Chapter 0 - First Draft

The following is a short story snippet, an inspiration scene I had for a much larger story/world concept. The whole thing will focus very heavily (pun intended) on pregnancy, alien pregnancy, birth, popping, peril, and miscellaneous sexy and scifi themes. 



The sun was setting, casting a soft golden glow over the broken, rocky mesas of the planet Drossus VI. Agent Hart heaved a sigh of relief as she reached the peak of the ridge, leaning back against a rock formation to catch her breath, and ease the burdensome load of her taught belly. Her smooth light grey jumpsuit hugged every curve of her body, and even the reinforced armor over her rib cage and forelimbs was streamlined for maximum freedom of movement and dexterity. A moment later pain shot through her chest, she leaned forward and rubbed her hand hard just under her sternum, trying to massage away the aching tightness that coursed through her ribcage. After a few moments of pained breathing the feeling subsided, but it reminded her just how dire her situation was becoming; the spawn inside of her was growing too large and beginning to crowd her organs. She leaned back once more, as she ran one hand through her deep red hair, and the other underneath the bulbous curve of her belly, the silky smooth texture of her jumpsuit allowing her hand to glide soothingly across her belly. She took a moment to rest, wiping the sweat from her forehead and easing the soreness of her overburdened belly and hips. With a sigh she looked out over the valleys and peaks surrounding her, the terrain here really was bleak, she thought to herself. Her eyes passed over a dark mass, it seemed to shift slightly in the valley far below, and Hart let out a disgusted scoff. Her visor zoomed in and she could clearly see the individual creatures that made up the mob, Scourge, she thought with vitriol, the alien menace that had driven humanity near extinction, and she knew they were searching for her.

But she couldn't dwell on that now, their presence in the valley was all the more reason to get her work done and get back to the hideout. She knelt down, letting out a breath with exertion as she had to widen her stance to accommodate her gravid belly, and set down two metal boxes with a wire running between them, she then tapped the side of her helmet opening her visor, letting the cool wind caress her face. With a grunt she raised herself up, a quick step balancing herself as the weight in her massive belly threw her off balance briefly. oof, she thought to herself, it better work this time, I don't know if I'm up for this trek again. She leaned back against a stony projection, sighing as the strain on her body was eased as she pulled out a small computer terminal and began tapping away at the screen. The larger of the two metal boxes at her feet jumped to life, as the box raised itself off of the ground with a tripod, and a metallic dish unfurled from the top and rotated to face the open sky. Hart closed her eyes and uttered a silent prayer as she pressed the "broadcast" button on the control unit. The dish hummed to life as it sent its invisible rays deep into space, and Hart was left to hope and pray for success.

Hart didn't even know why she read the message, it was the same message she had been sending every day for the past five weeks. "This is Agent Hart and special unit Whiskey-November-Niner-Niner-Delta, broadcasting on all military channels. This is a distress call and priority Alpha-Alpha-Zulu order, any military unit receiving this signal is ordered to rendezvous with my team on Drossus VI for immediate evac and transfer of classified information. Repeat Alpha-alpha-Zulu priority, all other priorities secondary." She got bored of reading it, and set the control unit down on the generous arc of her swollen abdomen, using her belly as a table did give her the faintest chuckle. Every day she came up here, every day she played the same signal for as long as she felt it was safe, every day her supply of precious drugs wore dangerously thin. She tapped a couple of commands out on her wrist unit, nervously checking her supply for third time in an hour, it said the same thing it said fifteen minutes ago "Growth dampener: 0.00 units, Labor repressants: 3.64 units." Shit, she thought to herself, even with her strict rationing, she had less than seventy hours of repressants left. 

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, rubbing her temples. She was anxious, and she hated it, she had been an agent for years, she had seen blood and battles that would have broken normal soldiers, she had seen what the Scourge were capable of, and yet now that she was so close.... to 'popping'-the very thought of the word nearly made her vomit. Now that she was so close to 'popping' she found her practiced indifference, her years of emotionally distancing herself from the death around her, was crumbling. She resolved to try and take her mind off of what could happen, and observe the scenery. The agent slowly ran her eyes across the terrain... all around her was dusty stone and sand as far as the could see, well unless you counted the moon, that strange moon, in fact this whole planet was strange. Drossus VI was the only planet in the mapped universe that held its moon's orbit via magnetism and not gravity, the thing loomed in the sky, its surface was a deep steely blue, it stood in stark contrast to the ruddy brown of Drossus proper. Hart couldn't help but think of the irony, this strange natural phenomenon could have been the subject of a carefree scientific expedition under normal circumstances. But because of the Scourge, because of those monsters, she was stranded on this planet with a dwindling team of scientists and soldiers, desperately hoping that rescue might come, and hoping on an even more vain hope, that this planet's secrets might turn the tide of the war.

Suddenly pain shot through her abdomen, she doubled over, and grabbed her wracked belly, cursing audibly a moment later when she heard the -clack- of the control unit flying off her belly and onto the ground. She looked up for the briefest of moments to ensure the control module was undamaged, and didn't even bother to sigh as she returned to tending her agonized belly. She closed her eyes, holding her belly, clearing her mind as she had been taught all those years ago in boot camp. Every girl in the project had been taught the meditation techniques, they served to focus one's mind for channeling the psionic energies of their offspring, and also served as an emergency technique for fighting off labor, though every girl prayed to never have to use it for the latter. Her breathing slowed as her mind cleared of every thought, the only thing she sensed was every muscle fiber, every nerve ending, every synapse in her womb. Her mind fighting to subdue the raw instincts of her body, the serenity of her mind contrasting with the angry protests of her womb trying to vacate itself of its long overdue spawn. The nerves quieted, she continued to focus, one... two... three she counted to herself; she must be sure the contractions have ceased. all was still for many seconds... Suddenly her nervous system flared in agony again as her womb muscles bore down on her overgrown spawn, she let out a pained gasp,  feeling shame that she lost focus enough to react. Please-please-please-please she begged fate, or the universe, or whatever gods were listening, please not now, not yet. She focused once more, clearing her mind of anything, of everything save the singular desire to calm her protesting womb, she envisioned a perfectly calm lake on a windless night, serene, pristine and still. Twenty seven... twenty eight... twenty nine... she did not even feel the tears streaming down her face, so focused was she on her meditation. ninety-nine... one-hundred... she let out a deep breath, opening her eyes slowly, still hunched over her massive belly. Now she realized she had been crying, her belly and the ground beneath her were blurry with tears, but she smiled relaxed that is was over.

"Okay" she said, not usually one to talk to herself, but it helped her regain her composure. "How long have I been broadcasting?" She grunted with annoyance and effort as she tried to kneel and grab the fallen control module, but soon found it too difficult and squatted to reach it, and she immediately regretted her decision. A contraction far, far stronger than the previous two jolted through her as soon as she was half way down her squat. She audibly yelped this time, thankful that her infiltration class helmet automatically filtered out loud noises preventing her from giving away her position. She cursed her stupid body for taking her squatting as an opportunity to give birth, she stood back up as quickly as she was able, letting her weight fall back against the pillar of stone behind her as she double forward, and screaming as another contraction wracked her belly. Her eyes went wide as she saw her entire belly undulate inward with a rhythmic contraction, every muscle in her abdomen working together doing what it had evolved to do. She cursed herself for her weakness, as tears filled her eyes and clouded her vision, she fumbled in her belt pouch for what she desperately needed, her fingers refusing to act in the calm practiced manner of a special agent. Another contraction, another scream. A long string of curses rambled under her breath as she desperately fished through her pouch, and gasped in relief as she found what she was searching for. She pulled the injector out of the pouch and held it up, never had sheen been so thankful to see a needle; she fumbled for a few seconds with the cap, never had such a brief moment felt so long.

 Finally the cap tumbled off and she smiled; she rotated it around in her hand to align the pointed end towards her, when another contraction shot through her causing her whole belly to rhythmically press inwards, and she screamed a profanity as the pain caused her to spasm and the pen tumbled to the rocky ground beneath her. She fell to her knees, heedless of the pain as the rocks met her kneecaps, tears were streaming down her face as she pawed at the ground desperately trying to find the needle with her blurred vision. "please-please-please-PLEASE-PLEASE!" she was screaming her pleading mantra to the universe as she brought a shaking hand up to her face to clear her vision, another even more agonizing contraction tormented her as a harbinger of what was to come, the new surge of tears making her previous gesture pointless "please no-no-no-no-no-no not yet-not now-please".  her breathing came in interrupted, panicked half sobs as she finally found the lost injector and grabbed it with both hands like a drowning man grasping for a life-preserver. Even her sigh of relief came in staccato, broken gasps as she summoned some shred of composure now that her salvation was firmly in hand. She re-positioned herself, moving backwards from her kneeling pawing at the ground, leaning back and sitting on her ass with her back against the base of the stone she had rested on so many times before. As she leaned backwards and parted her legs, her body took this as a sign that the time had come, and another contraction brought a shrill scream from Hart's throat. She knew it was getting closer, the pain had intensified with each contraction and this final one actually caused her to pee a little. She didn't have time for shame, she held the injector firmly in her hand and rammed it deep into her thigh as close to her pelvis as she could manage.

 The pain from the injector was laughable compared to the contractions, and she actually sighed with relief as the next contraction was significantly more timid. Her body gave a few final feeble contractions, no stronger than a cramp before finally succumbing to the repressants and returning to its placid state. She took a few minutes to regain her composure, sobbing yet again, but this time with relief as she ran her hand through her hair and used the other to clear her eyes of their tears. After a few seconds she returned to her knees, crawling forward to look at the control module, "1 hour, 12 minutes" it said, she moaned in frustration, she didn't have the energy to keep up her broadcast after that scare. She looked to the northwest and saw that the scourge in the valley, they were closer now, not dangerously so, but certainly going to find her location if they continued. Although she probably still had some safe time, she simply couldn't keep going today, so she collapsed the broadcaster, packed up  her things, and began the long trek back home. She mentally thanked fate that it was a good couple hours walk back to their hideout, it would give her time to regain her composure and straighten her hair and face again, no sense in making the troops worry by showing up looking like a mess. As she trekked down the rocky slope she nervously tapped through her wrist datapad again, this time it read "Growth dampener: 0.00 units, Labor repressants: 2.64 units" she fought back yet more tears as she did the math in her head and figured, she had less than fiftyfive hours of repressants left after that emergency dose. To take her mind off of her worries she broke open a ration and began snacking; recently she had been unable to handle large meals, her stomach was so crowded by her overstuffed womb that she simply couldn't eat large portions, and when she tried to, it made her nauseous. Hart had made it a point to snack on smaller portions throughout the day to keep up her strength, and she was happy to find she had found a chocolate flavored ration bar as she continued her long trek back to camp.