Stealth

The first problem was my jacket.

Federation gold looked impressive on the bridge of a starship. In a primitive village illuminated by fifty open fires, it made me a walking, bright yellow target. I pulled it off.

“What are you doing?” Eleni whispered.

“Trying not to glow in the dark.”

Underneath was a fitted black undershirt I wore beneath my uniform. Combined with black trousers and boots, losing the jacket made me considerably harder to see. I rolled it up and shoved it beneath a fallen log.

Then Eleni looked down at herself. Her white Federation minidress practically glowed in the moonlight.

“Oh,” I said.

“Yes.”

She reached behind herself and pulled on the hidden zipper right below her neck.

I stared.

“Lieutenant.”

“I’m watching the perimeter.”

“You are watching me undress.”

The dress slipped away, revealing black athletic undergarments beneath it: a fitted sports-bra-like top and matching black cheeky panties. Eleni folded the dress and placed it next to my jacket.

I was still staring.

Her eyebrow rose.

“You’re going into the village like that?”

“The colors are tactically preferable.”

“The color isn’t what I was questioning.”

“Then stop questioning it.”

I sighed, pulled off my black undershirt and tossed it to her. Eleni caught it.

“Put that on.”

She looked at the shirt, then at my now-bare chest. “And you?”

“I’ll survive.”

She pulled it over her head. It covered just enough, while leaving her legs and ass cheeks still exposed. She rolled the sleeves once and adjusted her pistol belt over it.

“Better?”

“Much.”

We moved.

The eastern wall had partially collapsed beneath enormous jungle roots. Eleni monitored the nearest patrol with her scanner.

“Wait.”

We waited.

“Now.”

Thirty seconds later I was facedown in mud beneath the palisade while an eight-foot ogre walked past close enough that I could smell him. Eleni slipped through behind me. We moved from hut to hut, staying beneath elevated platforms and crossing open spaces whenever arguments, laughter or roaring fires covered our footsteps. Eleni was annoyingly good at this. I concentrated on remaining hidden and trying not to stare at her ass.

Then we reached the central clearing. Lily was maybe forty meters away. She remained beside the largest fire, barefoot and filthy, dressed in the crude scraps of brown leather her captors had given her. Her ragged top had been roughly stitched together, while an uneven hide skirt hung to mid-thigh from a knotted belt. Mud streaked her bare legs. Scratches marked one knee, and her long blonde hair had become a tangled mess filled with twigs and leaves.

Above all that floated her perfectly pristine halo.

I stared at it.

Then at Eleni.

“We have a problem.”

“I am aware.”

“She has a lightbulb attached to her head.”

“Technically—”

“Not now.”

Then Lily finally looked in our direction.

Her eyes passed over the shadows once. Stopped. Came back. She saw me. For half a second her entire face lit up. I immediately put a finger against my lips.

Lily caught herself. Her gaze shifted beside me. Eleni. Then back to me. I pointed toward the hut closest to our position, then toward Lily’s guard. Lily stared at me. I pointed again. ‘Get him over here.!’ I screamed in my head, hoping she could rad my expression.

Her eyes narrowed. Apparently she understood. She also apparently hated my plan. Then something changed in her expression. Oh no. Lily slowly turned toward her guard.

The furious prisoner we’d been watching for the last hour disappeared. Her shoulders relaxed. Her posture changed. She pushed tangled blonde hair away from her face and looked up at the enormous ogre through her lashes.

I stared.

Eleni leaned closer. “Interesting.”

“What?”

“Your trainee appears to have developed a strategy.”

“I can see that.”

Lily smiled at the ogre. The poor bastard never stood a chance. He looked around, seemingly checking whether she could possibly be smiling at someone else. Lily stepped closer. The ogre straightened. She rubber her hand against his chest and pressed her soft body against his. She pointed toward the nearby huts as her free hand reached beneath his loin cloth.

His eyes widened. Lily smiled again. The ogre immediately followed her. I looked at Eleni. “I’m simultaneously impressed and extremely uncomfortable.”

“She is improvising effectively.”

Lily led him directly toward us. The ogre lumbered behind her, rubbing his thick hand across her soft backside. At the last second Lily glanced toward our hiding place before disappearing into the hut.

We waited a few seconds to give the Ogre time to drop his guards and then Eleni moved. We slipped from behind the tree and crossed the narrow path before anyone looked our way. I reached the hut first and pressed myself against one side of the entrance. Eleni took the other.

Inside, Lily was keeping the guard occupied.

“You’re very big, aren’t you?”

The ogre grunted happily.

Lily propped herself onto a crude wooden table and spread her legs.

“Show me how big you are.”

Another pleased grunt.

I peeked around the doorway.

The ogre had his back completely exposed to us. Lily saw me over his shoulder. She reached out and started stroking him, keeping his attention focused on her.

Eleni entered.

She moved so quietly I barely heard her boots touch the dirt.

The ogre never saw her.

Eleni reached up and placed her fingers precisely against the junction between his neck and shoulder.

She squeezed.

The ogre froze.

His eyes went unfocused.

Then all eight feet of him collapsed.

Eleni and I barely caught him before he hit the floor. For a few seconds, all three of us stared at the unconscious mountain of blue-grey muscle, still rock hard with his dick pointed to the sky.

I looked at Eleni.

“What the hell was that?”

“A neural pressure technique.”

“You can just do that?”

“Under appropriate anatomical circumstances.”

Lily threw her arms around me. “You came!”

I hugged her back. “Of course I came.”

“I knew you would.” She squeezed tighter, then abruptly pulled away. Her eyes dropped. I remembered that I was shirtless. Then Lily looked at Eleni. Eleni was wearing my black undershirt.

Her expression changed. Slowly. “Why is she wearing your shirt?”

“Camouflage.”

Lily looked at me again. Then at Eleni who was both in her panties and wearing my shirt. “Did you seriously fuck her before coming to rescue me?.”

Eleni checked outside. “Negative and this discussion is tactically irrelevant.”

“It is extremely relevant.”

“Lily.”

“I was kidnapped for six hours! And somehow I come back and she’s wearing your clothes?”

A roar sounded somewhere outside. All three of us froze. Another answered from across the village.

Eleni drew her pistol. “If the interrogation is complete, I suggest we escape.”

Lily glared at her.

“It is absolutely not complete.”

I grabbed Lily’s hand.

“Great. You can interrogate us while running.”

We slipped from the hut and disappeared between the buildings.

Three minutes later we were through the compromised eastern wall and running blindly into the jungle. Nobody stopped until the fires of the village had vanished behind the trees and the distant shouting of the ogres had finally faded.

Lily bent forward, hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.

Eleni checked her scanner.

I leaned against a tree.

We’d done it.

No firefight. No dead natives. No flashbangs.

A perfect stealth extraction.

Lily straightened.

Her eyes immediately returned to Eleni wearing my shirt.

“Okay, now we’re discussing this!”