Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Women are Space Orcs

Sunny walked beside Adam as he paced through the cargo bay checking off shipping manifests on his clipboard, checking and rechecking the equipment they would need for re-supply. They had stopped on the Tesraki home world for a much-needed rest and some recuperation. They would be here a couple days, so shore leave was in order for a night or two, a prospect the entire group was excited about considering what the Tesraki home world had become.

If the Tesraki and humans had one thing in common, it was their desire for a good time. It had probably been a horrible idea to introduce the Tesraki to the idea of gambling and casinos. Honestly it had probably been a bad idea to introduce the Tesraki to capitalism as it was, since they took to the idea like fish to water, but mistakes had been made and there was no turning back.

On the coattails of that debacle, the Tesraki;s home world had quickly transformed itself into the Vegas of the galaxy knowing, in true business fashion, that humans couldn't resist debauchery and a good time. The sheer amount of revenue and inherent benefits that had come to them simply by way of human tourism had been astonishing, raising their planetary gross income to 7% more than any other planet in the GA system.

Commander Vir paused beside another pallet of cargo.

"Hey, SUNNY! SUNNY!."

Sunny Turned her head in a wide arc searching for the voice and found a group of women standing next to one of the shuttle doors, each waving at her. She left Commander Vir out of curiosity and walked over.

Dr. Katie was there with a few women from engineering and a couple female marines. Maverick, a short female marine with buzzed blond hair and grey blue eyes greeted Sunny with a wolfish grin. "'Bout time. I've been yelling at you for half a minute." Sunny looked around the circle. It was strange seeing the marines in anything other than their usual uniforms. Maverick was wearing camouflage cargo pants, a black tank top and a pair of blue tinted sunglasses perched atop her short blond hair. Dr. Katie wore a form fitting black dress and pointy red shoes. Another marine had her warm strawberry blond hair curled down past her shoulders.

"Where are you guys going?" Sunny wondered.

"Out on the town, where else. A couple of us decided to get together and go get wasted, or whatever trouble we can get into, maybe lose some money. We don't know, yet."

Sunny glanced back towards where the Commander was standing, still going through inventory. "Oh, well I don't know if we were-"

"Oh come on, the two of you hang out all the time. I think it's about time you got out more, besides we're prettier." The group laughed. Dr Katie flipped her hair and grinned at Maverick, "Well, except for Maverick, but we had to have an ugly one to make the rest of us look better."

Maverick snorted and waved a hand, "Are you kidding me?" She motioned seductively, "Nothing can top 'this'."

"A sack of lard," more laughter.

"Keep laughing ladies. You're just jealous of my stunning physique. As I was saying though, seriously Sunny, you need to get out. The Commander has work to get done anyway and he's going to be boring for the next 48 hours."

Sunny wavered on the edge of indecision as a pair of boots thudded on the ground next to her.

"What are you jackals trying to get sunny into?"

Katie linked an arm through one of Sunny's, "Girls night, and YOU aren't invited."

"Yeah only women or those who identify as such are allowed'" one of the engineers piped up from the back.

Commander Vir snorted, "Y'all better be glad I don't identify as a woman,"striking a quick pose and flipping imaginary hair over his shoulder, "because I'd be the prettiest."