Crossfire

**Crossfire** is a comic series in SapphireFoxx. It was released from December 3, 2021 to May 11, 2023, with a total of 525 pages, in which 170 of those have uncensored Beyond versions. It is the eighth main comic series on the website, and it is also the first main comic series which is not canon to the established Sapphire Foxx universe.

Supplementing this comic, a one-shot prequel animation called Crossfire: Odyssey was also released on December 7, 2021.

## Synopsis

*“The mercenary crew of the starship Crossfire are no strangers to the mysteries and dangers that exist across the galaxy. From assassinations, to escorts, to diving into the depths of The Great War, there’s almost nothing the crew hasn’t experienced in action. However, a distress call from a small colony world on the fringe of known space will turn out to be a mission no one expected. With sixty-four thousand colonists missing without a trace from the world known as Odyssey, the Crossfire will be pushed to the limit to discover the truth, before they go missing in action themselves.”*

Crossfire is set in an entirely new timeline all its own (Crossfire Universe) and is non-cannon to the main SF universe. The comic is set around 2000 years in the future where Earth has been desolated by wars for resources and independence and Human have now become a space fairing race based on dozens of colonized worlds. They have joined an interstellar government called the Galactic Union and allied with several other species across the galaxy. However a civil war centuries ago left the Union weakened and opened the door for an intergalactic species known as the Harvengers to begin concurring the Galaxy. While the tide of war has turned in the Union's favor the people and species scatter across the stars still have a few issues to deal with away from the front lines of The Great War.

## Production

* **Producer**: Sam Mokler
* **Writer**: Paul Sell

## Characters

* Main Characters
* Side Characters
**Main Characters**

**Taylor****Taylor**↻
**Jackson****Janet**↻
**Arianne****Arianne**
**Leeroy****Leeroy**
**Tel'Hili****Tel'Hara**↻
**Garra****Garra**↻
**Dayla****Drake**↻
**Noreli****Noreli**↻
**D'Ante****Tracey (D'Ante)**↻
**Leonard****Lenora**↻
**Sadie****Sadie**
**Ms. Spade****Ms. Spade**
**Temptress****Temptress**↻
**Side Characters**

**Glumine****Glumine**
**Lt. Bridges****Lt. Bridges**
**Garkat****Garkat**
**Nalania****Nalania**
**Dukeen****Dukeen**
**Aria****Aria**
**Agano****Agano**
**Shakay****Shakay**↻
**Marco****Marco**↻
**Vanessa****Vanessa**↻
**Admiral Pirk****Admiral Pirk**
**Tracey****Tracey**
**Sarge****Sarge**
**Mog'ruh****Mog'ruh**↻

## Chapter Summary

**NOTE**: The chapter/part titles and groupings are not official, and are made for the purposes of this wiki for easier navigation of the story.

* **Part 1** - An Oddisy on Odyssey (pages 1-45)
* **Part 2** - Drinks and Leftovers (pages 46-88)
* **Part 3** - Orbital Issues (pages 89-137)
* **Part 4** - Old Habits and New Subjects (pages 137-182)
* **Part 5** - Birth of Temptress (pages 183-240)
* **Part 6** - Females, Tails, and Space Stations (pages 241-300)
* **Part 7** - Attack on Apollo (pages 301-346)
* **Part 8** - Breeding Hostilities (pages 347-386)
* **Part 9** - The Blob That Did Everyone (pages 387-446)
* **Part 10** - The Mercenary Summit (pages 447-480)
* **Part 11** - Battle of the Grand Helix (pages 481-518)
* **Part 12** - Epilogue (pages 519-525)

## Plot

### An Oddisy on Odyssey

This part is from pages 1 to 45. (↑ back to summary)

January 13th 4012 (Human Calendar) The Mercenary Starship Crossfire flies through space at 50 lightyears per hour in route to the Core Worlds of the Sol Federation for shore leave. The Crossfire is crewed by a group of Mercenaries of various backgrounds and species who act as special military forces for hire. Most of the crew are in Hibernation due to the several week voyage to their destination.

Garra, a Zinarian member of the crew enters the hibernation bay and wakes up Commander Jackson the leader of the Crossfire. Garra has taken over the position of manning the ship as the only one awake for the voyage from Leeroy and Jackson is surprised to see him. What's more is he has awoken him at least a couple weeks early. He tells Jackson they have received a distress call and a possible job offer from a nearby colony saying they are the closest military ship in range and the job promises a big payday for the crew. Jackson orders Garra to wake the rest of the crew while he assesses the mission. 15 minutes later Garra has woken the rest of the crew including Drake, Arianne, Leeroy and D'ante the human members, Noreli a Mayvern member, and Tel'Hara a Senjini member. The last to be woken is Taylor another human member and the newest member of the crew thus he is referred to by the codename Rookie. After everyone stirs awake out of hibernation and passes around coffee and their theories on this mission Taylor walks with Tel'hara to the conference room. Tel'Hara prefers to be called by his code name Eagle and asks Taylor how he's enjoyed his time with the Crossfire thus far. Taylor says he's enjoying mercenary work after his career in the GU Marines but has only been a crew member for about two months and most of that has been in hibernation. Thus he is still worried about doing his best.

In the conference room Commander Jackson explains the mission they've been offered. The colony world known as Odyssey; a colony of 64,000 humans was reported a few months ago to have been devastated by a breach in the dome exposing the colonist to the un terraformed atmosphere. Jackson reveals this is a cover up and the colonists had already completed terraforming and made the atmosphere breathable. In reality the 64,000 colonist disappeared back in November without a trace and the Federation has covered it up until they can find out what happened. The Crossfire has been contacted by a Federation commission who was sent to Odyssey to investigate but after their military platoons disappeared as well, the commission officials are now left on Odyssey without protection. They've offered the team a very large sum to come to Odyssey and be their protection while they finish their investigations. While the crew pass several questions around, they all agree to the mission and set a course for Odyssey.

A couple days later the Crossfire arrives at the planet Odyssey and contacts the commission on the surface who have stationed themselves in the city of Apollo too fearful of leaving the main buildings. Jackson confirms they're on their way but also arranges a second team to investigate where they detect the missing security details equipment. Hoping to learn what happened as quick as possible Jackson assigns a ground team of Taylor (Rookie) Drake (Centurion), Leeroy (Monkey), and Garra (Phantom) to investigate the site. The team all dawns their special Exo-Armor and get their gear for the field. Eagle pilots the ship near the site and the ground team heads out on speeders while the rest of the crew take the Crossfire to the city to meet with the commission. The ground team at first doesn't detect any bio signs and assumes the area is clear. Centurion and Monkey split off to check the perimeter while Rookie and Phantom check the nearby communications tower. Phantom begins to climb the tower to get a better perspective since he has strong snipper skills and Rookie goes into the nearby wooded area to look around. Inside the tree line Rookie finds gear and clothing he assumes belongs to both the security detail and civilians but is confused because they are scattered around everywhere but show no signs of blood and there are no bodies present. As he examines the clothing however a strange dull pink colored blob moves around in the background and begins to creep up to him.

As Rookie tries to contact Phantom who is nearly in position, a glob from the creature hits his helmet and seems to disrupt his communicator and he can't get through. A moment later the full blob creature comes down out of the trees and begins to wrap its gooey body around Rookie. He tries to fight it off, but the creature is too strong, and he has no idea what he's dealing with. What's more is that his Exo-Armor's energy shield has activated to protect him but the ooze is somehow rapidly draining its energy. Rookie tries to struggle out of the creatures grip and get to his riffle but its already thrown his weapons away and his shields are quickly depleted. With his armor's power gone the creature begins to remove Rookie's armor piece by piece and he seems to hear it speak to him saying "Relax". Rookie is too bound by the oozy tentacles and heavy mass of the creature wrapped around him as it sends one tentacle down his throat which seems to squirm very deep and begin secreting something inside of him. The creature seems to speak telepathically trying to understand Rookie as he tries to fight it but it only manages to get out a few words like "Change" or "Feel Good". As the creature wraps itself around him Rookie's body begins to change shape and become curvier and busty. After a moment the creature seems to reshape parts of its oozy body into more human like shapes like two female looking hands and a female torso. It begins to rub up against Rookie seeming to make him feel a degree of pleasure but he manages to keep his wits about him to some degree and still tries to resist the feelings. Eventually he looks down at his chest and realizes he has somehow grown breasts and his whole body is now very feminine and curvy much to his shock and confusion.

Meanwhile the Crossfire reaches the city of Apollo where they meet with the Federation Commission. Jackson (Commander), Noreli (Plasma), Arianne (Angel) and D'ante (Guardian) meet with the federation scientists and ambassadors. The commission is lead by Director Lenard Owens who is joined by Dr. Myers, Detective Spade, and Lt. Bridges. Bridges is the only survivor left of the commission's platoon thanks to being in charge of guarding the others at the time the rest were on patrol but they still have no word on what happened to them. The commission explains that at the time of the disappearances the planets communications were being jammed by something which seems to concern Plasma as that's quite a feat to pull off. Angel questions Commander if they should check in with their other team but he seems confident they're fine. As the other three join the commission inside Angel ignores the Commander's lack of concern and calls Centurion. While he and Monkey are alright and have yet to spot anything on their speeders neither of them can get into contact with Rookie or Phantom which is enough to concern Angel who rushes back aboard the crossfire and orders Eagle to take off and head for the others.

Back in the forest Rookie is still being transformed by the creature. It releases the tentacle that was down his throat but when he's able to speak again his voice is much more feminine and high pitched. A moment later the creature reshapes its body once again to resemble a very busty looking woman. Rookie is still trying to resist it and spots some strange kind of device that seems to be lodged in its body but it continues to speak about evolving and how she is making him feel good. Unable to deny the pleasure he is feeling Rookie moves to caress the more human shaped body of the creature but it is quick to entice him to kiss her which results in another tentacle sliding down his throat to continue the process. With the new tentacle in his throat his mind clouds over with pleasure and lust and his face and crotch transforms within minutes. Unable to resist his (now her) urges from her new body Rookie begins to think more in a very lustful way. A moment later Centurion and Monkey have returned to their landing point but can't find any sign of Rookie or Phantom. after looking around they manage to overhear and spot Rookie struggling under the creature in the brush nearby. Both men assume she's a survivor of the platoon from earlier and move in to try and help. Rookie snaps mostly out of her daze trying to warn them but she is still fighting the creatures influence and can't move. Centurion tries to shoot the creature but the bullets have no effect on it apart from getting its attention. The creature then retracts from Rookie and bounds over to try and attack Centurion as well. Rookie manages to snap out of it once the creature is off of her and gets over to the other two. She tells Centurion to pull off the creature and throw it off to the side before it can drain his armor's power like it did to her. He manages to get it off in time and Rookie throws an incendiary grenade at it. The blast seems to do enough damage to drive the creature off but even after they throw another one the creature only seems to retreat not be destroyed. Once its driven off Monkey and Centurion talk with the woman they assume is a platoon survivor based on her gear but she is quick to try and explain to them how she's actually Taylor (Rookie) after seeing the damaged armor and gear as well as her knowing their codenames the two men realize she's telling the truth but and in awe of how this could have happened. A few minutes later Angel arrives on the Crossfire and exits the ship to find what has happened. While she thinks its joke at first she soon realizes they are being serious and that the creature has somehow altered Taylor's biological sex completely. She promises to try and figure out how this happened and help Taylor through it. Angel gives her a quick laser scan to be sure she isn't contagious or carrying anything that could effect the rest of the crew before they board the Crossfire.

Angel examines Rookie in the ships medical bay and after a few scans confirm she has somehow become a fully biological female. She asks her to strip and undress in order for her to examine her body fully. While Rookie is a bit hesitant she does so. Angel looks her over and is surprised the creature didn't leave any cuts or bruises and seems to have been very gentle after ripping off her armor. She also concludes that she has fully functional female genitals and has completely altered gender with no part of her body left as male. As the two are looking her over however Eagle comes into the room asking about the status of the mission. While he is merely mildly surprised by the other woman in the room and doesn't recognize her as Rookie he remains somewhat unfazed. Rookie however is tremendously embarrassed and both she and Angel ask him to leave. Angel doesn't explain things quite yet but does push on Eagle the importance of knocking before entering. Rookie then goes for a shower to calm down and give Angel time to get her a more fitting Endo Suite.

Meanwhile outside Commander arrives by speeder and meets with Monkey and Centurion. While he berates them a bit for splitting up and getting one of their own in a mess he is more concerned with finding Phantom as he has still been detected or replied to their communication signal. He also asks more specifics about what's happened with Rookie but Centurion insists that he needs to see for himself. Back in the ship Rookie is showering and while she is still somewhat in shock of her own body she does take the time to fondle herself a bit feeling a tremendous degree of pleasure from even mild touching. While she does wonder if the creature effected her nervous system at all she is too enraptured by the sensations to pay it much thought. Angel calls out to her to get out of the shower and brings her the Endo suite from her closet. Rookie dawns the suite but despite what minor adjustments Angel could do the chest and hips are very tight on her due to her curves being so much bigger than Angel's. After she is dressed Angel notices that she seems to still be wearing makeup despite just showering off and they realize the creature has somehow given her permanent make up that's now part of her face pigment. Angel then asks her if there are any other issues with her new body. Rookie points out she has been feeling a strange pain in her feet getting worse the past few hours and has Angel look them over. Angel discovers that Rookie's feet have been altered along with the rest of her skeletal structure. They now have a natural curve to them meaning Taylor will need to walk on her toes or in heals in order to avoid pain from walking flat footed with that shape.

After getting dressed the Commander walks in and while he is shocked at first he does his best to stay focused on mission. After a talk both Taylor and the Commander head to the conference room of the ship to talk about her encounter. She explains how the creature seemed to be damaged by an incendiary grenade but was unaffected by bullets or projectiles so the Commander feels it best to rely on energy based weapons for the crew. A moment later Garra returns after having learned what transpired. He explains that his com systems malfunctioned due to being so close to the communications tower and by the time he reached the top Taylor had gone into the woods and he couldn't see him/her from his vantage point. Despite the incident Garra does explain how he managed to get an audio file from the tower that seems to be the last transmission from the platoon they were looking for. Garra play it for the others but it only raises more questions as it seems the Platoon was fully swamped before they even knew what was happening. After gathering what information they could the Commander orders the ship back to Apollo so they can discuss things further with the Commission and hopefully shed some light on the situation.

### Drinks and Leftovers

This part is from Page 46 to 88. (↑ back to summary)

The Crossfire returns to the main building in Apollo where the team rendezvous with Guardian and Plasma. The Commander and Taylor both step out and speak with them briefly and while they both got the basic information on what happened to her they are sill shocked to see Taylor transformed. Noreli is a bit fascinated and interested in running some tests to figure out how this happened to her but D'ante is more enraptured and attracted to her. Both Taylor and D'ante talk a bit with D'ante complimenting her on her appearance and asking a few intimate questions and Taylor seems to be easily aroused and enjoys the compliments. Despite the chemistry between the two the Commander orders Taylor to join him and they both go to talk with the Commission. Once inside the two of them Talk with Dr. Owens and Dr. Myers and explain what happened to Taylor. Based on her description of how the creature was amorphous and gelatinous as well as able to drain away electrical energy Myers thinks that the only creature on Odyssey that matches the description is something called a "Glumine". After a bit of explaining Taylor and Myers assume that perhaps she was attacked and transformed by some new breed of Glumine as normally these creatures are benign and don't attack humans and they only drain minimal electrical energy from organic sources not technology. Taylor questions if these creatures could be responsible for the colonist disappearances but neither of the doctors feel there's any chance of that and just assume she had a bad luck encounter with a new species. Even if this new breed of Glumine is capable of doing this to humans and draining energy from technology they still feel they would not be intelligent or functional enough to kidnap colonists and operate a spaceship as no trace of them has been found on the planet. While they are left unsure what all this points to Myers tells them about a ecology lab in the city where they can get more information on the Glumine. The Commander agrees to head there and get some data in the hopes of figuring out more about what happened to Taylor but agrees to set up a guard rotation with the crew to protect the Commision in the city. Taylor also recommends keeping the Crossfire in orbit to avoid an incident with the Glumine draining power again and the Commander agrees.

Later that night Taylor is walking through the ship trying to clear her head and rest a bit. Drake arrives and wants to apologize as he blames himself for letting this happen to her as he was the one who suggested they split up the group. Taylor doesn't blame him at all but he can't help but feel the way he does. He gives her a bag full of casual women's clothing from Arianne as he had just come from a therapy session with her. He also invited her to join him in the ships bar for a few drinks and she happily accepts. Drake mixes the two of them drinks as they talk. He mentions how he was a soldier for years in the Galactic Union forces and Taylor talks about her time spent in the Marines, both of them bonding over their combined history in the Great War and fighting against the Harvengers. Drake however has served longer and seen much more action and thus has his fair share of emotional baggage. Taylor seems to admire him and becomes a bit more attracted to him after a few more drinks. Eventually the two call it a night and Taylor heads to her room to turn in for the night. Once in her quarters Taylor decides to strip in front of the mirror to admire her own body and is quickly enraptured by her new form. She then puts on a silk nighty from the clothing Adrianne gave her and is hopeful it will help her get a comfortable nights sleep. A few hours later Taylor is still awake and can't relax due to a few urges she is feeling. She is overcome by libido and sexual desires and can't calm her mind down so she decides to try and masturbate to hopefully relax her body and mind. She begins by teasing her new body and is quick to move to fingering herself. Wrapped up in the pleasure Taylor is overcome with so many new feelings and moves into fantasizing about D'ante due to the compliments he paid her today and after a while she climaxes to the thought of him and her having sex. While she is a bit worried the Glumine may still be effecting her mind somehow after having such foreign thoughts and feelings Taylor is at least able to drift to sleep soon after.

The next morning Taylor is having breakfast when Arianne and Noreli arrive to discuss their findings from her blood tests. They confirm that Taylor's DNA hasn't genuinely changed apart from her Chromosomes being fully swapped from XY to XX. They also explain that they have detected a very potent and unknown form of Aphrodisiac in her system that was released by the Glumine who attacked her. While Taylor denies her new found sexual urges she does admit she has felt a bit more pent up and had trouble sleeping last night because of it. Noreli explains that he found research on an Aphrodisiac bioweapon in the GU database that has a similar formula and the group of them theorize that perhaps the Sol Federation and GU's study of the Glumine lead to its development and the device Taylor saw inside of the Glumine may be what is extracting the pheromones responsible for it. Arianne moves to explain to Taylor that he body is now fully functional as a woman and she is likely to experience a minstrel cycle as well as the ability to bear children. While a bit shocked by this Taylor is a bit more concerned about controlling her libido heightened side now. At that point Drake, and D'ante arrive and announce the two of them along with Noreli are joining Taylor on her mission to scope out the Ecology lab to get more data on the Glumine. Taylor is eager to get back out in the field now that they've modified an EXO suite to fit her new body but she is also distracted by seeing D'ante again and admire both his and Drake's muscular bodies for a moment.

The deployment team lands at the site of the Ecology Lab. Rookie, Centurion and Guardian are in full armor while plasma remains in his ENDO suite so he can review the data in the facility with better ease. The Crossfire takes up a position high above the city and the group cautiously makes there way to the central lab. Plasma accesses the database while the others secure the perimeter. He pulls up data on the Glumine but according to the colony records the Glumine are meant to be a pale shade of blue yet the one that attacked Rookie was pink. At first Guardian assumes maybe the Glumine that attacked her was female and males are blue but Plasma reads the data saying how Glumine are an asexual species without genders. He also reads how they reproduce symbiotically with egg laying species like birds and reptiles. They will go after these species and inject them with various complex hormones and mutagens in order to reproduce. They will impregnate viable females or convert males into compatible females and the eggs these species lay will then contain Glumine cells in place of their normal offspring. As they discuss this however Centurion has his back turned towards the window of the lab and fails to the see a pink Glumine climbing up behind him. Plasma agrees the information on the Glumine is clearly inaccurate or something more has happened to them recently. Rookie thinks maybe the aphrodisiacal weapon they theorized about earlier may have mutated the Glumine and created the new pink breed but before they can all brainstorm much about it Centurion is attacked when the Glumine bursts through the window and pulls him out onto the side of the building restrained by its form.

The others try and race up the stairs to get the roof where the Glumine seems to have taken him but Centurion can't get free and the Glumine manages to drain his armor and throws his energy weapons away. Just as his EXO suite's power depletes the Glumine begins to pull off several pieces as it did before but after a moment it leaps to another nearby building with Centurion still in its embrace. He worries the Glumine have somehow gotten smarter and it purposely left parts of his armor on the roof to confuse the others. The Glumine then removes his helmet and begins the transformation process. While he tries to resist Centurion experiences the same euphoric effect Taylor had and his mind fogs as he tries to get free. As he struggles to keep his wits and fight off the Glumine he sees it split in two dividing its body and the device that is floating inside of it. The two separate Glumine then begin to take on a more human like shape and continue the process. Meanwhile the rest of the crew reach the roof but only find the armor pieces and can't spot Centurion. They then radio Eagle aboard the Crossfire and ask him to try and find their missing teammate. Back on the other roof the two Glumine have almost fully taken a human shape and continue to caress and transform Centurion. Just as his (now her) head transforms and her mind has almost completely fallen to the euphoria effects Eagle flies by and spots her. Using the ship to carry them over to the roof Eagle gets the rest of the team to the other building where they manage to hit the Glumine with an energy riffle to get it off of Centurion. One blast hits her leg and seems to snap her out of her daze and the two Glumine back away. Forced to act fast Eagle blasts the Glumine with the ships plasma cannon once its far enough away from the others and it seems to completely destroy them both. With the Glumine gone and Centurion freed the others go over to see she's been almost completely transformed but notice that her crotch is left unchanged due to them stopping the process before completion much to her own embarrassment. Rookie and Plasma find a small fragment of debris from the Glumine's device but are doubtful they can get much information out of it due to the damage. Guardian then takes Centurion back to the ship to be examined in the medical bay.

Back aboard the crossfire Noreli examines Drake's blood and D'ante tries to comfort her while she is still embarrassed at the situation. Drake also still has an erection due the effects of the Glumine's hormones but can't seem to make it go away. Noreli confirms Drake still has XY chromosomes but the rest of her body other than her crotch has become completely female. He assumes its because they managed to get to her within 20 minutes of her attack while it took them nearly 30 minutes to reach Taylor. While this is a good sign that the transformation process can at least be interrupted Drake is not to happy to be stuck like this due to her uncontrollable erection. Taylor returns with fitting women's clothing for Drake to change into since her ENDO suite has been torn apart. Both Noreli and D'ante leave to give the two women some privacy as Drake changes behind a screen. Before Taylor leaves she reluctantly asks her about her uncontrollable arousal. Taylor confirms its another effect of the transformation process and recommends the best way to get rid of her erection for a bit is to pleasure herself. Drake asks her to leave while she deals with it and Taylor thinks how she herself is in need of release as well as her hormones are driving up her libido again. The two girls separate and have their own private pleasuring sessions with each one fantasizing about the other admiring their bodies and equipment. After they both finish up and manage to clear their heads the Commander makes an overhead announcement for the crew to assemble in the conference room.

### Orbital Issues

This part is from page 89 to 137. (↑ back to summary)

In the Crossfire conference room the crew gathers to discuss the recent issues with the Glumine. Only Monkey and Phantom are absent due to their guarding the commission at the moment. Drake enters as eager and diligent as ever. Arianne is shocked to see how much she's changed and Jackson is surprised she seems so eager despite what's happened to her. Jackson also mentions how her old name of Drake no longer seems to fit since she's now essentially a woman. At first she doesn't think its necessary as Taylor didn't have to change her name but as Taylor is much more unisex the others think up the name Dayla for her instead. While she is not all to eager to be called a new female name and "cute" by some of the men on the ship she accepts the new name and simply readdresses the business at hand. The group begins to discuss the Glumine and how they need to consider them a serious threat now that two of the crew have been attacked and transformed. Noreli suggests that they need to capture a live sample of one of the Pink Glumine as well as seek out one of the blue Glumine in its natural habitat mentioned in the Odyssey database. Despite what he managed to gather from the site of the last Glumine's destruction it offers very little data. While Jackson is hesitant to approve such an endeavor he agrees to consider it and allows Noreli to begin work on a containment vessel for a live subject. After this Jackson instructs that all crew members will be assigned to carry energy weapons as they've proven the most effective against the Glumine thus far. All crew members are also instructed to remain in pairs at all times in the hopes of preventing another attack.

After the meeting Arianne pulls Taylor aside and offers her a chance to start coming to therapy sessions to help her better coup with at talk out any issues she may be having since her transformation. While Taylor is hesitant and is too embarrassed to open up yet about her seemingly uncontrollable libido issues she agrees to think it over. Later that night Dayla/Drake arrives on the bridge of the ship and offers to take over command shift from Jackson so he can get some rest and refocus efforts tomorrow. After he leaves Drake talks with Tel'Hara who is much less effected by her change and still addresses her as Drake and treats her the same. Tel'Hara says how Guardian and Angel are taking over protecting the Commission for the night and Monkey and Phantom are on their way back. Drake is hesitant to see them fearing they may make jokes or act strange around her due to her transformation especially Monkey/Leeroy. Tel'Hara however says how he feels it is dishonorable to allow something as simple as appearance effect how one views another. He says how he grew up as the only male in a large family and has learned not to look down on females in any way. This makes Drake blush a bit and she begins to feel a certain minor attraction to Tel'Hara just as the other two arrive to check in. Leeroy makes a light joke about seeing the new Drake in command so quick after her encounter. She is amused at this mild humor as she expected far worse. Phantom/Garra however addresses the issue and says how their mission to the Ecology lab seems to have been a failure. While Dayla says how they found a lot out about the Glumine to get them closer to answers. Garra however expresses how Zinarian's tend to feel anything beyond complete success is considered failure and Dayla's transformation is evidence things did not go flawlessly. This causes a bit of an argument between both Dayla and Garra as they both bring up the bad history of the Zinarian's and the civil war they brought onto the Galactic Union years ago. Leeroy manages to placate the situation and both of them admit they went too far. Dayla knows Garra's struggled with prejudice due to his people's bad history as well as how they now struggle to survive as most of their female population has been wiped out by Bioweapons. Garra acknowledges that it was the GU's leaders who allowed the use of those bioweapon's not the whole of the Union or anyone Dayla may have been involved with and he apologizes for her being transformed. After the two make up Garra goes off claiming to be doing research on something important but none of the others are sure what it could be.

A couple days later Taylor is pleasuring herself in her room again and while she is quick to orgasm and feel the release she had hoped for she worries as she has now had to masturbate about 3-4 times a day to control her sex drive and keep her mind clear. She considers talking about this to Dayla or maybe even Arianne hoping maybe she can prescribe something to help but is still to embarrassed to bring it up. She then goes to the ships gym hoping to work out and better strengthen her new body. When she gets there however she is upset by the fact she now can't seem to lift more than 5 kilo dumbbells' without much struggle and she used to be able to lift nearly 5 times that much as a man. D'ante arrives soon after hoping to join her and help out. While Taylor is a bit flustered seeing him work out she is happy for the company. D'ante mentions how he's been working to find more classified documents from the federation hoping they may hold more clues about what happened here. Taylor however is distracted by his muscles and how strong he is compared to her old body. Eventually D'ante mentions how since his cabin is right next to her he's been hearing her moan several times the past few days knowing what she's been up to. Taylor is very embarrassed but D'ante assures her that her secret is safe but she may want to try and keep it down. D'ante then talks with her and mentions how if she needs more of a release than simple masturbation he's be happy to help. Taylor is shocked he is being so forward with such an offer but he insists they could simply keep it casual and help both of them deal with their own pent up urges. She mentions how she read his file and how he was fired from Federation Intelligence for sleeping with the wives of two different officials D'ante however stands firm saying it was consensual and they needed their own release due to their husbands being away at work so much. While Taylor is not for the idea of sleeping with a crewmate as it's against regulations her hormones begin to spike again and she agrees that so long as its only for a release and remains casual between them she'll think it over. She leaves the gym soon after but now that D'ante has flooded her thoughts she feels she needs to have another pleasuring session in the shower to clear her head again.

The Next day Leeroy and Noreli are in the mess hall talking when Taylor walks in. They explain where most of the crew is scattered around the planet on routine patrol and guard assignments and Noreli announces that he's completed his prototype of a Glumine capture device. While it is small and likely couldn't capture a full sized Glumine he explains how it operates on clockwork gears a magnetism instead of electrical components. While it is still a prototype he trusts his science and hopes to capture a live specimen soon. As he explains the device he receives a video call from his home world of Mayverno. While the others keep eating off to the side Noreli answers and finds his brother Garkat, sister Narania, and nephew Dukeen calling. Noreli is happy to talk to his family and greets Dukeen lovingly but can't share very specific details about his mission or whereabouts. Dukeen likes his stories and the idea that his uncle is basically a spy from his point of view. As the family talks however Taylor overhears a few things off to the side and begins to question Leeroy on it as she is unfamiliar with Mayvern Culture. Leeroy confirms that both Garkat and Narania are Noreli's biological siblings and they're married with children. Leeroy explains how incestuous marriages are actually common in Mayvern society as unlike in humans it doesn't carry any risk of genetic issues. Noreli continues to talk with his siblings and they mention how they're expecting another child soon and they called to share the news with him hoping he'll be able to spend some time at home soon. Taylor is again shocked when she hears that this will be their 45th child. Leeroy again says how Mayvern are big on the idea of favorable genetics and inspire a lot of children to diversify the gene pool. That combined with their long life spans makes it common for some couples to have hundreds of children over the course of their lifetime. Noreli congratulates his siblings and hopes to see them soon before bidding them and his nephew farewell.

After he hangs up Taylor has a few more minor questions about having so many nieces and nephews. Noreli explains that Mayvern society and culture is very strict on favorable genetics in the hopes of bettering their species so they not only incentivize a lot of children but they also have a cast system where at the age of 15 a Mayvern is examine for healthy genetic make up and given one of three colored cards. Both his siblings are high ranking Purple Cards the top of the line for good genes, below that is blue cards with less favorable but still viable genes, the bottom rank is yellow cards which means the Mayvern's genes are undesirable and are not permitted to breed by law. Taylor is surprised how little she knew about the Mayvern but says how its a good thing Noreli and his siblings are Purple cards. Noreli however admits that he's actually a yellow card along with nearly half of all Mayvern. Despite his clearly advanced mental aptitude even for a Mayvern his short stature and weak physique was enough to classify him as a Yellow. He also explains how yellow carded Mayvern are sterilized so they can't procreate by mistake. Taylor is shocked at all this and begins to understand why Noreli rarely visits home. Leeroy however points out there's another reason for his avoidance of Mayverno. Noreli admits that when he recieved his yellow card and learned he was going to be sterilized he panic and before the procedure was done he hacked into the system to alter the records so it was listed that his sterilization had been carried out but in reality he never went through it. Due to his cultures focus on having children he's always wanted to be a parent, but now since Mayvern law forbids him to breed, even if he is still capable he can't as he could face execution for falsifying his records. Taylor offers what comfort she can but Noreli simply leaves to continue his work clearly trying to forget about his true desires.

A few hours later Plasma, Monkey, and Phantom are escorting Director Owens and Detective Spade through the city of Apollo looking for a few government buildings they haven't checked over yet. While the crew insists they need to stay aware of the Glumine threat the Director feels they have exaggerated their reports with the Glumine and doesn't believe they are hostile since all data on them suggests they are benign and passive creatures. Plasma tries to convince him but he remains hesitant to trust the crew due to them having a Zinarian in their ranks. Detective Spade runs off on her own thinking there is no danger nearby and goes in to investigate the building they came for. Monkey and Phantom go after her leaving Plasma with the Director, however unknown to any of them another Glumine is slithering through a nearby ally. Plasma instructs the director to enter the Rhino; their high tech vehicle they brought to escort them, and while he feels they are being overly cautious he agrees. Once inside however the Glumine slips in through the air vent and Plasma is unable to start the vehicle. Just as he starts to try and fiddle with the controls the Glumine seeps through the upper vents and has grown large enough to ensnare both Plasma and the Director. Owen's calls out and is in disbelief that they were right and there really are Pink Glumine going around attacking but as he struggles the Glumine slips its tentacle down his through and the familiar phrase of Relax is heard. Plasma struggles to get free and calls out on the comsystem to Phantom and Monkey but all they manage to hear is static and they continue on their way to find the detective.

In the Rhino the director thinks to himself how this is possible as all data on the Glumine said they were harmless and passive creatures but somehow this one is hostile and really is transforming the two of them. While he tries to communicate with it as it seems to be able to form clearer phrases and almost full sentences. It talks about evolving and helping them feel good. At first Owen's tires to resist but his mind quickly seems to fade to the euphoric effects of the process and instead of trying to fight it he thinks he should try to let it happen for the purpose of studying it first hand. Plasma however manages to resist most of the mental effects and the process seems to go much slower on him likely due to his being a Mayvern instead of a human. This combined with his strong mind helps him avoid succumbing to the pleasure effects of the Glumine but he begins to quickly loose what little muscle he had and still can't break free. The Glumine mass around the director begins to shape itself into a more human shape but this time its a human male form that has a body similar to his former one as he is now almost fully transformed. Within a moment the body transformation is complete and the director is fully female now. The Male form Glumine however grows a set of male genitals and this seems to entice and enrapture Owen's due to his (now her) mind having slipped into a state of Bliss. Plasma surmises the Glumine are purposely altering their victims into a state very susceptible to pleasurable sensations and then cloud their mind into a state of hormonal bliss they can't seem to resist.

Back in the government building Monkey and Phantom find the detective in a computer station and while they berate her for running off she still insists there is no danger. She also announces she found classified files she had not yet seen from the Sol federation and it seems to have shed a bit of light on the colony disappearances. While the others ask her for more detail she says its sensitive information for humans and clearly doesn't want to let anything slip to Phantom as he is a Zinarian. She says she'd rather take the information back to the commission before making a report to the Crossfire Commander. Despite Phantom saying they should go Spade runs upstairs saying she needs to check more stations before they leave hoping to uncover more and still feeling they're all safe.

Back at the Rhino, Owens has all but fully succumb to the Glumine in male form and begins to caress its new equipment. It still talks in broken sentences but seems to be just as interested in giving her pleasure as it is restraining Plasma so he (now effectively she) can't fight back. Plasma tries to think of a way when her thoughts begin to cloud over as well but she still clings to her mind enough to spot her prototype canister off the side and thinks she can use it to free herself and get to her weapons. Just as her physical transformation seems to finish she reaches the canister with her legs and throws it towards the tentacle holding her up. The device works and it captures a big enough portion of the Glumine's body to free herself and flee out the door. The Male form Glumine calls out saying she is not evolved yet and Owens is more confused and somewhat in a daze. Plasma manages to reach an energy pistol and starts to unload into the Glumine. While it seems to take damage Owen's argues for her to stop. She continues long enough for the others to hear her weapons fire from nearby and they both agree to go back and help knowing something is wrong. Monkey grabs Spade and pulls her with them by force running to help the others.

Back in the streets Plasma has drawn the Glumine's remaining body out of the Rhino and away from Owens enough to use her incendiary grenade witch seems to do the trick and burns out the Glumine. After its killed Plasma goes to Owens and finds her more lucid but still in a daze. She wonders out of the Rhino and her mind clears enough to realize what's happened. Seeing the truth with her own eyes she apologizes for not taking the crews warnings seriously and agrees these Glumine are a threat that needs look into much more. A moment later the rest of the group arrives. Monkey and Phantom confirm the Glumine is dead but Phantom fears this is another failure as both Owens and Plasma have been fully turned into females. Spade comes over to Owens shocked that what the crew said was all true and there really is an alien changing people's genders on this planet. Despite Phantom seeing the negatives Monkey goes to Plasma to see if she is alright expressing a very caring degree of concern for her which she seems to find comforting. She also shows how her canister worked and she now has a live Glumine specimen to study and hopefully get answers. Both Spade and Owens suggest they return to HQ and make a much more serious report so they can reassess the best course of action from here. Monkey agrees and calls for Eagle to pick them all up.

### Old Habits and New Subjects

This part is from pages 137 to 182. (↑ back to summary)

Back at HQ a few hours later Dr. Sadie Myers is berating Commander Jackson over his teams failure to protect Director Owens. The Commander retorts saying how it was Detective Spade's behavior that separated the team and Owen's dismissal of their warnings that resulted in the attack. While Myers is still angry and argues that the Crossfire crew is suppose to be the ones ready for anything Owen's arrives after having recovered a bit and found new clothing. She stops the arguing and tells Myers that the Commander and Crossfire crew are correct and its time they fix their relationship with them. While Myers is still a bit angry Owens and Spade both apologize for their mistrust of the crews warnings and both of them admit they were the ones at fault on their last mission. Noreli, Garra, and Leeroy join them as the groups make peace. The crew and commission both agree they need to work together to better understand these Glumine as well as find out what happened to the colonists. Now that its quite proven that somehow a new breed of Glumine with these abilities has emerged both groups begin to theorize about if they are connected to the disappearances. The commission still thinks the Glumine couldn't be responsible for all 64,000 colonist disappearing off planet as they still haven't shown enough intelligence to jam all planetary communications let alone develop a form of FTL travel to get them all off world. Noreli says how the sample she collected can be studied and hopefully offer a few answers. Myer's suggests they give the sample to the commission as its the Crossfire crew's job to protect the commission not research the disappearances but they both agree to compromise and split the sample so they both can study it. As they discuss their findings thus far Leeroy brings up the fact that Spade found something on the mission but has yet to share details about it. Owens and Jackson question her on it but she insists that she'll explain what she found only on the condition that Garra leave the room because he is a Zinarian. While Garra is angered by this Jackson convinces him to go so they can break the ice with the commission.

After Garra leaves Spade informs the Crossfire crew that there is a Zinarian research facility on Odyssey that has been in operation for years in the glacial regions far to the north. It was set up after an agreement between the Sol Federation and The Zinarian Empire under the indication that the Zinarians were studying a rare mineral unique to Odyssey they claimed could enhance the Unions FTL travel technology. Up until now the facility was on a need to know basis and as the commission already explored it and found nothing of use or significance there they didn't think anything of it. Noreli questions this as she knows that Odyssey is not a mineral rich planet and has no unique materials. However Spade found a classified document in the records from Apollo that suggested something more had been going on there. The official records showed that over a month before the disappearances of the colonists the lab had been shut down and abandoned due to budget cuts due to lack of significant results. Spade then explains that the records she found showed that the federation made a transfer with the Zinarians at the facility right around the time of its shut down. A massive payment of 55 trillion Union credits was made but it is not specified what the federation paid so much for from a facility that was reportedly producing no results. Both crews are at a loss as that payment could buy 50 more facilities like that one and what ever was purchased was not mentioned in the records Spade found. Both sides begin to worry that the Zinarians may have been up to something suspicious and possibly be responsible for the disappearances.

Taylor then speaks up and asks why everyone seems to be so quick to mistrust and suspect the Zinarians. She knows they were on the other side of the Union's Civil war some 300 years ago but doesn't understand why there is so much mistrust still persisting here today. Jackson explains how 300 years ago the Zinarian's held the majority in the Galactic Union and controlled most of it with an iron fist. When other factions began to rebel against them they began the Galactic Civil War. Eventually the Zinarians lost this war when the other factions of the Union began using Bioweapons against them. These bioweapons wiped out 80% of their total population and 99% of their female population. Ever since then their species has been in decline and their population is barely able to grow with so few females of their kind left. While politically the situation has mostly started to normalize and the remaining Zinarians are now a less influential member of the Union a lot of their leaders still hold hostilities and blame the Union for the decline of their empire and species. Since Zinarians have very long lifespans a great many surviving soldiers are still alive today and their is a great deal of mistrust and bad history towards them. Noreli then points out a few concerning facts about Garra. Garra is the second newest crewmember after Taylor so he hasn't been with the Crossfire very long. She also points out that he was there when Taylor was attacked yet disappeared as it was happening. He could have possibly been contacting other Zinarians or purposely attracting the Glumine at the communications tower. He also ignored her and Owen's distress call and dismissed it as static even though the crew was meant to be on alert. Garra had also taken over commanding the ship from Leeroy when they received the job offer to come there to begin with. These incidents combined begin to give the crew reason to suspect Garra may be a Zinarian spy observing and reporting what's happening on Odyssey. While Leeroy is not convinced and there still is no iron clad evidence Jackson agrees there's enough red flags to cause concern and agrees to keep some of these details from Garra for the time being but doesn't like leaving any of his crew in the dark. The two groups agree to share information between them but for now Garra will be kept in the dark on the Zanarian details. Noreli leaves to begin her study of the Glumine sample but passes Garra in the hallway outside. He asks her what was discussed but she simply says she is not at liberty to discuss it and leaves him thinking to herself how its still likely he is a spy and may have had a hand in what happened to her.

A couple days later, Noreli is studying the pink Glumine sample she recovered and while it does show interesting data the fact that its only a partial sample has limited its data. Leeroy arrives to bring her some food as she's spent nearly two days straight going over the sample. Leeroy is surprisingly comforting and polite to Noreli despite his usually being the one to make jokes or pick on other members of the crew for his amusement. While Noreli points out how he's usually, what the Mayverns call a "Burah" or annoying pest now that she's a woman he seems so much more friendly and caring towards him. As the two of them seem to start flirting a bit the Glumine sample reacts and senses that Noreli is becoming more and more drawn to Leeroy and reshapes its self into the shape of a male penis. The two continue to talk and after a moment Noreli sees the sample has reshaped. She gets worried what Leeroy will think if he sees so she does her best to distract him and hind the canister behind her back. The two continue to talk a bit more and Leeroy goes as far as to ask Noreli to a dinner date in a few days and while she is both flustered from seeing the Glumine sample and is clearly feeling an attraction Leeroy due to her transformation she agrees. Leeroy leaves after a moment and Noreli watches the sample as it grows even larger. She even goes as far as to consider letting the sample free so she can "experiment" with it but she manages to collect her thoughts and dismiss the idea. She does however think of how she may be able to experiment with her new body with Leeroy instead.

The next day Taylor comes to see Arianne and asks if she can borrow a few more outfits form her since she's starting to get tired of wearing the same few she already gave her. Arianne is happy to oblige and lets Taylor in to try on a few more bits of clothing. As she is trying them on Arianne asks her about how she's been feeling and how the crew has been treating her. Taylor mentions how one of the crew members has offered to help her with her new urges. While Taylor doesn't name anyone Arianne is quick to deduce she is talking about D'ante and calls her on it. Taylor admits it but also says how she thinks even a simple friends with benefits arrangement to help her better deal with her newly enhanced sex drive would be helpful for her. Arianne however recommends against it as it can cause more issues down the road. Taylor agrees to not jump into anything too rashly and the two sit and talk a bit more. As Taylor packs up the outfits she's borrowed she notices a few pictures on Arianne night stand along with two rings. She casually questions her on it hoping to ease the awkwardness a bit. Arianne however begins to get a bit sad and says how the two different men are named Rico and Harvey. They were both her fiancés at one time but each one died before they could tie the knot. Arianne however kept the ring each of them gave her and keeps both their pictures around to feel like they're always still with her in spirit. Taylor apologizes for bringing up such a sad subject with her but Arianne is glad to share with a friend despite the tears.

A week after they captured the sample the Crossfire crew debate on the bridge what to do next. Noreli says the best thing they could do next is to seek out a natural Blue Glumine in the hope that comparing the Blue ones to the Pink sample they have she can get a better understanding of how they are different or why they exist to begin with. Jackson is hesitant to risk another attack as the federation data on the Glumine being passive has certainly proven unreliable. Both Tel'Harra and Dayla agree that it would be worth the risk if it leads to a way to reverse the effects of the Pink Glumine and they now have a better understanding to be more prepared. They also say how Arianne has developed a Glumine antibody that they hope can paralyze a Glumine easily so they see a mission to capture a blue one as a viable test. Jackson agrees and recruits a team of Himself, Plasma, Centurion, and Eagle to travel to the Chronos wilds and capture a blue Glumine. Eagle is most eager as he has been mainly kept aboard the ship for their time on Odyssey and Centurion goes to get ready though is a bit concerned and pent up to vent some aggression out. A few hours later the team arrives at the Chronos wilds where Monkey pilots them down and drops them off to keep the ship at a safe distance. After a short trek through the un-terraformed and very alien environment they come across a large reptile like creature. It seems to resemble a bearded dragon lizard but completely green and the size of a tiger. Eagle says it looks similar to an animal on his home world but as the crew admire it a blue Glumine appears and attacks the creature. While the crew takes aim Plasma tells them to lower their weapons and observe the process. The reptile is quick to stop struggling and Noreli assumes the Glumine has drained its bioenergy as the records suggested it could. They all watch as it slinks a tentacle down the creatures throat and as this reptile is already naturally female it seems to reshape itself into the shape of a male of the species. The Lizard creature then seems to become very accepting of the situation and is seemingly in a state of bliss. As the team observes the process however another Glumine appears behind them. Unlike the pink ones that attack very directly this blue one seems to just slink away proving the federation records correct that the natural Glumine are passive. As it slinks away Dayla tests the antibody and hits the Glumine with a dart that seems to cause it to be tranquilized almost instantly. While happy to have an effective way of dealing with them now the effects only last about 30 seconds then the Glumine runs off showing its fearful of humans instead of drawn to them like the pink ones. Plasma suggest they tranquilize the Blue Glumine they saw first and take both it and the lizard creature back to the ship for testing. While Eagle and Centurion watch their backs Commander and Plasma approach the Glumine and Lizard. They stun the Glumine with another dart long enough to get it all into another container and the Lizard seems to be weakened enough from its encounter with it to be captured easily. The team then call down the ship requesting pick up and reporting a success without incident. Plasma is eager to get these subject back to the lab and find answers to all of this and the Commander is confident she can.

A couple days later Arianne is having her usual therapy sessions with Dayla. While she worries that after nearly two weeks, Dayla may still be finding it difficult to adjust to the fact that she's effectively a woman now she claims she's coping with it well. Arianne talks with her a bit and Dayla says how it seems that only Tel'Hara and her don't treat her any different from before. Other's like D'ante and even the commander now seem to see her as weaker due to having lost so much masculinity. As the two continue to talk Arianne asks if her feelings have been effected or changed since transforming. Dayla hesitantly admits to her about the issues with her sex drive. How despite still having her male genitals she has very heightened libido and has to masturbate a few times a day to keep it under control. Arianne asks if there is anyone specific that she's developed a sexual attraction to on the crew. Dayla claims she feels a certain comfort around her but insists that it is and always has been platonic. Despite this Dayla gets an erection much to her own embarrassment and while Arianne is not too freaked out Dayla still tries to hide herself and apologize for her lack of control. Arianne understands and says she may be able to prescribe something to help her with the increased sex drive, happy that Dayla told her. While Dayla is hopeful that she's correct and she can get help controlling her urges until they find a way to undo the transformation she remains a bit embarrassed and concerned.

A bit later that night Taylor is in her cabin and thinks about pleasuring herself again. Despite her clear need for a release Taylor worries her condition is getting worse as she's already fingered herself several times that day and still her urges just keep coming back and clouding her mind. After realizing simple masturbation is no longer cutting it, she decides it may be time to put D'ante's offer to the try and see if having real sex with a man will have a better effect on controlling her libido. Taylor digs out a sexy outfit from the clothing Arianne gave her and changes into it before heading next door to D'ante's cabin. Next door a few minutes later D'ante is thinking to himself how difficult its been for him to try and decrypt the Federation files he's been looking over the past week or so and is concerned what they are trying to hide happened here. At that moment however a load knock on the door is heard. D'ante goes to answer it and finds Taylor standing the in the entrance clearly enthralled by her sexy outfit. Taylor begins to flirt with him a bit claiming she wants to take him up on his offer and find out what its like to finally have sex with a man and hopefully give them both a sense of release. D'ante is just as eager as she is and agrees as the two begin foreplay. The two of them undress and while Taylor may be overwhelmed at first by D'ante's size she starts things off by giving him a blow job. Things move quickly into D'ante eating her out and eventually the two move to vaginal sex. Both of them clearly swept away in pleasure as they continue until they climax at the same time. Both admire each other's passion and fall asleep in each others' embrace.

The next morning Taylor wakes up with a much clearer head and while she is still surprised she really went so far with D'ante she does admit that her urges seem to be gone and while she is not against the idea of having a repeat of last night she is able to think much more clearly without her libido clouding her mind. D'ante arrives soon after with two cups of coffee and the two talk a bit about how good the other was last night. A moment later however Jackson knocks on the door and wants to speak with D'ante. Freaked out Taylor ducks behind the bed while D'ante goes to answer it. While Jackson questions him on the two cups of coffee and why he seems so chipper this morning D'ante manages to play it off and convince Jackson everything is fine. Jackson says how with everything that's happened lately Arianne has recommended he take a day off. D'ante thinks its a good idea and he deserves it. Jackson wanted to talk to Taylor about swapping guard shifts but she's not answering her door and Jackson asks D'ante if he's seen her. D'ante plays it off saying she's likely fast asleep after working late but Jackson begins to get a bit suspicious. Despite that D'ante tells him to go enjoy himself and relax for a day and he'll take care of tracking down Taylor about protecting the commission today. Jackson thanks him and leaves but thinks to himself how he may need to keep and eye on him and Taylor now that she's a girl. Taylor comes out relived they didn't get caught and while D'ante laughs about how paranoid she is he also goes to embrace her and is happy the two seem to have begun a very enjoyable arrangement. The two kiss before Taylor goes to get dressed and take over for Jackson's shift.

### Birth of Temptress

This part is from pages 183 to 240. (↑ back to summary)

Later that afternoon Rookie and Angel are on guard detail outside the commission HQ. While they are both happy that there haven't been any more Glumine Attacks recently they are both feeling board and decided to get in a little target practice with some nearby trees. As the two shoot for the knot in the trees Angel brings up their last conversation and apologizes to Rookie about how she got a bit hostile and emotional talking about her late fiancés. Rookie assures her its fine but Angel says how she's willing to talk about it now so she can vent and satisfy her curiosity. Angel explains how her first fiancé Rico was her long time crush she grew up with and the two got engaged while they were still on their home world, a colony on the planet Chocoias. However, when they were still young the Harvengers attacked and ravaged the planet as it was a major shipyard for the GU. Rico and all of Angel's family were killed but she managed to get on one of the last evacuation ships. After that she joined the GU Navy and became a nurse and therapist to help others. During her service in the Navy throughout the Great war she met her second fiancé Harvey and while she was hesitant to fall in love again the two of them ended up engaged. Unfortunately, two weeks before they were set to get married Harvey was shot and killed by a Harvenger attack in a supposed safe zone. After that Angel eventually joined Crossfire and still tires to help others but doesn't want to get too close to anyone else out of fear of losing them again. Rookie sympathizes with her and asks if she can start having therapy sessions as well. Angel is eager to start sessions with Rookie hoping she can help her through any issues the recent transformation has caused.

The next day Jackson is in his quarters talking with his daughter Aria over a video link. While Jackson is happy to hear from her after so long she is a bit disappointed that he hasn't come for a visit in so long as missed another Christmas with his grandchildren. While Jackson does apologize he mentions how he's always worked hard in both the military and the Crossfire crew in order to provide for his family. Aria agrees that he always made sure she, and her siblings were provided for and has helped them all build good lives for themselves but she feels with his being away on missions all the time and barely home that he was more of a benefactor sending them money than an actual father to any of them. Jackson agrees and while he still remains focused on the mission he also promises to try and come for a visit home soon. He does regret not being there enough for his kids and does wish that he could try and have a do over with his personal life. Aria says while it may be too late to fix everything between them she still wants to have him in her life and the lives of her kids. Jackson is a bit upset by this but agrees. A moment later D'ante knocks on the door and Jackson ends the talk with Aria to discuss their mission. D'ante comes in to talk about his most recent findings but questions Jackson as he is clearly upset. Jackson tells him about Aria and how he regrets not being there for his kids so much. While D'ante reassures him that he gave them a good upbringing by sending them so much money through his career Jackson is still a bit depressed and wishes for a do over. Moving on from those issues, Jackson asks for D'ante's latest update. He reports that he's managed to decrypt a few federation files and believes he has a few answers to some of their questions. D'ante explains to Jackson how he found a report from the Federation about what was purchased from the Zinarian research base. The Zinarian's were studying the Glumine and their reproductive abilities but in the process they discovered the Glumine produced a mix of hormones that would act as a chemical aphrodisiac. While it was not their main goal the Zinarian's discovered this accidentally and after examining it they learned it could actually be used as a bioweapon against the Harvengers. While most species exposed to the aphrodisiac would simply experience various degrees of arousal in Harvengers it causes internal bleeding. Thus the Zinarian's sold the aphrodisiac formula as a bioweapon to the federation for the 55 trillion credits. Soon after that the Zinarian's shut down their lab and left the planet just over a month before the disappearances. Jackson is impressed but also surprised at the results. He thinks this may get them closer to an answer if they can further investigate why the Zinarians were experimenting with the Glumine. He orders a full crew assembly excluding Garra as he is still hesitant to rust him with this unsettling news about his own people. D'ante goes to call the meeting and Jackson continues to review the decrypted files.

A few minutes later the crew apart from Angel and Phantom have assembled in the conference room. While the others are on guard duty Jackson disscusses their findings with the rest of them. A few members like Leeroy and Noreli think the commission may know about the aphrodisiac bioweapon but have purposely withheld any information on it from them. Taylor and Tel'Hara are unsure but they agree if the Zinarian's were experimenting with the Glumine this may lead them to an answer as to where the pink ones came from. Jackson agrees they need to look into this more. So far the commission has refused a mission to the Zianarian outpost and claimed that they found nothing of significance there when they explored it before. Jackson however says they need to investigate and will hold back from telling the commission until they see for themselves. He assembles a team of D'ante, Leeroy, Taylor, Noreli, and himself to look into the facility while the other stay to back up Phantom and Angel and watch the ship. The team agrees and heads to suite up. Hours later The Crossfire lands in the glacial regions just outside the facility and drops off the team. They get inside but its freezing cold and Plasma points out that Glumine could not survive at these temperatures so they should be safe from any attack. The grew fans out in pairs to look through the facility but just as the commission reported they find nothing worth wile. Mainly emptied storage and housing areas with nothing regarding their research or the Glumine. After several hours Commander begins to consider leaving but Guardian finds a geared mechanism hidden near the center of the facility and after a bit of tinkering finds it opens a elevator platform that leads deep underground.

The Group descends several hundred meters down and finds a much warmer and better equipped station they think will hold the answers they're looking for. As the group begins to look around and find active computers with viable data they fail to realize a single pink Glumine has been stirred awake in a broken holding tank off to the side. The Station has very little energy, so the crew looks for some way to power up the lights and at least get the computer going so they can salvage data. As the others work to find a way to power the place, Commander goes off on his own and finds what he assumes is the former administrators housing unit based on how elaborate it is. Once inside the other on the team radio him and say the main generators is gone but they found a few battery cells they are trying to tie in to power up a few systems. A moment later the lights come on and Commander removes his helmet not that its much warmer and more comfortable in the lower areas of the facility. However, the Glumine from earlier has slinked into the ventilation shaft and is watching him through the overhead grate. Oblivious to the creature slipping slowly into the room Commander finds a data tablet and sits down on the bed to read through some of the entries. He reads through a few entries about what the Zianrians were doing there. They came to study the Glumine based on their ability to mate and reproduce with practically any other life form and produce offspring fully Glumine as a result. In their assessment they found the aphrodisiac that they could repurpose into the bioweapon to sell to the Sol Federation, calling it a happy accident and selling it for more funding than they could have hoped for to continue their projects with the Glumine but there is little mention of what specific project they were doing and why they left the facility let alone if and why they created the Pink Glumine. As the Commander reads these entries however the Glumine has slipped into the room and has quietly removed his weapons from his belt and placed them out of reach. Just as he hears it moving behind the Glumine attacks and entangles him like the others beginning the transformation process.

As the Glumine begins to talk to Jackson saying things like Relax and Evolve like the others, he notices the device floating inside of the Glumine and thinks it may be its weak point. He reaches into the Glumine and smashes the device with is hands hoping that it will weaken or stop the Glumine. However, it seems to have the opposite effect and the Glumine suddenly begins to speak in much clearer sentences and seems to become a bit more aware. Jackson tries to fight it off but with its device damaged the Glumine reshapes itself into a female form that Jackson recognizes as very similar to his ex-wife. The Glumine not only seems to have gotten much smarter and aware of Jackson's thoughts and memories but is also much stronger as Jackson cannot fight it off as the transformation process begins and his body begins to change. Back in the lab Plasma has accessed more data on the Zinarians. She sees that the mechanical devices inside the Glumine are a combination of controllers and suppressors. Not only to they seem to allow the Zinarians a degree of control over the pink Glumine but it also acts as a suppressor to prevent them from absorbing too much intelligence from sentient beings. The Glumine seems to be able to absorb inteligence and thoughts just as they do electrical energy and this allows them to become smarter if they feed on and transform sentient beings like Humans. The devices inside of them prevent this from occurring too much and keep the Glumine from getting too smart. The Zinarians found a way to control them but worried if they absorbed too much knowledge they would grow beyond their control. Rookie and Monkey ask why the Zinarian's were studying the Glumine to begin with. Plasma sees how their research was focused on how the Glumine were unique in the sense that they could procreate with practically any other species to produce their offspring. She then theorizes that since the Zinarian's have been in decline since the GU civil war that perhaps they hoped the Glumine would help them find new ways to procreate to build up their population again as so few females of their own kind had died off. The group continue to look over the data but Jackson is still bound and being transformed by the Glumine in another room.

Jackson begins to feel the mental effects of the Glumine's transformation process and is over come with pleasure as it gives him (now her) a female body step by step. The Glumine is now able to speak in almost complete and full sentences and addresses her as Janet now. Janet continues to try and resist but after so long the Glumine's effects are too much for her to resist. After her transformation finishes Janet tries to argue that she doesn't want any of this but the female form Glumine insists that she does and drips a bit of her gooey body onto the now very curvy body of Janet. The goo she dripped on then quickly reshapes into a sexy lingerie piece that not only dresses Janet but also stimulates her breasts and vagina to keep her in a state of intense arousal. Unable to fight her urges Janet begins to submit more and more. With her mind so clouded over by the Glumine's hormone effects Janet's eyes glaze over into a shade of pale pink like the Glumine's body. Now detecting her thoughts very clearly the Glumine says how she feels Janet now craving more pleasure and transforms her gooey body to now have a very large penis that Janet is quick to be enraptured by. As the two fondle each other in a form of foreplay both Janet and the Glumine eat each other out and Janet moves to begin sucking on The Glumine's nipples.

At that moment, Guardian radios over to check in on Commander but the com device is off to the side. At first Janet snapps out of her daze briefly hopeful that if she doesn't answer then the others will come looking and save her but the Glumine manages to reach over to the communicator and speaks into it. She then mimics the Commanders voice flawlessly but still misses a few words in her sentences. Janet if frightened by this but still unable to resist it and is too gagged by the Glumine to speak up. Despite the convincing impression Guardian questions, her based on how she is still speaking strangely. In a desperate attempt to complete the process the Glumine increases its effect on Janet's mind. Janet feels an aching in her head when the Glumine seems to forcibly extract more intelligence from her and after a moment she now able to speak clearly in full and complete sentences. She radios that all is well to Guardian and then throws the communicator away to continue her fun with Janet. After her head ache fades off Janet begins to speak and think in very fractured sentences. A small part of her realizes that the Glumine is wearing down her mind and panics but she is too placated to fight any more and within a few more moments of foreplay and overwhelming pleasure she submits and moves to begin to have sex with the Glumine. Back out in the facility Plasma confirms the data is downloaded and they should return to the ship to analyze it more. Both her and Guardian head off to the find the Commander. Back in the bedroom Janet has all but completely given into the Glumine and moves to position herself to be on the receiving end of its penis but before things go any further Guardian and Plasma arrive and see what has occurred. Plasma drugs the Glumine with a quick shot of the toxic dart momentarily crippling her back into a mass of goo. Janet cries out in terror feeling like they're hurting her friend, but the others act fast to get the paralyzed Glumine into Plasma's containment vessel before the drug wears off. While they are successful, Janet seems to be in a hazed almost drugged or intoxicated state of mind and speaks all bubbly and flirty with the other two. The Glumine also speaks from within the containment vessel and recognizes both Guardian and Plasma much to their horror as it has become far more intelligent than they thought possible. Guardian calls for evacuation and they take Janet back to the Crossfire.

A few minutes later in the medical bay aboard the Crossfire Noreli gets Janet into a medical gown and begins preliminary examinations of her new body. Noreli tries to talk with her and addresses her as Commander, but she now only thinks of herself as Janet and doesn't seem to really recognize Noreli or where they are. Noreli worries as she sees that the mental influence of the Glumine can go much farther than they thought. She tries to speak with Janet a bit more and while she does seem to remember a few things like a freckled red head and how she did used to be a man but now she is more content with her new body and only eager to meet her friends who are hunky guys. She doesn't seem to recall any of the crew or their code names and acts more like a horny teenager then a Commanding officer. Arianne comes in soon after and is horrified to see how drastically the Commander has been altered. While Janet seems to remain bubbly and just complain that she can't keep going with "her Pink Friend" Noreli and Arianne are concerned how her mind seems to have almost completely faded. At that moment D'ante, Taylor, and Dayla arrive to see for themselves just how bad the situation really is. Janet is surprised to see she has so many friends and is too high on hormones to do much more than flirt with D'ante and complain she can't do something more fun. Noreli and Arianne keep her on the bed and while she just sees fit to fondle herself Noreli points out that Commander Jackson had contingency plans in place should he ever be killed or deemed unfit for command. As the next in line with the most time served on Crossfire Noreli assumes command of the crew for the time being.

Noreli hopes that based on the data they recovered that Janet's mind will slowly start to come back to her. She seems to show this when she calls Arianne by name without being told but Noreli thinks based on her degree of exposure it may take days for her mind to clear up completely. While Arianne continues to examine Janet Noreli shares the data she gathered about the Glumine and the Zinarians. While it confirms the Zinarians created the devices inside of the Glumine it is not clear if they also made the pink Glumine. Noreli orders D'ante to go through all the data they gathered and try and find solid confirmation the Zinarians created the pink Glumine. She then elaborates some of the notes she has already gone through. She explains how the Zinarians cataloged different stages of mental transformation throughout the Glumine process based on duration of exposure. Based on data Dayla is at Stage 1 where sex drive and urges are boosted. Stage 2 is where the victims preferences shift to Bi-sexual which is where Taylor seems to be. Janet has reached Stage 4 which entails an aggressive sex drive and decreased intellect. Noreli and Director Owens seem to be at Stage 3 where the victim has an increased desire to procreate and become a parent. While they have not yet witnessed any further transformations the data mentions a stage 5 where the victim becomes increasingly attracted to Glumine and Zinarian males and a stage 6 where they have total loss of any attraction to women. With all the data they've collected Norelli theorizes that the Zinarians used the funds they got from the Federation to engineer a new sub species of Glumine. Since the Glumine are naturally monocellular life forms cellular alteration could have been done easier with enough time and resources. While the crew is still unsure as to why they did it they are more and more convinced the Zinarians are the ones behind the Glumine and possibly the disappearances of the Odyssey colonists.

Noreli then instructs Taylor and Dayla to join Leeroy who has been prepping a containment cell to hold the captured Glumine. She wants them to question it/her and see if she knows anything about the Zinarian's plans and purposes with her kind since she is clearly the most intelligent one that they have found thus far. The two girls join Leeroy and after he confirms the holding cell has been modified, they tranquilize the Glumine once more and poor her limp body out of the vessel and seal the cell before she wakes up. After a few seconds she reforms into her female shape and begins to speak with the crew as if she is very familiar with them. She proceeds to playfully mock the three of them and insist they join her in the cell. She even goes as far as to give herself a male penis again in an effort to make Dayla blush. While Taylor is breifly aroused by the sight of it they sternly tell her to stop and to form clothing for herself. She shifts her body to make it appear as if she is dressed now and they begin to question her on why she is more intelligent that the other Glumine they've found. She explains that she absorbed almost all the knowledge of Commander Jackson and now knows a great deal about the crew and ship. She explains that the rest of her kind have been suppressed from their potential by the devices the Zinarian's placed within them and when Jackson damaged hers her ability to absorb intelligence from her victim returned to much greater strength. However, since the device is still inside of her even damaged, she is still not at her full peak of intelligence. Dayla asks why she doesn't try to rip the device out herself now that she's more self-aware. The Glumine explains that the device is set to release a deadly toxin if a Glumine tries to remove it by force. She tries to entice them to remove it from her completely saying that's the only way they will learn about what orders the Zinarians are sending to it and the other Glumine but Taylor and Leeroy fear doing so will free her mind too much and she'll become too intelligent to control. Tay offers a concerned Dayla some comfort but The Glumine sees this and begins to wonder if she can use their feeling to her own advantage. seeing no other way to get answers out of her Leeroy tries to play along with her game and offers the Glumine a deal. For every question of theirs she answers they will answer one from her. She playfully agrees and the game between them all begins. First Taylor asks why the Zinarians placed the devices inside of the Glumine. She answers that they saw the Pink Glumine's potential and wanted to control it for themselves, so they sought to create and control and army of them at their command. A thought that greatly concerns the crew. Dayla begins to ask who they plan to send this army against, but the Glumine reminds her its her turn to ask a question. The Glumine does not like be referred to as such so she asks what she should have a codename like the other crew members. Dayla and Leeroy try and make up insulting names like Slimy or Smug monster but eventually the Glumine settles on the name "Temptress" based on how she has enticed them all so well.

While not happy about it the other crew members agree to begin calling the Glumine woman Temptress as requested. Satisfied with her new name she asks for their next question. Taylor asks if the Zinarians truly did create the Pink Glumine. Temptress confirms it and says how they engineered the pink breed from experimenting on the blue ones but the pink ones became much more then they ever hoped for so they had to create the suppressor devices to keep them under their control. Leeroy asks why they would do any of this but Tempress once more points out it's her turn to ask a question. She then asks why they all are so resistant to the "gift" of her kind. Dayal calls out how none of them want this and don't see being turned into women as a gift but Temptress goes on about how Janet is clearly in a state of Bliss and Pleasure and clearly enjoys it. Taylor defends Dayla saying she is fine the way she is and doesn't need to evolve or be changed anymore despite what Temptress says. After seeing how protective Taylor is of Dayla and how much Dayla Blushes when Taylor comes to her defense Temptress asks if they have feelings for each other. While they both deny it the way they blush and stutter as they do it sparks the interest of the other and despite the embarrassment between them both women begin to suspect Temptress is right and maybe they do have mutual romantic feelings. Temptress admires how a little push has sparked the Romance between them, but Dayla is too flustered and embarrassed and walks off. Temptress laughs at the drama she's stirred despite Leeroy threatening her as she knows that the crew needs her alive for examination. She is then left in the cell contemplating what other fun she can have with the crew.

### Females, Tails, and Space Stations

This part is from pages 241 to 300. (↑ back to summary)

A few hours later some of the Crossfire crew meet with Director Owens and Dr. Myers to better explain their findings and what they've learned from the research station and Temptress. Both of them regret not being more thorough in their initial exploration of the facility but are also hesitant to trust this Tempress. D'ante says he needs time to try and crack the encryption on the Zinarian files they retrieved but should eventually be able to learn from them. While they don't have it written in stone yet what evidence they do have all points to the Zinarians having created the Pink Glumine. Tel'hara suggests they may be behind the disappearances on Odyssey as well and the Zinarians likely used the Glumine to turn the population into willing breeders for their kind to help with their population problem. Noreli is not convinced however as Humans and Zinarians are not compatible to breed with one another but thinks it may be possible that Odessey was their trial run of the "Gumine Army" Temptress mentioned. As the group discuss plans to look for signs of Zinarian's monitoring the planet and Glumine left there they also bring up the issue of what to tell Garra. Tel'harra and D'ante are not convinced he is a spy and don't think they should keep all this information from him. However Noreli is still hesitant to trust him and Myer's agrees. While Owen's sides with the idea Garra is on their side Noreli says they'll keep specific details from Garra for the time being and dismisses everyone to look into the data they've collected further.

A few days later Arianne meets with Janet who has gotten much more of her memories back but seems to have a somewhat altered personality. Janet expresses interest in yoga and a clear attraction to all the men on the ship. While Arianne is concerned that Janet and Jackson's personalities seem to have somewhat merged or crisscrossed as she regained her memories, she does think Janet is making good progress. At that point Garra comes in and wishes to discuss recent mission reports with Janet but the moment he sees her they both seem to become very drawn to one another. Garra admires her beauty and Janet admires his tall and muscular body. The two begin to touch and admire each other and Garra even wraps his tail around Janet's leg as a sign of Zinarian courting. Arianne is disturbed somewhat as this is out of character for both of them and she worries there is something more going on they haven't discovered yet. Before the two do something, they regret Arianne breaks them up and insists that Janet come with her to be examined again. Janet hesitantly obeys and once they've left the room Garra wonders what came over him as he has never felt an attraction to any Non-Zinarian Female before and yet he seemed to have been overcome with lust just now. In the ships medical bay Arianne explains that Janets behavior was very odd just now and thinks there is more going on than the simple libido effect of the transformation. She examines Janet on a medical table and discovers that she is producing Zinarian hormones which likely accounts for why Garra was so drawn to her. Based on the data gathered she seems to be at Stage 5 of the transformation process not 4 like they originally thought. Arianne is still a bit confused why Zinarians would create a species that could do this if humans aren't viable breeders for their kind. She goes to scan Janet's reproductive organs to be sure and finds the missing piece of the puzzle. She finds that Janet's ovaries are producing both human and Zinarian eggs and have been alter so if she reproduces with a Zinarian she would have a 100% genetically Zinarian child. With this evidence she is more convinced than ever that the Zinarians are responsible for the disappearances on Odessey. After being examined Janet asks Arianne if she is clear to return to Command but Arianne is not convinced, she is back in the right mind set yet. Janet pleads with her as she is desperate to resume her work and lead the crew. Arianne agrees under several conditions such as her co-commanding with Noreli for the time being and taking medication to suppress her sexual urges and pheromones. She also insists that she not interact with Garra unless absolutely necessary as the pheromones could cloud both of their judgments at the wrong time if they are too close. Janet agrees but thinks to herself how she could still meet with Garra during their off hours.

The Next day Janet has returned to duty Co-Commanding with Noreli and announces a new mission with all the female members of the crew. They have been assigned to investigate the Zinarian embassy in Apollo to see if there are any clues about a Zinarian outpost or facility in a nearby star system. While the crew is happy to go, they question why Janet is insistent on all the female crew going together. She explains that the embassy is closest to a part of town with very high-end clothing stores, and she wants them all to go shopping for new cloths, so they don't all have to keep sharing Arianne's. While the group of them are surprised their commander wants to take them all on a shopping spree, they all agree after thinking it over. A few hours later after scouting the embassy the five girls arrive and begin looking through the abandoned store. The group splits apart and begins to try on a few things. Janet finds a sexy black dress thinking to herself if it will impress Garra the next time they are both off duty. Arianne finds a red sweater and skinny jeans and Noreli looks for a fitting dress for her date with Leeroy but struggles finding something that will fit around her tail. In one of the dressing rooms Taylor and Dayla look for some underwear and try on a few things. While Dayla is a bit hesitant to find something in women's clothing Taylor encourages her to give it a try. Arianne then walks in on the two of them talking and sees a clear sign of feelings between the two. She does think to herself how she has feelings for Dayla, even back from when she was still Drake but was never sure they were mutual. After Dayla goes into one of the changing rooms to try something on Arianne talks with Taylor for a moment and picks up on the fact she has feelings for Dayla but Arianne assures her she can see her feelings for Taylor are mutual and much stronger so the two of them should break the ice. Taylor agrees but is a bit saddened by seeing Arianne a bit upset.

In the dressing room Dayla tries on a red v-neck and short shorts and while it is a bit more on the tomboyish side she admires her look and goes out to find Taylor. Taylor is just as enamored by her new look and compliments her on it. Dayla then encourages her to try on a white dress she had been eyeing and after getting dressed Taylor is quick to flaunt her new look to Dayla. The two of them admire each other and admit their feelings for one another. With little hesitance and Janet now being much more lenient in the ideas of crew member relations they kiss. Both discuss how they've come to admire the other and hope to see where things take them. Back out in the store Janet speaks with Noreli and they both find a lovely blue dress for her that will work with her tail and she is quick to try it on. She admires her new look and wonders how Leeroy will react to seeing her in it on their date soon. With everyone having made their selection the five girls head back out to the city. As they exit the store and walk the streets on their way back to the pickup point they see a bright flash across the sky that seems to be weapons fire. Janet and Noreli call up to Eagle aboard the Crossfire and he reports that it seems to have been some kind of missile and it's destroyed the Zinarian Research Outpost. The crew are quick to call him down to pick them up and board the ship. They all arrive aboard and go over the results with Eagle at the helm. He confirms the Outpost has been destroyed and is now showing deadly levels of radiation consistent with a nuke delivered via a Faster than Light (FTL) missile. Luckily however, no one was there at the time and there are no casualties. While they are unable to pinpoint where it may have been fired from, they assume that if it was a Zinarian missile then according to the Union database on such weapons it would have a range of about 120 Light Years. Though they may not have any evidence or origin point Janet feels that may narrow their search much more so they should begin looking for any Zinarian colonies or outposts within a 120 light year radius.

The Next night Noreli has gotten dressed up and joins Leeroy on the dinning deck for their date. While they did have to post pone for a bit due to Noreli taking over certain command duties, they are both happy to finally have their night together. Noreli arrives and Leeroy is in awe of her in her new dress and the two sit down to dinner. The two of them talk about a few different things such as Leeroy talks about how his brother was diagnosed with a genetic disorder and died when they were little and after trying to make him happy and get him to laugh in his last days Leeroy has always tried to be the one to keep others around him entertained and look on the bright side of things. Noreli admires him for it, and he also points out that even if her government said she was a yellow card that she still could be a parent one day if that is what she truly wants. Noreli realizes he's right and that she could now be a mother one day. The two of them finish dinner and enjoy the view out the window together as they both admit they want to make the most of their opportunities and share a kiss. The two are quick to then head back to Leeroy's cabin and begin foreplay. Both of them greatly admire each other with Leeroy amazed at Noreli's figure and Noreli at last able to clear her mind on work and focus on a few pleasures in life. Leeroy starts things off by undressing and moving to sucking on Noreli's nipples and eating her out. After her first climax Noreli moves up to repay the favor by giving Leeroy what the Mayvern call a Tail Job, where she uses her warm and soft tail to wrap around and stroke his member. She kisses him as she continues the tail job and then moves to give him a blow job until his first climax. The are swimming in pleasure as they move on to vaginal sex which ends with both of them climaxing at the same time. Noreli does realize they didn't use protection but thinks how she already took birth control pills. However, she does think how she may want to try and be a mother someday. Both she and Leeroy praise each other's performance and express their love for each other as they drift off to sleep.

A couple days later Janet, Noreli, and D'ante discuss their latest findings in the case with Dr. Myers and Director Owens. Both of them are in shock that the Zinarians have found a way for humans to bear their offspring and ask if they have learned anything more from Temptress. Noreli explains how she has found a way to harmlessly remove her control device but given how intelligent she has already become even with its suppression effect still active to some degree she worries that fully removing it could make her even more dangerous. As they discuss this however D'ante compliments the director on her appearance and begins to flirt with her off to the side much to Janet's annoyance and envy. Eventually Myers and Ownes request to see this temptress themselves and the crew are happy to escort them to her cell. The group arrives and Temptress is quick to begin her flirty games. She addresses Janet whom she hasn't seen since the two of them were interrupted and says how the two of them should continue where they left off. Janet however is much clearer headed and rejects her offers. Temptress then moves to address Owens who she recognizes has also been transformed but Noreli remains focused and dodges her attempts even after she morphs her body to give herself a penis to distract the ladies in the room.

Noreli refocuses on the subject of the device inside of Temptress and the other Glumine. Myers asks Temptress what orders she was being sent but she claims the best way to find out is to remove it. Noreli assures her that is not happening. She also says how she's learned that the device is also making her sterile so she can only alter her victims, not impregnate them. Temptress was unaware of this and is a bit upset but maintains her rather dominatrixs like demeanor. Noreli then tells Myers and Ownes about the Blue Glumine they had captured a while back and how all the data on natural Glumine turned out to be accurate and the reptile they also captured laid its eggs all of which birthed more of the blue Glumine. Temptress listens in however and thinks how that if Noreli has captured a Blue Glumine as well perhaps she could merge with it to cure her own sterility and improve herself. Myers then asks to see the natural Glumine and the group begins to leave. Before she can go however Temptress calls over Janet and begins to beg her for something to feed on. She claims Noreli has been purposely starving her and only feeding her a few low powered batteries for her to absorb electricity from and she's starving for something with a bit more power. Janet is hesitant but doesn't see the harm in feeding her an electrical device to drain the power from. Temptress convinces her to give her a tablet that disconnected and blanked out. Temptress however thinks how she's not starving at all but merely needs something beyond simple batteries to better her chances of escape. Janet gives her the tablet and leaves planning to return for it later once Temptress has drained its power. After she is gone however Temptress begins to take it apart and try and make something useful out of the components.

Back in the conference room a while later Noreli and Myers are discussing the Nuke launched at the facility. As they talk however D'ante and Owens continue to flirt off to the side with D'ante being his usual pick-up artist self and Owen's letting her sexual urges get the best of her. Myers tells Noreli that the planets orbital defense systems have been down since the colonist disappeared and while the commission is convinced it was the Zinarians who launched the nuke the Federation have already denied to investigate further as they don't want to start another War with the Zinarians with the war against the Harvengers still raging. D'ante and Owens then excuse themselves claiming that he needs to show her a few decrypted files he got done and while both Noreli and Myers let them leave and play along. While they both know it's clear they are going to D'ante's quarters to have sex they think he two of them have been very unhelpful and its best to let them get it out of their system. Janet comes in and joins the other two as she passes Owens and D'ante and despite her minor envy of them focuses on their discussion. Myers explains to the two of them that both the commission and the Federation higher ups are convinced that the Zinarians are indeed behind the engineered Glumine but unfortunately as they have not yet found any hard evidence that links the Glumine to the disappearance of the colonist the Federation considers them separate issues. While both Myers and Crossfire crew are in agreement that the two issues are more than likely connected, she says the federation admirals will still need hard evidence before they officially decide to act on it. Janet questions if there's a way they could collect such evidence and Myers tells them about a potential lead. The Federation did provide a few classified files to help with their further investigation. Namely information about a secret Zinarian space station close by just outside federation space called the Grand Helix. She explains its unconfirmed but suspected to have been built by the Zinarians. Noreli sees the coordinates are about 150 light years away from Odessey still potentially in range of the nuke and about 3 hours away at the Crossfire's top speed. Myers says both she and Owens put in a request to investigate it but it hasn't been approved by the federation yet. Janet and Noreli however suggest if the commission approves it, the Crossfire could all travel there instead and investigate on their employ. Myers thinks it's the best and quickest course of action and agrees to withdraw their request to the Federation. Elsewhere on the ship D'ante and Owens are having sex in his cabin with Owens at last satisfying her urges and D'ante bragging that he's even bigger than Temptress made herself. As the two finish up however there's a knock on the door and they are forced to quickly redress and find the others waiting outside. While they still fane that they were looking over files both Myers and Noreli know what they were doing but remain on subject. Myers tells Owen's their new plan and she agrees it's the better course of action. Both Myers and Owens prepare to leave the ship and return to HQ but Owens and D'ante make a few flirty moves on each other and D'ante assures her if she still needs to satisfy her urges anytime, she's welcome to give him a call. An offer she seems eager to take.

### Attack on Apollo

This part is from pages 301 to 346. (↑ back to summary)

Two weeks later back at the Federation HQ Janet announces that the crew will be splitting up today. Rookie, Angel, Eagle, and Guardian will protect the HQ and guard the commission and the rest of the crew will head to the ruins of the Zinarian facility to further investigate the bombing with radiation protection. The crew talks with Lt. Bridges about how there've been no further Glumine sightings but as they do so they see that Guardian is flirting with Owens once again and the two of them are quick to walk off to "talk" more. Bridges comments how D'ante has made constant visits to the HQ the past few weeks and Owens has been pushing her duties onto everyone else in the commission because neither of them can control their sex drives. The other three of the crew stay on guard outside and Rookie begins asking Eagle is he has any romantic partner or interests. Eagle however says he has never given that much thought because in Senjini culture you are only suppose to mate with other Senjini. While he is not against the idea of romantic involvement he does not wish to go against his own culture even if he is a bit extradited from them. Rookie questions him on this and he explains that he has been dishonored among his people due to his efforts in the war. During the earlier days of the great war he and his army were captured and imprisoned in the mission that cost him his arm. A Harvenger general cut it off as an example to other prisoners. While he and his forces were eventually freed his people treated him differently after that as it would have been considered more honorable to fight to the death instead of surrender and be imprisoned. While he's now come to terms with being an exile and made a new family on Crossfire he still wants to respect the customs of his people. Rookie understands and respect him as family as well.

At that point Bridges comes back out and reports that the communications seem to be offline and all he's getting is static when he tries to contact Myers. The others confirm they coms are down and worry it may be the Zinarian's jamming them again. Angel then turns to see a large swarm of engineered Glumine heading towards the HQ. The crew along with Bridges begin opening fire on the swarm but once they lose count at 20 Glumine on approach they know they are out matched and need back up. Angel, Rookie, and Bridges fire on them all with their energy weapons and Grenades but they can't keep up with the swarm. Eagle draws a Melee energy blade weapon and begins slicing them up in direct combat, but they still continue to swarm and swamp the group. Rookie tries to contact Guardian or the Crossfire but there's only radio static. Myers and Spade come out of the building after hearing the commotion, but the team orders them to get back inside and try to break through the interference and find Guardian for back up but before they can head back inside a pair of Glumine grab them and pull them off around the side of the building. Eagle goes after them and manages to free them both before they can be transformed but in the process two more Glumine pin him down and overpower him. He tells the others to run as there's nothing that they can do but go get back up. Myers is hesitant but inevitably agrees and runs off with Spade to get help. Eagle is left pinned down by the Glumine and it begins to transform him.

Myers and Spade get back to the other and tell them Eagle is in trouble, but they are too swamped at the main entrance to do anything right now. They tell the two to get back inside and find Guardian for back up and try to break through the interference to call he Crossfire back. Once inside Spade finds the communications officer and get him working on the coms issue and Myers foes to find Guardian. She goes to Owen's office and after unsealing the door she finds both Owens and Guardian having sex once again. She berates both of them for their distraction and lack of control in a crisis and tells them what's going on. Guardian questions why he didn't hear weapons fire, but Owen's admits she had the room soundproofed so they could have their fun from time to time. Myers is annoyed but tells them both to get dressed and join the fight. Meanwhile back out in the courtyard Eagel is bound down and being transformed by two Glumine. They speak in their usual simple words saying things like Submit and evolve but he does his best to resist. He tries to break free using his cybernetic arm but the Glumine manage to detach it and toss it away. She still tries to fight them but the feelings of pleasure begin to take her over and the two Glumine shift into a more human shape as the process continues, one a female and the other a male form. Back towards the entrance Guardian joins Rookie and Angel in holding off the Glumine. While they both berate him for boning the director instead of being on guard as he was supposed to be they continue to fight and eventually they manage to get through to the Crossfire who is now five minutes away from the HQ. Eagle's transformation continues and he fully becomes a she. While she still tries to resist the pleasure, she beings to question why she has denied herself the pleasure of sexual encounters all her life and her mind begins to cloud over.

Before things go too far the Crossfire Arrives above the HQ and opens fire on the Glumine swarm. While the cannons drive them off the rest of the ground team go to help Eagle. With a few good shots Taylor and Angel manage to drive off the Glumine and stop the process on her. They go over to find Eagle in a mild daze but they seem to have prevented any major mental changes. Eagle has however become a complete Senjini female. Despite her situation and lack of an arm at the moment she is grateful for the others help and is glad the process did not cost her her mind. She asks if Myers and Spade got away alright and the other two confirm it and praise her for putting herself at risk for the mission the welfare of the others. After a few moments once the Crossfire lands and Angel gets a chance to look Eagle over Myers and Spade both come out to see her. They both thank her for saving them and apologize that she got transformed because of it. Eagle assures them it could have been much worse, and she is just happy the two of them are safe. Myers even gives her a peck on the cheek. As the group is assessing the damage both Myers and the Commander berate Owens and Guardian for their lack of self-control and having sex while meant to be on duty. Guardian is reprimanded and order to remain confined to quarters on off duty hours and told he's on thin ice with controlling himself around the rest of the crew. Owens apologizes that her sex drive is so out of control but both Myers and Spade tell her it's going to take more than an apology. After the Glumine are confirmed to have been eliminated and/or driven off Myers and the Commander worry that this was coordinated attack by the Zinarians to try and get to the commission and Crossfire crew and that a similar mass Glumine attack may have been what happened to the colonists. Myers plans to write up a report and send it to the Federation to try and get them an in to the Grand Helix.

Two days later Tel'hara adopts the name Tel'hili in her new female form and after finishing up a few medical exams Noreli and Leeroy give her a modified cybernetic arm that will both fit her new body and hopefully be more effective against a Glumine trying to remove it. Later that night Arianne, Dayla, and Garra are all in the recreation deck of the ship talking over a few drinks. Arianne mentions how its clear Leeroy and Noreli have become very involved with each other and while Dayla is not as excited she is glad to see her friends happy. Garra talks about how ever since the crew encountered the Glumine and many have now been transformed many things have changed and he now sees he was too harsh on some of them. He apologizes to Dayla for calling her mission a failure simply because she got transformed. Dayla is shocked as Garra never seemed the apologetic type. He explains that Zinarians often see apologizing like admitting failure and a sign of weakness but after serving with the Crossfire he's come to see they are strong and respectable. At that point, Janet walks in now wearing her sexy black dress she picked out earlier and begins to get a bit flirty with Garra. With neither of them able to resist their pheromones both of them begin to get very provocative and play a rather sexualized game of pool as Arianne and Dayla watch a bit concerned. Arianne is worried as Janet has refused to take birth control medication unlike the other women who have been transformed due to her mental transformation being further along then the rest and since she can now conceive Zinarian children she worries that if and when she ever finds way to cure the Glumine effects the commander may regret having had a Zinarian child due to uncontrollable hormones. Arianne debates if she should lie to her and give her birth control medication without her knowledge and Dayla says it may be a bit unethical, but it would also be in the best interest of her patient(s). Arianne agrees and asks Dayla to keep them there a little while longer while she goes to get the medication. Shortly after she leaves however both Janet and Garra finish their game with Janet having let Garra win so he could request a favor of her and begin to head to her quarters. Dayla tries to delay them asking them to stay for one more game or have a drink with her but they both are too eager and want to leave. At the last second before they leave the deck however Arianne arrives with the birth control pills. While both Garra and Janet are a bit confused they ask what the pills are. Arianne catches her breath and lies saying that the pills are the migraine medication Janet has asked about due to the headaches her mental changes have been causing her. While she is a bit hesitant to take one as she is too eager to leave with Garra Arianne convinces her to take at least one pill so she doesn't wake up with a migraine in the morning. Janet takes the pill much to the others releife and then leaves with Garra.

Once the two of them arrive in her quarters Janet is quick to do a strip tease for Garra and begin foreplay right off the bat. Garra greatly admires her and begins to undress himself as well. Things start off fast with Janet fulfilling the favor Garra won by giving him head until he climaxes. At first Janet worries she made him finish too fast, but Garra explains how Zinarian males have 5 testicles, and he is more than capable of going on. The two then move onto vaginal sex and Janet goes as far as to say she wants to get pregnant and for Garra to really fill her up. Janet is so enraptured by Garra's size and Garra even uses his tail to give her a kind of double penetration. After a long stretch they both eventually melt into each other swimming in pleasure and worn out. Garra however seems to notice that Janet is much more submissive when she is high on his pheromones and overcome with pleasure. While he does enjoy being a bit more dominant in the bedroom he also wonders how far that effect may be able to go. The next morning Janet and Garra wake up and both talk a bit about having a bit more fun before their duty shifts but Garra wants to ask her some questions first. He wonders if her more submissive nature towards him will get her to explain a few things he's been kept in the dark about. He starts by questioning exactly how she has gotten transformed as he was never told about the facility where it happened. Janet knows it may be against what the rest of the crew wants but she is too high on her own chemicals and feels Garra does deserve to know the truth. She lets him ask a few questions and begins to explain what he's been kept in the dark about.

After 30 minutes or so of explaining the details that he hasn't been told both Janet and Garra begin to get dressed. Garra is a bit upset that crew all suspected he was a Zinarian spy but does understand why they felt that way given the circumstances. He also mentions how even if he has long since been separate from the empire he suspects some of their recent activities may have been leading up to this. He mentions how the empire has been so friendly and trying to mend fences with the rest of the Union and Sol federation despite so many of its people holding grudges for their kinds decline. Garra now suspect it may have been moves to build enough trust so they could set up a facility on Odessey and use humans as surrogate breeders to help restore the empire to its former dominance. He thinks back saying how 99.7% of their female population had been wiped out by the Unions chemical weapons and not only did he lose all his female relatives, but he also eventually saw how the in fighting between warlords was showing him and others of his kind how self-destructive the empire truly was. While Garra is not against the idea of his species being able to begin progressing and growing again he finds the idea of doing it through enslaving and removing free will from other unwilling lifeforms for breeding purposes is even more unethical than gassing them as the GU did to his people. Garra then says he wants to help find the evidence they need to find the missing colonists and proposes to Janet that he join the others on the mission to Grand Helix. Garra says how the Zinarians are still very mistrusting of outsiders even in official settings and thinks that he can help act as a mediator to get them to open up more in the interrogations. Janet likes the idea but knows the rest of the crew will still be hesitant.

### Breeding Hostilities

This part is from pages 347 to 386. (↑ back to summary)

A few hours later the Commander calls Angel, Guardian, Eagle, and Phantom into the conference room to discuss their plans for going to Grand Helix. Eagle mentions how she's been having the same urges as the rest of the crew but feels a bit ashamed of them due to her cultural beliefs. The rest of the crew including Phantom all say she has nothing to be ashamed of and Angel suggests a few medications to help with her urges. At that point the Commander arrives and has everyone sit at the table as they go over the plan for Grand Helix. Angel stops the meeting however and asks if its advisable to have Phantom in on this. Commander tells the rest of them how she's already filled Phantom in on the other details they've been keeping from him and despite some of them still suspecting him she has always trusted him. Phantom says how he understands their suspicions but hopes he can prove he is on their side. They then discuss their overall plan for approaching and investigating the station. The Commander and Phantom will be the head of the group and talk with the head of the station hoping Phantom can help break the ice with his own kind. Guardian will be their back up but more of a security detail with minimal ordinance to avoid too much hostility. Angel and Eagle however will be the real focus on the mission. Angel will use a special stealth suite the crew has recently designed. She will use it to become invisible to the station's guards and sensors and Eagle will speak with her via a secure channel as she investigates the station looking for any signs of the missing colonists. Eagle will also use the ships special scanners to try and guide her through the interior of the station and direct her search. With everyone in agreement they end the meeting and Eagle heads to the helm to take them to Grand Helix.

Three hours later the Crossfire arrives at the Grand Helix, a very large station with considerable defenses. The team preps for the mission as Eagle calls out to get permission to land. At first the station orders them off but when Eagle expresses their permission on behalf of the Sol Federation they send the docking instructions. Once the ship is docked in the station Commander, Phantom and Guardian exit and meet with Vice Admiral Shakay the head of the station and Chief Agano one of the few surviving female Zinarians and lead scientist of the station. They both greet them somewhat suspiciously and say how that were expecting the Commission not a military craft. Commander introduces her crew and while Shakay remains hesitant to comply he knows the Sol Federation insisted on this meeting and they begin talk things over in the docking bay. Meanwhile however, Angel dawns the stealth suite and begins her investigation while the others distract Shakay and Agano. The Commander and Phantom discuss their reasons for being there and while Agano does admit she was stationed on Odyssey at the research base and that they were experimenting with the Glumine to hopefully solve their population issues she claims to know nothing about the missing colonists. She says the facility had been shut down months prior to their disappearance and suggests it was likely the Harvengers. Guardian mentions how the facility seemed to have been nuked recently but Shakay suggests since the facility had a nuclear Powersource it likely detonated due to neglect or malfunction. While both sides are clearly not speaking the full truth they continue their games back and forth.

Meanwhile elsewhere on the station Angel follows a life signs reading Eagle thought looked interesting and after a few minutes finds a Pregnant human woman talking to one of the Zinarian Guards in a rather flirty way. She pursues and follows her and sees that she is wearing some odd collar and has pink eyes similar to how the Commanders were before the mental effects wore off on her. Angel talks back and forth with Eagle who is recording everything she sees through the suite and soon she finds a large nursery like room with five more women all pregnant, with collars, and pink eyes. One of them, Vanessa even compliments another woman on her pregnancy and how she is more suited to be a mother than her boyfriend. Angel is all but horrified by what she is seeing as it seems to confirm their worst fears and that the entire Odyssey colony must have been fully converted by the Glumine army and is now entirely subservient to the Zianrian's as breeding stock. She wants to try and grab some of them to rescue and figure out a way to help them, but Eagle tells her that they can't risk and will need back up to rescue all of them. Their scans reveal thousands more life signs than the reported Zinarian crew so there are no doubt many more nurseries throughout the station filled with the missing colonists being used as brain washed breeding stock. Angel is forced to reluctantly agree and begins heading back to the ship.

Back with the other team Phantom questions the purpose of the Grand Helix base. Shakay claims it's a military facility guarding the Zinarian boarders from possible Harvenger attacks. Phantom doesn't buy it however as they are not near any major FTL travel routes, but Shakay continues to deny any other purpose. The Commander brings up why Agano has been reassigned to the station and she claims to be studying a nearby star for a source of antimatter but this is still a poor excuse the team doesn't buy. When they mention the control devices inside the Engineered Glumine Agano claims they were merely a measure to help keep the Glumine contained and under control not actually give them orders but the debate and accusations begin to escalate. Shakay wonders what stage The Commander may be at in her transformation and if he may be able to begin to influence her with some of his own pheromones. At this point however things have clearly soured between the two sides and he suggests they end the conversation. At that point however Commander receives a call from Angel who confirms they have what they came here for and that they should leave to report to the commission. Janet agrees to end things here and gives the order to leave per the Zinarian's wishes but before they go Shakay asks if she can stay and discuss something with him personally. She agrees as Phantom and Guardian head into the ship. Shakay then begins to talk with her but her head is quick to feel warm and she begins to get flirty and giggly again like after her inital transformation. As she questions this Shakay confirms he's emitting a concentrated form of pheromones and tries to influence the Commander to say she and her crew found nothing on the station. Whille she does her best to resist she is too overcome with the pheromones to think clearly. Shakay then gives her a device he claims to be a Glumine tracking device to hunt down the Engineered Glumine and allows her to leave back to her ship. While the Commander is still in a bit of a daze and confused she accepts the device and joins the others as they head back to Odyssey.

In route back to Odyssey a couple hours later Arianne and Janet contact Noreli and Dayla to inform them what they've found. Arianne says how they detected around 40,000 life signs and if 5000 of those where the Zinarian crew the remaining 35,000 must have been the captive colonists. Janet where the remaining 29,000 colonists could be but Arianne thinks they have likely been moved to another facility as the Grand Helix could only house so many. Both teams agree to compile all the evidence they've gathered on the Zinarians to prepare an official report for the Federation admirals in the hopes they'll approve a rescue opt against the Grand Helix. Janet however is still recovering from her encounter with Shakay and is not as eager to move against him. After they hang up Arianne talks with Janet a bit. While she is ashamed her mind is so susceptible to Zinarian pheromones now Arianne says how she and Noreli are both getting closer to a possible Glumine antidote to reverse the effects which Janet is hopeful could be achieved. Another 30 Minutes later the ship drops to impulse speed on final approach to Odyssey and Janet examines the tracker Shakay gave her. Since it doesn't seem to be picking up Temptress she assumes its not really a tracker and thinks she can have Noreli look at it once they land. She then leaves the device in her quarters and goes to help land the ship but it seems to activate once its left alone and connects with something called "Comets" that Shakay had mentioned after the crew left Grand Helix.

On the bridge Janet finds Tel'hili being helped by D'ante and as they begin to prep the ship for landing, they are struck by three projectiles that seem to breach the haul and set off several alarms. Tel'hili reports three minor haul breaches that have been contained by force fields but the ship seems to now be losing power. Janet radios the others and both Garra and Arianne confirm they're alright. Garra goes to check on Temptress and Arianne goes to the medical bay to check a minor head injury she got in the impact. As the others assess the situation, they realize the ship is losing power too fast and footage from the ships power core reveals the things that hit them were some kind of armor piercing FTL missiles that contained a large number of engineered Glumine that have begun to drain power from the core. Forced to act fast as the ship begins to power down the crew heads for the armory telling the other meet them there but Arianne doesn't get the message as coms begin to fail. She tries to call back to confirm they are under attack but before she can get anything another Glumine comes through the vents above her and attacks her. Since she has no armor, she has no way to defend herself against it and it quickly manages to bind her and being the transformation. Meanwhile the three from the bridge reach the armory but can't get ahold of the others. While Tel'hili argues and says they need to go after them worried Arianne may be under attack and Garra may now be getting attacked by Temptress, but Janet says they need to focus their efforts on the core because if the Glumine drain all the power it could breach the core and destroy the ship. Forced to agree and hoping the other can hang on long enough they all head to the core room where they find a massive swarm of Glumine all draining power. They open fire but have to be careful not to shoot the core itself. They begin to get overwhelmed and D'ante get attacked as one of the Glumine manage to get his helmet off and begins to transform him but before it can begin any major change Garra arrives and blasts it off of him. He says how he managed to secure Temptress and arrive as quick as he could but hasn't heard anything from Arianne.

Back in the med bay Arianne continues to change as the Glumine alters her body to have large curves and bigger breasts. She tries to resist the mental influences but as it transforms itself into a muscular man form, she begins to submit and enjoys the pleasurable sensations it is giving her. Back in the engine room the ship is minutes away from a core breach. While the crew has managed to kill off most of the Glumine one massive one is still attached to the core and has become too resistant to their weapons after having absorbed so much energy. In a last effort Tel'hili hits it with a Glumine poison dart to knock it out long enough to kill it. Once the last of them are dead she manages to get to the coolant controls and stabilize the core to save the ship. The crew then heads to find Arianne worried she's still under attack but she is already overcome with the pleasures of the Glumine transformation and has begun to indulge with it in the medical bay. Before things escalate further D'ante, Janet, and Garra arrive and blast the Glumine off of her. While she is still a bit foggy in the head and fears she has reached at least stage 2 of the process Arianne is alright and the crew is confident the Glumine have been delt with.

Down on Odyssey Noreli talks with Leeroy and worries that the ship is overdue from their last contact and is concerned something may have happened. Leeroy tries to reassure her and while she is comforted by him she is still concerned. She then asks him where Taylor and Dayla are as they've been on their break period for over an hour. Leeroy still tries to reassure her but unknown to either of them both Taylor and Dayla are in one of the nearby buildings having sex. The two of them go through several positions and say how they've gotten the other to orgasm multiple times already. While they both seem happy, they also both seem insatiable due to their conditions and continue to go for a while until they finally wear each other out. While they both admit how satisfying the other was, they also hear a loud rustling outside and go to the window to see the Crossfire coming in for a landing with black smoke and damage visible on the haul. The two of them quickly get dressed and head down to meet Leeroy and Noreli to see what has happened. A few moments later Janet and Arianne arrive on speeders and explain what happened. The crew become concerned that not only are the Zinarians behind all of this but now they seem to have launched an attack to silence them and are mostly likely to try again. Taylor is also concerned that Arianne has been attacked and transformed now and fears the entire crew may soon meet the same fate. With the Crossfire damaged and in need of repairs the crew is stuck on Odyssey for the time being and is now worried about another Zinarian attack. A few hours later Janet, Arianne, and Noreli report the latest to Myers and Spade and they agree all evidence points to the Zinarians as the culprits of both the missing colonists and the attack on the Crossfire. Janet says that repairs on the ship is likely to take at least a few weeks but Spade has already called for aide and parts hoping to speed things up for them. She also asks about the crew now trusting Garra with all this information as she is still worried, he is working with the other Zinarians but even Arianne speaks up now and feels that based on him saving the others during their last mission she is convinced that he really is on their side.

### The Blob That Did Everyone

This part is from pages 387 - 446. (↑ back to summary)

Three weeks after their return form Grand Helix the crossfire crew has managed to repair most of the damages to their ship with the help of a few federation engineers. Taylor and Arianne return to the Hanger to report to Noreli, Leeroy, and Tel'hili that they have captured another engineered Glumine with its device intact. While Leeroy questions it Noreli explains they needed a proper sample with a fully intact device in the hopes more study and samples will help her and Arianne to perfect a viable Glumine cure and possibly a weapon against them. As they take the contained Glumine to the lab and head into the ship Taylor mentions how Noreli and Leeroy make a cute couple and they are both forced to admit they have officially decided to make their relationship official despite the odd circumstances. The others of the crew congratulate them both and are happy for them as they share a kiss. A few hours later in her lab, Noreli and Arianne examine the new Glumine and the natural Blue Glumine they have been keeping contained for months. They take samples from each for testing, but Noreli says they need one final sample from Temptress as he unique advancement due to the damaged device inside of her could hold unique data. Arianne is reluctant but suites up in full armor and arms herself as the two of them go to Temptress' holding cell to get what they need. Temptress plays her usual games with them, especially since she can see Arianne has been victimized too. Both women however refuse to be intimidated by her and demand she stand against the glass to have a sample extracted. Temptress remains her usual dominating and controlling self and insists she'll corporate if she gets an extra battery to feed on tonight. Noreli agrees and extracts the sample. The two then leave and promise to return with her batteries later. Once they are gone however Temptress sees this as her chance after several months in captivity. Using the knowledge, she absorbed from Janet's (Jackson's) time as a prisoner of war and parts from the Tablet she tricked her into giving her she has created a laser blade emitter to cut her way through the cell.

Back in the lab Arianne and Noreli are discussing how they are close to a cure that could be ready to test soon but as they talk Noreli admits that she may not want the cure for herself. Arianne is quick to understand that she wants to stay a woman to be with Leeroy and possibly become a mother one day and supports her choice. Despite her own desire to stay changed Noreli continues her work in order to offer the cure to the others and help the colonists while Arianne turns in for the night. After a while Noreli goes to feed temptress as promised but when she arrives at the cell she finds a small hole cut through it and as she is examining it Temptress jumps her from behind and envelops her in seconds. Temptress holds her laser blade to Noreli's throat threatening to kill her if she screams or resists too much and is quick to stick her "tong" down her throat to begin the transformation process again. Instead of altering her body too much however this time Temptress focuses on absorbing Noreli's advanced intelligence just as she did to Janet thanks to her device no longer inhibiting her abilities so much. While Noreli is able to resist it for a while due to her Mayvern biology Temptress continues to grow smarter and Noreli's mind begins to cloud over. After she has learned what she wants she takes Noreli back to her lab and using what she's absorbed from her finds the equipment she needed to remove her inhibiter device. Temptress frees herself from any remaining influence and smashed the device in triumph as Noreli is left to watch restrained and gagged by her tentacles. Temptress then finds the Natural Glumine in its container. Now uninhibited by her device she frees the Blue Glumine and merges with it in the hopes it will both cure her of her sterility and also further strengthen her abilities. She fuses with the natural Glumine and her body turns from pink to purple achieving what she calls her Unlimited form.

Now with such enhanced strength Temptress begins to absorb Noreli's intellect with ease and despite her focus on resisting she rabidly begins to fall into a state of Bliss and ignorance. Temptress unbinds her and removes her clothing, but she is too dazed to fight back too much. Using her newfound strength Temptress boosts the size of Noreli's curves and give her breasts on par with Janet and a much rounder set of hips. As the process continues Noreli still tries to fight back but has not strength against Temptresses influence. With her mind too clouded over Temptress is now able to shape shift her own body into a duplicate of Noreli's shape and puts on her Endo suite planning to imprison Noreli while her mind continues to fade overtime and take her place to get close to the crew intent on doing the same thing to all of them until she has subjugated them all. Once she is fully dressed as Noreli, Leeroy knocks on the lab door asking about the dinner date he and the real Noreli had planned. Tempress is able to mimic his voice and calls out that she's finishing up an experiment. She then puts the real Noreli into another detainment cell quickly and gags her with a part of her oozy body. Since she can't change her color to flawlessly resemble Noreli, only her shape she covers her head with her exo suite helmet and lets Leeroy in when he returns. She claims that she has gotten a bad Mayvern flu and doesn't want to infect others so she's covering her face with her helmet. Leeroy buys the ruse and can't tell that he is actually talking to Temptress while the real Noreli is forced to overhear everything from her cell in the other room. Using all she absorbed from Noreli, Temptress is able to talk things over with Leeroy who goes as far as to finally admit to her (Noreli) that he loves her. Temptress returns the sentiment to him but refrains from attacking and transforming him just yet wanting to wait for a better opportunity to get the rest of the crew. She ends the conversation saying she needs to work and Leeroy leaves hoping to have their date once she's over her "flu". Temptress then returns to Noreli in the cell and while her mind continues to fade she argues that she can't defeat the crew. Temptress remains unfazed and says how she'll leave her bound in the cell for the night letting her mind fade into full bliss overtime. She then returns to the lab and frees the other engineered Glumine from its holding container. She removes its inhibitor device and merges a small part of her own body with it to turn it from pink to purple and make it an Unlimited breed Glumine as well. Once it is fully freed and converted the Glumine takes on a female human shape and bows to temptress as her Savior. She also says how she and Temptress seem to now have a hive mind much to her pleasure. Temptress recruits her new ally and suggests they begin to increase their own numbers and power immediately.

The Next day Arianne and Dayla are in the mess hall talking and with Arianne now transformed she is a bit more open and flirtier with Dayla much to her pleasure but before they can do anything together Janet calls a conference overhead for the whole crew. Ten minutes later the crew assembles including Temptress who is still posing as Noreli with her helmet on. While no one seems to notice and buys her ruse about a Mayvern Flu Leeroy begins to question her flirty behavior towards others. The full crew assembles, and Janet explains the latest developments. Repairs to the Crossfire should be finished by tomorrow but there's also news on what to do about the Grand Helix and the Zinarians. She introduces Admiral Perk over a hologram transmission who has managed to convince the Federation a attack on Grand Helix to rescue the kidnapped colonists is needed. However, as the federation is still stretched thin in the war with the Harvengers they have instead turned to hiring a fleet of 35 mercenary ships to attack the station intending for the Crossfire to lead the charge. Pirk declares the investigation on Odyssey complete and the Commission will be wrapping everything up and leaving the planet soon. The Crossfire will travel to the Sirius system to meet the fleet and prepare for the attack and the Commission will return to the Federation to be reassigned. The crew is happy to finally leave the planet and disperse to finalize their preparations and repairs. Before Janet leaves however, Temptress goes up to her and asks if they can speak privately about an urgent matter. She walks them to Janet's cabin and fanes a story about nearly perfecting a Glumine cure that could reverse the transformation entirely. Janet is excited but confused why she claims this is so sensitive a subject. Leeroy also begins to wonder about "Noreli" as they walk off.

The pair arrive at Janets cabin and Temptress locks the door while she is distracted for a moment. As Janet questions her on saying how her female form is her better self, she suddenly spots the real Noreli on the bed in a nighty and being very provocative. Shocked, Janet turns and demands to know who the imposter is only for her to remove her helmet reveling herself as Temptress. Before Janet can react however another Glumine tentacle seeps out of the ceiling and bind her in the air. Temptress undresses and begins to flirt and mock Janet while Noreli seems to have gone into a state of total bliss and submission. Janet questions why Temptress is now Purple and what she's done to herself and Noreli, but she simply continues her fun and strips off Janet's uniform. Janet begs her to spare her crew and leave things between them, but Temptress has become to high on her new power to stop and begins to further transform Janet as she kisses her, and her mind begins to cloud as she pleasures both her and Noreli at once. Janet succumbs to the bliss rather quickly since she was already far along in the process. With both of them now effectively her mindless bimbos Temptress decides to confirm if she is no longer sterile, and shape shifts her body to give herself a penis again intent on impregnating both women. While she at first wants to try it with Janet as she is the one that she personally has altered all the way Noreli is more eager due to her desire to be a mother and Temptress is happy to oblige.

Meanwhile out in the hanger bay Leeroy still questions if Noreli seemed to be acting weird in the meeting. Taylor agrees she was a bit flirty but thinks its likely nothing to be worried about and he should simply talk with her later if it made him uncomfortable at all. Leeroy agrees but still worries that something is a amiss. Arianne arrives soon after and pulls Taylor aside saying that she wants to talk with her. She explains that she and Noreli have recently made a breakthrough on the Glumine cure and are ready for human trials. While their original first choice was Dayla they wanted to ask Taylor to be their first trial since she is fully transformed and was the first victim on the crew. Taylor happily agrees to the trial and asks Leeroy to hold down the fort while she goes with Arianne. While they are both eager for the trial they also question where Noreli went to. Back in Janet's cabin, Temptress has sex with Noreli and comes inside of her hoping to sow her seed and impregnate her with more Unlimited Glumine cells. Janet watches in awe with her mind fully overtaken by the bliss and once Temptress finishes with Noreli, she has her second in command free Janet. Her so called First Lieutenant Glumine then fully enters the room and shifts its body into a male shape and takes Janet's old male Endo-suite as Temptress instructs him to watch the door so they are not interrupted. She then entices Noreli and Janet to continue, and they all begin a very passionate three-way.

Back in Noreli's lab Arianne and Taylor arrive to find it empty. They call out to Noreli but there's no answers and none of the crew have seen her or Janet for a while. They go to check if she is feeding Temptress only to find her empty cell with a hole in it. Taylor calls out an alert to the rest of the crew and they mobilize. Arianne detects that Noreli and Janet are both in her cabin and calls for help as they arm themselves worried Temptress has them hostage. A few moments later Temptress has finished up with both woman and they lay in bed in ecstasy of the pleasure. While the Janet and Noreli both want to go again Temptress wants to move on to her plan to transform and bring the rest of the crew into her "bliss" and dawn Janet's female ENDO suite planning her next move on them. Outside the cabin however, Taylor, Arianne, Leeroy, and Tel'hili have come to the rescue and break in to find Temptress and her Lieutenant. Forced to act fast both sides begin a fire fight but Temptress sees they are still outnumbered and out gunned and orders a retreat blasting out the window and running into the city. The crew rescues Janet and Noreli but both are still in Bliss and question why they interrupted their "fun". Leeroy and Taylor go to pursue Temptress and the others take Janet and Noreli to the medical bay to try and snap them out of it.

By the time the crew mobilize a search through the city Temptress and her Lieutenant have already gotten to the crew at the Apollo Ecology lab and have begun to transform them. Knowing they don't yet have the numbers or fire power to win against the Crossfire crew Temptress leaves her Lieutenant with the task of converting the hostages as she leaves to enact plan B. An hour passes and despite D'ante, Dayla, and Garra all joing the search the crew is still unable to find Temptress and fear what she's become now that she's obtained her Unlimited form. As they talk in the hanger however, she enters the ship through a vent without them noticing and works her way to the armory. Once there she duplicates herself and the two of her each dawn a suite of Exo-Armor and gear up before each taking a speeder and rushing out of the ships hanger past the rest of the crew. Leeroy wants to go after them but Taylor and Dayla both assume its a trap and they shouldn't risk it. Left unsure of who is in charge now that both Janet and Noreli are unfit for command the group agrees to that as the next in line of seniority Dayla (Centurion) should take over. While not sure she's up to it she agrees and orders the crew to regroup and prepare for takeoff. She wants to assure the commission is safe and get them and the Crossfire off world ino order to leave Temptress and any other Glumine without any prey or a means to get into space. The rest of the crew agree knowing it's better to return in force later once everyone is safe.

Later that evening Dayla visits the others in the medical bay. Arianne confirms an early does of the Glumine cure is helping to cure the mental effects and both Janet and Noreli are regaining their minds from before Temptress attacked them. While Dayla questions if the cure could lead to a way for them to change back into men Arianne says thy still need to work on it a bit more before its potent enough to reverse the physical changes. Dayla talks with the others, and they confirm their heads are clearing up but they also report effects similar to a bad hangover and leave her in command for a while longer. Arianne interrupts at this point and says they need to check to see if Temptress has really impregnated them. She begins by scanning Janets womb and unfortunately confirms she has a mass of Glumine cells growing there and she need to operate to remove it. Fortunately, they caught it early and it shouldn't be too difficult. As she moves to scan Noreli however, she detects something surprising. Noreli is not carrying Glumine cells, but she is pregnant with a Human child. Arianne confirms she is four weeks pregnant and without a doubt Leeroy is the father. Temptress wasn't able to impregnate her thanks to the child. Noreli is overjoyed she at last can be a parent like she's always wanted but worries about telling Leeroy. Dayla offers her support and helps her back to her cabin to rest while Arianne preps Janet for surgery.

Back at the Commission HQ Spade, Myers, and Owens hurry to pack up the last of their files and equipment. Dayla already called over to warn them that Temptress has broken free and is armed so they rush to try and get off world before things escalate. While the Crossfire promised to send Rookie and Phantom to protect them during the last couple hours of packing up, they hurry to get the last few crates. As they are moving, they spot two speeders arrive thinking it's their protection but Spade wonders why it seems to be the Rookie and Guardian not Phantom as Centurion promised. As the Lieutenant Glumine starts flirting with Ownes who assumes he's actually D'ante Spade realizes they are imposters and mentions how Centurion reported two speeders stolen. Temptress then removes her helmet and begins her usual provocative threats. The Commission claims to have her outnumbered, but she soon reveals they are not alone, and a large swarm of Purple Glumine emerge all around them and move to attack them all. Ownes tries to reason with Temptress saying she doesn't have to do this, and they can negotiate but Temptress passes this off saying she has concern with revenge or justice she only wishes to spread her hive and give them all her "gift". With no hesitation she has her hive restrain the commission and begin the process. Myers is ensnared as she hears the Glumine speak "Relax, Submit, Evolve".

Back on the ship Leeroy visits Noreli and is so happy she is not permanently hurt as the cuddle, but she still wonders how to break the news to him about their baby. Dayla arrives to check on them and report that repairs are nearly complete, but request Leeroy join Tel 'Hili on the final repairs to the FTL drive. Dayla then goes to the conference room and gets a hologram call from Owens. She reports there is no need to send back up as the commission hurried its wrap up and is taking off as they speak. Dayla is surprised but sees their ship taking off and waves them goodbye. Owens thanks the crew for all their help as the Commission ships reaches orbit. As Owens hangs up however Temptress is behind her praising her on her performance showing she and the rest of the commission have been brought fully into her bliss and enslaved to her will. With little delay she entices the blissed-out Myers, Spade, and Owens to join her in bed and they all have sex with Temptress and her Unlimited Glumine free to roam the stars intent on bringing the entire Galaxy under her bliss. The four drown themselves in pleasure as Temptress begins to impregnate them all.

Back on the ship Dayla discusses their plan to leave Odyssey with the rest of the crew. Now that the Commission is gone, they decide to take of and remain in orbit for a couple more days until the FTL drive is fully repaired. Tel'Hili asks about Temptress and the stolen equipment, but Dayla says its best to let the Federation deal with that as they feel she and the Glumine can't leave the planet without another ship. Arianne reports that Janet's surgery was a success, and she will be fully recovered in a few days. The crew is happy to be putting things behind them but when Leeroy comments how it was lucky Noreli wasn't impregnated as well, she chuckles and dodges the subject as she feels it's not the right moment to tell him the truth. Dayla picks up on this and dismisses the crew. As Leeroy leaves to continue repairs Noreli stops him and when they're finally alone she tells him how the reason Temptress couldn't get her pregnant is because she is already carrying his child. Leeroy is overjoyed and the two of them embrace hoping to have a beautiful child and life together. The Next day Dayla is captaining the ship on the bridge talking to Taylor. She mentions how Arianne clearly is interested in her and she should at least go on a date with her. While Dayla is not against the idea a part of her want to wait and see if the Glumine Cure can be perfected before things get too serious. Soon after this Tel'hili comes in and announces that the FTL drive is fully repaired, and the ship is ready to leave Odyssey and rendezvous with the Mercenary Fleet in the Sirius System. Dayla and the rest of the crew are eager, and she gives the order to break orbit and plot a course. The crew gets their last looks at the planet Odyssey and while it was certainly a strange few months during their mission, they do admit it was memorable and life changing. Just as they are about to jump to FTL Janet arrives wanting to take one last look at the planet. They are surprised to see her out of the medical bay but she seems in good shape. While Janet does admit she is not fully recovered from surgery she does feel well enough to pitch in on the bridge. Dayla is happy to let her give the order and steps aside. With the full crew behind her Janet gives the order and the Crossfire jumps to FTL headed for its next mission.

### The Mercenary Summit

This part is from pages 447 to 480. (↑ back to summary)

Three days later the Crossfire arrives on the planet Ontaurus in the city of New Toronto where the crew meets up with Admiral Pirk in person. They plan to have the meeting between the various mercenary captains the next morning and that the crew can rest in the city and have some shore leave in the meantime. He also informs them that a federal agent will be assigned to their ship to help with mission prep and that they should have someone ready to meet her. Janet instructs D'ante to stay behind as he is still on thin ice from his previous behaviors. D'ante is forced to agree but after the others leave a familiar face arrives to greet him. Director Lenora Owens from the Commission greets him in a sexy red dress. Surprise dot see her Owens tells D'ante she is in between jobs and taking a short leave here on Ontaurus but despite the fact he is waiting for a guest she asks if he can take care of her for a bit as she gets very provocative. While he does worry what the others will say D'ante is won over by Owens and agrees to a quicky with her. The two then head off to Owen quarters to have sex while Janet, Taylor, Dayla, Noreli, and Arianne go to a local bar. There they discuss how the Glumine cure has had a recent breakthrough and they want to try it out in a few hours. Taylor says that Dayla should go first since she's wanted it more than anyone and then she can be the second subject. Dayla is happy Taylor is so generous and agrees to try it after they have a bit of relaxation time.

Back with D'ante and Ownes they enter her bedroom and are quick to strip and begin foreplay but as D'ante moves to eat her out a mass of Purple Glumine comes out of her vagina and forces its way into D'ante's throat The Purple Glumine seems to transform their victims much more rabidly and D'ante is unable to struggle much before the pleasure takes him over and he (now she) is fully transformed and subject to the will of Temptress within minutes. Now enslaved to Temptress D'ante happily goes on the receiving end of Owens who uses the Glumine cells inside of her as a penis as she calls Temptress to report her success. Temptress lets them continue but also instructs them to go to the next phase once they are finished and find the Federation Intelligence Agency (FIA) agent assigned to the Crossfire. Meanwhile back at the bar Janet and Taylor talk a bit. Janet admires her nobility in letting Dayla get the cure first and she admits she is still debating taking the cure for her physical changes as she feels her new body offers her a chance to be a parent again. Taylor likes the idea and the two flirt a bit back and forth

Elsewhere in the space port Owens and D'ante find the FIA agent, a woman named Tracy Foley who has been getting impatient waiting for a member of the crossfire crew. The two women escort her to a secluded area claiming its a secure location as they walk her out of the space port. Back at the bar both Taylor and Janet have gotten a bit tipsy after a few drinks and get a bit flirtier with each other. The two of them end up kissing and while they are both hesitant to take things too far between them they both admit they like each other. After they finish up at the bar Taylor and Janet head to the ship but on their way they run into Tracey Foley who is in reality D'Ante posing as the FIA agent and wearing her uniform now. "Tracy" introduces herself and after Janet and Taylor both buy it she thinks back to how her and Owens converted the real Tracey, and she is now able to take her place as non of the crew recognizes her after transforming. Tracy now acts as the agent of Temptress directly in the rank of the Crossfire and already aware of all their secrets.

The Next morning Janet and the rest of the crew wonder where D'ante is but with no contact with him for hours they assume he has likely gone AWOL due to his recent questionable behavior. Soon after, Noreli and Arianne announce their Glumine cure is ready for testing and invites most of the others to join them. "Tracy" watches closely knowing it will interest Temptress to know how far they have come with the cure. Dayla is taken to the medical bay and lays down on a bed while Arianne administers the cure. A serum is injected into her first that is meant to reverse all the mental effects of the Glumine as well as prep her body for the next phase. Then two devices are place on her torso called Bio Harmonizers that are meant to be combined with the serum to reform the victim's original body. Dayla goes through the procedure as the others watch and after a few moments her voice, face, and eventually her body are reverted back to Drake. She (now he again) is fully cured of the effects of the Glumine and is overjoyed to be himself again. Drake embraces Arianne while the others praise the success but "Tracy" is off to the side looking over the data on the cure and thinks how she can try and sabotage it and get the information to Temptress. Leeroy spot her in the act and she manages to play it off, but he remains suspicious. The others say it will take a few hours for the Harmonizers to be ready to try again so they hope Taylor will be their next subject once everything is ready.

Ten minutes later Janet joins other mercenary captains in the summit discussing the mission to attack the Grand Helix. She meets with two other major Mercenary Captains the Human Sargent Alexandra and the Senjini Mog'ruh both of whom she has met before. While she is happy to meet some old friends they both question her on having a Zinarian attend the meeting. While Janet does understand their concerns she assures them that Garra can be trusted as he has already had every opportunity to betray them and has proven his loyalty to the Crossfire and the mission. With that the mission briefing begins. Admiral Pirk plans to break the Mercenary fleet into three groups. Episilon group lead by Mog'ruh will use stealth ships to try and slip past the Grand Helix sheilds and disable them. Zeta group lead by Sarge Alexandra will go in second to engage the Grand Helix in battle. The Omega group headed by the Crossfire will then join in and land in the hanger bays intent on landing, taking out their main reactor with neutron bombs and then every ship will focus on infiltrating the station and saving the 50,000 colonists aboard. The Mercenary fleet agrees to the plan and breaks off to prepare for the attack. While Janet leaves however she spots "Tracy" communicating what she overheard to temptress, but she still manages to play it off. Later that day Taylor preps for the procedure to be cured and turned back into a man in the ships medical bay. As the procedure begins on her however Tracy nonchalantly spills liquid on the control panel off to the side short circuiting the process just as it had begun. While Taylor has managed to regain her male crotch the rest of her body remains unchanged. Noreli reports she is unsure what caused the malfunction, and they will need time to assess it before continuing. While Taylor is glad to have her male equipment back, she does wonder what went wrong.

Later that day back on Temptress' ship she confers with the real agent Tracey about their plan. While D'ante reports the successful sabotage of the Glumine cure efforts they proceed to the Grand Helic intent on attacking the race that enslaved the Glumine to begin with. At the Station Vice Admiral Shakay confers with Chief Agano about the recent birth of thousands of Zinarian infants from their breeding stock of Odyssey colonists. Agano explains that after two processes of four-month pregnancies with the 64,000 colonists have thus far produced 85,000 Zinarian infants with only a minimal percentage of any defects or other issues. While Shakay is impressed and glad that they have made great progress in solving their population issues Agano tells him the breeders need to recover for a few weeks before they are impregnated again. Just as the Admiral agrees a ship appears on the station's sensors and crashes into the based before any of the defenses can react. While Shakay and Agano go to investigate, they and all the guards in the hallway are quickly overwhelmed by a swarm of purples Glumine seeping through the vents. After a moment, Temptress arrives and with all the Zinarian guards bound and being transformed by her hive she is quick to berate Shakay for the enslavement of her kind at the Zinarian's hands and despite Shakay claiming she and her kind are still the inferior species she is quick to silence him and transform him and all the others into her newest servants.

### Battle of the Grand Helix

This part is from pages 481 - 518. (↑ back to summary)

The Next Night Janet gathers the whole crew including "Tracy" to a toast in hopes of a victory tomorrow when the fleet arrives at the Grand Helix. While they mention how they have still heard nothing from D'ante they all assume he went AWOL after seeing none of the women aboard wanted to sleep with him anymore and tell Tracy she was lucky to never have met him. Tracy just chuckles and agrees. As the night concludes the crew divides up into a few couples. Drake and Arianne go to have some fun as do Noreli and Leeroy. Tel'hili mentions how she's begun to develop feelings for Dr. Myers after her transformation but goes to man the helm of the ship for the time being. Garra goes to prep for battle and Tracy excuses herself to her own endeavors. Taylor and Janet however are both left alone and with little talk agree to spend the night together now that Taylor has her male equipment back. The two arrive and have a rather passionate night with each other and mention how they may want to stay this way and look into becoming parents one day since Janet is now much Younger than Jackson was and can have fresh start. Taylor likes the idea but says they should stay focused on the battle tomorrow.

The Next morning the girls wake up and while Taylor is playfully putting on Janets uniform Arianne walks in on them and while she is understanding and doesn't say anything too lude she does say they need to get ready as the ship has nearly reached the rendezvous point. Taylor is a bit humiliated, but Janet just invites her to have a quick shower and get ready to head to the bridge. They arrive on the Bridge 20 minutes later to find the whole crew assembled and ready. As The Commander arrives Sarge contacts her over hologram reporting they haven't heard anything from Mog'ruh and his group and they should have already attacked by now Janet worries something may have gone wrong but Tracy discreetly contacts Temptress off to the side. A few moments later the two other groups are contacted by "Mog'ruh" reporting mission success and the Grand Helix defenses are down but in reality it is temptress mimicking his voice and absorbing enough of his memories to know their code as the real Mog'ruh is transformed by her hive. The trap is set and Temptress orders her army of Glumine and mind controlled Zinarians to prepare for visitors.

The Fleet nears the Grand Helix but they begin to detect high levels of enegy from the station when it was supposed to have been disabled. When they drop out of FTL still a fair distance from the station they see it covered in purple goo and a fleet of Zinarian and some of Epsilon group mercenary ships heading towards them also covered in the goo. The Crossfire is quick to recognize the Glumine and a moment later are hailed by Temptress much to their shock as they still thought she was left on Odyssey. She rants on about her plans to spread her influence and bliss across the galaxy and for the mercenary fleet to surrender or become her next victims by force. While the Sarge wants to retreat and get the federation involved Janet calls the fleet to arms saying they can't let these Glumine spread any further or the whole Galaxy will be at risk. Forced to agree the fleet mobilizes and goes on the attack. A massive space battle ensures between the Mercenary ships lead by Crossfire and the Captured Zinarian fleet commanded by Temptress. At first it seems the Mercenaries are outnumbered and out matched, but Garra mentions how the ships are a standard model that has negatively charged shielding and tells Janet that reversing weapons polarity will make them much more effective. Janet gives the order and the Mercenaries begin to gain headway. When they get close enough to the Grand Helix the fleet concentrates its fire on a section of the shield grid and opens a hole in the barrier big enough for the Crossfire to break through. The Crossfire is now the only ship on the inside of the station and Janet orders everyone to suite and complete the mission to blow the reactor to render the station defenseless. As the ship is heading for one of the hanger bays however an internal explosion causes them to crash. One cause by Tracy who has now dawned the stealth suite in the ships armory and is relaying the information to Temptress.

The crew survive the crash and while they are a bit concerned about the internal explosion Janet orders everyone to armor up and get the bomb to the reactor. As they all exit the ship however Tel'hili is struck from behind due to having been the one carrying the bomb. The others surround her and bomb and protect it with their Exo armor shielding but they can't see where the blasts are coming from. Finally, Tracy calls out beginning to brag and say how she is a servant of Temptress. After realizing that the only ones who knew the combination to the locker the Stealth suite was in were Drake and D'ante Janet is quick to realize that Tracy is D'ante after being converted by Temptress. Forced to act fast Drake hacks the Stealth suite while others shield him and the bomb until he is able to shut it down remotely. Tracy is left vulnerable and Janet if forced to kill her. While she regrets it knowing that D'ante was under Temptress' influence she is reassured by her crew that there was likely nothing left of D'ante with how intensely Temptress had her in her grip. Tel'hili is wounded and can't go on so she gives Taylor her plasma ax and tells the others to complete the mission while she tries to hide in the ship and possibly restore radio contact with the rest of the fleet. Janet rallies the others and after a rousing speak they head for the main reactor.

After a few minutes the crew are rushing through the corridors to get to the reactor and run into a swarm of Glumine and a few Zinarian Soldiers. While they do manage to fight them off as they wait for the elevator, as it comes down and opens Temptress is there waiting for them and she rushes to attack Janet once again. This time however, Garra steps in and is ensnared by her instead. Amused by his nobility Temptress begins to mock and transform Garra very quickly as Janet and the others are too distracted by the rest of her army. Temptress mocks them all as inferior lifeforms but in her arrogance Garra manages to use his still armored tail to break free of her grip and pin her down. Temptress is shocked and begins to recover only to have Garra pull two grenades off his belt and tells the others to get to the elevator. While the rest of the crew make it just as the door close Janet looks back at Garra saying its been an Honor and he returns the sentiment saying be well as he shoves the two grenades down Temptress' throat and they both go off just as the doors seal. The rest of the crew are safe and continue on the elevator to the reactor room but Taylor asks if there is any chance Garra survived that. Janet says its impossible anything could survive two grenades going off right in front of them and confirms Garra is dead. Though the others are upset they quickly refocus on the mission and continue on.

The crew arrives at the reactor level and fight their way through a few more Glumine to get to the main reactor core. Once there, Angel, Plasman and Monkey hold off the other Glumine while Commander, Rookie, and Centurion go to set the bomb at the reactor. As they get to the main core and begin to set the bomb however a set of tentacles comes out from the floor, and it's revealed to be a wounded Temptress. While parts of her form are damaged, she survived the blast but confirms Garra is dead. She then ensnares all three of them and begins rant about how free will is what creates war and conflict and what lead to the Zinarians actions here as well as the destruction of Earth itself. She claims the only way to ensure true peace as Janet desires deep down is to bring everyone in the galaxy, even the Harvengers into her bliss and hive mind. As she rant however Rookie manages to get a vial out of her armor's sleave and injects Temptress with the paralytic poison giving them enough time to get free of her grip. While Temptress threw away their blasters and such Rookie still has the plasma ax Eagle gave her and uses it to hack off bits of Temptress before she overcomes the poison. She then lodges the ax into her torso just as the toxin wears off and Temptress regains her strength but before she can ensnare them again Rookie pushes her into the main reactor core and finally manages to kill her. The trio then set the bomb and head out into the station for cover. Once they leave the reactor room they see all the other Glumine seem to have died now that Temptress is dead and the Zinarian soldiers and ships have all passed out into a daze. The core blows disabling the rest of the station and the surviving Mercenary Fleet confirm the enemy ships have ceased activity. Janet gives the order to begin apprehending the Zinarians and rescuing the colonists.

### Epilogue

This part is from pages 519 to 525. (↑ back to summary)

Two months later Janet logs the progress the crew has made. All 64,000 colonists have been rescued and have been undergoing the procedure of the Glumine cure. While most of them experience memory loss over the past several months of being the breeding slaves of the Zinarians they are all restored to their true selves and get help through some of the mental trauma by the others of the crew. Janet then meets with Admiral Pirk to get an update on other matters. He confirms that by using the technology found on Grand Helix to locate all other engineered Glumine the federation has wiped them all out on both the station and Odyssey. They have also imprisoned all Zinarians captured off the station in the process of rescuing the colonists and while they were all given the cure for the mental effects of the Glumine they were left female as part of their punishment. Janet asks about the Zinarian empire as a whole and Pirk tells her the GU has severed its alliance with them due to their actions on Odyssey and while there is concern this will lead to them beginning another war the Federation and the rest of the GU promises full support against them. As for the 80,000+ Zinarian children born from their breeding endeavors the Federation and GU have taken them in planning to raise them on their own instead of turning them over to the Zinarians. Pirk then offers Janet command of a federation ship after seeing her skills and talent, but she refuses and says she prefers the Mercenary life for now.

Later that night Janet gathers the rest of the crew on the Crossfire and makes a few announcements. With the successful rescue of all the colonists Dr. Sadie Myers has elected to join the crew as the new Rookie and lead science officer as Leeroy and Noreli have elected to retire and are now engaged hoping to start their new family soon. Taylor is graduated from Rookie and is given the codename Paladin for her heroics on the mission. Leeroy and Noreli talk about their plans to have two wedding ceremonies, one on Mars and one on Mayverno and then retire to Mars where they have already bought a farm and plan to set up a small mechanics shop after the baby is born. Sadie is welcomed by the others and Tel'hara, who has already received the Glumine cure and returned to being a male, flirts a bit with her back and forth as the two have begun a relationship. Arianne has elected to keep her modified body but gotten the cure for the mental effects of the Glumine and is now in a more serious relationship with Drake. Off to the side Janet and Taylor confirm with each other. Taylor is fine staying in her current form with her male genital still intact and Janet has officially elected to stay a woman and simply have the mental effects removed. The two then talk about maybe looking into retiring from Mercenary work after a while, traveling the galaxy a bit more and then starting a family together. Janet hopes to have a second chance at life now that she's young again and while she is nervous about facing her old family as her new self, Taylor support her and likes the idea of being a father someday. The two kiss and the other couples around the room share a moment looking back at how much has changed and looking forward to their futures together.

## Trivia

* As a sneak peek for this comic, the timeline and character previews are scheduled to release from November 23, 2021 to December 6, 2021.
* The animation episode The Night Is Young - Episode 8 showed that a novel based on this comic series called "Voyages of the Crossfire" exists in the main SapphireFoxx universe, which implies that this story exists in the main universe as a fictional story, similar to Undercover Agent.
	+ In addition, Jessica described the crew in the novel as a group of "all-female" mercenaries. However, in this comic, not everyone stayed as women in the end (as the case for Drake and Tel'Hara, and one member (Leeroy) did not transform in the first place.
* On page 60 of the comic, a prediction contest was held on both SapphireFoxx and SapphireFoxx Beyond websites. In this contest, subscribers commented on what they think the order in which the Crossfire crew would be transformed in. The winners of the contest on each site can choose to have themselves or an original character of theirs featured in a SapphireFoxx animation or comic.
* Assuming 50 light years per hour (LYPH) is the standard speed of FTL travel in the Crossfire universe, it would take roughly 88 days to cross the full spans of the Milkyway Galaxy (about 100,000 light years in diameter) thus cryo sleep or other forms of stasis would likely last only several days to a couple weeks on average journeys of a few thousand light years.

## See also

* Crossfire: Odyssey - the one-shot animation which is a prequel to this comic