Greenies

enough shape so they put me in a support position.' She shrugged. 'I don't mind though. If it wasn't for people like me you folks wouldn't have any fuel to fight those fucks, would you?'

'Fuckin' aye,' Belinda agreed.

The fueling took about five minutes. By the time it was done the greasy former gang member emerged from his car with an electric cart full of eighty-millimeter shells, a case of twenty-millimeter shells, and stacks of food and waste packs. He drove it over to the side of the tank.

'Your supplies are ready, sweet tits,' he told Xenia.

'Right,' she said. They began the loading process, which consisted of the loader handing the shells one by one to Belinda who, in turn, handed them to Xenia inside the tank. Xenia would then put them in the ammo slots that loaded the main gun. After the eighties they loaded the twenty millimeters in. After that they loaded up the waste packs and the food packs and handed out their used packs.

'You're all loaded,' the gang member said with a grin. 'Now how about flashin' me a quick shot of them titties to keep my morale up?'

Xenia looked at him, as if considering. 'Well...' she said, 'you don't get somethin' for nothin' in this world, you know what I mean?'

'I just loaded you up with fresh ammo,' he said. 'Ain't that somethin'?'

'That was your fuckin' job,' Xenia told him. 'I'm looking for service above and beyond the call.'

'Like what?'

'I smell cigarettes all over you,' she told him. 'How about you break down with some for me and my friend here.'

'You show me them titties first and I'll break down with something.'

'Dust Devils honor?' she asked.

He laughed. 'Someone been talkin' to you, baby,' he said. 'Yeah, Dust Devils honor.' He tapped the side of his tattoo two times to confirm this.

Xenia smiled and then slowly pulled her t-shirt up, revealing her alluring bare breasts to his gaze. The nipples were hard and the loader's eyes widened in arousal, his tongue licking at his lips.

'Damn, baby,' he said. 'They even nicer than I thought.'

'Thank you,' she said, letting her shirt fall back down. 'Now pay up.'

He smiled, removing half a pack of premium West Virginia smokes from his pocket and pulling one out. He handed it across to Xenia. 'And there's your payment,' he told her.

'One fuckin' cigarette?' she said, outraged.

The loader shrugged. 'That's the goin' rate here in the north end of the godforsaken greenhouse.'

'But you got to see two tits,' Xenia countered. 'That oughtta be worth at least two smokes.'

'You shoulda negotiated your terms beforehand,' the loader told her. 'Hell, I only got a eighth grade education and even I know that shit.'

'Hmmph,' Xenia pouted. 'If I show 'em to you again will you give me another smoke?'

'Fuck no! I already seen 'em. You want another smoke you gotta up the ante a little.'

'Like what?'

'I wanna touch 'em,' he told her, nearly drooling over the very thought.

'One lousy smoke for a touch of these?' she asked. 'You must be dusted. Gimmee what's left of that pack and you got a deal.'

He shook his head, though only after a moment's hesitation. 'No way, baby. This is my last fuckin' pack. I'll give you three of them.'

'I want 'em all,' Xenia told him. 'Take it or leave it.'

'I guess I'll have to leave it then,' he said with visible regret.

'Are you sure?' Xenia asked in her sexiest voice. She cupped the breasts in question through her t-shirt, squeezing them together. 'I bet you never touched a pair like these before, have you? Did you see how hard my nipples were? They want to be touched, baby. They're begging for it.'

'Five smokes,' the loader said, his eyes wide, his voice cracking.

'All of them,' she insisted. 'Final offer. Going once... going twice...'

'All right, all right!' he said. 'You fuckin' win. Now bust 'em out.'

'Hold on a sec,' she said, continuing to push them together. 'Dust Devil's honor?'

'Yeah, baby,' he said, making two quick taps of his tattoo. 'Dust Devil's honor. Now bring it on!'

She let go of her breasts and slid down to the tread guard, sitting on the edge of it, her feet dangling down toward the ground. The loader stripped off his work gloves and dropped them indifferently onto the compacted Martian soil. He walked over and stood between her legs, his eyes wide, a prominent bulge pushing out the front of his MPG shorts. Xenia pulled up her shirt, baring her breasts once again. His hands attacked them, squeezing them roughly, twisting them, tweaking the nipples to the point it was almost painful. It was so arousing she almost had an orgasm right there on the tread guard.

It went on for about fifteen seconds before she made him stop. She knew if she didn't she would lose control of herself, would put her hands on that bulge and start doing some squeezing of her own. After that, who knew what could happen?

The loader was speechless as he backed away from her, looking at her in lustful awe.

'The smokes?' Xenia asked with a voice that wasn't quite steady.

'Uh... sure, right,' he said, pulling them from his pocket and docilely handing them over.

'Thanks,' she said. 'I... uh... guess we oughtta get moving now.'

'Sure,' he replied. 'I guess you'd better. Uh... listen, after this thing is over maybe you and I could kinda... you know... hook up?'

'We'll see,' she said. 'If you see me in the Troop Club some time, don't be afraid to come and talk to me.'

'I won't,' he said as she climbed back up to her position on the turret.

'Free Mars,' she told him.

'Free Mars,' he replied, blowing her a kiss.

Belinda was sitting back in the driver's hatch. She shook her head in amusement. 'Xenia, you're such a cheap slut,' she said.

'I know,' Xenia said dreamily. On Mars being called a cheap slut was not exactly an insult.

Belinda dropped back into the driver's seat, not bothering to shut the hatch or put on her restrain harness. She pushed the ignition button and the engine started. She was gratified to see that both hydrogen tanks and both oxygen tanks were now reading full. She put the tank in gear and began to move forward, creeping along at five kilometers per hour, following the flattened soil of those that had come before her and entering the access tunnel.

She was not the least bit jealous or upset about what she'd just witnessed Xenia, the woman she loved more than life itself, doing. She would not have been upset if Xenia had fucked the loader right in front of her, in fact, she might have been inclined to tear off a piece of him herself — the entire episode had aroused her greatly. The loader was nobody to Xenia. She didn't even know his name. And sexual petting or other contact with a casual acquaintance — just for the sheer pleasure of the contact — was something that Martian culture did not frown upon, even when one or both of the participants was married or in a long-term relationship. It was just one of those things that happened and the Martians had concluded long ago — even before most of them had left Earth — that there was no point in trying to regulate or control such behavior, that you should just go with it and accept it as a given. However if it had been Jeff Creek she had been touching, flirting with, allowing to touch her... the very thought made her see red. The difference was that Xenia had feelings for Jeff and when feelings were added to the mix, the jealousy began.

The staging greenhouse was one that had been growing strawberries. Like the tomato greenhouse they'd just left, most of the harvest had already been smashed flat by marauding tank treads. The armor formations were a little more organized over here and Belinda was directed to the northeastern portion, right behind two other tanks from her company. She brought the tank to a halt and then shut down the engine. By the time she made it back out of the hatch Xenia had left her perch and was half in and half out of the main hatch.