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**An Unexpected Change of Employer

By: Veronica Foxx

For: FlimFlamFun5**

Scrabble spat dust as rubble shifted and settled, brushing at his snout to clear his nostrils. The kobold gave a soft growl and kicked at the mix of stone and metal that blocked the tunnel from further access, even to his small and lithe self. If he could get even a small hole to form at the top of the pile, he would be able to squirm through and see if it was worth clearing the rest, but even that seemed impossible. With a heavy sigh, he resigned himself to enlisting the help of at least one other member of his crew and the half-friendly insults that would follow. Being a kobold could be a real pain in the tail sometimes, but his usefulness to the team was indisputable. His diminutive stature and agile climbing ability had found them more than a few scores where most crews would have, and had, decided that the work wasn't worth the possible reward.

Then again, considering this was a research facility, and a fully legitimate paid contract no less, most teams would probably be digging out every nook and cranny they could in the hope of boosting their bonus as much as possible. Luckily, his team wouldn't have to. After all, they had Scrabble. All he needed was a bit of wiggle room to get through a blockage and verify if it was worth the work. Of course, getting that wiggle room could be a problem. Which was why he was dragging his feet back towards where he had left most of his team tunneling towards the main security room of the facility. Maybe Goresnout, the big gnoll, would lend him a hand without too much bitching...

"Scrabble, I need you to come with me," called a familiar voice from behind.

Halting, the kobold turned to find their Tabaxi engineer striding towards him.

"Find something good?" he asked.

She only repeated herself, "I need you to come with me."

With a slight shrug, the kobold gestured for her to lead on. She probably just needed him to squirm into a small space, as usual. She had been mapping the facility, wandering in even deeper that Scrabble had, and must have found another cave-in. It wouldn't be all that surprising. The place looked like it had been a war zone before everything had shut down. They passed several mechanoids, most of them in bits and pieces, as he followed her deeper and deeper into the tunnels. It was a good thing that he could see in the dark; nothing that required power was working, including the lights.

At least, he had thought nothing was. The feline paused before a door that had a lighted keypad beside it. The cover had been popped open, a datapad clipped to the internal wiring to allow hacking of the passcode. She took only a moment to key in the command for the door to open, and Scrabble's hands shot up to shield his eyes as bright lights blinded him. He let out a cry of surprise and fear as something grabbed at his waist and yanked him forward, presumably into the room beyond the doorway.

"Subject acquired," a slightly tinny voice intoned. "Assist with restraint."

Scrabble struggled as hands grasped his wrists, pulling them away from his eyes, flailing his legs and tail. His watering eyes could only make out blurs and dark shapes as he felt something metallic clamp around his wrists. Then his ankles were grasped, and finally his tail. He was held suspended, stretched spread eagle, helpless and mostly blinded by the bright light. Then something slid over his head, covering his eyes. He blinked away the tears to see a blinking cursor in front of him.

Initializing... printed on what he realized was a visor screen. Manual integration process 0%...

"Sketch, let me out of this!" Scrabble pleaded. "What the hell is this? Some kind of prank? What are you doing?"

Her voice oddly dull and lifeless, she spoke softly into his earhole. "Don't fight it, like I did. You'll end up with... less... I'm... not myself any more... Just... let it do what it wants..."

"What?" the kobold demanded, straining and struggling against the bonds that held him. "What in the hell are you talking about? What's going on?"

At that point something clamped around his muzzle and around his throat. He felt a sharp stab at the back of his neck, and his limbs suddenly stopped responding. He could still feel them, but they wouldn't respond to his will. All he could do was shake his head and scream behind whatever held his mouth closed as he felt the engineer cutting away his coverall.

Manual integration process 20%... printed across the screen.

Worrying whirs and clicks sounded around him, and he felt something nudging up beneath his tail. Something large. He tried to squirm, tried to wriggle, but the best he could manage was shaking his head even harder. A slight squirt of wetness splashed against his pucker, and then that large, oh so very large, thing was pressing inwards. It stretched him, spread him at least as much as Goresnout did, pressing inward. The only saving grace was that it slid in slowly and his lax muscles were unable to fight against it. Whatever it was seemed almost intent on impaling him, pressing in even further than the gnoll's cock did when knotted, and it had a similar swelling at the base that enlarged to lock it in place before whatever held it pulled back.

The screen changed to read, Manual integration process 50%...

Scrabble screamed louder, as loudly as he could, hoping against hope that one of his other crewmates would hear. It was impossible, as deep into the facility as they were, but it was the only hope he had. Something warm and tacky suddenly poured onto his chest. He felt it oozing down his sides and trickling down his stomach, a slightly ticklish sensation, and then it began to move on its own. The kobold began weeping, unable to fight, unable to free himself, unable to even ask the Tabaxi why she was doing this, feeling the substance crawling across his torso, up his arms, down his legs and tail, coating his body entirely, a slightly itch sensation as it dug in between his scales.

_Manual integration process 100%... replaced the previous text. Begin conditioning process...

"Don't fight it, Scrabble," Sketch advised him once more, gently stroking the top of his head. "Please, don't fight it. Just relax. It only wants you to work for it, but it will force you if it has to. Just let the programming take hold, or you'll lose everything that makes you you. All I have left is what I know..."_

The kobold tried not to hyperventilate as something slipped onto his head to cover his earholes. Text and strings of numbers began streaming across the visor, interspersed with flashes of color and images with nearly inaudible sounds whispering at him. He could feel something prodding at his mind, feel the whispers and flashes struggling to insert thoughts into his head. Don't fight, she had said, but fighting was the thing he wanted to do most. And yet, she had also said that it would leave him with nothing, a shell of himself if he did. Whining softly to himself, Scrabble took a deep breath and slowly let it out, then again, and one more time, accepting the inevitable. There was no way for him to escape, and whatever was happening was going to happen no matter what.

Slowly, he did his best to relax, kind of like zoning out to a movie during a long journey, letting the sights and sounds play over him without really registering them. His thoughts turned to his crew, the contract, the hefty paycheck they would have received when they had returned, the nice, fat bonus they could have gained if they had been able to find anything more interesting than basic storage modules...

His crew... soon to be his fellow drones, and the contract they had taken wasn't necessarily voided, only transferred. Instead of working for a tech conglomerate, they would be working for a single entity, a far more logical and trustworthy one, an employer that wouldn't send them needlessly into unknown danger for unknown rewards. As for the paycheck, who needed money when everything you wanted would be provided for you, so long as you were a diligent and obedient worker? Well, that all seemed perfectly fine to Scrabble. He was a kobold after all, and there wasn't a race in existence that worked harder or better than kobolds. It would be nice to know that his work would be appropriately appreciated, as well. And having something more than just their vessel to call home would be wonderful, especially if he could get some other kobolds onboard the crew. Not that he disliked his 'mates, but there was nothing like having a healthy warren to call home.

Conditioning complete. Saturation satisfactory, rejection rate 0%...

Scrabble felt his body being rotated and manipulated until he felt his feet touch the ground through whatever it was that coated him. The visor and headphones were pulled free, followed by all the clamps that had held him. His body tingled as it started taking his commands again, and he swayed slightly on his feet. He was glad that the room had been darkened so that it didn't blind him any more, and looked down to find himself covered from neck to toe in a sleek, black latex coverall, kind of like an exo-suit undergarment. He tried plucking at it, and it stretched a bit but wouldn't break or peel away from his scales.

Sketch stepped into view and held out a coverall for him, either a new one or the one she had cut away after being repaired. He slid it on over the latex undersuit, making sure that it covered up the black surface. With a grin at the Tabaxi, he gestured for her to follow. It was time to get the rest of their crew onboard with their new employer. They would like this contract a lot better than their previous one.

The End