Total Empire, Trainer Princess - Chapter 1 (Patreon)

Visually, the setting of this story was very much inspired by the Senya Comic by Alexi-C on DeviantArt.

Chapter 1

The long, pointed starship floated down towards the docking plank. Sleek fins cut through the morning humidity, and gasses hissed over the platform while the engines faded out.

Men and women put down their cards and dice, and hoisted flags and ceremonial stun pikes high into the air, lining up beside the docking plank. Beneath red capes and plumed legionnaire helmets, sweat glistened on their muscled bodies beneath the sun, with most wearing little more than supporting straps over their most private places.

Conversely, when the passengers disembarked from the ship, they could not have been more overdressed. Ball dresses and jackets bounced free. A procession emerged of petticoats, long sleeves, and frills at the wrists and necks. The aristocrats could be placed anywhere in the Twelve Empires.

The visitors showed remarkable indifference to the heat. A few waved small fans, or held silent wind contraptions. One unbuttoned the top of her stiff dress. A breeze brought grimaces of relief.

More guards in blue emerged from the ship, forming a secondary line, their gazes a little harder than the backwater local garrison. Some passengers - swishing by in their bulky silk and satin outfits - were flanked by their own praetorians, a right afforded to anybody who could levy the funds and conscripts.

Two dozen factions bustled against each other, while the starship continued to disembark.

There was a pause in the precession, and a new form of soldier emerged. A giant of a woman. Her cape fluttered and revealed the purple of royalty, her form-hugging white spandex a stark contrast to the usual near-nudity. She glared around the platform for a moment, then, on some silent command, summoned her squad.

The local praetorians stood a little straighter, holding their flags and zapsticks high.

A few well-connected locals craned to see from across the platform. The port administrator licked his lips.

The elite soldiers formed an effective privacy screen however, and it was difficult to see the Fifteenth Princess as she disembarked. Her wide dresses and petticoats swished with a hypnotic grace, and a golden tiara gleamed on her forehead, emerging from layers of perfect auburn hair.

“Is that her?” Jacinta asked, rising to her tiptoes.

The noblewoman beside her curled her nose.

“Is this your first time seeing royalty? Goodness girl, stop making a fuss. Get back on your feet.”

Jacinta blushed, and lowered herself down.

Regardless of what the snooty woman said however, a royal visit was a big event. It would mean new rules, new opportunities, and new trade with the retinue of connected nobles who accompanied the Princess on her journey.

Dozens of local lords and ladies clutched screens and even old-fashioned printouts describing their local assets and ventures - everything from star-fuel factories to indentured concubine contracts.

The most important nobles waited on palanquins near the hovercars, not so in the way as to be a nuisance, yet ready to grant invitations to grand events, able to point out their grand estates among the shimmering steel and green jungle below. The sprawl of civilization had pushed back the purple-and-green jungles almost to the distant, wispy white clouds and peaks. Beyond that, the faintest hint of the blue ocean shimmered.

The off-worlders took in the view momentarily, then immediately disregarded the first group of local nobility without a word, fanning themselves and eying the air-conditioned hovercars ahead. There would be time to meet and greet at later events - for anybody important.

Jacinta Goldensoothe bounced on her toes, an unseen minor noble at the back of the lowest group. There had to be a way…

The royal party continued disembarking at its own sluggish pace. Several large apparent nannies emerged, pushing prams. Jacinta cast her eyes at them, perhaps lingering for longer than she should have. If she was right about those covered prams...

She clutched her own paper printout to her dress.

Finally the servants came, heaving great loads of luggage.

The purple-capes closed in behind, stunners held high, and the entire party made its way for a huge hovercar across the platform, almost as large as the spaceship which they’d arrived in.

The foolishness of her plan was finally clear. There was no hope of being able to talk to the Fifteenth Princess. Even the nobles at the front were being pointedly ignored.

Jacinta could have screamed, her stupidity was only piling on. She should have read the damn inheritance contract. No wonder her distant uncle had gone off to the mining asteroids. If she couldn’t pay off the debt, she’d have to sell herself into servitude too! She’d seen the pleasure girls trailing after some noblemen, and even noblewomen, and then how many centuries would it be until she could buy her freedom? Fighting the interest on her debts? Would she even be herself after all that? With somebody using, and… training her…

She glanced at the rows of guards. She didn’t need the citizenship either, she’d been born to it, and their stipend didn’t pay much anyway. Besides, could she see herself wearing the straps over her breasts, stomach, and crotch, and nothing else except the cape and helmet? Sweating and glistening in the sun? All while trying to explain the downgrade in her social position?

But then again, could she see herself wearing a gauzy loin tabard - possibly with some sort of device buzzing away beneath? All for the pleasures of some perverted greater noble?

She writhed and made a face, and gripped her dress just to check that it was still there. Their little backwater might make leeways for the heat, but she still had all the modesty of any aristocrat. The only person to see her naked was her medical droid.

What was she doing? Oh it was hopeless.

With a twisting stomach, Jacinta got up to her toes one last time.

Surprisingly, the offworlders had stopped, drawn in by the greater nobles on their palanquins. One busty noblewoman had been enticed by a sample of the local fashions, with everything from shorter sleeves to low-cut cleavage-flashing necklines. Of course, it was nothing they hadn’t seen before in ballrooms in the core worlds - but to wear such things all the time in public? It was like running around in swimmers away from a pool!

The noble lady licked her lips, her bosom clearly burdened enough in the heat that she might consider it. She suddenly giggled, beckoning for a nearly-naked manservant, and had him begin writing an order.

Others joined her. Guards got tangled in the sudden reef of stopping figures, and things devolved into chaos. The purpled-clad guard in white spandex was barking at a local captain, who seemed in over his head. For a moment it almost looked like she might just pick him up and move him away.

The Princess seemed bored, and allowed her party to tighten around her.

Jacinta watched, her stomach all aflutter. There was a chance…

The Princess glanced at the noblewoman buying clothes. Then her gaze travelled slightly, to one of the world administrators. As luck would have it, the Princess did divert her path there, right before her massive hovercar. She parted her purple guardwall, and began chatting with a major noble.

Her servants went by, packing luggage ahead of her. The nannies passed with the prams, disappearing into the shadows of the car.

Jacinta practically bounced. There had to be a way! Hadn’t she always said that destiny was whatever one made of it? That there was a reason that she was a noble and others had guard jobs? Well, that was perhaps before she’d experienced unplanned debts.

All the attention was at the front of the line. Anybody important had passed Jacinta’s place.

Squeezing her eyes closed, Jacinta did the insane. She skipped around the local group, joining the back of the visiting guests.

Nobody looked at the rear, at least, nobody important. A few servants huffed by as they directed droids with the baggage. None of them were well dressed enough to speak to an aristocrat, even a lowly aristocrat like Jacinta.

She skipped forward, her eyes down and sweating even more than usual. How many people on the platform could actually identify and name her? She’d barely bothered with social events in the capitol, happy to game and watch vids at her distant minor estate, perhaps laughing at holos from the capital worlds with friends while getting drunk. For once it worked to her favour.

Jacinta reached the back of the royal procession, her legs like jelly.

The purple capes wouldn’t let her through of course, but she didn’t expect them to. Dumb servants.

She could see that the Princess was already boarding her hovercar, but no matter.

She made a line straight for the palanquins where the Princess had just stopped to chat. 

Governor Puk and Great Miner Severance. Of course.

They were already directing their servants to lift their cushioned seats.

Time to test just how forgettable she’d been.

“Oh Governor!”

The old man blinked, and glanced down from his palanquin. He’d let himself develop a few grey hairs, as if to show that he was a serious man, and above concerns of vanity in a civilization which had mastered immortality. It worked. Jacinta gulped.

She flashed her best smile, and dabbed at her forehead like some overheating offworld noble, helping to cover her face.

“Oh Governor. I was just wondering if there were any more invitations to your event, which you are surely hosting our esteemed Princess at?”

He nodded, and gestured lazily towards a near-naked man servant. The muscled and oiled brute stepped forward, handing her a stiff card with a chip installed. Jacinta’s mouth almost dropped at the sight of him. For once she wished that she’d been focused on making more money, to have possessions such as that. No, stupid, right now was about getting out of terrifying debt.

“And you are?” the Governor asked.

“Uh, I- Jacinta Goldensoothe.”

Jacinta froze. She wasn’t supposed to give her real name! She was trying to pass as an offworlder!

Oh lordy she wasn’t good at this. Not at all.

“Oh. Of House Stone?”

She squeezed her eyes shut, her eyes frozen down at the invitation in her grip. Would he demand it back?

“Yes. You probably met my predecessor.”

“Hrm, I do believe you owe us quite a large sum.”

She sighed.

“Yes. About that-”

“We can discuss it at my party.”

Jacinta gulped.

“That would be… suitable.”

She backed off, keeping her gaze down. Maybe if he forgot her face, she could disappear one day, start over, somehow beat the Imperial computer system. Like some character from an old adventure story, before every conceivable way of losing track of somebody had been solved.

She backed up so much that she bumped right into one of the muscled purple-caped warrior women.

“Oh! Excuse m-”

“Move it along!” the warrior snapped, then delivered a hard smack to Jacinta’s backside.

Jacinta yelped, and jumped forward.

She spun in wide-eyed bewilderment, searching for the soldier, but they’d all begun to enter the hovercraft, and looked kind of the same from behind. A wall of purple capes.

For a moment she thought it might have been the guard captain, towering behind the others.

Were they even true servants, or something more? Could one of them just… touch her like that?

Jacinta stuck her lip out in a pout, and began huffing off the platform with the rest of the nobility. She snuck a discrete hand back and rubbed her bottom, wishing for once that she wore all that extra petticoat padding of the great-world nobles.

At Jacinta’s front, gripped tightly, was the ball invitation. She would meet the Fifteenth Princess after all, and make her sale offer. Who else in the Empire had shown such an interest in buying diaper factories? Jacinta wasn’t even quite sure herself why she had kept it until last, all while selling everything else. Perhaps she had just sensed that somebody like the Princess would come along at the right time, and had felt that their destinies would be intertwined.

---

Princess Atraida Farrule stepped out onto the balcony, and immediately groaned.

“It’s so hot here.”

“Your grace is dressed for the ball.”

Atraida glanced down and made a face. So many layers of purple velvet. If only it wasn’t so particularly necessary.

“Will it have cooled? I might have to step outside, and don’t know if I could discard any more layers.”

Lumana Grace - Captain of the Fifteenth - checked her screen, then nodded.

“It will be several hours after dark, and several degrees cooler.”

Princess Atraida sighed.

She stepped back in, not particularly impressed by how the gauzy door immediately resealed itself behind her.

“Maybe I shouldn’t go.”

“Princess. You are expected. Nobody else has the authority to make the negotiations.”

Atraida gave a huff, swinging her arms against her purple dress. The collisions seemed to create loud crinkles.

Her face turned red.

“I guess I’ll have to watch that too.”

“The Princess is indeed expected to maintain a royal demeanour.”

Atraida shot a glance up at the tall, well-built woman.

“You weren’t my governess, Lumana. Don’t talk to me like-”

“Would your highness prefer that I contact her mother and discuss the current issues?”

Atraida turned pink.

“No. Just... be a little more courteous. I’m a princess, not some… Well, you were a governess, once upon a time, weren’t you?”

“I will be as courteous as the Princess’s situation deserves. Now come along, I think we should go check your ‘special doll collection’ one last time.”

Atraida’s eyes widened.

“Here? The guards are still swarming through the apartment, getting everything set up. The staff still haven’t established an off-limits areas.”

“Would the princess prefer to go the full night without checking? Will I find nothing if we check her ‘special doll collection’ now?”

“N-No. Just make it quick. Captain.”

“Of course. Now come along.”

“Don’t talk to me like-”

“Come along Princess. Time is wasting. We could of course have a Nanny Unit see to if you you wouldn’t mind such things being logged and-”

Atraida tried to not look like she was scurrying after Lumana Grace, a mere guard! She held her chin high, and tried to ignore the crinkling. The guards didn’t seem to notice her waddle, which was thankfully masked under many layers of purple velvety dress.

This was crazy. Where would she ever find somebody to fix this? And worse, she’d done it to herself! Who’d have thought an old ab-dl hypnotism video of all things would actually work? She’d just been trying to get her rocks off, now the whole stability of the empire was in jeopardy.