Borderlands: Unconquered Read Online Free PDF Page A

power!”
    The word power elicited a roar of approval from them.
    “Quiet, you scum!” bellowed Sergeant Flugg.
    Gynella, their General Goddess, went on. “And so, to bring order and lawfulness and profit for those of us who bring it, to make this planet peaceful and ourselves rich . . .”
    Another roar of approval at the word rich .
    “We shall expand ournumbers. We shall move onward! We shall take more territory! Today, prepare yourselves for the attack we shall carry out tonight, on a prosperous . . .” She hesitated, knowing that many of them didn’t know what that word meant. “A rich new settlement that will give us more troops, more resources, more weapons, more land . . . and some women to entertain the very bravest of my soldiers!”
    Oh, Lord, but she’s ruthless, Smartun thought approvingly, as her men roared lustily. Truly a goddess.
    “And now,” Gynella boomed. “Will you follow me into battle?”
    As usual, the First Division shouted in unison, “We will!”
    “And will you fight to the death for the banner of a new world?”
    “WE WILL!”
    “Then . . .” She grinned sharkishly, her fingers going to the circle of metal around the grid on her medallion.The men moaned in anticipation. They knew what was coming. “THEN FEEL MY LOVE!”
    And with that, she pointed a finger at the men, while with the other hand she twisted the dial on the device, and the ActiTone chimed like a bell made of thin diamond. The sound seemed to gather strength, to amplify across the Devil’s Footstool; the very air quivered visibly with it. She made her arm quiver, givingthe impression that the impulse was traveling from her pointing finger.
    All of the men standing before her, including the sergeant, fell to their knees, groaning with pleasure, hips bucking, eyes rolling, saliva dripping from their open mouths, as the ActiTone activated the pleasure centers of their brains.
    Smartun, however, felt nothing from the ActiTone. He had not been treated with thesusceptibilitydrug the way the others had. Gynella and Dr. Vialle, who had come together from Kali Four half a galaxy away, had brought the ActiTone and thousands of doses of the SusDrug, as Vialle called it, stolen from the Dahl Corporation’s chemicals research lab. Homeworld Security had pursued them and lost the trail.
    Smartun had taken up with Gynella the moment he saw her; he adored her already. He didn’tneed a drug with a vibratory trigger. It had worked on the Psychos they’d captured. It had allowed her, bit by bit, to build up a small army. It might allow her to take over the planet.
    Gynella switched off the ActiTone, and the men fell on their faces, gasping and spent, murmuring her name. “Gynella . . .”
    One of them surprised Smartun. The biggest Psycho brute of the bunch, a one-eyed, noselessmurderer called Splonk, got up and staggered toward Gynella. “More!” he said. “Want you! Want . . . your . . .”
    The other men looked up with a mix of horror and fascination as the big brute stalked swayingly toward their General Goddess.
    The sergeant and her bodyguard and Smartun—all three at once—started to block the oncoming Splonk. But Gynella made an imperious gesture with a slash of herhand. “No! Let him approach if he dares!”
    The men gasped and murmured at that. Was it really possible she would let him touch her? And . . . ?
    She waited calmly until Splonk was in reach. She smiled. He reached for her. Her right hand flashed, drawing her short sword. Her body spun in place as she drew it, and as she came back around, the blade slashed lightning fast through Splonk’s midsection,right through his waist.
    The Psycho Bruiser stopped, gaping, gagging, staring . . . then looked down as she drew out the sword with an expression of contempt. He watched as his entrails slopped onto the ground at his feet.
    Splonk sagged to his knees, then fell forward onto his own entrails with a sickening squish. The smell of