feels like doing nothing."

"Waiting can often be a greater torture than pain. The uncertainty of life can be ignored when you have other things to do. So, let me occupy your body and mind until you are at peace."

Ving let go of the controls, hands stiff from her tight grip on them. Hope turned her around to hold her hands and softly squeeze them to return the blood flow. They kissed, Ving letting her hands be placed on the breasts under the robes. She held them, teasing the nipples on them as she felt hands sliding under her blouse to do the same. Hope mirrored her actions as she moved one hand between her legs. Ving explored under the robes until she found where her fingers could slide into the flesh of the woman before her. She felt Hope enter her, fingers between her legs, tongue in her mouth, and Hope's faith enter into her heart.

****

Liddy was still bored. She couldn't really enjoy the attentions of her captors. She had seduced one of the guards, knowing full well he couldn't make good on his promise to let her go if she spread her legs for him. The problem was that the trip was taking a long time and he had finished too quickly. Even with his friend taking turns on her, she was still left wanting. However, pleasure was never the goal. She simply wanted them to let their guard down. They didn't even chain her back up after having their fun anymore. When they redressed, she even handed them their belts with their sidearms. Of course, it wouldn't have done her any good to make a fuss while in transit. It just annoyed her that the two most sexually useless men were guarding her. At least if a fight came up, she knew they lacked the stamina to stick with it. Regardless, she wiggled her bum in the air as she was bent over a table this time. They might have lasted longer if she didn't moan or play along, but that would kill the perception that she was enjoying it.

****

Cat was taken by the hand as she was lead down the ramp by the garrison commander. Their ship had landed on a platform clearly built to accommodate a much larger vessel. The air was a lot colder than she expected, and she shivered as it blew across her exposed skin. She turned to look at the ship she had arrived in. It was smaller than the Lucky Harlot. She saw Liddy being escorted out of the hold by one of the guards. Her dress was a mess and she looked the part of the unwilling prisoner, but she had been listening to Liddy having sex the whole trip so she knew she was fine.

"Here he is now," the man at her side commented, drawing her attention forward.

She saw the man she met at the bar storm across the platform, passing the main gun emplacement. The men manning it saluted as he walked by, but were totally ignored. Liddy was pushed forward and Cat could see the hands behind her back were not bound, meaning her hard work had paid off. When the farm owner reached Liddy, he didn't say anything before winding up for a hard strike.

As his fist came around at Liddy, she dodged backwards, using her free hand to pull a needle from her hair to put in its way. He screamed once he realised where the sudden pain in his fist was coming from. Everyone was startled, including the guard next to Liddy, who felt a needle in his neck at the same moment he felt a tug on his belt. Liddy drew the sidearm and pulled back the hammer as she aimed it at the man clutching his wrist.

Almost forgotten, Cat relieved the garrison commander of his weapon and fired it into his knee. She took a step back and, without breaking eye contact, reached into her purse.

"So, we decided against the subtle approach?" Cat asked.

"Yes, I told you. Open hand strikes we just roll with. But a closed fist means we fight." Liddy responded.

"Right. Still, seemed kind of soon." Cat pulled the flare gun out of her purse and fired it in an arc over the deck of the ship.

"Oh, I agree, but we have the two most important prisoners here already. Assuming those morons who are still standing near their gun saluting don't do anything, we are fine. I was worried they would hate them both enough not to care if we took them prisoner but they are still just standing there."

"Oh, they look like they might be talking now, trying to decide if they should do anything."

A sudden gust of air blew across the platform, lifting their dresses, as the Lucky Harlot suddenly rose up from below the platform. After hovering for a moment, quickly landed right next to the smaller ship. Liddy cringed as she heard the hulls scraping against each other. They were suddenly ignored as the gun crew finally snapped to action. Liddy and Cat could hear shouting from their ship.

****

"Flare!" Conna called, looking up through the skylight.

Her call was repeated by everyone else who saw it soon after. Easy was fretting at the controls, the very brief instruction from Liddy on how to fly didn't seem like it had been enough. Following the airship, keeping low and behind them, had been difficult enough, but now came the 'hard part'. Leira threw the lever to give them lift and Easy had to keep them from slamming into the platform as they rose while still moving towards it so that they would be over it when they dropped back down.

"Oh fuckity fuck!" Easy swore, for which Leira approved. "We are too high!"

"No!" Leira countered. "We are perfect. Get us over, I am bringing us down."

Leira pushed the lever the opposite direction and the ship rapidly descended. Easy tried to push the ship sideways enough to get it next to the ship already on the platform that had been jutting out from the side of the cliff. They felt the ship shudder and thud as it used the other ship as an ancillary breaking mechanism.

"We down?" Easy asked.

"We're down! Clear the ship, sweep tight and fast. Deploy the MG!" Inky shouted.

"We are down," Leira stated.

****

Liddy was worried. The defence gun that the defenders were making ready to fire was big enough to put a hole in her ship - and the ship they were using for cover wasn't big enough to block it. There was a pop from behind her, the echo from the shot, and Liddy saw one of the men at the gun drop.

****

Laurel grinned happily. Her new scope was perfectly sighted. She worked the action and chambered another round. The men at the gun worked hard to pull the body from the gun so they could finish loading it. She spotted the one hauling the shell. 'Idiots' she thought to herself. 'They should have kept it loaded.' The man carrying the shell was the next to die. From the exposed forward deck of the Harlot, Laurel owned the platform.

****

Hannah was the first through the door, her trench gun being the ideal weapon for close quarters clearing of a ship. The bridge crew had been unarmed and surrendered. Below decks, a guard had been sleeping in a room reeking of sex. She clobbered the guard with the butt of her weapon, not sure what Liddy would want to be done with him. Aside from him, the ship was clear of threats. The girls backing her up, while ready for anything, sighed with relief that the boarding had gone so smoothly.

****

Inky joined Liddy on the deck, noticing the two men at the main gun, standing with their hands in the air.

"That went well," Liddy stated.

"All things considered, yes. I expected them to get at least one shot off with that gun. Did they not even keep it loaded?" Inky asked.

Neither of the mewling men on the deck answered.

"Answer me!" Inky demanded, kicking the commander in the knee.

He howled in pain, "I'm not telling you anything, you bitch!"

"Oh yes, you will!" came the response from the ship.

His eyes widened when he saw Emma, angry and armed, stomping towards him. "You!" he exclaimed. Emma gestured, and an invisible hand slammed his face into the deck.

"Yes me! Now, unless you want to know what it feels like to have your heart stopped, tell us what we want to know!"

"Also," Liddy added, looking at the man clutching his fist. "If you can use the public address system to tell the rest of your men to surrender, that would save us some time."

"We don't have a public address system!" He was almost crying when he replied. "Nobody does anything unless instructed to do so in person!"

"Oh," Inky sighed. "You are one of 'those' kinds of leaders. For fuck's sake."

"Right, so do we lead in with the prisoners?" Hannah asked, joining the group.

Foxy and Kilty took the gun crew survivors prisoner.

"They won't listen to you or us! The animals used to take guards hostage when they escaped, so we told them to shoot anyways," the garrison commander explained.

Liddy nodded towards him, and Inky drove her bayonet into his skill. "So, are you sure you aren't useful to us?" Liddy asked the farm owner.

His reply was a pool of urine he created before passing out in it.

"Right then." Liddy reached down to yank her blade out of his fist. "Inky, this is your show now."

"Again! Cavalry officer!" Hannah blurted out.

"Something to share?" Inky asked.

"Go in quiet and kill quietly. Since the main gun didn't go off, they probably don't know what's happened."

"Alright, I admit, my first thought was to get inside with Vile to burn them out."

"You can get inside Vile later with the rest of us." Hannah paused to collect smiles. "Let's keep things quiet as long as we can."

Even though she was the opposite of stealthy, Vile joined the combat team while the rest of the girls stayed to hold the prisoners.

There were two doors into the mountain, a large loading bay, and a smaller conventional metal door to the side. They gathered near the smaller door when Foxy waved them to the sides, indicating she heard something. Moments later the door opened and six armed men, casually chatting, walked out. They didn't notice anything amiss until they saw the bodies of the men they were supposed to relieve. Turning around to sound an alarm, they finally noticed the armed women lining the wall, all aiming weapons at them. Putting their hands up in a fine display good judgement, they were disarmed and gathered with the other prisoners. Foxy looked through the door and listened before waving everyone else inside.

Like the last farm, there was a giant loading bay meant to store Emberborn prior to shipping. The layout, shown to them by the map Emma had given them, identified two main sections after the dock. The first was the breeding pens, looking like cages lined up on the map, made it obvious they didn't use the magic collars the other farm had. The second section was the staff quarter. Inky sent Foxy with Conna, Juno, and Astra to clear the pens. She wanted both Vile and Hannah with her since any problems that manifested would be near the bulk of the staff.

****

Foxy led her team into the breeding pens - and was immediately sickened. Row upon row of women were locked into alcoves, pregnant, and force-fed with tubes while their breasts were milked. The glazed over eyes didn't notice them enter, each of them seemed resigned to their fate. After a few moments, a confused pair flickered to life. Foxy moved over to it and placed her hand on the woman's face.

"You will be free very soon," Foxy whispered.

Unable to speak, the woman seemed to panic while trying to look away. Foxy looked to where she indicated and waved her girls forward. She nodded to the woman and left. It was hard to hear anything with so much going on around her, but getting to the small gap between cages let her hear the patrol coming. Foxy backed up, pressed against one of the women in the cages, and waited for the men to pass. She lunged up with her rifle, stabbing her bayonet through his chin while Juno did the same to the man following him. Neither were aware of what happened when they died. They started to get noticed by the women in the cages. After dragging the bodies out of the way, they started stalking the other patrols.

****

Inky had been wrong about Vile: she was excellent at stealthily taking out guards. While they stood stunned at the sudden entry of the giant demoness, the rest of them could move in and force a surrender. You can't always sneak up in someone's blind spot, but certain things make people blind to everything. Her lover was a perfect example of it.

****

In the next set of cages, Foxy could see the women strapped to a table, still with the feeding tubes and milking machines attached, but they weren't pregnant. The males came in from behind to breed them. Some were escorted by guards; most likely the new arrivals were still trying to resist their actions. A feline, trapped on a table as a male worked inside her, was the first to notice Foxy. Like the other woman, she tried to tell her something with her eyes. Foxy looked and saw a ladder against the wall next to the door she entered through. Sending Juno and Astra up it to the catwalks above, Foxy moved into the pens with Conna. The guards, distracted by their jobs and the louder complaints from the slaves, didn't hear a thing or notice the women above them pointing them out as, one by one, their comrades died. The males, surprised, didn't need much direction to stop what they were doing. Foxy didn't have the keys to unchain them, but for the moment she preferred to keep it that way; she couldn't control the engagement if they started doing things. They were just told to sit down and keep quiet.

****

Ving was surprised to find the ship crushed up against another. Though considering the manoeuvre, Easy had done a good job and told her so. Her only complaint was Leira teaching her to swear. After some time spent re-parking the ships as close to the side as she could, she went to find Hannah.

****

Bullets whizzed past Hannah as she kept behind cover. As the shooter paused to reload, she fired a few shells down the hall and through the door to the armoury. Her lack of success became apparent as he resumed fire. She sighed.

"I thought the farm was secured?" Ving asked, keeping her distance.

Hannah turned around and flashed a warm smile. "Almost. Got a straggler holed up in the armoury. Loser doesn't know he's beaten yet!"

"So it's a standoff?"

"Yeah, well we can wait it out. So I just fire a few shells whenever he needs to reload, but I'm not going to charge him. Tara found out the hard way that her combat corset can stop bullets when she tried it."

"Is she alright?"

"Going to be a hell of a bruise, but yeah. Seems like."

"Can't we use, like, toss in a grenade or something?"

"No, we don't want the whole armoury cooking off. Thankfully, this guy is either an idiot or non-suicidal and won't do that himself."

"What if he throws grenades at you?"

Almost as she said it, a grenade landed at Hannah's feet after bouncing off the wall before suddenly being flung farther down the hallway to explode.

"Thanks, Emma." Hannah nodded at the elf who was in the hall on the other side of the intersection.

"Oh, I didn't see you there." Ving smiled at Emma who was focused watching for another toss. "I'm glad you got that ring. It's really come in handy."

"I'm glad this moron doesn't let them cook before throwing them."

"He might..." Ving started before they were interrupted with screaming from the armoury.

It died off with a gurgle.

"Clear!" Foxy shouted from inside the armoury.

"Nope, pretty sure he won't." Hannah laughed before entering the armoury, ready to fire.

Hannah didn't let her guard down until she saw Foxy standing over the corpse in the room. She saw the open vent cover on the floor. She lowered her weapon and turned to kiss Ving on the lips.

****

The ordeal of releasing the Emberborn from captivity was made easier by all the male breeders being more than willing to help. Unshackling them was far less tedious than their previous experience with the control collars. Only one set of keys was needed for all of them.

"How are things going?" Liddy asked Inky as they looked around the main office.

"Foxy was talking with them. Apparently, they colour code the tags on everyone's ears for 'maximum genetic diversity', so she has the males finding women they wouldn't have been breeding with to help. Between them and the females still able to move, we are taking care of the females who haven't moved in a long time. Some had been bound for years. The only time they move them is to switch their cages, depending on if they are pregnant."

"Hope said they delivered their request to the church in the capital. They should be here soon, with help."

"I had the prisoners stripped naked and kept on the platform. Between their clothing, what was already here, and every sheet I could find, we have enough to cover everyone. Though you may need to give up some dresses if we run out."