An HFY Tale: Drop Pod Green

Rhidi stretched out as she wiggled on her lovely bed onboard the Wild Hunt, sighing out happily as she wagged her tail.

The trip up had gone all the same, checking in with the Moose before heading over onto the Wild Hunt. Floating through the giant cargo bay was less chaotic this time, as they all remembered to get a big push away from the gackcan and rocket themselves towards the Marines.

They were joined by two other Murphy Class corvettes, the Gammorach and the Idle Wind.

Due to the Wild Hunt’s veteran status as a ship with a combat rotation under its belt, it was given a new paint scheme to reflect its name; The ship now had many charging, dancing, howling wolves along the top of its hull, the wolves painted in black with white outlines while the ship itself was blood red.

Oddly, the Gammorach and the Idle Wind were both painted olive drab green, and appeared to have yet to earn their custom paint job.

Joined by the three Murphy Class corvettes were three infantry carriers, the massive wedge shaped hulks bristling with far more anti-fighter and bomber turrets than before.

To fill out the ranks, two patrol carriers were joining them, laden with fighters and bombers of all kinds, as well as three cruisers, five destroyers, and a sprinkling of gun boats.

The whole battle group looked like someone had spilled their futuristic looking kitchen knives onto a black table top, and Rhidi pitied the fool who tried to dare take it on.

Rhidi had been surprised to hear Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne had brought someone with him, and it turned out to be the same blue scaled Skalathir that accompanied him to the DFAC.

Technically, Rhidi had brought someone as well, but she could hardly count Morris. The man had been so held up by his family and flight delays that he had to do his training all within a few days of him finally getting back to the unit, which left very little time for Rhidi.

According to Morris, his mother had faked not one, but two heart attacks to keep him from coming back to the unit, as she had not taken the news of Rhidi well.

Morris had been terrified to tell her about it, but was relieved when Rhidi just laughed it off… all to hide the same inner panic she had in her heart about her own father and mother.

With them now back onboard their ship, and Rhidi far away from all the Regs, she could finally relax.

And she did plan to relax, well within the arms of Morris in the privacy of her own room.

After dealing with her unit and doing all the usual meandering that required, they had been sent to their quarters as the ships began to skip, which meant that within a few minutes…

A knock came at her door, and she sprang out of her bed like she had been launched, opening the door to the smiling form of Morris.

“Hi Morris!” Rhidi giggled out gleefully as she wrapped the Human in a hug, then lifted her feet off the ground with a shriek of happiness when he stepped forward, shutting the door behind him.

“Hello, Rhidi.” Morris said, and was quite happy to do their little ritual properly after all this time.

“Hiiii Morris.”

“Hello, Rhidi.”

They both chuckled, their arms wrapped tightly around the other, and just soaking in the smell and warmth of their bodies for a moment as the Wild Hunt’s skip engines warmed.

Morris sat down on her bed, Rhidi’s legs wrapped around him aggressively as her tail wagged back and forth, and he sighed out into her neck.

“It didn’t go well.” Morris mumbled, and Rhidi sighed out as well.

“I figured.” She said, resting her head against his shoulder. “How bad was it?”

“Beyond her faking heart attacks and sabotaging my flights repeatedly?”

“... That is the worst part, right?”

Morris hummed in his throat, kissing Rhidi on the neck before pulling his head away. “Well, there’s more, but I don’t think you want to hear it. A lot of ‘disappointing’ and ‘my needs’ and ‘grandbabies’ and the like.”

Rhidi felt her heart palpitate at the thought of her own mother and father having to go through that same stage, and was quite frankly relieved she didn’t get the chance before she left. “Good thing we got pulled out to go patrol those stations, huh?”

“Normally, I would be rather angry that we are going back into space months earlier than expected… but I don’t think I mind at the current time.” Morris agreed, then slowly pushed Rhidi away from him, holding her at arms length to gaze at her face. “I’ve been so busy training with my new suit, I didn’t get the chance to take you in like I wanted to.”

Rhidi’s tail lashed back and forth, and she grinned at him with hooded eyes. “You know, I hear it is far easier to gaze while laying down.”

“Is that right?”

“Scientists said so.”

“How many?”

“Oh you know…” Rhidi wafted her hand in the air. “Dozens.”

Morris laughed happily, falling backwards until the two of them thumped down onto her bed. He ran his hand along her tail, trailing his fingers along her spine to make her shiver. “I’m sorry I was gone for so long… I didn’t expect that much… drama.”

“I didn’t expect your mother to throw a brick into a shuttle’s engine.” Rhidi growled out playfully, running her pawed hands along Morris’s arms and thinking about how much she wanted to drag her nails along them. “I mean really, who runs out onto a tarmac and just chucks a brick into an engine?”

“The same woman currently out on bail, a rather high bail.” Morris mused. “I hear your mother wasn’t any better. Funny video by the way, your sister should work as a camera operator.”

Rhidi kissed Morris on the nose, loitering above his face as she folded her arms across his chest. The happiness edged away for a moment, and she frowned. “Did she… really go that overboard because of me?”

“I think her humors got the best of her.” Morris muttered with an aggravated sigh, scritching his fingers at the back of Rhidi’s head. “She was going on and on about ‘how it didn’t make any sense’ and ‘that’s not how it was supposed to be’ and such. She has her mind firmly set on grandchildren and seems to think I am throwing my life away by being in a relationship with you.”

Rhidi’s anger rose sharply at the words, and she pinned her ears back. “Why would she say something like that?!”

“She’s a mother, it’s what mothers do. She had her heart set on me finding a nice Human girl, and now I’m running around with a ‘fox floozy from space’.”

“She called me a fox floozy?!” Rhidi growled with bared teeth. “I’m not even a fox… or a floozy! This is deforestation!”

“Defamation.” Morris corrected with a smile. “You mean defamation, darlin’."

Rhidi rolled her eyes. “Defeaation, then. Is that what you think? I’m just some… some space fling?”

Morris let out a belly laugh, rolling the two of them onto their sides as he brought Rhidi’s angry face to his chest. “Oh do rest that rage in your face, I do not subscribe to the thought that you are a space fling. I quite like you for who you are, Rhidi.”

The words cooled Rhidi’s temper, as did the fact she could snuggle in close to him and rebury her nose in his neck.

“Fox floozy from space…” Rhidi mumbled, her tail hitting her bed with an angry thump. “She’s lucky she didn’t say that where I could hear her…”

“I wanted to ask you a question, actually.” Morris murmured as he slipped a hand back under her shirt, going back to running his fingers up and down the fur of her spine. “Why do some of the Kafya sound German?”

Rhidi laughed, pulling her head away to look into Morris’s eyes. “You don’t know about the accent courses?”

“Well, no.” Morris replied, cocking an eyebrow. “You guys just… pick an accent? You sound like a normal American.”

Rhidi reached over Morris, scrabbling at her data-slate until her pawed hands found purchase on an edge. She brought it back and scootched around until her back was spooned against Morris’s chest, then brought up the old language courses.

“See? We could choose from ‘Neutral American’, ‘German’, ‘British’, and ‘Low Fantasy’ for our accents. Some Kafya find the German accent rather charming, while others prefer British or that weird… stage accent Humans use in movies and such.” Rhidi explained, pointing along on her data-slate. “I wanted to fit into the UAA better, so I chose the Neutral American one.”

Morris squinted at the dataslate through the space between her ears. “Explains why the one Kafya at the shuttleport sounded like Colonel Klink.”

“Who is Colonel Klink?” Rhidi asked. “Was he a great warrior of Human history?”

Morris snorted. “He was a character on an old television show about… you know what, it’s not really important.”

Rhidi went to start asking questions, as she usually did, so he started tickling at her ribcage while kissing at her neck.

As always, this worked at keeping her distracted.

As did what came next when the skip engines came online, and the battle group launched themselves forward along their rip in the void.

—

Rhidi happily smiled to herself as she sat in the mess of the Wild Hunt for lunch, her fur rumpled and hair spiked out in random directions as she ate her chicken salad.

The skip had been a long one, the battle group slowing down to a heat-aura stop just outside Station Finland’s Vengeance. The station itself was bright white with a blue cross running along the long spine of the main hull and across one of the spinning defensive rings, giving it an oddly jovial… but menacing air.

Station Finland’s Vengeance was technically a “rogue station”, as it refused to officially kowtow to either the EUC or the UAA, mostly inhabited by Humans from the land of Finland itself. The station was rich enough from trade that it boasted its own military forces and a small complement of combat ships, though they were polite and gracious to any fleet that treated them with respect.

The station was of the “spike” design, a long, continuous hull that looked like a giant tent peg. At the top of the peg was the main headquarters of the station, while at the very bottom lay their largest communication array. Around the peg were its defensive rings, bristling with guns and laser batteries that sparkled with the dark malice of ill-promise.

Station Finland’s Vengeance had a rather rare defensive weapon they had spearheaded with the help of the Kojynn, one that allowed them to launch spikes of troopers into ships for boarding actions.

When prompted, catapult cannons would swivel around to track a target, then launch a boarding spike at said target, the spike deploying booster fins that allowed it to course correct until it hit its target. Once stuck in place, dozens of angry Finnish station troopers poured forth into the targeted ship, chaos ensuing due to their affinity for dual wielding impact-puukkos.

The battle group that Rhidi was a part of had been given allowance to dock days before they arrived, as the station was in a prime location for supply runs, well stocked, and had one of the best roller rinks known to mankind.

Trailing waves of excess heat from their skip, both the Moose and its accompanying ships were slowly making their way towards the station, and were still well more than a day away.

Rhidi was shaken from her thoughts as Marides and Acici sat down on either side of her, both of them giving her a raised eyebrow.

“You just get out of bed or something?” Marides asked her, her black hair as neatly put together as it ever was. Her blue eyes trailed along Rhidi, then looked over to Acici.

Acici, having smelled Morris’s scent all over Rhidi as soon as she sat down, grinned to herself as she grabbed her spoon. “Oh, ssshe just got out of bed alright…”

“You smell something, don’t you?” Marides said with a snap of her head, leaning forward and looking around Rhidi who was placidly eating her chicken salad. “She just got done having sex, didn’t she?!”

Both Rhidi and Acici let out a bawdy laugh as Marides slammed her fists onto the table.

“What am I doing wrong?!” Marides lamented, dragging her fingers down her face. “I’ve tried everything, everything! I don’t want a Pwah, I want a Human!”

Acici chuckled darkly, depositing a scoop of chicken salad into her maw before leaning forward to look at Marides. “Are you sssure it’s you?”

Marides glowered at Acici, mostly chest level, then glowered down at Rhidi’s far larger legs. “Yes…”

“Who are you approaching, Marides?” Rhidi asked, feeling rather smug. Marides had far more chest than her, in terms of ratio anyway, and she took a small glint of pleasure at the Pwah struggling.

“Anyone!” Marides cried out angrily, squeezing a bunch of crackers in her fist so they sprinkled down onto her chicken salad. “Anyone who even looks my way!”

Acici rolled her eyes. “Ssshe chases them, actually. I’ve seen her scare away more malesss than a Lilgara broodmother with a knife…”

“You’re one to talk.” Marides grumbled, speaking through her cheekful of chicken salad. “You’ve been with eight Human men already…”

Rhidi snorted at that, turning to look at the rather emotionless Acici. “Really? Eight?”

“I find them to be rather sporting.” Acici said flatly, though her mind did wander back to a few of them. “They’re rather sssmooth, don’t you think? Produces amusing sounds…”

“Not that I would know.” Marides spat, then stabbed down into her chocolate cake as if it had insulted her.

Rhidi shrugged. “I have fur, so it’s all rather muffled.”

“Ssstealth mating.” Acici giggled out, touching her spoon to her scaly chin in thought. “How amusing…”

Rhidi had a sudden thought, tilting her head towards Marides. “Wait, what do you mean you wouldn’t know? Pwah have the same kind of skin as Humans.”

Marides grumbled under her breath, taking a quick sip of milk before resting her elbows against the edge of the table. “Pwah don’t… the men don’t do it like Human men.”

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“I have heard from a few Human femalesss that male Pwah are rather… demure.” Acici said, giggling to herself before scooping up more of her chicken salad. “A few have said it was ‘nice, but boring’ a few timesss, while male Pwah have said they nearly had a panic attack when a female Human takes the reins during a coupling.”

“It’s boring!” Marides agreed, spreading out her fingers as she quickly talked with her hands. “It’s so boring! Anwen made it with a male Human last week and she has done nothing but tell us how awesome it was! Mind, she’s a bit of a harlot and will throw her chatte at anyone with a pulse, but she’s done nothing but stir up the Pwah.”

Acici rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t mean you need to be ssso aggressive with the Humans.”

“Yeah, just be yourself.” Rhidi agreed, polishing off her chocolate cake as her tail swayed behind her. “Humans like it when people are real with them, so just be you.”

“But I’m boring!” Marides cried, slapping her head into her hands. “I don’t have any hobbies! I just watch movies, work out, and eat…”

Rhidi grinned to herself, leaning forward on her elbows and resting her cheek against her laced hands. “Have you tried just being bait?”

“Bait?” Marides asked, lifting her head from her hands.

Acici knew exactly what Rhidi was on about, as she had done this plenty of times, and was the precise reason why she owned so many joggers.

“Yeah, be bait.” Rhidi replied, holding out a hand and wiggling her index finger like a fishing rod. “Make yourself alluring, throw yourself out somewhere public, and just wait.”

Marides looked at Rhidi as if she was insane. “But… what… how-”

“Look, we’re Droppers.” Rhidi cut in, turning Marides towards her while also swiveling towards the Pwah on her seat. “Look at our legs. Hell, look at Acici’s legs.”

Marides blushed, more out of frustration than anything else, as she looked at Rhidi and Acici’s thick, muscular thighs.

“You have the same legs as us.” Rhidi said earnestly, slapping her hand on top of Marides’s own muscular thigh. This got Marides to bark out a laugh before shoving Rhidi’s hand away. “If you go out in a nice pair of shorts to one of the coffee shops, wear a cute shirt, and just hang around, I guarantee someone is going to be looking.”

Acici held up her spoon. “She does own a lot of long sleeved surfer shirtsss.”

“... Why do you own a bunch of surfer shirts?” Rhidi asked, cocking a brow at Marides.

Marides shrugged. “I learned to surf.”

“You learned to surf yet you think you’re boring?!” Rhidi asked her with a laugh, playfully shoving the Pwah on the shoulder. “How many Pwah surfers do you think there are?”

“I mean… I was the only one I saw out in the water during leave” Marides said quietly, now rather shy.

Acici snorted. “Couldn’t catch me in that fucking water, Earthen ocean predatorsss are scary as hell…”

“This is perfect though!” Rhidi said with a happy clap of her pawed hands. “Do you still have our physical training shorts?”

“The ones with the split in the thigh?” Marides asked, confused. “Of course, why?”

Rhidi leaned forward towards Marides, her smile devious. “Look, after Moriss… let me reword that. Morris told me that he is planning to take me to the huge roller rink on Station Finland’s Vengeance, all the ships are emptying out to see the station-”

“You would think they would have an iccce rink.” Acici mused, her spoon full of macaroni salad halting halfway towards her face. “You know, Finland and all that. It’s snowy.”

“Too much hassle.” Rhidi replied with a wave of her hand. “Takes too much power and everything always gets wet. Anyway, you come with us to the roller rink, right? Wear those shorts, a pair of tall socks, a tight surfer shirt, and I guarantee you won’t be alone for long.”

Marides squinted at Rhidi, then turned her head to Acici. “It can’t be that easy.”

“It isss that easy.” Acici said with a flirty blink of her reptilian eyes. “Do you think I own those cheetah print leggings for fun?”

“It can’t be that easy!” Marides hissed, dropping her fork and spoon onto her tray with a clatter.

Rhidi shrugged. “Sometimes I just have to wear a certain pair of shorts and I only end up wearing them for a minute or two.”

“Why does Marides look like she wants to strangle something?” Angel asked as she came around the table to take a seat.

Rhidi smiled at the female Human as she sat down, her hair just as blonde as the day they had first met in the latrines. Her eyes were still cold and gray, the fine scar along her lower lip giving her a hard-lived appearance, but the smile that cracked the scar in two was warm.

“She’sss been having boy trouble.” Acici said matter of factly, which caused Marides to let out a shrieking growl and slam her fists onto the table with a clatter of trays and cutlery.

Angel’s eyebrows rose, her smile still upon her lips as she leaned a glance towards Rhidi. “Duly noted. You hear about the latest intel?”

“Rhidi? No. She’s been too busy fucking!” Marides barked, then snatched up her tray to stomp away towards the dish area.

“Good lord.” Angel snorted, picking up a piece of freshly baked bread and spreading her chicken salad along it. “Anyway, the big snow planet below us, y’all read up on it?”

Rhidi nodded, having read the mission packet along with everyone else when they got back on board the Wild Hunt.

“Ice planet, cold as fuck.” Rhidi intoned, Acici moving her spoon along in the air like a conductor beside her. “Geothermal heat allows underground colonies to stay warm enough to grow hydroponic vegetables. Planet is rich in frozen gas, titanium, copper, with a shit load of iron. Water is gathered from the ice, which is blown onto the surface from… whatever the hell is doing it.”

Angel nodded, making herself a chicken salad sandwich. After taking a large bite, she wiped at her scar with her thumb, chewed, and smacked her lips before speaking. “The air is also so oxygen rich that nothing that breathes it can fight on the surface. The underground colonies have to make sure not too much unfiltered O2 gets underground or it starts damaging organs and shit.”

“Well hell, I didn’t know that.” Rhidi mused, her ears perking as Marides slammed her tray into a dish bin, startling all the cooks behind the line. “I thought we were gonna get to fight down on the ice!”

Angel chuckled, swallowing a bite of sandwich she had taken while Rhidi was talking. “Afraid not, command doesn’t want to risk anyone getting sick. This means that if anything arrives, it will be fighting on the station.”

Acici pointed her spoon at Angel with a bent, accusatory wrist. “Will be fighting?”

“That’s the scuttlebutt.” Angel replied airily. “Helper Aligned ran the math and have been doing their smart AI thing, why we are sitting outside this station. The titanium and iron on this planet alone has been feeding the war factories for the Coalition.”

Rhidi looked up in thought, then her brain sparked with something that made her happily clap her pawed hands. “We may get the On Station Combat medal!”

“Exactly!” Angel replied happily, wiggling her sandwich victoriously. “Do you know how many Droppers have that award?”

“I would reckon very few.” Acici murmured, squinting to herself as she tried to remember what the ribbon looked like.

“You reckon?” Angel asked in the corresponding accent. “Since when do you guys say ‘reckon’?”

Rhidi jabbed a thumb at Acici. “Some of we aliens-”

Angel and Acici made mock gasps, with Acici forming an “A” across her chest with a swish of fingers.

Rhidi rolled her eyes; She had been attempting to make a tongue in cheek joke with the word, but remembered that quite a few people got a little upset at being called an “alien”.

“Some of we non-Human troopers,” Rhidi said pointedly, Acici and Angel blowing out theatrical breaths of relief, “Have been experimenting with new slang.”

Angel waggled her sandwich at Rhidi. “Is that why some of the Kafyan Regs sound German, and some of the Lilgara Regs sound like they came from Canada?”

Rhidi grimaced. “I can’t speak for the Lilgara, but yeah, some of the Kafya had access to a few linguistic accent classes. My dad for instance took a course and has a British English accent.”

“Fancy.” Angel replied through a mouthful of chicken salad sandwich. “What about your mom?”

Rhidi grinned. “German.”

“What is ssshe, a movie villain?” Acici asked, pulling a food-laden cackle from Angel and a chuckle from Rhidi.

Rhidi shook her head from side to side as she grinned brightly at Acici, then looked to Angel. “So that’s what we’re expecting? Station combat on that Finnish peg?”

“Looks like it.” Angel replied.

“Do you know when?” Acici asked.

Angel bobbed her head from side to side. “Intel isn’t sure, but it may be a few weeks. I don’t know exactly what the AI are tracking, but they are keeping a close watch on something.”

“I’m sure they have some crack team on it.” Rhidi replied as she scraped at the last bits of food on her tray. “Human AI is super sophisticated and dead clever, they probably know the time down by the second.”

—

Miss La rubbed her thumb along her bottom lip in thought, eyeing the screen that Sparkle Otter, Whirler, Oballen Bindribblen, and Washu stood within.

“Are you certain?” Miss La asked, her four eyes looking skyward in contemplation.

Sparkle Otter nodded. “Yes, we are. Do you… want to put on some pants?”

Miss La’s eyes snapped down to her half naked form, as Bloodmourne had stopped by to have lunch with her and… they ended up having more than the chicken salad he stopped by with.

“Ah, yes, my apologies.” Miss La said curtly, her face burning as she bent over and snatched up the pair of pajama pants she had been wearing before Bloodmourne had taken them off.

Sparkle Otter, Whirler, Oballen Bindribblen, and Washu all looked away politely, as Miss La was filling the screen with more than her tail.

With pajama pants now in place, Miss La cleared her throat and crossed her arms. “Alright. Continue.”

“Right.” Sparkle Otter said, coughing digitally as she gestured to Washu. “Washu.”

“We are tracking energy signatures.” Washu said cooly, pulling up a data chart for Miss La to observe. “We have an understanding that it is highly likely that whatever force is heading here, they are planet hopping.”

“Planet hopping?” Miss La asked, confused as to what the AI was talking about.

Oballen nodded, gesturing to the chart. “We are not detecting any large ships, just a rather small one that is becoming harder and harder to track. However, when it gets close to a planet, there is a huge energy signature that flares across our equipment. We have been tracking it quite closely.”

Whirler, who was visibly vibrating with static, seized her moment, pushing the other AI to the side as she rushed forward to fill the screen. “Are you and Bloodmourne dating?!”

Caught off guard, Miss La set the tips of her draconic fingers together, avoiding the face of Whirler as it filled the screen. “Aaah…”

“Whirler, please.” Washu said behind her, somehow muffled due to the excitable AI filling the screen.

Sparkle Otter let out a disgusted growl. “Whirler! Get out of the damn screen!”

“I was kind of curious as well…” Oballen murmured, then let out a “Hey!” as Sparkle Otter slapped him across the back of the head.

“Well? Well well well?!” Whirler asked loudly, her fingers gripping their side of the video portal. “Are you?!”

Miss La blushed, her face turning rather purple under her blue scales. “Well… Whirler, I am aboard this ship, am I not?”

“So you’re doing it?!” Whirler screeched gleefully. “Are you finally done slapping your scales to romance books?!”

“WHIRLER!” Sparkle Otter screeched, now visibly trying to wrestle Whirler away from the front of the screen.

“You would think seeing her pantsless, and her bed a mess, would have given her enough of a clue…” Washu murmured in the background.

“Whirler has never been much for context clues.” Oballen chuckled out quietly.

“Yaaay!” Whirler cackled out, even as Sparkle Otter ripped her away from the screen. “Miss La is living her romances out in real life with a hunky Human dude!”

As Sparkle Otter bodily tossed Whirler through the air, the AI merrily laughing the entire way, Miss La let out a wry laugh as she hid her face in her hands.

Sparkle Otter smoothed down her digital form, having been fraying with static in her anger, then placed her hands together. “I am so sorry about that, Miss La.”

“Miss La is finally getting some from someone she likes!” Whirler cackled as she cartwheeled past the screen at high speed. “The love drought is finally over! Book pages rejoice!”

“I am going to gut your DATA!” Sparkle Otter roared, chasing after Whirler as Oballen and Washu stepped forward.

“Time frame?” Miss La asked past her hands, her face so hot that she wondered what color her scales were turning.

Washu sighed out as Whirler went flying through the air behind them, thrown by Sparkle Otter as she summoned a digital hammer. “We believe that it is anywhere from one week to ten days from now. We have already alerted the UAA and EUC command as per protocol, but we came directly to you afterwards once we had the other information you desired.”

“Is it true?” Miss La asked, her hands snapping away from her face. “Are you sure?”

Oballen nodded. “We have had a very tight watch on Kafyan space, and we believe there is a ship heading to Earth with the intentions we have surmised.”

“Size of the ship?” Miss La asked.

“Commercial vessel, no more than a hundred on board.” Washu said with a bow of his head. “Are you sure you do not want us to alert the UAA?”

Miss La’s face darkened, the news flushing her system of the lingering pleasure left there by Bloodmourne. “... No. No, we need this to happen. If they are foolish enough to go forward with their plan, it will galvanize our position. Does Radishow know?”

“He is aware.” Oballen replied, crossing his digital arms. “People may die, Miss La.”

Miss La grimaced, pressing her lips into a thin line as her hands came down onto her hips. “I know… I know. If all goes well, no one important will die. If it goes wrong… well. We may have a martyr that will do us more good than it will hurt us. Either way, the Elder Councils will show their hand.”

“Lirya does not deserve to die.” Washu said sternly.

“She has been through enough, and deserves this chance to become more than her kind has ever been allowed to be in the last… who knows how many years.” Oballen muttered bitterly. “The data cache told us a lot, but it was still missing thousands of years of information.”

Sparkle Otter, growling and stomping up beside Washu and Oballen, held up a digital finger. “I have a request!”

“Yes?” Miss La asked, noticing that Sparkle Otter had been outrun by her quarry as Whirler went Powerlining across the screen in the background.

“We should at least give Lirya a warning.” Sparkle Otter said, crossing her arms angrily. “There is absolutely no reason not to give her a warning before it happens. We can be watching live, just as we agreed, and give her a warning as soon as they start moving in on her.”

Whirler gorilla jumped Sparkle Otter to stand in front of them all, holding out her arms wide. “We can ping her on her tablet, or on another tablet nearby! That will give her time to react just before we alert the UAA to a friendly fire operation on their military base!”

“You get the drama you need.” Washu intoned. “And the Elder Councils get caught in the open, allowing us to open up the can of worms that is their persecution of the white furred Kafya.”

“It’s still a win-win, boss.” Sparkle Otter called out, shoving Whirler out of the way of the screen again. “And it lessens the risk to Lirya!”

Miss La let out a long sigh; She really would prefer to give Lirya any extra chance she could get, but did not want to risk spoiling the operation if the Elder Councils were running counter intelligence operations.

“Do you believe… that there is little chance of them noticing her getting a signal? What about jammers?” Miss La asked.

Washu snorted. “The Kafyan data-dogs wish they could jam my signals. If you want the lines open, I’ll keep them open with absolute certainty.”

“And no one is going to intercept Lirya’s flare on my watch.” Sparkle Otter said sternly. “I’ll put myself into her tablet if I have to, or turn all the data-screens on to make sure she knows what’s coming.”

“Besides,” Oballen said loftily, picking up Whirler under her digital arms, “We can always unleash Whirler onto their system if they seem to be getting wise. No one messes up a data-stream like our Whirler.”

“I’ll fuck ‘em up!” Whirler crowed, shadow boxing the air from Oballen’s arms. “I’ll turn their equipment into mincemeat and teabag their communications!”

Washu grimaced. “She actually will, I’ve seen her do it digitally… I still wonder if that rogue AI is going to therapy…”

“Stamped my digital clam right on his stupid little forehead! Muwhahaha!” Whirler cackled, giving the air a karate kick even as Oballen still held her digital form aloft.

Oballen looked sideways to Washu, his digital brows raised. “Definitely still in therapy.”

“Most certainly.” Washu agreed.

Miss La chewed on her bottom lip, her four eyes squinted in thought… then she nodded. “Alright… if you believe that an early warning to Lirya won’t cause the Kafya to wave off… I think we can go for it, then.”

“We know that some people may die.” Sparkle Otter said seriously, her digital eyes watching Miss La. “We get that, and we get why the Kafyan Elder Councils overstepping is a huge deal for Operation Qui-Gon, but we need to do everything we can to make sure that Lirya survives. Her death could set us back years.”

“I know.” Miss La sighed out. “I just don’t want to risk the Elder Councils getting a whiff of information that would lead them to believe their mission has been compromised.”

Washu nodded his head sagely. “We are, after all, working on assumptions. For all we know, this could just be a Kafyan family on retreat, and they are gunshy of going near stations in fear of spending all their money.”

“Still, it is hard to ignore a Kafyan ship, that departed Kafya Mintulcurr of all places, heading straight for Earth.” Oballen carried on, pointing at a nearby map he pulled into frame. “They are passing dozens of stations, both economic and pleasure, which means they have enough fuel on board to make it to Earth, and only Earth.”

“A one way trip.” Washu murmured, looking up at the map as well. “That, or they plan to steal a ship when they arrive.”

Whirler, performing a long ice skating twirl, swung into view before stopping in front of the map. “They could always take Kohan’s ship! He’s been naughty naughty, and joined up with the Humans. Two space foxes, one strike team!”

“I always thought the Kafya were more like cats…” Sparkle Otter muttered.

“Cats? Foxes? Aren’t they more like wolves?...” Oballen asked aloud.

Miss La snapped her fingers a few times. “On program, here. Do you believe they could make a run for Kohan as well?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me.” Washu said, lacing his digital hands behind his back. “Rhidi and the most veteran Droppers are now in space with you, leaving the traitor Kohan without the protection of his daughter. They could easily land on the base with fake credentials, kill Lyria quietly, then take out Kohan in order to secure their technology patents. With him out of the way, they could make their way back to Kafyan space on the perfect cover vessel.”

“Sparkle Otter,” Miss La began, now slowly pacing in front of the screen, “Do you think you could warn both Lirya and Kohan at precisely the same moment?”

Sparkle Otter bobbed her head. “Well, yeah. I’m an AI, I can be all over the place at one time, why?”

“Do you think you and Whirler could tail the Kafyan team, digitally? If they actually arrive, that is…” Miss La asked, tapping the knuckle of her balled fist to her chin. “If you two could get around within all the cameras…”

“Whirler is more than capable of making her way along any digital system, she has the most advanced programming of us all.” Oballen said with a digital grin. “Probably why she’s so fucking weird, honestly.”

“Not even the UAA security AI can stop me!” Whirler announced, giving Miss La a game salute before adopting a more cheeky pose, the peace sign of her digital fingers near her cheek. “I’ll be on them like Mozilla on RAM!”

“Could you work in tandem with Whirler and alert base authorities when they show their hand?” Miss La asked Sparkle Otter. “The very millisecond they have committed, with everything recorded?”

Sparkle Otter sighed out as Whirler wrapped her arms around her digital shoulders, and she lamely saluted Miss La as Whirler let out a gleeful laugh. “You can count on us… I guess.”

“Sparkle and Whirler, off to war!” Whirler trilled out with another trademark laugh, then began to spin around with a hissing and cursing Sparkle Otter. “To war! Tooo waaarrr, too waaarrr, yaaay!”

Washu cut his digital eyes to Oballen, holding a cupped hand near his head. “Perhaps we should invest in code therapy for Sparkle Otter as well.”

“Definately not in budget.” Oballen murmured with a low chuckle, taking a step back as Sparkle Otter latched onto Whirler with digital teeth.