The Pods

The next morning, after breakfast, Riley, Liam, and Mat set out with Brad and his squad to the clearing with the pods. The rest of the crew of theNebulawere none the wiser, but Riley, Liam, and Mat knew that, barring something catastrophic happening, the entire crew will belong to Master by the next day. The team arrived at the edge of the clearing just before mid-morning and stopped to gather around a digital aerial photo of the clearing before entering it.

"Okay, let's hope in this case we don't find anything too exciting," Brad began, eliciting chuckles from the team. "We'll start from the end of the clearing and steadily fan out until we all reach the perimeter to secure the clearing from this end outward. We'll go in silent, so just hand signals and eye contact until we have secured the clearing." Seeing the rest of his squad nod their heads, Brad then held his mic closer to his mouth and asked, "Harry, did you copy that?"

"Affirmative, Brad," Harry replied into the squad's earpieces. "Remember to switch mics from hot mic to PTT, and make sure Riley, Liam, and Mat stay in the middle of the squad until you give the all-clear. Good luck, fellas."

"Roger, Brad out," Brad said, and he and his squad flicked a small switch on their headsets. Nodding to each other, they climbed over the debris and entered the clearing. Brad led the way, and the rest of his squad surrounded Riley, Liam, and Mat looking outward. As they went deeper into the clearing, those in the rear stayed behind and fanned out parallel to the perimeter, maintaining a watchful eye. The squad's circle around the trio kept getting bigger, with those beside and in front of the trio scanning their sections of the clearing until they reached the perimeter.

Riley, Liam, and Mat stayed relatively close to each other in the middle of the clearing when Brad reached past it. They nodded to each other with silent knowledge that it was almost time for Master to make its move on the squad. The three of them made sure that, as the squad members reached their positions around the clearing, they coincidentally stood in front of clusters of Master's flowers. Looking around him, Riley could see some of the flowers shifting almost imperceptibly, ready to strike.

Brad was the last to reach his perimeter position, as he had the furthest distance to walk. Just as he was about to walk past a cluster of flower pods, all of the flowers burst, spraying their pollen-like dust upward to Brad's face. Knowing that it did not have time to bring an individual flower close enough to the face of each squad member, Master changed tactics and used all the flowers in each cluster next to a squad member to trigger the same desired effect. Brad tried to yell in alarm, but no words came from his mouth. Instead, he instantly felt weak and collapsed to the ground as he faded. Within seconds, his entire squad was unconscious.

Master proceeded to deal with the squad the same way it dealt with Liam and Mat, though it had to take more time to get the squad members naked due to them wearing armoured vests and other additional gear. Meanwhile, Riley, Liam, and Mat sat down, partially unzipped their clothes and welcomed Master's tentacles reaching out from partially-hidden empty pods near them, eager for their pleasurable reward for successfully bringing the team to Master.

Master knew it had to act quickly to prevent the rest of Harry's security squad, still back on theNebula, from becoming suspicious of a lengthy absence of communication between the two squads. Master doubled the speed of its metabolization process to have enough energy to transform the entire squad at once at double the pace it took to transform Liam and Mat, and it was fortunate to have previously ingested Riley, Liam, and Mat's semen. Its symbiotic microorganisms were feasting and multiplying like never before, creating a food surplus for Master for the first time in a long time of its existence on Castries-3.

The trio gasped when they felt Master quickening its ministrations on their cocks. They knew it wanted more of their seed to make up for the energy needed to transform the squad, and they desired the orgasmic bliss that came with such a donation to it. They opened their minds to Master to let it telepathically induce more pleasure in them, and within seconds they came. They shuddered and cried in ecstasy as they offered their copious loads to Master, which quickly ferried the precious fluid to its bowels below ground. They sensed Master using its telepathic abilities to keep their cocks hard, and they were delighted when they realized it wanted to feed from them one more time before the squad's transformation was complete. They laid down on the ground, writhing slightly and moaning loudly as the tentacles rippled around their cocks, willing them to offer their semen once more. At that moment, all the three could think was the desire to offer their semen to Master and a heavy want to reach orgasm again.

Moments later, all the men in the clearing came, filling the area with echoes of groans of satisfaction. Riley managed to look at his own cock, amused by the sight of his own cum shooting in the tentacle and being quickly whisked out of view, one spurt at a time, each contraction of the tentacle perfectly timed to his cock's contractions. Looking slightly past himself, he saw Liam and Mat offering equally plentiful amounts of semen into their respective tentacles. Looking further around him, he saw a couple of distant pods holding squad members wriggle as the occupants also were in the throes of climax.

With this last round of extraction complete, Master released all the men at once, and Brad and his squad began to wake almost right away. Briefly looking around each other, they got up and quickly got dressed as though nothing out of the ordinary happened. Master's work was successful, the squad knew they could not reveal what happened, but they now knew they shared a unique kinship with Riley, Liam, and Mat.

The squad rejoined the trio in the middle of the clearing. When Brad saw that everyone was present, he flipped a switch on his headset and said, "Harry, Brad here, do you copy?"

"Loud and clear," Harry replied from theNebula. "What have you got?"

"Nothing, we cleared the area no problem," Brad replied. "Whatever it was that Riley, Liam, and Mat saw yesterday did not show up this time."

"Acknowledged."

"We'll still keep watch just in case it does show up. In the meantime, we'll let Riley, Liam, and Mat do their work here."

"Okay, keep us posted. Harry out."

Riley, Liam, and Mat completed their day's work as though nothing happened, while Brad and his squad maintained a lookout, though they now knew that Master was also attentive. Prior to encountering humans, Master was always looking for more native animals as living food sources. Now, Master may still capture those native animals, but it was in a more protective mood, as the humans were far more valuable to it.

With a few minutes left before the team had to return to theNebula, they all offered another healthy dose of semen to Master to allow it to prepare for the next day. Tonight was going to be a busy night for the team Riley now led. If all went well, Master was going to have an even busier following day.