Ecstasy of Gold - Ch. 7

“Death…” She coughed, wheezing for breath. “Death comes for you now…” He dropped the priestess, backing away from her.

“I…shouldn’t have been able to understand that…”

Outside the raider’s ship was a massive star that dwarfed our sun like an elephant dwarves an ant. The bright white star had a massive ring around it that stretched as far as the eye could see. A gaseous cloud engulfed it, raging with pure fire. It was a perfect place for the raiders to hide their battleship. It protected them from the long range sensors of passing by military ships and let them run repairs on the ship while they were there.

Their ship was an old-class battleship they had stolen on its way to the scrap yards. It was diamond-shaped and modeled after sea battleships, an attempt by the military to save money. It was bristling with cannons and weapons turrets of all sorts, still easily a match for many ships still in service in the military. It was massive and slow, but had the armor to make it less vulnerable. The armor itself was weathered from being in orbit around a star for so long, covered with energy burns and craters from small comets hitting it.

Off in the distance in front of it, a hyperspace window swirled into existence, the Ecstasy of Gold dropping to normal space through it. Jessie was on the bridge, trying to figure out who ordered the drop. He was the captain and owner of the ship. In his mind, he was the only one who could order the crew to do something like that. As he could find out that it was Karen, he saw it with his naked eye. The raider ship, a black silhouette against the white star, was instantly recognizable.

“Battle alert!” Jessie shouted, hitting the alarm button. The button did a number of things automatically; sounding sirens through the ships, calling the soldiers to get into their armor, activated the ship’s defense, and powered the weapons. The weapons on the ship were special. Built into the main hull was a massive rail gun. It looked like a living quarters extension, and was shielded from sensors so that the military would never pick up on their power house weapon. If the military did ever find out they had such a massive rail gun, it’d be game over for them. Still, it was worth it for the extra protection it gave them. To top things off, in front of both engines, they had a stacked pair of unidirectional particle cannons. These were the only long rang weapons the ship had or even needed.

Jessie ran over to the weapon’s panel. It was just in front of the helm chair, and looked very similar. Anyone new to the ship would often mistake it for the helm, but not Jessie. It was the panel he was most familiar with. He flipped open a cover on top of a large button. He pressed it three times, sending three shinning bolts screaming from the rail gun. They rained down on the ship, the first two hitting it in non-vital areas and exploding, but the third ripping through it without slowing down. The raiders’ engines sputtered as it turned to engage the Ecstasy of Gold, floating powerlessly. Like David and Goliath, the Ecstasy of Gold had disabled the ship with a single blow. The ship was still mostly intact, with the bridge and computer core destroyed.

“Boarding parties ready!” Jessie yelled over the intercom. “They could get a secondary computer online any minute!”


Ariis hollered and ran down the hallway. Battles against raiders were the only time she got to really let go. She couldn’t wait, starting to undo her breast plate as she ran, holding it up with one hand. Men whistled at her as she went, making her smile and flirt back. Hunter followed behind her, getting glimpses at what he gave up for Constance. He shook his head, almost regretting it. She turned back to him, teasing him by lowering her breastplate a little then holding it back up.

“You going to need a suit of armor, little man?” She said with a laugh.

“No.” He said, picking out a normal suit and an armored vest. “I don’t need to be weighed down.”

“Suit yourself…” Ariis went into her own private room to change into her armor. She was quick about the whole thing, coming out of the room, fully armored before Hunter was even in his suit.

The suit is what many would call a power suit. It increased her height and her build to Olympian levels, building out her muscles and increasing her height by almost half a foot. It had overlapping metal plates that followed her every curve. The plates overlapped, and when she stretched, it showed a bulletproof fabric between them. Everyone always wondered what she wore under it, and, truth was, she did wear nothing. It gave her natural feedback from the armor, almost like touch. It let her control the servos and access the special scopes in her helmet. She looked like a living statue of an Amazonian Warrior, clad in heavy battle armor. Her helmet was even modeled after Centurion armor, with a long, swept back neck piece and a narrow visor. She didn’t say a word, and even lost her characteristic swagger, marching to the armory.

“Hurry up, boys.” She said as she went. “Glory awaits!”


Tasha was holding Constance’s hand, leading her to the shelter. The hallways on the ship could be a maze if you didn’t know your way through it. Tasha had grown up on the ship for most of her life, so she could find her way to the reinforced shelter blindfolded. Constance kept tripping over her dress, wishing she didn’t wear it so long now.

“If the ship gets hit, what good will this shelter do?” Constance didn’t want to sound like a pessimist, but being new to space made her worry.

“It has its own life support and power systems, and could survive the ship exploding.” Tasha turned her head to talk to her. She proved that she could navigate the halls on the ship without looking.

“What about the people on the outside?” Constance bit her nails on her free hand. She knew it was an awkward question, but she had to ask. There were a few people on the ship she had grown to care for, and even more that Ariis wanted to have sex with that she cared for through her.

“Let’s…not think about that…” Tasha knew that if things went bad on a raid, her father would be the first one to die. She couldn’t bear to think about it, especially when thoughts of her mother flashed into her mind. That led her to thinking about what her mother’s death did to Jessie. She wiped away a tear with her palm. “The pod’s border proof, so we can’t be hurt…”

“If…” Constance spoke before she realized what she was thinking. What she thought of was dark, but she wanted to say it. “If…If we do get boarded, and they…they start raping the women…”

“Constance, come on…” Tasha didn’t want to think where Constance was going.

“If the raiders do…I’m going to let them fuck me to at least try to protect you. If I’m good enough…”

“CONSTANCE, I don’t want you even thinking like that!” Tasha yelled slightly without realizing it.

“Tasha, I’m…I was a whore…and I’m still just a sex slave…It doesn’t matter if they hurt me…” She hugged Tasha, putting her head against her chest. “You’re a pure virgin…and that has to be protected…”

“I…I’m not as pure as you would think…You saw that magazine…and I’ve done…things…”

“All the stuff you’ve done is just making out…Trust me, you’re pure…” Tasha felt warm with Constance’s arms wrapped around her.

“Hey, hey…Not JUST making out…” Tasha stood up for herself. She had done more than kissing. She was too shy to say what any of it was.

“It…It’s all kind of cute…what you’ve done…kind of sweet…” She decided to change the subject for Tasha’s sake. “I know it’s your birthday…soon, and I really want to get you something. I really do…but…”

“But what, sweet heart?” Constance looked away from Tasha.

“But Ariis found out I bought Hunter such big presents…and spent that money on your tattoo…so I can’t spend her money on someone else…unfortunately…”

“Oh, that’s okay…” Tasha smiled. “If you come to my party, that’s all I need…” She kept leading Constance to the shelter. Constance knew that was all Tasha really wanted. She smiled, getting comforted that Tasha was one of the few ascetic people on the ship. “Seriously. You are my best friend…and…and that’s all I need from you.” She punched the code into the key pad. For a second, it entered her mind that she had known her best friend for only a matter of days, but she realized it didn’t make her sad.

“That…That just makes me want to give you something really big…” Constance smiled. She loved Tasha in every way possible now. A tear snuck out of her eyes when she thought she could never tell her how she felt without hurting Tasha somewhere down the line.


Hunter, Ariis, and a number of the Ecstasy of Gold’s soldiers were crammed into a breaching pod. It would have been cramp as it was, but with Ariis’ armor and weapons, things were exaggerated. Hunter didn’t care. His suit was small, giving him the most room out of everyone in the pod. His suit was just a black normal suit, essentially a skin tight suit with a helmet for breathing. It wasn’t ideal for heavy combat, but Hunter didn’t care. He didn’t plan on getting shot anyway.

He looked out a small porthole next to his seat. He could see the other two breaching pods from the Ecstasy of Gold streaking through space. They were designed like giant robotic spiders, and were almost impossible to get off once they were on the hull. In front of them was the ship, the titanic star sent blinding, almost blistering light off into space.

Ariis looked up at the light as it danced across her massive Battle Hammer. It had a massive curved clip sticking out of it, because in the massive head, it contained a small rocket launcher pointed straight up with the handle. It was one of the many unconventional weapons she had. It was her favorite weapon out of all of the ones she had onboard the ship.

The pod rocked violently as it attached to the hull of the ship. Ariis stood up and put her helmet on. She’d go out first, the god protecting the lesser beings on the ship. She aimed the barrel of her hammer at the door, listening for the sound the explosive charge made as it blasted through the hull. The hatch opened, and she fired a rocket into the crowd into the raiders on the other side. She rushed out of the pod, swinging her hammer and smashing the first raider she saw like a ripe melon against the deck. With the hammer down, she pulled the trigger, sending another rocket down the hall. The rest of the men decided to wait in the breaching pod as shots harmlessly ricocheted off her armor. All of them, that is, except for Hunter. He felt like he was being called into the ship, running into it and following the unseen call.


The priestess was saying her final prayers, knowing the raiders were about to kill her. She didn’t care, knowing her revenge was complete. She still cried that she hadn’t managed to protect her maidens, but it didn’t matter. They would be fine in the after life. The vicious raider picked her up, grabbing her by her shirt and lifting her up.

“You did this, didn’t you, you bitch!” The Priestess gasped for breath, her head hanging back lifelessly. Her entire body was roaring with a pain beyond words. He slammed her against the wall. “They have an Akyllisian! Do you know what that means?”

“I do not understand a word you are saying…” The priestess’s words, and native language, were lyrical and were as gentle as a song. “But Akyllisians…respect our religious ways…whoever it is, they will spare me…” She laughed. “Void Seekers…Void Seekers would kill me and reward you, but Akyllisians…Pufn…”The raider punched the last bit of breath out of her body, dropping her to the ground.

“Bitch…Laughing at us!?” He went to punch her again, but the other raider held back his arm.

“You’ll kill her! She’s a holy woman!” the other raider was skinny than the vicious one. Much skinnier. He couldn’t really hold him back if he wanted to stop him. The other raider was too strong, too heavy.
“I can take care of that…” He grabbed his belt buckle, walking over to the priestess. He tugged at her intricate robes, pulling at the lace that held the two halves of her vest together. The Priestess was too weak to fight back. She closed her eyes, hoping that the stress would kill her and she could be with her maidens again.