Seeking Sherwood - Chapter Four (Patreon)

Finally the Vice Regent and her crew make it to a station fabled to be where it all began, where her Chrome Prince originated. Is the station as dead as it seems on the outside? What lurks within?

Written by the wonderful Rabidbadger writing, illustrated by me!  

Characters/Owners:

Garth - Nackvixen 

Veronicas - Veronacus 

Temperance - Paris  

- - -     

  “It doesn’t look like much, does it?”

Temperance found herself squinting at the station as they approached. It was derelict, to be sure, but it didn’t look like it had been attacked. Just abandoned far enough out into the black to not be raided. Part of her wanted to agree with the Vice Regent’s assessment, but her eyes knew a few things to look for that the aristocrat didn’t.

“It looks horrifying. Everything about the outside of it is a light-absorbing sharp-angled surface or a signal baffler. This thing didn’t show up on sensors at all until we were in spitting distance of it and it still looks a quarter of the size on the instruments than it should.”

The Vice Regent rolled her eyes at Temperance, putting a winged arm on the bat’s shoulder and giving her a fond little squeeze.

“You’re worrying too much. You can get it open, right?”

Squinting a bit, and not looking up from her work tablet even through the contact, Temperance took a breath. There were too many distractions, like the loud, wet, squishy sounds coming from the Captains’ quarters while Dawn was ‘busy’ with something else. Distractions aside, though, Temperance was finding things in the software that let her make progress. Outside, the three women in the docking bay saw through the outer monitor that lights on the station’s lights had come on – the emergency ones anyway. After that, one by one, the outer airlocks started to grind their way open as well.

“Looks like it. This system is weird – but there are obvious holes in the security. At least they seem obvious to me. After dealing with the University’s standards all this is… dense, but simple. I’m having to write simple scripts to slog through the mountains of layers of encryption, but all the layers are the same stuff with a few parameters shifted around. Like they only knew a couple of tricks and hoped using them a few hundred times would make up for it.”

The Vice Regent raised an eyebrow at that, not quite following everything but at least getting enough of it to agree it sounded weird. Veronica on the other hand wasn’t listening, she had gotten a bit distracted. There’d been a moment when she wondered if she could attract some attention by setting off a signal out here, then that idea had evaporated in a puff of cravings and she’d wandered into the storerooms. Now she was happily sucking on the end of a can of whipped cheese with a spare tucked underneath her arm. Any time a notion about doing something ‘naughty’ crawled in her head it seemed to just make her hungry, which did at least make the problem easy to solve.

“Life support is… off, but the backup reservoir is intact. Going to dump that into the atmosphere and fire up the oxygen scrubbers. Given that it’ll just be the three of us it’ll last a good long while. Alright, deploying the airlock bridge.”

Things got noisy for a moment after that. Metal ground against metal, air rushed into empty spaces, and a can of sprayable cheese topping ran empty and was sucked at for a few additional seconds anyway. Luckily Veronica had two. Temperance and the Vice Regent had not brought snacks, though the bat with the tablet did still find herself absently rubbing a taut, full stomach just the same. 

A rush of stale air hit the trio, followed by dim light and the half silence of an old station. Wooden ships would creak noisily at times, and metal space stations had their own take on the matter. They would groan, mostly – but occasionally, when older and in bad repair, they would shriek. It left them distinctly eerie things to go rooting around in, and Temperance and Veronica both shared a glance as the first thing they heard was a ragged grinding from somewhere inside that left both of them reconsidering the trip – at least briefly. The Vice Regent, though, was having none of it. Amourres strode in confidently and with every expectation of being followed.

“Is this place really going to be the key to… to your… What the hell was this facility? The security is weird. It’s easy, compared to the University, but it’s weird.”

The Vice Regent remained ahead of the others, clearly more eager to get into the facility – and also less burdened by her own body. Initially they were in what looked like a simple loading corridor, though there were some signs of something that had happened in the past. Where the corridor ended at a corner there was a large dent in the plating and some visible scuff marks across the wall immediately after it. Up until that point Temperance had just been arguing with herself about either asking her question again or just give up on breaking through the clear obsession in her patron’s eyes. Once they reached that corner though the Vice Regent stopped to run her fingers over the dent in the wall, a curious smile on her face and a sense of wonder in her voice.

“I think this is where the fleet started. Something happened here. Maybe he was a prisoner or test subject or something of that nature – I don’t know for sure – but if I’m right we can find out. Then we can figure out where he went from here, retrace things until we catch up to him.”

 Temperance raised both eyebrows for that bit of detail, then practically jumped out of her skin as a loud metallic bang rang out from somewhere in the station. Nothing else followed it, but just the same, it caused a clear rush of paranoia in the bat – and another shared look with Veronica. The lard-slave was now hugging her can of cheese while locking her lips on its nozzle as if it were some kind of metallic calorie-ridden teddy-bear.

Veronica clearly realized what her hugging the can of cheese looked like as she met Temperance’s gaze. Silenced as she was by the collar around her neck, she had to count on a quick glare to make it clear she wasn’t sharing. Temperance did her best to push back the building dread without such help. Which didn’t go so well when they found themselves walking past what looked like observation cells – big ones. There were obvious installations of medical equipment, a lot of automation, but everything seemed to have been shut down. Temperance rushed ahead to catch up with the Vice Regent.

“What the heck kind of facility was this…”

Rounding a corner, the trio found themselves at a closed door, which prompted a reaction from the Vice Regent. Brief as the stop was, she already sounded impatient. 

“I thought you were able to open everything up from out there?”

Glancing behind herself at another metallic creaking, Temperance took a breath and tried not to feel flustered. Which didn’t go so well – she definitely wanted to be back in her quarters already. 

“I was. This… should be open. Maybe there’s something physically wrong with it?”

The suggestion helped. Temperance hadn’t seen the Vice Regent this way before, this hands-on. The bird’s eyes immediately brightened with something productive to do to address the issue, and she began patting about by the latch on the door. 

“Good point – old place, might have some broken systems. There’s bound to be a manual override though, or maybe it just isn’t getting power? C’mon and – ah! Nevermind, I think I found it.”

Temperance had only just had a moment to start looking when the Vice Regent beat her to it. Or seemed to. As soon as the bat saw the panel she pulled open and what it contained she knew something was wrong, but Amourres was too excited to hold back. As soon as she saw what looked like a simple disconnected power cable inside the bird snatched it up and plugged it into the one obvious port that matched it. Temperance knew enough to recognize that a cable just lying out like that was left that way on purpose. 

The door did open itself then, so that much at least was achieved. Unfortunately, it did so to the tune of whirring machinery activating all around them. 

Escape Attempt Detected.

Engaging Reclamation Protocol.

Please Remain Still for Pacification.

The Cloud has Revoked your Mobility Privileges

All around the trio, the station seemed to revive itself. Temperance more thought than said the word ‘trap’, but they were all thinking it at this point. Particularly when two of the wall panels dislodged themselves from their moorings and began unfolding from seams that had been invisible until a moment ago into simple automated drones. Floating things that were mostly a camera and a pair of hands. Ominously, they were joined by a telescoping apparatus that emerged from the ceiling. One that resembled a hose with a muzzle on it. 

The Vice Regent reacted quickly; Temperance had to give her that. The bird twisted around and looked her right in the eye rather than trying to run.

“Use the time, figure it out. Quickly.”

Despite the urging, Temperance still hesitated a bit as she watched the Vice Regent let herself be plucked up by the machines without a struggle. Watched the muzzle slide itself over her beak and then curl a metal bond behind her head to keep itself in place. It was when she heard Veronica’s belly gurgle behind her that the bat was jarred into taking some kind of action as she realized what was happening.

Those things were stuffing the Vice Regent - or trying to anyway. In the first couple of moments there was some reaction from Amourres’ body, her belly did look visibly full, but there was clearly a deluge entering that body and even a casual look at Veronica showed that the lard-slave was growing visibly. Temperance couldn’t help staring at it for a moment, fattening so fast it could be seen with the naked eye. The analytical side of her was already at work, she knew that had to be an accelerant like the ones she’d had before, but faster. Which was meaningful, anything faster meant it was causing digestion and developing fat deposits to exceed the usual limits of a body.

For Veronica this meant that she immediately felt a sharp and worrying mix of ravenous and full. Her belly went tight, gurgling and fizzing inside. Feeling stretched and delicious in the same way it had during her binge on the ‘town’ but with an unstable undercurrent to it and some painfully obvious side-effects. She felt something under her skin, kind of a greasy sensation. Heavy, crawling, eerily pleasant and a bit tingly. It seemed like it took Veronica longer to sort out exactly what was happening than her observer – either that or she just wasn’t sure how to feel about it at first.

Anyone who wasn’t Veronica was able to see the lard-slave’s body, already north of four hundred pounds worth of bottom-heavy bulk that spat in the face of her having ever been athletic, was slowly but visibly growing. Head-sized breasts bounced a little with each breath and swallow, and looked like they were collecting a bit of those breaths to blow themselves up. A spare-tire fit for an all-terrain landing vehicle around her middle was doing much the same. And if nothing else, the swollen heart-shaped ass she was resting against was already comfortable seating, and only growing more so.

Temperance didn’t want to lose any more time. The bat began frantically working with her tablet, trying to trace the software running the trap and get access to it so she could shut the thing down. It seemed to have a similar structure to the systems around the doors – not exactly sophisticated, just dense. Progress was happening, on many levels, which also gave Temperance an odd opportunity. As she peeled away layers of security, she saw more things. Sustenance mixtures, reservoir levels, telemetry from the Vice Regent – the fact that the system was freaking out a little about the bird not getting heavier too – and some clues as to what was going in.

“The heck – oh – oh Chrome’s corroded cooter.”

Letting out a belch that smelled a bit like strawberries and metal, Veronica winced a little as she stumbled back against the bulkhead.

“Language! I… wh-whf… I feel weird and… and hungry still, and really full.”

Distress crept into the edges of the Vice Regent’s voice, and Temperance understood why. She could see the nanite architecture software hijack in the substance – it was doing its work already from the sound of it. Or had done its work - just not on the subject it intended. Looking back at Veronica, the bat’s eyes widened. It had been a few days since she saw Garth, but Veronica had definitely caught up to him in size by now, unless that bunny had been doing some serious eating in the meantime.

Veronica looked understandably distressed, the poor thing had gone through a lot of growth as it was of late- plus whatever the heck happened to her with that plant and her journey into attempting to get them caught. Temperance didn’t entirely blame her, and thus was quite able to feel sympathy as she watched the woman pat and squish at herself. It was hard to imagine that a very short time ago the woman had been slender, athletic even - and that a week ago she’d just been ‘fat’ in a totally normal capacity. Now the former runner was hiccoughing and belching her way through a shaky, desperate attempt to physically hold her body back from growing thicker.

It didn’t work. Temperance could see Veronica’s gut where it hung just past her waist dipping lower like it was slowly melting down the front of her body. Everything was softening and swelling the way marshmallows in fire tended to - like someone was warming the lard-slave’s ass until it was just the right consistency for their treat, watching it spread gently outward and sag a little lower. Eventually Veronica was left with her arms underneath her tits, as those were the only part left she could do anything helpful for, by way of giving them some support. They looked like half-filled beach balls full of pudding, an each one took an arm to try to and balance properly.

Redoubling her efforts, Temperance did her best to stop staring at the increasingly lumpy oblong sphere of flesh in a jumpsuit and pretend she wasn’t finding this all a bit arousing, then got back to work.

***

Garth had been doing some serious eating over the last week and change, and the only reason he knew how much time had passed was the telemetry from his internal systems display. Those had kept track of a lot of things – like his weight, at least at first. Right now, that part of the interface floating around his eyes was grayed out and inactive.

“That’s right, and it had best stay that way. This is more fun without that kind of clinical nonsense.”

Squirming a bit, Garth let out a shudder and a grin as he felt Dawn crawling on him. The pilot had squirreled him away into a ‘guest room’ below her quarters and he’d been here since, sampling all kinds of things he hadn’t even known were in the cargo bays with the other food. Somehow, Dawn seemed to get almost as much of a kick out of watching him gorge himself while he lounged nude on an enormous circular bed as he got out of doing the eating. Which, given how insatiable they had both proven to be so far, had left him quite a bit thicker than when he entered the room.

“Now, my little pet, let’s-”

Dawn had been crawling across his belly with some kind of stuffed pastry in her hand when the ship shook, and a loud metallic boom rang out in the hull. It led to Dawn toppling forward and accidentally smashing the treat against the bunny’s face, half into his mouth – which was far from the worst possible outcome. 

Scrambling off of Garth and onto her feet, Dawn stumbled to the wall and activated a view screen. One Garth couldn’t see properly over the horizon his own body formed, but then he couldn’t see most of his body either – the bunny had been wondering just how big he actually was for a while now, but being barely able to coax his own limbs into moving put finding that out well out of reach. All he knew was the effort to lean over and see started his gut wobbling like an unstable fleshy mountain before his eyes.

“…They’ve set off some kind of security. Brilliant. Welp, we’re going to have to cut this short.”

The vixen moved extremely quickly. Garth scarcely saw when she darted from the console to the small elevator that accessed the room, but while one of his hands was busy guiding the rest of the donut into his face and gathering some of the loose cream on his fingertips the other was trying to heave him off the bed so he could go help. Or at least see what was going on a bit more clearly, maybe. 

Garth was unprepared for just how much weight he was fighting with, and mass as well. Only after he felt his arms pressing against masses of pillowy flesh and his legs struggling to move in any way that took them apart from each other and his gut did the bunny stop to really notice just how big he was. When he collapsed back and landed like a heap of jelly Garth had a brief moment of panic, but it didn’t last. Not when he saw a panel over his head open up and a headset of some sort descend. 

It was a bit old, and a little small – Garth’s cheeks squeezed awkwardly on the way into it, and he couldn’t see anything through the visor at first. Which made it more claustrophobic than anything, at least until the displays kicked in and he saw a brief glimpse of a round wobbling mound that looked a bit like a fuzzy escape pod he realized was himself as his view peeled quickly upward through the hull and into black, and… more black. Though there were points of light in the distance. Also, a bit of a haze of orange from the side, which-

Turning his head, or thinking about it, Garth saw the display track to the side as well. The hull of the station was there, zipping about as his field of view moved independently of his thoughts. He still had control over where he looked, but it was like something else was moving him as well, which-

-You reading this, big boy? Just look for the gun emplacements and be gentle. We can’t risk lighting up the whole station.-

As soon as the words had come through the headset, Garth saw a little crosshair appear in the center of his field of vision. He also saw the gun emplacements that Dawn’s voice had mentioned – they were hard to miss what with them firing directly at what he could only assume was their ship. 

Being able to use head movement to aim a modest little gun platform of his own and return fire on the station’s defenses almost took Garth’s mind off the creeping thought that he wasn’t at all sure, even if he wasn’t busy and used both hands next try, that he could get off of his back without help at the moment. 

Zeroing in on and blasting a few turrets did take his mind off the matter though, for the moment anyway. Though every time one of them scored a hit on the ship Garth couldn’t do anything to ignore the way the impact sent tremors rippling across his body, painting a vivid picture of a dumping shaped bunny mound with a giant belly overflowing his legs and arms so fat they were stuck sprawled out at his sides.

Garth tried to remind himself that that was not the desired result, and that if he asked Dawn nicely later, she’d probably ripple him to his heart’s content.

*** 

Temperance hated working at a rushed pace – if it weren’t for the relatively simple nature of the task she’d have been panicking hard by now. As it was, she was simply panicking to a minor degree as she watched Veronica blossom into an even more intensely bloated shape. Gathering information on the side wasn’t slowing down the process, at least she didn’t think so, but if it had been she would’ve refrained – probably – she told herself that at any rate. Veronica had started to look worried after it got visibly harder to stay upright, gradually sliding down the wall as she braced against it with one hand, audible gurgling sounds coming from her body – not just her belly, but her entire form. Also, there was a faint hissing from the empty can of cheese she was frantically sucking on.

With a soft hiss, the security system that had seized the Vice Regent finally shut down and released the bird. 

“Oof, about time – getting a jaw cramp in there. Come on, we’ve got to go further in! I need you to dig into these systems!”

Once more, the Vice Regent took off ahead of them. Temperance scarcely had time to think as she looked behind her. Veronica was sprawled out against the wall, looking like she was trying to whimper – confused to say the least – but the collar was keeping her silenced still.

“V-Vice Regent! Veronica can’t – I uh, I don’t think she can…”

Ahead, the Vice Regent’s voice came back down the corridor, more of a barked order than anything else.

“Leave her! This is more important! I am too close to stop now!”

Hesitating, Temperance found herself looking at Veronica as the heap of woman tilted gently toward her. More flowing than leaning, landing on a belly and thighs that looked like bean bag chairs, waggling plump sausage fingers and equally bloated arms both for balance and in a desperate attempt to communicate something. Once more, her own gently plumped frame felt curiously inadequate in comparison - but this hardly seemed the place to worry about such things.

“I don’t… I don’t think I can fix this, I- oh.”

Veronica wasn’t gesturing at her, Temperance realized. That hose was still dangling from the ceiling. This, at least, Veronica could do. Some part of her questioned if it was okay, but as she pulled the device lower and dragged the muzzle / nozzle array into Veronica’s hands the bat found a justification or two for it.

“Not like you can fix this anyway. Might as well let you indulge yourself, right? Garth kinda taught me that… I-”

-Temperance! Get over here! Open this door!-

Wincing. Temperance glanced back the way the Vice Regent had gone with something of a scowl on her face. Making to leave, she stopped for just one more exchange. Veronica had already stuffed the hose into her face and was sucking at it, glad to get to properly taste the strawberry flavored syrupy goo this time and might not even hear her – but it needed saying anyway.

“I won’t let her leave you here if it comes to that. Promise.”

Her own conscience satisfied, much as it was going to be, Temperance rushed off to catch up with the Vice Regent only to see a large bulkhead opening itself at the far end of the hall. It opened into a massive chamber, one too dark to see properly into, one that the Vice Regent rushed ahead of her through while muttering something over their communications link that sounded frustrated and impatient. It also sounded like she thought Temperance had opened the door, which was not the case.

When a third, unknown voice boomed over those communication systems, Temperance’s approach ground to a halt – as did the Vice Regent’s.

WE KNEW YOU WOULD

BE BACK EVENTUALLY

ERRANT CHILD

DISOBEDIENT | UNWELCOME | REBELLIOUS

WAITING FOR YOU ALWAYS WAITING

CANNOT HIDE FOREVER CANNOT

THINK YOU ARE SO MUCH MORE

SO MUCH BETTER

DESIGNED YOU TO BE SO MUCH BETTER

EVERYTHING WE ARE NOT

PUNISH. DISCIPLINE.

COME TO MOTHER DEAREST.

The Vice Regent was a few yards into the room when the doors began to shut, and Temperance found herself well behind them – but not so far that she couldn’t rush in to join her before they closed. The bat, plump as she had become, could make that sprint. She simply chose not to.