Thalia tore off her uniform bit by bit, throwing them to the side. No point in shame, really. Handler probably had her files, and she knew from experience that they included extensive documentation on physical inspections. Never hurt to do a dive into somebody’s records in order to get a bit of blackmail.

Elara continued shuddering as she watched Thalia remove her clothes. She suddenly felt cold, the lack of clothes mixed with her fear draining all the heat from her body. Thalia could feel Elara’s eyes trace her body, staring at the forest peeking out above her undergarments.

Unlike Elara, Thalia didn’t shave down there, never really seeing a use for it. It wasn’t like she was getting much action on base, especially since she began associating with Handler. Everybody was afraid she was going to be the next person sent to the kennels, and if she was, they’d get to have their fun with her body anyways.

===

It wasn’t just her association with Handler that made Thalia a prime target for the Kennel program. Thalia knew she was considered ‘high risk’ for defection, just like every other bioengineer that she knew.

Her work on her sister’s heart had been a lifelong work, and she had jumped through hundreds of regulations to even get it considered for usage by military standards. It was directly contrary to the Imperial cause.

She wondered if that was why Maxine had let herself die. Her dream had been to be a pilot, following in their parents footsteps. Her heart condition was congenital, plaguing her through childhood through pilot training. Thalia knew that the Imperial military would never accept a pilot with mechanical augmentations. Impure. Inhuman.

All of the propaganda spelled out rebels as tools. People that had thrown away their humanity by implanting metal into their bodies. Nothing left there but something to be used, an implement for war. Thalia’s artificial heart wasn’t so much of a replacement, but a sibling for Maxine’s heart.

Heart replacements had long existed on the gray market, but being found out for having a metal heart would almost immediately lose you all protections granted by the law. You wouldn’t be considered a citizen of the Empire, instead becoming something owned by your closest family. Thalia herself would have preferred to die in battle than to be owned, even if it was by her sister.

Thalia had designed her implant to keep Maxine’s heart intact, making sure nothing needed to be removed from her. “It would be a crutch for her heart,” she had pitched to the governing body over mechanical research projects. It had been just barely a majority that agreed to her project, with intense oversight.

Even if it had been allowed legally, Thalia knew the military commanders would have immediately thrown her sister out of the pilot’s program, no matter how good she was. Odds were Maxine was marked for the kennels the second that implant entered her chest. She would have been too sympathetic to the rebel cause.

Thalia couldn’t let that happen to her. She had to be ruthless, show at every step that she believed in the Imperial cause. What stood in front of her was somebody who had long since lost her humanity, thrown it away of her own volition. Replaced bits of herself with steel so she could cope.

She wasn’t human. Elara had died the second she got her vaginal implant. Thrown even more of her humanity away when she ripped off her arms. A machine masquerading as one of their own.

What Thalia wasn’t about to do wasn’t rape. You couldn’t sexually assault a tool, a toy. At least, that’s what she screamed in her head.

Why did she still want Elara to say yes? To beg for it? To wipe the pain off her face and truly want this? It didn’t matter what she wanted, she was a machine. She wasn’t capable of wanting. What stood in front of Thalia was the machine that took her parents from her. She deserved to break it. She deserved to disassemble it.

===

Thalia slipped out of her panties, letting them fall to the ground beneath her. She was dry as a desert, and Thalia cursed her body a little for not making this easy. What would Handler want her to do here?

“Down, bitch,” she barked at Elara. Take charge. Show she’s in control of the machine.

Elara fell to her knees, still shuddering. Thalia did her best to blame it on the frigid environment.

She’s scared, Thalia thought. Apparatus couldn’t be scared. She had to do this. She shouldn’t feel bad.

Thalia grasped Elara’s head by the chin, tilting it up as she shoved her pussy over her lips. She ground into her face, feeling the hairs on her crotch wipe against Elara’s soft cheeks. She held back from whispering sorry, afraid that Handler would hear.

Elara’s neck jerked around as she was forced into Thalia, smelling her scent as her face was buried between Thalia’s vaginal lips. She let out a little scream, feeling as Thalia began to grow wet. She felt Thalia slam into her head, knocking her brain around her skull. Thalia’s hairs rubbed against her face, slowly wiping some of the fluid leaking out of Thalia’s insides across Elara’s face. It took every last bit of effort she could muster to keep from fighting back.

Ignore her pain. It can’t feel that. Thalia continued grinding against Elara in a mad haze, feeling herself grow slick as the scraping turned into a gentle sliding. She looked at Handler, who watched silently from her desk. Handler gave Thalia a slight wave, as if giving her permission to continue.

Thalia kicked Elara back, pressing her foot into the toy’s neck. She debated pressing down harder, making things easier for Elara, but that wouldn’t please Handler.

She had to do this, make it hurt. Show no compassion. Thalia looked down at Elara’s lower region. She was soaked.

That doesn’t mean she’s enjoying it, Thalia noted. Elara was tearing up, and Thalia could see that she was trying her hardest to space out. She wanted to be as far away from this experience as possible.

Thalia felt a sense of kinship for a fleeting moment, raising her leg to let Elara breathe. They were both here against their will.

Difference was, Thalia would be able to leave. She wasn’t stuck here like this thing beneath her. She was above it, right? This was what it deserved.

She slammed her foot into Elara’s crotch, feeling her bone strike metal, biting down to keep from yelling out. Elara, on the other hand, shrieked as she spasmed a bit on the floor, dripping fluids across the hardwood in Handler’s office. Elara would have to clean that up later.

Thalia felt the pain tingle in the ball of her foot, letting it anchor her as she crouched down.

While Elara was still reeling in pain, she positioned herself. Thalia put one of her legs under Elara’s, pressing their skin together. She put the other over her, feeling as her nether regions made contact with Elara’s synthetic skin.

Thalia grabbed Elara’s leg, pushing it up to make it more comfortable for herself. Elara let out a squeal, and Thalia could see that she was hurting her. She shouldn’t care. Thalia held back from easing up on bending Elara’s body out of order, and spat into her other hand.

She rubbed it around on her fingers, before moving it down towards Elara’s slit, shoving her fingers in. Thalia growled at Elara, “Make this comfortable for the both of us or I’m going to break your synthesizer open.”

Elara looked up in fear, consciously turning up the production of her synthetic vaginal juices. They spilled out of her, as she faked letting out a moan. Thalia continued fingering Elara, before pulling her fingers out. She closed her eyes, shoving the glossy fingers into herself before bringing them up towards her mouth. A thin strand of liquid stretched off of her fingers as she brought it up to her lips, drinking it in. The sweet taste of ambrosia coated her mouth as she licked her fingers clean.

A wet slap sounded out as Thalia bulldozed into Elara, crushing their folds together. This was what Handler wanted, right? To use her? Thalia looked up, seeking some kind of approval. Handler gave a curt nod, acknowledging Thalia’s work.

Thalia noticed something else as she continued mashing herself against the crying Elara. Handler was glowing. She felt her blood run a little cold as she realized what had happened.

Elara’s synthesizer had been modified without her knowing. Handler. Thalia looked down, the once clear liquid was now green. It had been tweaked just moments ago. She continued thrusting against Elara, still taking in what had just happened.

She could feel the warm feeling spread through her body, the pain in her foot disappearing. The liquid had to be inside of her now, mixed into her secretions. Handler had tricked her. She was absorbing it straight into he-

Thalia immediately stood, backing up from the mess on the floor. Her crotch was soaked in green, and the world was tilting before her eyes. She looked up at Handler, who gave her a sly smile. How much had made it into her system? Why?

She was shaking now, barely able to stand. She had done exactly what Handler had wanted her to do.

Handler spoke, her voice a beautiful melody that wrapped itself around Thalia. “I hope you’re still with me, Hail.” A smile snaked its way onto Handler’s lips, burning itself into Thalia’s retinas. “You’ve shown just how much you care about her, I think. Go on, enjoy your little reward.” Handler gestured towards Elara, who was now backed up cowering against Handler’s desk.

Reward. This wasn’t anything of the sort. Thalia struggled against Handler’s command, pulling back. She wanted to throw up. Her inhibition left her, as she stared at the thing in front of her. Elara. Why had she cared so much for it? There was nothing left in front of her. It was a ghost of a person, an echo of something greater.

She couldn’t bring herself to step forward, though. It would mean giving in. It would mean she was a slave to her need. A tool. Something to be used, commanded.

“No.” She felt the words almost fall out of her mouth, almost shaking the room as she spoke.

Thalia wasn’t something to be broken. She had fought to prove that her entire life. She was a builder, a technician. To fall now would go against everything she had worked towards. Thalia had to live up to Maxine’s legacy.

She wouldn’t become spare parts.

“I’ve shown exactly what you wanted from me. I’m leaving.” Thalia was tempted to leave the office without her clothes, run as far away from Handler as possible before the drug in her veins took deeper hold.

Handler dropped the faux grin, standing up from her desk. “You proved nothing, soldier. You barely even started your demonstration there, before you started leaking like a slut. I’d hardly count that as breaking her.” Handler was right, in some sense.

“I couldn’t have broken her, madam. She was broken long before I walked in the room,” Thalia argued. There was barely anything left to break there, she had just been stomping on ashes. She stood her ground, grabbing her clothes off the ground. She needed to get out, away from Handler. The longer she stayed, the less she could even fathom leaving the room without permission, struggling to move without Handler’s word.

“Have some decency before you leave, Thalia. It wouldn’t do for you to be walking around base naked, hm? Stay, soldier.” Handler slowly approached Thalia, who slowly backed up towards the door.

Thalia felt like she was walking through molasses, trudging towards the door that seemed farther and farther away. She kept from thinking about what she needed, her want to obey. “I think we are far past decency, Handler.” Thalia filtered out Handler’s last command, thinking about Maxine as she pushed forward.

She quickly turned, opening the door and running out. Thalia didn’t wait to be dismissed, slamming the door behind her. She wasn’t even sure she had grabbed all of her clothes, running off towards her lab. She couldn’t be seen like this.

===

Thalia sat, locked in her lab. Of course, Handler had the keys, but the thought of the door being shut out, closed to everybody else comforted her.

She crawled her way to the bathroom, hurling into the toilet as she tried to purge every last bit of sunshine from her system. Her throat burned as she continued to upturn her insides.

The next few minutes- or hours, Thalia couldn’t tell anymore, were spent by the toilet, continuing to heave long after her stomach had been emptied. She could her humanity return to her as the little bits of the drug in her system left.

God, she was disgusting. It finally sunk in what she had done to Elara, seen in her. She wasn’t human anymore, by any standards. Thalia was a monster. She could see the hole where Elara Callisto used to be, burned out and locked away past walls that she helped build.

Then she had raped her body, the souless corpse that begged to be reunited with its host. She had used and tortured the thing that had everything stolen from it.

She was worse than Elara. She had a choice there, she could have left any time she wanted. Quit right then and there, kept her dignity and morals intact.

Instead she had bent the knee to Handler, tried to prove herself, and by doing so she had fallen. Maybe she should run back and hand herself over, let Handler tear her from her body like she had done Elara. She didn’t deserve any better.

Run from her problems. She thought about Maxine.

She ran, she gave up. Thalia couldn’t do the same thing. She had to make Maxine proud.

Thalia finally stood, wiping off the bile that had spilled over her chin. She walked over to her workstation, staring at Elara Callisto’s old pistol. Thalia picked it up off the table. Loaded.

Maxine wouldn’t want this. She’d want her to stay, to live a full life.

Thalia had wanted the same for Maxine. She couldn’t face her, wherever she went next, without making things right first.

One of the perks of working with Handler was learning how the Hound program worked in a little more detail. Seeing what came next before you were almost inevitably thrown into it.

Another benefit was the access it granted you. Thalia grabbed one of her keys, unlocking a drawer, and she pried off its false bottom. She was tasked with refilling Elara’s arms, and had been skimming off some of the ‘Sunshine’. Saving it for a rainy day.

Handler hadn’t come for her yet, Thalia thought. She should be safe here for at least a while longer. Thalia grabbed a needle and the vial of stolen sunshine, heading back to the lab’s bathroom. She kept the pistol at her side, just in case.

She wouldn’t fall for another one of Handler’s tricks. Thalia drew up a small dosage of the sunshine, and stabbed herself in the jugular.