Cupcake Girls - Part 5 of The Vixen War Bride Series: The Vixen War Bride

By Thomas Doscher

A month has passed since Captain Ben Gibson arranged for the return of the village's missing commandos, and relations between the Rangers and the local alien community have never been better. As the two sides work together to prepare for the arrival of a group of refugees, he and the Va'Shen priestess, Alacea, work on exploring their budding personal relationship.

But the story has been quite different for those incoming refugees, and their experiences with the human invaders have been very difficult. And when they arrive, they will bring more with them than hungry, homeless villagers. They will bring dark secrets, heartbreaking trauma and the dry tinder for an all-out insurgency.

All it will need is a spark.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Doscher
• Release date: Feb 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215165126

Book preview

Prologue

Six months ago...

Va’Sh was a fairly temperate world. The planet itself was tilted by only seven degrees where Earth was tilted by 23.5. This meant that, unlike Earth, which experienced varying degrees of sunlight and seasons depending on the time of year, Va’Sh’s seasonal shifts were less dramatic. Warm places closer to the equator tended to remain warm, even in winter.

But the further north or south you went from the equator, the colder it got, and it tended to stay that way. The poles, of course, were frozen year-round. But areas that might enjoy a warm summer and a heavy winter on Earth would, on Va’Sh, remain somewhere in between.

It was this knowledge that made the Army major sitting in the command seat of a light tactical vehicle curse under his breath. Outside the window, the sky was a sickly grey overcast. It was wet. It was chilly. And it was going to stay that way.

That’s just how it was this far north on Va’Sh’s main continental landmass.

It wasn’t quite raining yet, but it felt like it wanted to. A drop here and there hit the LTV windshield. The vehicle was parked, so there was no need to run the windshield wipers. It was merely a place to review some paperwork while his troops outside finished their preparations.

He sighed and tiredly rubbed his high-and-tight as he reviewed the personnel files in front of him. Outside, someone was shouting, but he didn’t pay it any mind. He was more concerned with the screwed-up personnel situation he faced in this new assignment. While, thankfully, most of his personnel were holdovers from his previous command, practically all his senior noncommissioned officers had been poached to fill spots at the headquarters level. His new terp was fresh out of the Defense Language Institute, and the closest he had been to any action was a two-day seminar on basic infantry tactics.

The situation was, as his commander had put it, less than ideal.

There was a knock on the LTV window, and he cracked it open. One of his men, Staff Sergeant Brandon Castillo, gave him a quick nod in greeting. No one saluted him. That was standard operating procedure and had been since he took command.

Sir, we’re ready for you.

Thank you, Staff Sergeant, the major told him. Give me a few moments.

Yes, Sir.

Castillo left, and the major looked over one more record before returning the stack to the manila envelope and tossing it on the dashboard next to the now-useless command interface terminal normally used to coordinate forces and direct convoy movements.

Taking a breath, he opened the door and stepped out, pausing only to put on his patrol cap. Red, gritty mud squelched beneath his jump boots, and he felt a few drops of chilly rain hit his face and hands. He took a quick look at the overcast sky above him. It was simply an ugly, disgusting ass day. He started marching forward, and two armed soldiers fell into step on either side of him, escorting him to where the rest of his troops were waiting.

When he arrived, he surveyed the scene before him. His troops, armed, armored and intimidating as hell, stood in a line in front of him, facing off with a group of perhaps three hundred aliens who looked back at the troops with angry tails whipping about. Behind them was the main road that led into their village of simple houses, storefronts, and a tall, ornate temple that reached up to the very sky.

As he approached, two soldiers stepped aside so he could break through the line and stand between the Va’Shen in front of him and troops behind him.

He looked at the Va’Shen before him for several moments, letting them get a good look at him. They were simple folk, dressed in drab colors. Some had faces covered in coal dust, having come directly from the mine where they had been working when he arrived. Intermittent drops of rain cut streaks across their blackened skin as they stood there and glared at him.

When he finally spoke, the aliens’ ears all stood up in surprise.

he boomed in near-perfect Va’Shen.

The Va’Shen said nothing.

he shouted at them.

Again, the Va’Shen said nothing. Some looked down at the ground. Some held one another in worry. And some stared at Keyes defiantly.

he continued. He turned and gestured for the soldiers to begin. Every third troop in the line, stepped forward and moved toward the group, causing some of the Va’Shen to back up in panic. Keyes assured them.

While the remaining troops in line watched, their weapons not quite pointed at the villagers, the rest went from Va’Shen to Va’Shen, patting villagers down and checking bags. One tod stepped forward to object to the way one of the troops was patting down a vixen, perhaps his wife or sister, and three more troops stepped up, rifles raised and pointed at his head.

The tod raised his hands and obediently stepped back while the search of the vixen continued.

Keyes watched silently as his men conducted their search. Down the line to his right, one of the troops called out.

Glass!

The major turned and found three soldiers, their weapons raised and aimed at the head of a tod in a faded blue monpei. His hands were raised to show he meant no harm.

One of the soldiers, the one who had called out, took a leather satchel off the tod’s shoulder, holding it carefully at arm’s length. Another troop, this one equipped with what looked like a pair of plastic, hand-held toy robot claws, opened the bag with the claws and looked inside. Turning to Keyes, he nodded and, using the claws, very carefully took the bag and started down the line and away from the group.

Keyes watched him go and turned to the tod who had been in possession of the glass grenades. The Va’Shen stared back at him, his tail waving quickly back and forth behind him in fear, anger or a mixture of both.

The major turned his head toward the man who found the glassers.

Corporal, he said, his tone all business. Shoot that thing.

Without a word or moment of hesitation, the soldier raised his rifle to the villager’s head and pulled the trigger. The villagers in the group screamed as parts of the tod’s brain and skull splattered onto them. The Va’Shen man fell down, his tail twitching once before going completely slack.

Keyes turned to Castillo and gave him a nod. The staff sergeant waved his hand, and half of the troops remaining in the line rushed forward, weapons raised. Each of them grabbed a Va’Shen woman or child and pulled them, kicking and screaming back to their original line. The Va’Shen adults and men reached out, screaming at them, begging the humans to let their loved ones go, but the soldiers maintained an iron grip on the frightened villagers.

Keyes raised his hand, beckoning for silence.

he told the remaining adults.

A few tods hesitantly stepped forward and placed glassers or satchels down and then backed up to their original place in the line. More soldiers with toy claws checked the bags and carefully picked up the Va’Shen ordnance, taking it away for disposal.

Keyes eyed those tods. he told them. He nodded at Castillo, and the search of the villagers continued. Every so often, one of the soldiers would call out, Glass! The search would pause, the weapons taken away, a gunshot, and more screams from the crowd.

The major said nothing, his face revealed nothing. After three more gunshots, the search came to an end. The soldiers returned to their line, and the Va’Shen women and children were released, all of them rushing headlong back to their loved ones. Keyes raised his hand for their attention.

Two-thirds of his troops started into the village, opening doors and moving carefully inside, checking for traps or hidden commandos the entire time. Some of the doors were locked, prompting the soldiers to kick them in before proceeding inside.

The search took several hours, and the Va’Shen were forced to stand there the entire time. Some held each other for comfort while many more stared down at the ground in fear and shame, afraid to lock eyes with the Dark One, Keyes, lest he decide to kill them too. Although it was not raining hard, they had been standing out there longer and were already becoming soaked.

The bodies of the Va’Shen who had been caught with glassers remained as they lay, their blood mixing with the muddy water around them.

Finally, the soldiers conducting the house searches returned. They returned to their spots in line as Castillo gave Keyes a brief on what they had found: hardlight rifles and glassers.

Any uninvited houseguests? Keyes asked.

No, Sir, Castillo replied. What do you want us to do about the weapons?

Keyes knew exactly what the sergeant meant. He wanted to know if he wanted to try to find out who the weapons belonged to, but Keyes figured his point had been made.

Dispose of them, he said simply.

Yes, Sir.

Any other concerns?

No, Sir, Castillo told him. The FOB is secure, and we have people surrounding the vil at every access point. Nothing is moving unless we want it to.

All right, Keyes said. Let’s wrap this up.

Yes, Sir.

Castillo rejoined the line, and Keyes stepped toward the villagers.

he informed them.

He waited to see how the Va’Shen would react, but the villagers continued to look downward in fear.

Keyes told them. He paused for effect.

Chapter 1

Two months until contact...

The entrance to the cave was almost two stories high with the dark gray rock surrounding it chiseled and sculpted into the likeness of a hissing cobra with its mouth opened wide. The stink of death and decay wafted from the entrance, forcing the three members of the party to cover their noses for a moment lest they retch. Low moaning sounds came from within, the sources of which were unknown.

One of the party members, a very tall black knight wearing a horned helmet that completely covered his face, stepped forward and put his hands on his hips. So, this is it, he rumbled. Doesn’t look that bad.

From his right the blonde woman in white cleric’s robes rolled her eyes. Only you could stand in front of something like this and say it doesn’t look bad.

Well, it doesn’t, the black knight replied shortly. At least I don’t have to crouch.

A halfling pixie a third his height floated up to his left side, held aloft by fluttering diaphanous wings.

It shore wooks scawy, d’ough! the pixie squeaked, her hands under her chin in concern.

The black knight turned to her, and he took a deep breath before sighing. Yeah. Yeah... it’s totes ‘scawy.’

Aw we weally going in dere? the pixie asked, pointing at the entrance with her magic wand.

Yes, the black knight told her. We’re really... Look, could you stop that?

Stawp what?

That. Could you stop talking like that?

The pixie cocked her head to the side in puzzlement. Bat dis is how I always talk.

Okay, look, we get it, all right, the black knight said. "You’re fucking adorable, okay?! We all know you’re fucking adorable! Now, can you just talk like a normal person!?"

The pixie clutched her wand in fear. I do’n awnderstand!

Yes, you fucking do! the knight cried.

Dude, calm down, the cleric said, holding her hands up as if to physically intervene at a moment’s notice.

No! He needs to talk like a normal person!

Bot I’mma girl pixie! the pixie objected.

Which brings me to my next point! the black knight rounded on her. What in the actual fuck, man!? You could have picked anything, but you picked the closest thing you could to ‘magical girl!’ Did you do this to fuck with me?! Are you fucking with me?!

The pixie hung her head and sniffled. Why aw you so mean?

The knight stared at her for a moment and raised his gauntleted hand, pointing a black steel finger at her.

I fucking hate you.

The pixie looked up suddenly. Hey, what time is it?

Don’t change the subject!

* * *

No, I mean seriously, Staff Sergeant Jared Burgers Baird asked from his seat at the long rectangular table in the center of the dining facility’s main dining room. Maps and papers covered the table, held down by the weight of several dice, plastic figures and pencils. Most of the lights in the DFAC were off, giving the room an eerie feel. The other tables had chairs placed on top of them, and the floor was still slick with having just been mopped.

Glowering at him from across the table, his friend, Staff Sergeant John Ramirez, checked his watch. Coming up on zero-two hundred, he said.

Burgers rose from the table and grabbed his patrol cap. It’s time, he announced. You still wanna come with?

Anything is better than listening you talk in that baby-boo-boo voice, Ramirez told him, grabbing his own hat.

Sitting next to Burgers, Navy Corpsman Second Class Mina Fletcher stifled a laugh. You want us to wait for you to get back? she asked.

Nah, Burgers told her. You go on into the Cave of Woe, and we’ll catch up with you when we get back.

The two stepped out of the DFAC and into the warm night air, putting their patrol caps on and walking briskly toward their target on the other side of the FOB. It was a clear night, and the stars shone brightly through the green and purples of Va’Sh’s ever-present aurora borealis. Most of the camp was asleep, giving the FOB a creepy quality that made one want to instinctively walk a little faster.

So, how you wanna do this? Ramirez asked as they strolled toward the target. Get some grappling hooks and some ropes? Go in all ninja style?

The two stopped next to one of the FOB’s many perimeter watchtowers, and Burgers placed his hand on one of the rungs of the wooden ladder that led to the top. The towers were made of plain, unpainted plywood, held aloft by four six-by-sixes that reached forty feet into the air.

I’m just going to climb up the ladder like it’s a regular day, the larger man said.

Man, you are just no fun at all, Ramirez told him as Burgers stepped onto the ladder.

"Quests and Corridors was fun," Burgers pointed out.

Sure, for Petunia Pixie of the Poopified Phorest, Ramirez shot back, climbing up the ladder after his friend.

The big African American Texan paused about halfway up the ladder and listened carefully for any sign of movement.

Nothing. Not a sound.

He frowned and started up again, not going out of his way to be loud, but not trying to be quiet either. He wanted this to be fair.

As he approached the top of the ladder, he slowed and cautiously peeked over the edge and into the guard post. His face scrunched up in a grimace at what he saw.

The two sentries assigned to the post were both fast asleep, one sitting on the floor in the corner. The other was sitting comfortably in a plastic DFAC chair, having the audacity to put his feet up on the edge of the window looking out over the countryside beyond the perimeter fence.

Burgers looked down at Ramirez and put his hand on the side of his face, miming sleep.

Ramirez grinned. Oh man, he whispered. This is gonna be great.

Now the two entered Ranger stealth mode and gingerly climbed up inside the tower. Burgers put his finger to his lips as Ramirez followed him and stood up inside. He pointed to an M-31 resting against the wall near him and turned to pick up the other one resting against the opposite wall.

Once both weapons were in their hands, they checked to make sure the weapons were on SAFE, removed the magazines and ejected the chambered rounds. Ramirez gave Burgers a nod, and the big man took a deep breath.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?! he bellowed.

The two sentries startled awake as if to a bomb going off nearby. The soldier who had been sleeping in the chair with his feet up fell over backward, landing on the floor with a crash. The other soldier jumped to his feet, saw Burgers and Ramirez holding their rifles and went deathly pale.

Scrambling to his feet, the other soldier turned, angry about what he thought was some kind of joke.

What the fu... Turning, he saw Burgers glaring daggers at the man and immediately went to attention, already knowing he was in a lot of trouble.

You two up here getting your beauty rest? Burger demanded.

No, Staff Sergeant! the two replied in near-perfect unison.

Burgers’s eyes went wide in surprise. "So, I did not just catch you two asleep at your posts? I’m a fucking liar, huh?!"

No, Staff Sergeant! one cried. I mean... Yes, Staff Sergeant!

What?! Burgers continued. "You think because we happen to have it pretty good here, we can just kick back and relax? We ain’t got no worries up here at FOB Leonard, huh?! We don’t need any sentries because everything is just so goddamn peaceful and serene, huh?!"

No, Staff Sergeant! the two cried.

Or do I got this shit wrong? Burgers asked. Maybe you two figure since you guys can’t catch Tod coming into the base anyway, there ain’t no point in even trying. Is that it? You two just say ‘fuck it’ and gave up?

No, Staff Sergeant!

Burgers bit his lip and shook his head in fury while Ramirez watched from the side, content to let his friend handle it. Even so, he knew he had a role to play here.

So, what do you wanna do with them, Staff Sergeant? Ramirez asked him. Extra duty? Confined to base?

Extra duty? Burgers asked as if the very suggestion insulted him. These two dirtbags just got caught sleeping on sentry duty. That’s capital punishment!

"You wanna shoot these guys?" Ramirez asked in mock surprise.

The two sentries went dead white. One of them actually started to shake.

A sentry asleep on duty in wartime can be sentenced to death, Burgers went on. He turned to the two men in question. "You have any idea what could have happened while you were up here dozing? You know how many people could have died?"

Ramirez didn’t say anything and let his friend roll with it. He knew this was the Texan’s particular pet peeve, and he knew why.

When the war broke out, their Ranger outfit had been deployed to the third planet in the Epsilon Eridani star system. It was during those first few months that their camp had been raided by Va’Shen commandos in the middle of the night. The raiding party had managed to evade the mines, tripwires, infra-red cameras and the eyes of every sentry ringing the camp and went on a total rampage, burning, shooting and glassing everything they saw. They killed 24 Coalition troops, seven of them Rangers from their unit.

All this happened before the Coalition discovered the Va’Shen’s particular talent for stealth, so in the aftermath of the attack, the immediate assumption was that someone had screwed up. An investigation was launched, and every troop pulling security that night got thoroughly interrogated by Army CID over and over again. The Army needed someone to blame, and they were going to find that someone.

One of those potential someones had been one Specialist Jared Baird, who had been manning an M-270 machine gun in Tower 6 that night.

It wasn’t the investigations or the suspicion that had so deeply affected Burgers, however. It was that he didn’t know. He had asked himself constantly, ever since that night that seven of his fellow Rangers were killed, Did I miss them? Was I the one who missed those commandos?

Later, as the Coalition learned just how good the Va’Shen were at stealth, additional measures were put in place to ensure security at forward bases, and most people understood that the attack on the FOB on Epsilon was just the first of what would become many more. But Burgers never stopped asking himself those questions.

So, when Burgers found troops not taking sentry duty seriously, he had a tendency to take it personally.

So, yeah! he said. Death!

Maybe a little too personally...

Yeah, Staff Sergeant, Ramirez began, I don’t think we can authorize that at this level. I think executing people is more a Captain Gibson thing.

Burgers pretended to chew on this thought while the two sentries remained at attention and quietly prayed. Finally, the giant NCO nodded and turned to them.

Okay, you two, here’s what you get to do, he said, putting his knife hand in their faces. "You’re going to go down to the NCO quarters, find Sergeant Carpenter and wake him up. You’re going to stand there and explain to him why you’re not at your posts and why you don’t have your weapons and let him know that Staff Sergeants Baird and Ramirez are doing your jobs for you while he finds two replacements for you. Then, you get to tell him that Staff Sergeants Baird and Ramirez are eagerly awaiting his arrival here so we can discuss how this happened and what we’re going to do about it. Then you two are going to report to the DFAC, pick up a mop and clean the floors for the rest of the night. And I swear, if those mops stop moving for even a second, I will have you cleaning urinals with your toothbrushes for the rest of this deployment. HUA?"

HUA, Staff Sergeant! the two cried in equal measures of fear and relief.

Now, Burgers said quietly, leaning in close to the two of them and speaking in a whisper. Run away.

The two took off down the ladder like a shot, causing the entire tower to shake as they fled the two NCOs.

Very nice, Ramirez said, giving Burgers a golf clap. "Hell, I almost shit my pants. He stepped over to the chair the sentry abandoned and righted it, sitting down and leaning over the abandoned M-270 light machine gun. Man, this takes me back," he said.

Burgers rested the unfortunate sentry’s M-31 against the wall and sat in the other chair next to his friend.

You really gonna give up all this? Ramirez asked him, gesturing to the dark and dingy guard tower. Just to go live on some colony and work at some IT company?

It was a familiar argument. Ever since Ramirez had discovered his friend was considering leaving the Army, he had done his level best to convince him to stay.

Oh yeah, Burgers replied sarcastically. Nothing’s better than staying up ‘till two a.m. so you can go yell at a couple of idiots who fell asleep on watch.

You love it, Ramirez replied. Don’t lie.

Burgers sighed. The sad truth was he really did love it. Most of the Army could be divided into two kinds of people: The people who enlisted to do four years and go to college, and the people who enlisted because they wanted to be soldiers. For most people, the stuff the Army did, the suck, as it was called, was a chore one had to endure in order to get the paycheck and free college. You did it. You could even be good at it. But it was still work, and you would rather be doing anything else.

But Ramirez and Burgers fell into the second category. They truly loved sleeping outside, running around the woods and shooting guns. There would always be stuff they didn’t like, sure, but being a soldier was the only life they ever wanted. Where else could you get paid for jumping out of a helicopter, landing in a lake, swimming to shore and then zipping back across that lake in a rigid inflatable boat? Shoot, that never got old.

You know, Burgers said, "You could come with me. Go to some colony, open the galaxy’s most awesome burger joint. You could mop or something."

That is the most tempting offer I have ever heard in my life, Ramirez replied. But I’ma pass.

They turned as the sound of feet... angry, pissed off feet... came rattling up the ladder to the tower. After a few moments, Sergeant Carpenter, Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of FOB Security, climbed into the look-out with them.

He looked at them both and took a resigned breath, running his hand over what used to be blond hair before he shaved it down to almost nothing. I don’t know what to say, Staff Sergeants, he said remorsefully. I didn’t want to believe it was happening.

Neither did we, man, Ramirez told him.

There had been suspicions over the last week or so that sentries had been sleeping overnight at their posts, so Burgers and Ramirez had talked to Carpenter. Given the severity of the charge, Carpenter felt compelled to defend his people and challenged the staff sergeants for proof.

Proof that just came into his hooch and woke him up.

They said you were going to kill them, Carpenter told Burgers with an arched eyebrow. "If so, I gotta be honest, I’m only a little against it."

Oh, I wanted to, Burgers said. He sighed a moment later. There were plenty of options as to how to handle this issue. Burgers hadn’t actually been joking. It was technically possible to execute sentries caught sleeping, though no one in today’s Army would ever even consider it. He just wanted the two men to understand the severity of their actions.

They’re your troops, Burgers told Carpenter diplomatically. What do you suggest?

Can’t let them off with a warning, Carpenter answered immediately. Too severe for that. We could Article 15 them, but honestly that would destroy any chance they have to go career, and this is their first cock-up. If you don’t object, Staff Sergeant, I’d like to recommend to the captain that he take a stripe from them and put them on extra duty. That should send a message to the rest of the camp, and they could still recover from it.

Burgers chewed on that for a minute. An Article 15 was nonjudicial punishment. It was supposed to be a way that a commander could punish a troop without it going to the legal system so that the troop could learn from the experience and still go on to have a career. In the more modern one-mistake Army, however, having one on your record almost automatically meant you were prevented from re-enlisting. The captain, however, could reduce them in rank, citing their unreadiness for the responsibility and give them corrective training so that the act wouldn’t show up on a record.

He looked to Ramirez who gave him a shrug as if to say, your call. Burgers nodded to Carpenter.

Okay, Sergeant. It’s all yours from here.

Thank you, Staff Sergeant. I’ll make sure it never happens again.

I know you will, man, Burgers replied and reached out to shake his hand. It was important to Burgers that there not be any bad blood about this. He and Carpenter were on the same team.

I got a couple of guys coming to take over, Carpenter told them. I’ll stay until they get here.

Ramirez hopped up and started for the ladder. Cool.

Have a good one, Sergeant.

You too, Staff Sergeant.

The two staff sergeants climbed down the ladder and left the junior NCO alone in the tower. As Burgers’s feet touched the ground, Ramirez patted him on the shoulder.

Cave of Woe? he asked.

Cave of Woe, Burgers confirmed.

The Rangers started back toward the chow hall where, they hoped, their party hadn’t gotten too far ahead of them.

But seriously, could you knock off the cutesy voice? Ramirez asked.

It really bothers you, huh? Burgers asked.

It’s creepy.

Awww! Burgers replied in his high-pitched fairy voice. Den mawbe a’ll tolk like dis all da time!

Ramirez shook his head, but wouldn’t look at his friend.

I fucking hate you.

* * *

Captain Ben Gibson stood at the entrance of the small camp that the Va’Shen craftsmen and his SeaBees had been building for the last month and whistled appreciatively at what he saw. What had once been a strip of