Date: 2021-09-28 04:00:00+00:00

LUNAR ALPHA
BOOK THREE
DEFIANCE

A SCIENCE FICTION GAMELIT LITRPG NOVEL

BY

MAGNUS REID

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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

This book is a work of fiction. All the characters in this book are fictitious and any similarity to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidence.

Published By Honey Wagon Books Inc.

Copyright © 2021 by Magnus Reid

Cover by Chris Dapula (Kurizu Artworks)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

NAVIGATOR

Begin Reading

Table of Contents

Newsletter

Copyright

About the Author

TABLE OF CONTENTS

NAVIGATOR

-

LUNAR ALPHA: BOOK THREE
DEFIANCE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

-

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEDICATION

To Uncle Ólafur.

LUNAR ALPHA: BOOK THREE
DEFIANCE

We’re closing in on Chorus, the Lagolian’s home star system. It’s been a long month of relentless, deadly 5v5 skirmishes with the Nekrol, deadly A.I. robots with mysterious origins, but there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel, especially now that I’m in command of the Lagolian army.

But before we can finish off the Nekrol, I need upgrades.

Vega shows me a whole new world called Holodnor, a neutral planet where alien races buy and sell everything from weapons to DNA upgrades. I’m going to need every little upgrade I can get, because there’s a new threat on the horizon—one that will make fighting the Nekrol seem like fighting kids’ toys—and one that will shed some light on where the alien robots came from, and what they want from the Lagolians.

CHAPTER I

I was asleep with my face nuzzled comfortably against Trix’s big naked breasts when a persistent tapping on the back of my neck made my eyelids flutter open.

I groaned and rolled over to see Vega staring at me, and I must admit that I thought I was having a dream. She was wearing a white, flowing cloak that extended all the way to her ankles. Now, the hood was down and her long platinum blonde hair was cascading down her shoulders, making her look like the member of some Swedish Midsomer cult.

“Get up, human,” she whispered, and that’s when I noticed she was holding another white cloak, presumably for me to wear. I rubbed my eyes and assumed she was bringing me to some sort of ceremony.

The Lagolians had their traditions, mostly religious in nature, much like Christmas but more in the Orthodox sort of way. They had traditional dances and meals, and they would sing eerie songs in old languages that nobody actually spoke, save for a few elderly scholars. A few days earlier I witnessed their Mulling Tree ceremony. Mulling Tree happened every three years, and I quickly found myself wishing it would never happen at all. Girls were chosen at random to be tied to a tree, and then other girls would take turns biting them, drawing blood, and then licking that blood up. It was, of course, done with careful medical supervision. Though at times, it almost seemed strangely sexual, like the girls were enjoying being bitten… maybe some sort of vampire fantasy. Kuzu was one of the chosen girls, and she had nine healing bites on her body, including two on her left breast.

“What are we doing today?” I asked groggily.

“I can explain on the way, but we’ll miss our train if we don’t hurry up.” She gave me her hand and tugged me out of bed. I looked back at my sleeping girls: Eris, Trix, and Kuzu, all snoring and dreaming peacefully. Kuzu—like always—had her face nestled into Eris’s neck, with her arm stretched out so she could have her hand on Trix’s boob. I was becoming more and more convinced by the day that she was a full-blown lesbian… though she really liked it when I—

“Hurry up, human,” Vega hushed, thrusting the spare robe into my chest.

“Okay, okay,” I said, grunting.

“Put it on. They won’t let you on the train without it.”

“What train?” I said.

She groaned, rolling her eyes. “I’ll explain everything on the way, Kyrie. Just hurry up. Please.”

“What time is it right now?”

“It’s five, Standard Lagolian Time, and almost eleven Holodnor time,” she said. “Grab your Tribute Card.”

“Why do we have to do this so early?” I asked, rubbing my eyes again. I had to paw around my dresser to find that card, which I’d been given a week earlier, but I never found a use for it. I’d only ever seen Lagolians using them in the mall area, buying clothes and snacks. But there were free meals provided on the ship, and I wasn’t a fan of the carrot and apple food court buffets.

“Because we have a skirmish at one, and I don’t know exactly how long this will take.”

I felt silly wearing the thing with nothing on underneath. But Vega insisted that nothing could be worn underneath. “It’s important that you follow the rules,” she said, as if there were rules printed in some book that I was supposed to read about this strange tradition—or whatever it was. I felt especially silly when we left the lodging sector and walked across the ship’s mall area, which was quiet but not empty. A few of the early risers turned to look at us as we rushed down the hall towards the portal tunnel. We passed the mechanics’ bay. And those strange looks from Lagolian citizens made me think that this wasn’t just another ordinary tradition. “So wait. Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to Holodnor,” she said.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s a moon,” she said. “And it’s in a system that’s also called Holodnor.”

“And sorry—what are we doing?” I said, shaking my head and trying to wrap my head around this sudden wakeup call. “And why am I wearing this silly robe?”

“Holodnor is a neutral moon,” she explained as we entered the portal room. We had to wait for the doors to close and for the room to pressurize before we could access the tunnel to the portal, which was now being guarded by a pair of tired-looking girls. “Anyone can go there through any portal—us, the Nekrol, anyone—but there are rules there to keep everyone safe. Unless you have special permission, you can’t bring anything in except for polyetherene, which is what these outfits are made out of.”

I felt the soft fabric of the robe. “Huh…”

“If you’re wearing anything underneath—even a bra with a wire—you’ll set off alarms. You aren’t wearing anything underneath, are you?”

“You saw me getting dressed,” I said. “I’m clean.”

“Good,” she said.

“What are we doing on Holodnor?” I asked. “Am I saying it right?”

“I need to get something,” she said, suddenly blushing all over, trying to contain a cheeky smile. It was rare that something got Vega excited, and her rare excitement was contagious.

“What is it?” I asked, perking up.

She stared into my eyes, and it was clear that she didn’t want to tell me, as if it was some sort of secret. She just kept biting her bottom lip, cheeks turning red. And I couldn’t help but think that she was taking me to some intergalactic dildo store, to get some sort of alien vibrator. “Alright, keep it a secret,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. I considered commanding her to tell me, using my ‘alpha powers’ to get the secret out of her; but I liked the idea of it being a surprise, so I went along with it.

The door opened and Vega led the way down to the portal. The guards suddenly perked up, eyes widening. “Alpha Centauri, Vega?” one of the girls asked, wobbling slightly as she tried to make herself taller by standing on the balls of her feet.

“No,” Vega said. “Holodnor.”

“Oh. Okay. Just one second.” The girl spun around and pressed a few buttons on that old black stone computer. Then, the portal suddenly changed from a view of the Alpha Centauri woods to a view of a dead tundra. “And you have, uh, your clearances from General Dry—I mean—uh, whoever is issuing clearances?”

Vega nodded her head but showed nothing, and the girls seemed satisfied, moving aside to let us through. I was still getting used to not having General Dryas around. The whole ship was struggling to get used to it, though everyone seemed to think that Eris was going to be the new general. Everyone seemed to think that she was the natural replacement for General Dryas. To me, she still seemed completely out of place: too bubbly and cutesy to be in charge of an entire army.

And since General Dryas had been killed, I’d been calling the shots. The girls looked to me whenever it was time to create a strategy. We’d spent the past week playing defense while we regrouped: holding Eubuleus while Vega made her full recovery and Eris recovered from giving birth. There were also the few matches I missed because I was stuck on Earth, dealing with the police and my teachers and my parents, trying to convince everyone that I had nothing to do with the bank robbery.

The footage of the stranger robbing the bank cleared me of all charges, but the cops wanted to know why and how I escaped the holding cell. I simply told them that I had no idea who broke me out of jail. They showed me the police station footage of the large man with the bald head and the beaded face: footage that Trix created with Gi in the simulation department. “I really don’t know who that is,” I said. They kept me for questioning for a long twenty-four hours before they legally had to let me go.

“Let’s go, human,” Vega said, rushing me into the cold air on that tundra moon. But the cold only seemed to sting where my skin was exposed: on my hands and face. That soft, thin fabric seemed to keep me perfectly warm everywhere else. I noticed Vega flipping up her hood, so I did the same thing, unsure if we had to have our hoods up or if it was just to endure the sharp coldness of that alien world.

And it truly was an alien word. I turned to see hundreds of aliens, about fifty yards down, all different races, scattered down a long platform. Many looked human at a glance, but upon closer inspection, they were all very non-human.

The closest-to-human pair of men I spotted were tall—over ten feet tall—and lanky, but looking otherwise human. Then I saw four men walking together with skin that was almost Caucasian—but also almost purple. I thought that they were basically human until one looked towards me and I saw the glowing cat-like eyes. I gasped and stopped, now almost sure that I was having a dream.

“What’s wrong, Kyrie?” Vega asked.

“I feel like I’m in a movie,” I said.

“Try not to stare at the other races,” she said. “There are creatures who don’t like being looked at. It’s important to keep your gaze fixed on your target. Now, we’re waiting for the train.”

But I just had to look around. I looked back at our portal, which was labeled with a language I didn’t recognize. There were hundreds of portals stretching down that long platform—maybe thousands of portals. And across from us, about eighty yards away, was another long wall of portals. That side was less busy, but there were a few dozen aliens standing and waiting.

“Each portal goes to a star system,” Vega said. She pointed at the portal we came through. “That portal is for Sol, your system. Next to it, that’s Alpha Centauri, then there’s Cygnus, and so on.” Then I caught her looking down the stretch, about ten portals down at the door, which almost certainly went to Chorus. “You can only enter through portals that you control, of course.”

I watched as a pair of short alien men stepped through a distant portal door, carrying big duffle bags. They were hairless and humanoid, but their legs were proportionally short, they arms were proportionally long, and their heads were almost twice the size of mine, even though they were probably only half my height. “I thought you said we aren’t allowed to bring anything in,” I said.

“We’re not,” Vega said. “But they probably have a special permit to sell. Stop staring at them, Kyrie. You’re going to get us in trouble.”

“Isn’t it pretty safe here?” I asked.

“It’s safe as long as you stick with me, and you stay within the green zones. Just don’t wander off, okay? No matter how tempted you might be, you need to just stick with me.”

Vega checked her little wristband, eyeing the time. “Any second now,” she said softly, now looking down the gap between the platforms. There were no rails, but the ground was smooth, covered in waves of blowing snow. That cool breeze was starting to sting the tip of my nose. Far down the platform, I eyed what appeared to be a group of Sasquatch. They didn’t appear to be fazed by the bitter coldness of the neutral moon.

“Kyrie, I told you to stop staring at people!” she said.

“Okay, okay,” I said, shaking my head, though there were aliens in every direction; it wasn’t so easy to stop myself from looking around.

Suddenly, a silent train came up—though it was hard to really call the machine a train. It was enormous, wider than a football field and certainly longer than two football fields. It was like a floating building, white and windowed. It made no sound as it moved, and no sound as it settled to a stop before all of the doors opened and aliens flooded out.

“C’mon, Kyrie,” Vega said, taking my hand and pulling me—because she had to pull me to make me move, since I was shocked into paralysis. I saw men made of stone, women covered in fur, creatures that walked on eight legs like spiders, robots that weren’t so different from the Nekrol, and extraterrestrials that glowed like balls of energy with obsidian silhouette bodies.

As we boarded the train, Vega noticed a group of black-skinned lizard people. Vega paused and then turned away from them, heading in the other direction. I heard her groan under her breath before saying, “Ekturians. Yuck.”

“You don’t like those guys?” I said.

“They’re disgusting, and they made our lives miserable for a long, long time.”

I looked back at the lizard creatures, and now they were looking at us, grimacing with the same distaste that Vega was harboring. “Tell me more about them,” I said as we entered a long sitting area, which didn’t look so different from the ferries my family used to take to get to Vancouver Island every summer when we went to visit my grandmother.

“Maybe another time. Now, I have to go over some neutral planet etiquette with you, because you clearly weren’t ever brought up to speed.” We sat down next to a window, which looked out at nothing but snow. “Here, you only talk to beings that you need to talk to. This place exists for business transactions. We aren’t here to mingle or to learn about other species—got it? We do our business and we leave.”

“What’s our business?” I asked. And then she blushed with that little smile, still not wanting to tell me.

“Your business is to stay in the green zone, and not to wander away from me. And there might be some interest in you, because nobody has ever seen anyone like you before here. So don’t get pulled into any conversations, unless I’m there with you. In fact, don’t get pulled into any conversations at all. Got it?”

“Yeah, whatever,” I said.

“You have your Tribute Card, right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Why? What am I doing with it?”

“Do you know how much you have on it?” she asked, ignoring my question.

“No,” I said. “Why?”

“Hold your thumb on the little circle and tell me what comes up,” she said. So I took my little black credit-card-looking thing and put my thumb on the black circle that was on the left of the card. “Oh, neat,” I said as green-glowing numbers appeared. I turned it to show her, but she just shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

“I can’t see it. Only you can. It’s got a privacy screen on it,” she said.

“Oh,” I said. “It says 295.”

“That’s better than nothing,” she said.

“What are we buying?” I asked.

“You can buy whatever you want,” she said. “Though I recommend you get upgrades.”

I turned to look out the window and noticed that we were now moving at a terrifyingly fast speed, zooming down that icy tundra. I felt nothing: not even the slightest sense of movement. That train must have employed the same technology as the Lagolian space ships.

“Upgrades?” I said.

“You’re a level-five now,” she said. “So you can start using upgrades. I’m going to recommend an intelligence upgrade, but I’ll leave that up to you.” She looked away from me with that cheeky smile on her face, knowing damn-well that she just called me an idiot.

“Is that why we’re here?” I asked. “So I can get an upgrade? How does it even work?”

“Remember when Eris uploaded Lagolian into your brain?” she asked. And I did remember—I especially remembered the sharp pain when that needle went into the back of my head. “It’s a lot like that. We don’t have all day here though, so you might just want to look around and consider your options.”

“Have you gotten a lot of upgrades?” I asked.

“Of course,” she said. “And some of them literally saved my life, so believe me when I say that they’re important. You might be tempted to go and buy yourself some fancy gun, or some armor—and I’m not saying that would be a complete waste of your credits. You can spend your money as you want to spend it. Lots of girls get carried away buying clothes, booze—sometimes drugs. I’ve never understood that complete lack of impulse control…”

“Maybe you would understand it if you tried drugs,” I said. Then she glared at me with narrowed eyes, and I just forced an awkward smile. “It’s a joke, Vega. Relax.”

“You might also consider getting a speed upgrade, since you’re quite slow on the battlefield.”

“I don’t think my slowness has ever actually held us back,” I said.

“The upgrades work outside of the battlefield as well,” she said, looking away from me again, this time with reddened cheeks. And I quickly realized she was suggesting I get an upgrade so I could fuck her faster. Now, I even found myself blushing, considering the possibilities.

I even found myself wondering if there was a cock-enlargement upgrade. I smirked as I thought about showing up to my harem of beautiful women, dropping my pants, and watching them all as they gasped at the size of my enhanced member.

It was a stupid, juvenile fantasy, but it entered my mind regardless.

“We’re approaching the dock now,” Vega said, standing up suddenly. “Just try not to stare anyone in the eye. You could make them mad—or worse.”

“Worse?” I said.

“You could make them think that you want to do business.”

“Oh, I see,” I said, following Vega to the nearest door, where a pair of green-skinned doe-girls were standing. They had human upper bodies and deer lower bodies. Their outfits were strange, covering everything but their legs and their faces. I wondered if the outfit was similar to what they wore normally on whatever planet they lived on. I was tempted to ask, but then I heard them speaking in an unfamiliar language.

“So can you understand any language?” I asked Vega. “If you can just download languages into your brain, or whatever…”

“I can understand a few languages. Languages tend to be a waste of cranial storage. Don’t try to learn a bunch of them unless you need to speak them.” Then she turned to me. “That reminds me—I never uploaded Basic Tongue into your brain. I completely forgot.”

“Do I need it?” I asked.

“If you want to talk to anyone here,” she said. “It’s fine. We can find a terminal in the city. I just don’t know if we have that much time to kill.” She checked her little watch again. “Maybe we’re fine. It will be tight.”

The door opened suddenly.

She took me by the hand and pulled me out into that snowy city, which was bustling with aliens of every shape and size.

The buildings were no taller than twenty feet, but they went on as far as the eye could see. That train station was right in the middle of the city, meeting dozens of other trains that came in from other directions; some were just docking, some were leaving, constantly bringing in and taking away hundreds of aliens.

“Let’s move fast,” Vega said. We zipped away from that train station, into the city, which was laid out like a spiderweb, and we were moving out from the middle. We weren’t far before shop owners started calling out to us, speaking in a language that I didn’t understand. They waved at us, pointed at us, and some sounded slightly aggressive—especially when we ignored them.

Vega stopped suddenly to ask a very thin woman a question. She had a feathered body and a long neck, but somehow, she appeared to be strangely normal-looking. The woman pointed down at one of the side streets, and Vega thanked her with a nod of the head. “C’mon, Kyrie. There’s a Basic Tongue terminal down this way.”

It wasn’t as close as it seemed. It took ten minutes to make it down that long road, and then it was a long walk down a quiet side street before we reached an old metallic device, which looked like it belonged in a gym. The little seat was torn and a cotton-looking-material was bulging out from the ripped seam. “Sit down,” Vega said. “Quickly now.”

So I sat and she lowered the metal plate onto my head. It curled around the back of my skull and Vega pressed a few buttons. “This thing is ancient,” she said, pushing hard on the buttons to make them chirp. It clearly wasn’t made by the Ancient Builder Race. It was an ugly thing, already rusting, looking like some sort of electric chair in some third world country. “This might hurt a little bit,” she said, and before I could react, it turned on, piercing the back of my skull and making me yell. I jumped out of the chair and grabbed the back of my head, feeling wetness. Sure enough, my hand was covered in blood.

“What the actual fuck?!” I said as that horrible stinging persisted.

“It’s an old unit. It must be three hundred years old. But you can speak Basic Tongue now—or, you should be able to. I guess we should just make sure you don’t need another prick.” She cleared her throat. “You understand me?”

I nodded my head. Her voice sounded strange, but I understood her. And then the different words began to appear in my head. I could think of how to say yes in English, in Lagolian, and in this new language, which was apparently simply called Basic Tongue.

“Okay, let’s go,” she said, but she stopped to check her watch for a moment. “We have some time to kill—not a lot—but a little bit. We’ll find an upgrade store.”

I put my hand on the back of my head, which was now throbbing with a terrible dull pain. We made our way back to the main strip, which was starting to get busier and busier as more aliens arrived. Now, we weren’t moving like we were in a terrible rush. Now, Vega was trying to find a suitable shop to start our little adventure in. I paused when I saw a fishy creature walk out of a store holding a hefty gun case, which looked like it contained a massive machine gun. I looked up at the shop sign, and could now read it: WEAPONS FOR VEHICLES.

The shops didn’t have fun, colorful names. There didn’t seem to be fun, colorful words in the Basic Tongue language. Shops were simple called ARMOR, CLOTHES, HAND WEAPONS, RANGED WEAPONS, BUILDING MATERIALS, BUILDING TOOLS, and so on.

Finally, we found a shop that was called UPGRADES. It was a clean-looking store, but Vega didn’t seem too interested in going in. “Isn’t this what we’re looking for?” I asked.

“It is,” she said softly. “But do you see the man behind the counter? He’s a Griar. They’re notoriously cheap and shifty. I’d like to find a place that isn’t run by a Griar, but I don’t know if we have the time to wander around all morning…”

She looked around, but didn’t seem satisfied by any of the surrounding options.

“Okay, whatever. You don’t have to buy anything. Just know that everything here is going to be overpriced, and haggling with the Griar is probably a waste of your time. He won’t budge more than a single credit.”

I followed Vega into the store. A fishy man with long, fat lips stood up quickly. He grunted and groaned and then he said, “I sell upgrades. What interests you?” His voice was deep and wet. He smelled awful, and I wasn’t even close to him.

“Browsing,” Vega said in that simple language.

“Something interests you,” the Griar said. “For you or for him?”

“Him,” Vega said. “But we’re just browsing.”

“What is he?”

“He’s a human.”

“What’s a human?”

“From Sol,” said Vega, sounding suddenly cross.

“Sol has intelligent life?”

I let them talk while I walked up to the wall, which was thirty feet tall and filled top-to-bottom with boxes that were all different sizes, but none were any bigger than a shoebox. They were all slightly different colors, and most were covered in dust. I had to wipe away the dust to read most of them. SHIELD UPGRADE (5), FOCUS UPGRADE (7), SPEED UPGRADE (10) … There were many duplicate upgrades but in different boxes, and all with different numbers next to them. “What’s the number?” I asked, interrupting their conversation. They both turned to look at me.

“Level,” they both said.

“What is his level?” asked the Griar.

“He just turned five,” said Vega, sounding like she didn’t want to tell him but had no choice.

“Battle, construction, programming, maintenance?”

“Battle,” said Vega.

“Him?”

“Yes,” she said, rolling her eyes and checking her watch again.

Then the Griar sprung to his fat feet and waddled by me, filling my nostrils with the horrible smell of a compost heap. I tried not to react to that smell. I had no idea how Vega was enduring it, seeing as her sense of smell was ten times better than mine.

The Griar pulled out a box and handed it to me. “Strength. Five.” I looked at the box and tried to figure out how to open it, so I could see what was inside. What could be in that box that would make my ‘strength’ any better? And what was strength? Was it to do with how much damage I could endure, or was it more about how hard I could hit?

“He’s a marksman,” said Vega.

“Ah!” Then the Griar snatched the box away from me, getting a few drops of something thick and wet onto my hand. I wiped it away while he wasn’t looking. Then he pulled a ladder over and waddled up ten feet, grabbing another box. “Aim. Five. Steady Hands. Very important. Best deal.” He came down and thrust the box into my hands.

But I thought I already had pretty good aim.

“Four hundred and ten,” he said. “Best deal. Pass me your Tribute Card.”

“Wait,” I said. “No. I don’t have that much.”

His bulging eyes narrowed and then he snatched the box from me. He grunted and mumbled up the ladder, pushed the box back into its slot, and then he grunted and mumbled his way back down. “How much do you have!?” he snapped, leaning towards me and looking at me as if I’d just wasted his entire morning.

“Uh,” I said, trying to remember.

“Two-fifty-nine,” said Vega.

The Griar grunted. Now, there were a few more aliens in the store, poking around at the upgrades. The Griar noticed them and decided to drop us completely, going to help them. I guess my 259 wasn’t worth his time. “Cheap is in the back,” he said, waving me off, without even looking at me.

“C’mon,” Vega said, checking her watch one more time. She took me to the back of the shop, which was especially dusty, and somehow smelled even worse, even though we were now further from the Griar.

She pulled out a few boxes until she found one that said AIM (5) and it was being sold for 250. “You can afford this,” she said.

“But I don’t know if that’s what I want,” I said.

“Then what do you want?” She turned back to the wall of boxes and thumbed around until she found a box that said SPEED (5) and it was being sold for 300. Vega blushed and said, “I would cover the difference for you with this one.”

And I found myself blushing as well. But I still hadn’t explored my options. I didn’t want to buy an upgrade and then regret it.

The Lagolians were paying me for each battle I fought it. I’d only found out recently that they were paying me at all, and it wasn’t until that very moment that I realized there was actual value in their currency. “What else can I get?” I asked.

I looked at some of the boxes. INTELLIGENCE (5) was only 260 credits. I’m sure I could have gotten a loan of a single credit from Vega for it.

Then there was LEG STRENGTH (5) and VISION (5)—those were both strangely intriguing. SKIN (5) also had my head filling with questions, and so did BLOOD (5). “What does this do?”

“It helps with healing speed,” she said. “But Kyrie, I hate to be a party-killer, but my appointment is in five minutes, so we have to go. We can always come back another time.”

“Oh. Okay,” I said. I followed Vega out of the store. The Griar eyed us as we went, grumbling because we wasted his precious time—and maybe we did; I didn’t really know what we were doing.

Vega was moving quickly now, rubbing her nose with her wrist. “I can’t stop smelling that Griar,” she groaned.

“Do they all smell like that?”

“They aren’t usually that bad,” she said.

We turned a corner and rushed down a side street. Now, Vega was starting to jog, and her jog was close to my full-sprint. Now, I was tempted to go back for that speed upgrade. “Wait up!” I said, huffing.

“Speed up!” she said.

We turned the corner and found ourselves back on a main street, bustling with aliens, some buying, some selling. Now, I understood them as they yelled at us. “Best prices! Best Food! You can’t miss this! You will regret leaving!”

We came upon a quiet building that seemed a bit taller than the others around it. MELEE WEAPONS, said the sign. “Here we are,” she said, pausing suddenly and turning red all over.

“You’re getting a new sword?” I asked.

She turned to me, biting her bottom lip to contain her beaming smile. “I just turned level-forty,” she said. “I’ve been waiting fifteen levels for this.” She was starting to squirm with excitement, letting a small, cute giggle slip out from her lips. “C’mon, we can’t be late.” She turned towards the shop and took a deep breath. She straightened herself out, as if she was about to walk into a very important hiring interview. Then she marched towards the door with me following closely behind. The door wasn’t open. She had to knock, and then there was a delay before the door creaked open and an old woman looked up at Vega. She was only three feet tall at most, and she looked like a rat, with a long snout, bulbous nose, and beady mole-like eyes. I only knew that she was a woman because of her saggy breasts, which were uncovered and not at all sexy.

“Meeting ID?” she said.

“4668,” said Vega.

The rat-woman nodded her head and then she looked at me. “Is he with you?”

“Yes,” said Vega.

The rat grunted, and then she turned around and entered her own shop. We followed.

The place was dimly lit, perfectly tidy, looking like some downtown steakhouse, but with amazing swords on the walls instead of restaurant décor.

“Level?” said the rat.

“Forty,” said Vega.

Then the rat paused and turned to look at Vega, looking her up and down with a shocked look. Finally, her beady eyes appeared open. “Forty?” she said.

“Yes.”

“You?”

“Yes.”

And she looked Vega up and down again, apparently amazed. She made a curious sound before turning to the wall and eyeing a large, thick blade that looked something like a butcher knife that a thirty-foot-tall chef might use. She grabbed a ladder and pushed it over so she could climb up and grab it. “Smythe-Higgins, forty, armor penetrating.”

She went to hand the blade to Vega, but Vega didn’t take it. She shook her head, clasping her hands at her waist and looking like a shy child. “No,” she said.

“Too heavy?” the rat asked.

“No,” said Vega. “I’m looking for something different.”

“Heat blade? Dual wielding?”

“V-Series.”

Then the rat paused again. She stared at Vega, seemingly waiting for Vega to correct herself. Then she let out a small laugh. “V-Series starts at 45,000.”

“I know,” Vega said softly.

And there was that shocked look again. The room became silent, and then the rat looked at me. “Level?” she said.

I didn’t realize she was talking to me, so I just remained silent. “He’s level five,” said Vega.

“He can’t come up,” she said. “He has to wait outside. Upstairs is minimum thirty-five.”

Now they were both staring at me. Vega was blushing with excitement. I wanted to see what was upstairs, but I knew there was no sense in trying to convince them to let me up. So I just nodded my head and backed towards the door.

“Just wait ten minutes, Kyrie,” she said. “It won’t take long.”

“No problem.”

“There’s another upgrade store across the street. We can meet back there.”

“Sure. Whatever,” I said.

Then they waited for me to leave before they turned to the stairs. And sure enough, there was indeed an upgrade store just across the road. I could see another Griar inside, standing behind the counter—and I was already dreading the smell. Then, I heard someone calling out: “You! You! You there! Wait!”

It was a moment before I realized the call was being directed at me. A blue-skinned humanoid was jogging towards me. I figured he was going to try to sell me something, and I spent a moment trying to think of whether or not I was allowed to engage with strangers. Then I remembered that I was an adult and I was a free man and could do what I wanted. I would, of course, take Vega’s advice and be safe, but I didn’t have to wait around like a dog on a leash outside of a 7-11. “Hi,” I said in Basic Tongue.

“You were in the upgrade store,” he said, stopping five feet away from me. He was taller than me, and thicker too. His jaw was wide and his forehead was flat. That blue tone in his skin seemed to suddenly change to green, or maybe that was just in my head.

“Alright,” I said.

“Are you looking for upgrades?”

“Maybe,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

“Don’t buy from a Griar,” he said. “You’ll get ripped off.” He smiled, and his smile was strangely calming. His voice in general was calming and soft, like the voice of a child psychologist. But there was something off-putting about his skin, which now almost looked yellow.

“I know,” I said, trying to sound like I’d been around the block a few times. I didn’t want the aliens to think that they could easily take advantage of me.

“If you have a few minutes, I can show you a better place. It’s just around the corner. For two-fifty, you can get good level five upgrades—not just the cheap crap.”

My spine tingled, as if it was trying to tell me not to listen to the man. But he had me intrigued, and I really did want to get the best upgrade with my money. Each skirmish only got me fifty credits, and I wasn’t doing any other work on the ship, aside from the odd training session—and I had no idea if I was getting paid for that. “We’ll be fast, right?” I asked, looking up at the darkened melee weapon store windows.

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” he said with that warming smile. So I went with the guy, just to see what he was selling.

CHAPTER II

It really wasn’t far, and I wouldn’t have followed him if it had been far. We just went about fifty yards down the main strip, and then fifty yards down a side street, until we found a sort of bazaar, with large tarps strung overhead to stop snow from falling down onto the vendors. The place was busy with shoppers, and the whole area was overflowing with products: tools, machines, food, clothes, armor, guns, ammo, artwork, furniture, and so on…

“Come, come,” said the flat-headed man, who was now a curious shade of orange all over. The hair on his head was almost non-existent, straggly and thin like the hair of a ninety-year-old man starting chemotherapy.

Shoppers and sellers turned to look at me. The place almost seemed to become quiet as they all eyed me. I tried not to get too freaked out by their glares, remembering that they’d never seen a human before. I probably looked just as weird to them as they looked to me. I smiled at one guy, and then he suddenly looked angry, so I looked away quickly. Maybe smiling wasn’t a universal sign of peacefulness.

“In here, my good friend,” said the orange-toned fellow, and he pulled open a white curtain to reveal a doorway. It was dark in the building. My eyes needed a moment to adjust before I saw a familiar sight: a wall of boxes, different colors, different sizes: all different upgrades.

On the other wall there were guns: small guns, big guns, bigger guns, and enormous guns. And there were swords on another wall. Most of the stuff in that shop appeared to be used. One of the blades was even tinted red, though it looked like someone had attempted to scrub that redness away for a long while before giving up. “Best prices,” whispered my new friend.

Maybe the weapons were used, but what about the upgrades? Could upgrades be reused and resold? The boxes looked old. Maybe they were old models… Maybe they were expired.

“What is it you are looking for?” asked an old man with a long beard. This man looked human—and as far as I could tell, he was human. I was more shocked by the sight of him than by the hairy gorilla-man perusing the back of the shop. I was so happy to see another human—though I suspected he wasn’t actually human.

“I guess an upgrade,” I said.

“For battle?”

I nodded my head. I looked around his shop. I noticed a couple familiar units, including the Ryon Long Rifle that was sitting on a shelf, and the standard infantry rifle that the low-level Lagolian girls were always using.

“Budget?” he asked.

“He has 259,” said the man with the flat forehead, who was now standing tall with a charming smile on his face. “And, uh, as per our deal, I get ten percent of whatever he spends. Right?”

The old man grunted and rolled his eyes before turning to the wall. “This is what you want,” he said in a deep voice, pulling out a box. “A Griar would sell this to you for three thousand,” he said. “I can do two-fifty-nine, but not a credit less.”

He handed me the box. The lettering was in gold: POWER (5). “What does it do?” I asked, knowing I was going to sound naïve, but I had to ask.

The now-teal-skinned man slipped up next to me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Power,” he said with a small chuckle. “It attaches to most standard ranged weapons and increases the power of each shot.”

“How?” I said.

Now they were staring at me like I was a complete moron. Even the hairy beast in the back turned to look at me. “Rakion gas through a standard graphene injector. It makes a Rakion vibration frequency inside the action of your firearm, which increases the potential energy inside of each charge of whatever ammunition you’re using. It doesn’t work with Carticron, of course.” He started laughing. “But you wouldn’t be in the market for a power upgrade if you were shooting Carticron.”

I understood almost none of what he was saying, but I appreciated his attempt to explain it to me. Vega always rolled her eyes and sighed when I asked for explanations. Apparently, it was common-knowledge to everyone and not worth explaining.

“So I just… stick it onto my gun?” I said.

The old man groaned and opened the box. He took out a thick white box and walked over to the standard infantry rifle. He pushed it against the right side, on the other side of the action’s opening. “That’s it,” he said. “You can move it from gun to gun, but not too many times, or the Rakion will break down and it will be less effective.”

It was tempting. I liked the idea of my bullets being more deadly.

“So wait,” I said. “Maybe you guys can explain this to me really quick: what exactly is stopping me from buying the level 10 version of that upgrade?”

They all stared at me, once again as if I was complete idiot. “It wouldn’t work,” said the old man.

“But why?” I said.

“The manufacturer—like all manufacturers, as per code—have made the upgrade with level detection technology. If you’re looking to override the level detection, I’ve heard of guys doing it. It’s illegal, but it can be done. But if you get caught… I wouldn’t want to be the man getting caught shooting level ten at level five.” There were a few chuckles in the room.

“Okay,” I said, not caring too much about the snickering around me. “But, like, what’s the reason? Why go through all this trouble to enforce all of this level stuff?”

“Oh, I see,” said the flat-headed man. “You’re one of those anti-level guys. Everyone should be equal. Well, you’ll find a lot of guys like that around here too. I’m not saying it’s the best system by any means, but I’ll use the same argument that always gets used to defend the system. Would you want to live in a universe where a bunch of low-level guys can get their hands on level-sixty demolitionist equipment?”

“I don’t know. Would that be really bad?”

The men snickered again.

“I’ll take that as a yes, I guess.”

“It’s not like the level system is stopping weapons from getting into the wrong hands,” said the old man. “But it’s helping.”

“The Ancient Builder Race put it into our DNA for a reason,” said the now-green-skinned man.

“Oh, they did that?”

The old man waved the colorful man off. “That’s just a theory.”

“What’s your best theory, old man?”

“God.”

“Classic old man answer.”

“There was no Ancient Builder Race. Everything was put here by God, portals included.”

“Okay, okay. We literally have so much evidence that the Ancient Builder Race was here ten million years ago.”

“It’s not convincing evidence.”

“You’re a zealot.”

The old man shook his head. “Do you want the power upgrade or not?” he said to me, waving off the flat-headed fellow.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I kind of want to see what the other options are.”

“You said you have two-fifty-nine?” the old man asked.

I took out my Tribute Card and nodded my head. “That’s all I have.”

The old guy stared at me for a long moment. “Maybe you want to get a better gun,” he said, walking across the room and grabbing that standard infantry rifle.

“Isn’t that just a level-one gun?” I said.

Then he lifted it up and aimed it at my chest. He nodded his head and then pointed at the counter. “Put the card on the counter.”

It was a few seconds before I realized he was robbing me.

“Wait,” said the flat-headed man. “Are you kidding? You set me up?” Then he said something in another language, and I could tell that there were expletives in that sentence. I don’t think Basic Tongue had any swear words—and if it did, they weren’t transferred at the terminal.

My heart stopped beating for a moment as I stared into the old man’s eyes.

“Card on the table,” he said.

“Okay, okay,” I said, carefully putting the card down.

Then the old guy turned to the now-red-skinned man. “You too. Put your card down on the table.”

“You can’t even use it,” said the man.

“I can sell it to people who can use it.”

“That’s illegal.”

“Is it? I had no idea,” said the old man sarcastically. “Put it down on the table.”

“Or what? You going to shoot me?”

“Just do it,” I said. I had a feeling Vega was going to be very upset with me.

“He’s not going to shoot. He knows the regulators would be here within minutes and he would be locked up for the rest of his life. Pick up your Tribute Card, friend. Don’t let this old man bully you around.”

But he had his rifle aimed at my chest. I didn’t feel like risking my life over credits that I didn’t know I could use until that morning. And I didn’t even have many credits.

“Just give him your card,” I said.

“No. He can get bent. He’s not going to shoot.” He eyed the old man. “You a mercenary?”

“Don’t worry about me. Just put down the card.”

“I should have figured you were a mercenary. Dirty lot.”

“The card.”

“You aren’t going to shoot, old man. Not over a few hundred credits.”

“He might not, but I might,” said the hairy gorilla-man, now stepping up with a hefty rifle in his hands. “Put the card on the table.”

Deeper into the store was another armed fellow, holding another one of those low-level infantry rifles. He had lots of dark eyes, like a spider, and he was staring at us with rigid tension in his body.

Then I heard the muffled whimpering coming from the back room. My heart skipped a beat. This was an operation. This was an intricate robbery scheme. And judging by the bone-white tone now on the flatheaded man’s face, it was something to be taken very seriously.

“C’mon,” groaned the stubborn color-changing fellow. He grunted and then he slapped his card down on the counter. Then the old man took both cards and backed away from us. The trio of armed men inched towards the door, aiming at us, leaving the room one-by-one.

“Help me!” yelled a muffled voice. So once the bad guys were gone, I rushed into the back room and found another old alien man tied up, with a white robe like the one I was wearing tied around his face. I knelt down to untie him.

But the flatheaded man had other plans. He picked up a rifle and jammed a magazine into the feeding path. He stepped out from the curtain and fired. I heard the screams of nearby shoppers, and then the enemies returned fire.

“Gah!” he yelled, falling back into the room with blood running down his arm. “Don’t just stand there! Grab a gun!” He grabbed an infantry rifle and threw it at me, and I barely caught it.

The real store owner, now free and ungagged, rushed over to the counter and grabbed a big, heavy shotgun-looking firearm. He pumped it and then he rushed over to the door. Then he looked at me. “You,” he said. “Take the back door and go down the alley. Get to the street before them.”

“Look,” I said. “I don’t want to get involved in this.”

“Do it, Goddamnit!” So I was wrong. There were expletives in Basic Tongue. “They stole fifty thousand credits worth of upgrades! If you stop them, I’ll make it worth your while!”

He leaned out and blasted a heavy shot down that bazaar before rushing out to engage the escaping enemy. “Run!” he said to me. “Quickly!”

So I punched a magazine into the feeding path and rushed out that back door, into that frighteningly narrow alley. Some parts of that alley were so narrow that I had to side-step, still scraping my knees on the cold concrete walls. I had to push by two robed women, who gasped when they saw my gun. One shouted, “Call the regulators!” I had a feeling I was going to get into a lot of shit for this—maybe from these ‘regulators’ or maybe just from Vega.

I finally reached the end of that alley. Men and women and androgenous beings gasped when they saw me, armed, panicked, and sweaty, in my flowy white robe. Some ran for cover, some stood still, stunned and silenced. I turned to the side street and saw the gorilla man backing out. I braced the gun against my shoulder and shot, grazing him and making him fall down. He turned to me, on the ground, and started firing.

I dove behind a stack of crates, which he peppered with bullets. Splinters of wood flew up into the air. “Fucking monkey!” I said, in English.

I waited a moment before standing up and firing on him as he inched back down the side street, back towards the bazaar. I could hear the others exchanging gunfire. We had them pinned in that maze of side streets between the main shopping drags.

It wasn’t long before that street was quiet. Most had run away screaming, some were cowering in cover, completely silent while covering their heads. “It’s okay, everyone!” I yelled, my heart pounding ferociously against my ribcage. “I’m going to keep you all safe from these criminals!”

I carefully sidestepped until I could see down that narrow street. The gorilla was waiting for me, opening fire as soon as our gazes met. I did the same. He was a lousy shot with his fat fingers and terrible shooting stance, with his gun down by his hip as if he was doing his best Scarface impression. He was easy to take out, though a couple of his shots came close to grazing my body.

He dropped a heavy duffle bag as he went down with a heavy thud. Three aliens rushed out from the alley, covering their heads. “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” they yelled.

I stepped by them and went into that suicide alleyway. The bazaar now looked like the street: desolate, save for a few cowering aliens. I could see the armed shop owner at the other end of the long strip. He nodded at me and I nodded back. I won’t lie: I was excited to get a freebie. But I needed to focus, because this was a life-or-death situation. There were still two armed men lurking in that bazaar.

One of them popped up, aiming at me. I shot and dove at the same time, feeling the heat of his blast skimming by my cheek. I hit the ground hard and rolled into cover. It was only a few seconds before there were two of them firing on my position.

“A little help!?” I yelled out, hoping to get the attention of the two men who I was presumably teamed up with.

I heard my enemies yelling in an unfamiliar language. Then there was gunfire coming from two different directions, no longer raining down on my position. I poked my head out and saw the flashing muzzles before I crawled to the next stack of boxes. I looked down at my rifle. I only had fifteen shots left, which would be gone in a matter of two seconds once I squeezed that trigger. I didn’t have another mag on me.

I heard a scream. I poked my head up and saw the flatheaded man falling down to his knees, holding his chest. Blood gushed between his fingers. His blood was red and not changing colors at all.

It wasn’t worth his life. He didn’t have to chase the men down, but he insisted. Now, he was paying for it with his life.

I looked around to spot the enemies. I could see them, so I crawled out from cover and crept deeper into the bazaar. I came up to a stall, and then I heard a soft whimpering. There was a man underneath a cart, curled into a ball. “Don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me,” he said. “I have children!”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m just trying to stop these guys.”

I stood up slowly and scanned the bazaar. I spotted the man with the spider eyes. I got him centered in my iron sights, and then I felt the dull thud at my legs, pulling me to the ground. I grunted as I fell on my side, and then the cart owner jumped onto me, trying to pin me.

“What are you doing!?” I grunted, trying to wrestle him off of me.

“I will hold you until the regulators arrive!” he said.

“I’m a good guy!” I said. “Get off of me! You’re going to get us both killed!”

And I could hear the footsteps running towards us. I had to kick at the man to get him to back off. I have to admit that I felt bad getting him right in the gut with the bottom of my bare boot, making him keel over, out of wind. “Sorry!” I said, and then I rolled onto my back just in time. The man with the spider-eyes jumped up and I beat him to the shot, filling his midsection with infantry lead. He didn’t even get a shot in before the painful tension overwhelmed his body and he fell to the ground.

“Ha!” I said, tossing my gun away and diving to grab his.

I stood up and scanned the bazaar. Now, I could hear a beeping. I assumed it was the regulators, on their way with their sirens blazing. Then I realized the beeping was coming from the heavy weapon in my hands. I looked down and noticed a flashing light. “Huh?” I said.

Then a bullet grazed my leg and I jumped to the side. I tried to fire back at the old man across the bazaar, but the trigger wouldn’t squeeze. I tried to find a safety to flick off, but there was nothing. It just kept beeping.

Bullets ripped up my cement barricade. “Shit!” I groaned. The gun wouldn’t work, and it finally dawned on me why: I wasn’t a high enough level. The gun’s detection technology could tell and it refused to fire. So I threw it down onto the ground, and then I heard the familiar battle cry.

I peered around the corner and saw Vega slicing through the old man like his body was made of rotten fruit. In her hands was long sword, not nearly as thick as her usual weapon. It had a golden glow to it, and it widened near the tip before tapering to a deadly point.

The top half of the old crook flopped onto the ground and then his bottom half fell over a moment later with a loud gush, like a dirty diaper falling onto cold tile. Then Vega eyed me with lips pressed thin. She stormed over to me, red in the face, breathing slowly. “I asked one thing of you!” she said. “Your inability to listen is… unbelievable!”

I forced a smile and shrugged my shoulders. “Cool sword,” I said.

Behind her, the real shop owner was collecting his stolen goods, grunting as he lifted the duffle bags. “Stranger!” he called out to me. Vega and I turned to face him. He tossed me my Tribute Card. “Thank you for the help.” Then he opened one of the bags, dug around for a moment, and then he tossed me a box. “Get out of here quickly. I’ll tell the regulators that I dealt with this alone. Quickly now.”

“Let’s go, Kyrie,” Vega said through clenched teeth. And then she didn’t say another word to me until we were facing each other on the train back to the portal strip. “This isn’t a place to make enemies.”

“A guy told me he could show me a good deal on an upgrade,” I smiled.

“Lagolians call that ‘a huge red flag’.”

“Yeah, that’s what we call it too.”

“So you’re just an idiot then,” she said.

“Maybe a little bit. I’m usually a very good judge of character. And in my defense, the guy who told me about the deal wasn’t a bad guy…”

“What did you get?” she asked, eyeing the box in my hands. I still hadn’t even looked at it. So I looked down and wiped the dirt off of the label. SPEED + (5).

“A little something for both of us,” I smiled.

“Looks like you made a friend,” she said. “That’s a 4,000-credit upgrade.”

“Really?”

She took the box from me, opened it, and then picked up a long tube with orange fluid inside of it. “Looks legit too. Lucky you. Hold out your arm.”

I pulled back the sleeve of my robe and gave her my arm. She flipped my arm over so she could see the veins on my wrist. Then she jabbed me painfully—but it was nothing compared to that language terminal. “Ouch! A little warning!”

“Is it working?” she asked.

“I don’t know. How would I know?” And then I knew—there was a hotness rushing down my arm. I could feel it moving through me, buzzing and tingling all over. “Whoa.” I had to grip the armrests of my seat while the drug—or whatever it was—worked through me. I felt the muscles in my legs tensing up before bulging and twitching. I swear I could feel my muscles growing. I could feel them becoming stretchier—and not just my legs but my arms too.

“And you still have your credits,” she smiled. “And your life.”

“It won’t happen again,” I said as I gathered my composure. There was a curious euphoria that lasted a few seconds. I was already looking forward to my next upgrade. I leaned back into my seat and let out a deep sigh of relief.

“That’s the Crolium,” Vega said. And I recognized the word. It was the name of the drug that Trix told me about. “They put a little bit of Crolium in upgrades, to mask the horrible pain that your body would be feeling now without it.”

“I like it,” I said.

“Don’t like it too much. We lose a lot of good Lagolians every year to Crolium.”

I took a deep breath and forced myself to sit up. Then I noticed her big black case, which contained her sword. “Can I see it?” I asked.

“When we’re back on Lunar Alpha,” she said. “You can’t take a weapon out on the train. And if you’re caught using a weapon, you can spend up to twenty years in a Holodnor prison.”

I blushed. “It was self-defense,” I said.

“No one cares.”

“Oh,” I said.

Then the train pulled up to the platform. Vega led me off. She was angry, and whenever she was angry, she moved quickly. It was usually hard to keep up with her… usually. But not now. Now, it didn’t seem like she was moving so fast at all. I felt like I didn’t have to strain to keep up with her—and she noticed. As I walked beside her, she side-eyed me, almost looking angry that she ever suggested a speed upgrade; it was one less thing she had on me now.

“Maybe I’ll use my credits to get another speed upgrade,” I grinned. “Maybe I’ll end up being faster than you.”

“I don’t think your stumpy human legs will ever be as fast as a Lagolian child, but you can always dream.” She rolled her eyes.

“If I keep buying speed upgrades, will I just keep getting faster and faster?” I asked.

“It depends,” she said. “If you keep buying them from thieves and mercenaries, you’ll probably be dead before you hit level ten. If you get them legally and properly, then you’ll have to fight in thousands of battles before you could afford them… But theoretically, yes, you can just keep buying them.”

“And, just wondering—is there an upgrade for penis size?”

“No,” she said, grinning at me—and I knew she was about to make a jab. “But there is one for cranial capacity. You should consider it.”

We went straight for our portal. I took one last moment to look around at the curious aliens before following her back into that black portal room, back on Earth’s moon.

CHAPTER III

I didn’t get a chance to look at Vega’s new sword before Eris found us. She was on her way up to the infant ward when she saw us. “Kyrie! There you are!” She had her usual warm smile on her face.

It was definitely a relief that she wasn’t still pregnant. Near the end of her pregnancy, her constantly changing, exaggerated emotions were becoming downright frightening. One minute she was warm and cozy and happy, then a minute later, she had her hand around my throat, saying things like, “If you don’t come in me in the next five minutes, I’m going to rip your throat out.” And then, a few minutes later, she would be warm and cuddly again, as if the outburst never happened.

Now, that unexpected rage was gone. She still cried for no reason from time to time—hormones from the breastfeeding—but she was pleasant and fun to be around.

She ran up to me and gave me a hug before eyeing Vega’s big, black case. “What’s that?” she asked, and then Vega blushed.

“It’s nothing,” she said coyly.

Eris giggled and turned to me. “Come on, Kyrie. Let’s go see the kids. I wanted to spend some time with them before the attack on Nakuru.”

“Yeah?” I said. “Do we have time for that?” Now, it was 11:00 AM. We had our battle at 1:00 PM, and we still had to gather to come up with a strategy. It was the first attack in over a week, since we took Eubuleus, since General Dryas was shot in the heart by Petra. We’d done a dozen Nakuru simulations. It was a tricky map on offense, with wide-open areas, tight areas, and lots of twilight darkness. The dark metallic bodies of the Nekrol blended in with the shadowy landscape. We lost a couple of those simulations, though we found that we had a better chance at winning playing quietly, sneaking carefully through that dark rainforest fishing village. I made the decision to scratch Kuzu and bring in Trix; her mines were effective at taking out tiptoeing Nekrol troops; Kuzu’s mech was just a giant, easy target that we spent the whole game trying to protect.

“We won’t be long,” said Eris, taking my hand and squeezing gently. I turned to Vega for a quick goodbye before we slipped away to the elevator.

“I heard you went to Holodnor,” Eris said with glowing eyes. “Did you get anything cool?”

“A speed upgrade,” I said.

“Did you get a chance to see some of the clothing stores there? They have cool clothes on Holodnor. But I bet you could make a fortune selling human clothes there. I think humans have the coolest fashion.”

“We didn’t get to look around too much,” I said, deciding not to go into much more detail than that. I still had slight-PTSD from Eris’s pregnancy. I still felt like I had to walk on eggshells with her so that I wouldn’t set her off. I had to keep reminding myself that her pregnancy was behind her, and she was a well-adjusted woman once again.

We got off the elevator and the sound of screaming kids filled my ears. That sound got Eris excited. She giggled and bounced and then she took my hand and pulled me towards the door.

I was still getting used to being a father to nine kids. They were only a week old and—to be completely honest—I was still unable to tell them all apart.

Six of them had tall bunny ears. One boy and two girls looked like normal human babies, though it was becoming more and more obvious by the day that they weren’t fully human babies. They were developing fast. Lagolian babies seemed to hit a new milestone every day. There were three-month-olds walking in that infant ward. There were eight-month-olds speaking—and not just with ‘mama’ and ‘dada’, but saying things like, “Hi Kyrie. Nice to see you today!” By one, the kids were stable, walking properly speaking at a first-grade level—and then by eighteen-months, they were reading and writing.

I always felt like I was walking into an episode of the Twilight Zone whenever I stepped into that ward. Now, my own kids were looking around, smiling, giggling. One of my boys was on his stomach, on a mat, trying to reach out his arms so that he could crawl. He had a peculiar determination on his face, certain that he was going to get it no matter what. Eris scooped him up and snuggled his face. “Liam!” she said. “Aren’t you so, so cute today!?”

She picked up another child and rocked the two of them together. The children were so calm in her arms, so peaceful and happy. Liam pawed at Eris’s left boob, so she pulled down her top and let the boy feed. The girl (I was pretty sure she was named Aria) wanted the other boob, so she got what she wanted.

I grabbed a bottle and attempted to feed another child, just so I could feel like I was helping. The baby snatched the bottle from me and held it herself.

“I could just spend all day up here,” Eris sighed, looking around at her brood. And she wasn’t lying. She could have spent every single second of every day up there. I was good for an hour before I started to feel overwhelmed—and out of place. The kids were cute and I will admit that I felt a certain sense of satisfaction being around them… but there were just so many of them, and they were constantly hungry, constantly pooping, and often crying. With nine children (and fifteen other children in the room), there was always crying.

But I liked watching Eris. I felt a strong connection with her when I watched her nurturing our children. She was so soft and so caring, so full of love and compassion. Seeing her thrive in that room quite honestly made me feel like a shitty dad.

“Most dads don’t come up here,” one of the nurses told me—and that made me feel a little bit better about myself. “We all think it’s so cute that you’re here almost every day.” She blushed as she said it.

“Nurse Nia wants to have kids one day,” Eris said, stepping up to us with a pair of babies on her breasts.

“I love kids,” said Nia. Her hair was tied back into a tight bun. She had the skin of a teenager, but I could tell from her eyes that she was older.

“Kyrie, why don’t you impregnate Nia?” Eris said casually, and then I felt the hotness rushing into my face.

“I think I have enough kids for now,” I said, looking into Nia’s eyes for a brief moment before looking away awkwardly.

Eris sighed and shook her head. “Sorry, he’s being rude. If you would like to have kids with him, Nia, I can arrange it.”

“Thank you,” said Nia, blushing softly. “But right now I’m so busy with all of the new litters. I’m not sure I can take time off to deliver my own.” She clasped her hands together and looked down at the ground.

“Kyrie, just take her into the other room and impregnate her,” Eris said, her eyes suddenly wide. “Stop being rude.”

“It’s okay, Eris!” Nia said with a giggle. “I’m really not ready right now. But thank you for the offer.”

“We’ll talk more about it later,” Eris said to Nia, side-eyeing me, as if she was trying to say, ‘You will fuck her and come in her, and you will like it.’

“We should probably get down to the portal room to get ready for the skirmish,” I said, handing a baby to Nia.

“Just five more minutes,” Eris pleaded. She looked around the room and let out a soft sigh. “God, seeing them all just makes me want to have more.”

My skin tingled all over. I tried to swallow the thick lump that was now in my throat. “I think nine is lots,” I laughed.

“But I’ve always wanted a big family,” she said, now looking into my eyes, seemingly pleading with me.

“Define big,” I said.

“No more than twenty-five,” she said, biting her lip.

“Nine is lots,” I said.

She huffed and shook her head. “We’ll talk more about it later.”

“But seriously, we should head down for the skirmish.”

Nia had to pry the babies away from Eris, and then I had to pry Eris away from that ward. “We can come back later—after the skirmish.”

“But I just want to hold them!” she said.

“Later!”

We got into the elevator. Eris took a deep breath. She closed her eyes for a moment, and it looked like she was suddenly meditating.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Getting ready for the battle. I’m trying to switch my mindset,” she said. “And I’m trying to mentally prepare myself to squish my post-partum body into my armor.”

Eris’s body had changed. She wasn’t at all fat, but she was what my human friends might call ‘thicc’. Her tits were huge. Her bum was big and her hips were wide. She had juicy thighs and her skin was softer to touch, with an even layer of fat now covering all of her muscles, hiding what was indeed a fit, battle-toned body.

I had the pleasure of watching her squeeze into her tight battle armor. It was actually quite mesmerizing, watching her pull that outfit up, over her thick thighs and her big butt, then she had to squish her big titties into that tight top. When she moved, everything jiggled slightly, and if she moved too much, her breasts would verge on falling out. My God, I could have watched her getting dressed in tight outfits all day long…

We went down to the portal room together. Andrei was already there, on his knee, inspecting his turrets, which he’d been constantly tinkering with since the day he built them. Those turrets had become his passion. He looked at those things the same way Eris looked at her babies. And they certainly had come a long way. They no longer looked like scrapyard monstrosities. Now, he’d replaced all of the metal pieces with that black lunar graphene, which looked a lot like carbon fiber. He had all of the pieces 3D-printed, and he’d managed to shrink down the computer pieces that operated the A.I. guns.

Andrei was a level-three now. “I hope I level up,” he said as I stepped up to him. He wanted to reach level-five, because at level-five, he could swap out the standard infantry rifles that now adorned each turret stand with something heftier—and deadlier. He had his eyes on Ryon Incendiary Blasters. Now, I wanted to tell him about all of the other options I’d learned about that morning. I wanted to tell him about all of the upgrades that he could slap onto his guns. I wanted to tell him that there were entire stores devoted to upgrading mechanical weapons.

But the battle was about to start, and I was in charge.

Now, Trix was skipping up with her pair of heavy bazookas. Her excited smile stretched from one bouncing ear to the other. “Who wants to blow up some robots?” She was dressed like a proper Lagolian soldier, in the standard-issue black bodysuit armor and black armor stockings. Queen Syabus made it clear that she was tired of seeing Trix dressed like a ‘cheap hooker’ for every fight, and that if she wanted to participate in each skirmish, she had to wear the proper uniform. And clearly, she wasn’t too comfortable in it. She kept reaching down to pick the outfit out from her pussy and butt crack, wriggling her bum in an attempt to make the costume feel right.

But it was probably for the best. Before, she wasn’t wearing armor at all: just glorified lingerie. At least now, if a stray bullet were to catch her off-guard, that armor might save her life.

Her hair was still blue, despite Queen Syabus telling her to strip out the dye. Maybe they found a middle-ground compromise together, or maybe Trix was just playing defiant. “Why doesn’t Kyrie have to wear the armor?” Trix asked, once again trying to pick her outfit out from her bunny slit.

“We haven’t gotten around to making armor that would fit,” Eris said. And it’s not like they hadn’t tried to get me into that silly male battle outfit; they made me spend a good hour as they tried to get me to squeeze into that questionable garb, but they’d never had a male Lagolian warrior taller than six feet before, and those outfits were tight.

So for the time being, they were fine with me wearing whatever human clothes I wanted to wear. At first, I was wearing jeans and t-shirts—sometimes a hoodie or my black ski jacket, if it was a particularly cold planet. But after I got things squared off with the police on Earth, I’d gone to an army surplus store to buy some camo pants, more durable boots, and a grey-camo jacket that did a fine job keeping me cool while also providing lots of pockets to store ammunition.

The Lagolians thought my outfit was crazy. They couldn’t understand why I wasn’t wearing a skin-tight leotard. They seemed to think my clothes were too heavy and restrictive—and maybe they would have been if my goal was to win a running race.

Vega came in last, now carrying her new sword, which quickly stole everyone’s attention. It had that amazing warm orange glow, from the base of the blade, right to the tip. I caught a glimpse of the blade, looking down the edge, and I swear it couldn’t have been much thicker than five sheets of printer paper.

“Whoa,” said Trix, eyeing the sword. “Is that… V-Series?”

Vega had her chin turned up high, with a confident smile on her face. “My sword? Oh yes, it is,” she said with that cheeky grin.

Then Eris moved in to see it, gasping softly. Trix crowded next to her. Even Andrei peered over their shoulders to admire the blade. “Is it really V-Series?” Andrei asked.

“Do you know what that it?” I said.

“Of course!” he said. “They make the best weapons. Their mech machine gun is a masterwork. The mechanics… I was looking at a diagram just the other day, and I couldn’t believe how smart the design is.”

“You could use a girlfriend, Andrei,” I said, shaking my head with a laugh.

Vega held out the sword so everyone could admire it. “I heard it’s indestructible,” Trix said.

“It is,” said Vega.

“I guess we’ll find out,” said Eris. “Can I touch it?”

Then they all reached out to paw her sword. Even I moved in to look at the amazing craftsmanship. It was engraved from top to bottom with a leaf pattern, looking somewhat Celtic, but still somehow like something that could never exist on Earth. The metal was jet black, yet it somehow glowed orange. I could even feel some heat radiating off of it.

“So are they retiring your old blade then?” Eris asked.

“Yes,” said Vega. “But enough about my sword. The portal opens in five minutes.” She looked to me, reminding me that I was the one in charge now. I was still getting used to being the one in charge.

“Right,” I said, clearing my throat and standing up tall. Now, they were all facing me. “So we all know the plan, but I’ll go over it again, just to be safe. We’re spreading out, all of us. I’m going to take mid to cover Beacon Bravo early. Vega, you’re going to take Sewer to Huts. Trix, you’re going to take Jungle to Fishing Shack. Andrei, you stick with Eris to set up two turrets on Bravo before falling back to put one down on Alpha. Once Bravo is secured, we all fan wide—Vega will go to Charlie, I’ll stay on Mid. Andrei will move to huts and watch for crossovers with his shotgun. Trix, you keep an eye on Bravo once all your mines are down. But don’t shoot unless you have a clean shot on your target. I’m not going to tell you that you need permission to shoot. Shoot freely, but just don’t miss and compromise your position. If you take an enemy out, find cover and hold your position. I want to win this match without taking any damage.”

“Got it, chief,” said Trix with a nod. Again, she reached down to pick her body armor out from her snatch. Trix liked me being in charge. Back when Vega was calling the shots, Trix rarely got to use her mines. Vega thought planting mines was too risky because it involved going deep into enemy territory—a bit hypocritical, seeing as she went deep into enemy territory every single skirmish. But I loved Trix’s mines. To me, they seemed strangely OP. They were instant kills for anything smaller than a mech or a Nekrol medic. They destroyed shields, obliterated infantry and scouts and snipers… and all she had to do was run around throwing them down.

Even now, I could tell that Vega didn’t love the plan. I could tell that she wanted to suggest something ‘safer’—maybe a plan that involved sticking together and letting the Nekrol make the first move. Those plans were great… on defense. But when it came to capturing beacons to win star systems, I was better off in charge.

“Doors in thirty seconds,” Vega said, biting the edge of her tongue.

“I’m going to level up,” Andrei said to himself. “I’m going to do it.” He took a series of deep breaths. His confidence was higher now. He no longer went into each battle with pale skin and a sweaty forehead. Now, he was almost like Trix, excited to put his turrets to the test after each little tinkering. Though I’d noticed him jumping a few times when the gunfire started; he hadn’t forgotten what it was like to be shot eight times by a Nekrol warrior. He hadn’t forgotten that it was a miracle he was still alive.

The doors opened and we all ran out, ready to win Nakuru. And I was pleased to see that the conditions on that moon were exactly as they were in all of our simulations. It was always difficult when we practiced ten times on a bright, sunny, hot map just to fight the battle in the middle of the night, in the rain. But Nakuru apparently never changed. The portals were built on that twilight cusp of the moon, which never actually got any sunlight, and never plunged into complete darkness. Supposedly, it never rained or snowed on Nakuru. It was always that same mild temperature, with very humid air.

It looked a bit like an old Japanese village, with a pair of streams running through it. The buildings seemed to be built from bamboo. There were bridges everywhere, under drooping trees, over babbling creeks. Chirping crickets and croaking frogs surrounded us, unseen to the eye but undoubtedly numbering in the thousands.

I was thrilled when I looked over and saw that the girls weren’t rushing too far ahead of me. My speed upgrade was working wonders. I felt so light, like a gazelle bounding through that forest. The trees around us looked like big bonsai trees. A gentle breeze made the pinkish leaves flutter.

Andrei was huffing into his mic. I looked back and saw that I had a substantial gap on him. “When did you get so fast?” he asked, already out of breath as he tried to catch up to Eris.

“Kyrie got a speed upgrade,” Vega said.

“Really, Kyrie?” Trix asked. “You make your way down to Holodnor?”

“I took him,” said Vega.

“I’ve been meaning to take you down there. If you’re looking for good deals, I know a few places,” Trix said.

“No,” Vega snapped suddenly. “He got into enough trouble without you there.”

“Find me after the match, Kyrie,” Trix said with a smirk in her voice.

“Don’t do it, Kyrie.”

“Focus on the match,” I said, now with Beacon Bravo in sight. It was hard to make out the large black tower against the dark purplish sky. With my speed upgrade, I knew that I had a bit of time to settle into position. We’d only been on the moon for three minutes, and it had taken me almost four minutes to reach that same position in simulations. And now, I was only a little bit out of breath.

I found the spot that had done me so well in our simulations. I settled in, behind a long bench next to that stream. I could see the portal door, about sixty yards ahead, and I could see right down mid, at both of the small bridges that could take the Nekrol from Beacon Charlie to Beacon Bravo—unless they wanted to take the flanks and meet Trix or Vega.

“I’m in position,” I said.

“I’m putting down my first mine,” said Trix. “It’s quiet over here.”

“It’s quiet here too,” whispered Vega. “I’m in their zone. Haven’t spotted anything yet.”

“Tread carefully. They blend in with the environment here,” I said.

We had to be careful. I didn’t want to lose any of my girls, or Andrei. Trix died in one of our Nakuru simulations; she walked by a crouched Nekrol sniper without seeing him, and then she took a blast to the back of the skull. I died in two of those simulations, getting flanked by infantry in one, and getting sniped in another. Andrei died in one simulation too, stepping into one of the fishing huts and finding himself face-to-face with one of those terrifying Nekrol medic tank atrocities.

But now, we weren’t going to make those mistakes. The strategy was solid, as long as we all stayed focused.

Eris was ahead of me now, moving from tree to tree as she approached the beacon. Andrei finally huffed his way to the location of his first turret, nestled between two thick trees, aiming right at the beacon door. Eris crouched into cover while Andrei started setting up turret-number-one.

This was our most vulnerable moment. I had to carefully scan for enemy snipers. Andrei wasn’t in cover; he was an easy shot, and it was my job, with Eris, to ensure he could get those turrets up, so he could fall back and secure Alpha, to thwart any tricky advances.

“I still see nothing,” I whispered.

“I’ve got five mines down,” Trix whispered. “But I don’t think they’re coming down Jungle. Should I swing over to Bravo?”

“Hold your position. They’re doing a delayed push,” I said. This was a Nekrol favorite, holding back and then charging full-strength down a single lane. It was hard to hold them back, especially when they dressed a medic and a tank. But I’d lived through enough delayed charges to know that the trick was to just stay calm and chip them down, shot by shot.

A loud boom rattled the forest, making me jump—and making Andrei shriek. We all looked towards Jungle. “It’s a mech,” said Trix. “His shields are down and he’s stumbling. I’m going to take the shot.” Another loud boom rattled the forest, this one a bit sharper and more distinct: the explosion of an RPG and not one of those hefty mines. “Yeehaw! I got him!”

A sniper shot pierced the air, making my heart pause for a moment. My heart always paused when I heard one of those Nekrol sniper blasts. It only took one shot to kill one of my girls—or me. “Trix?” I said.

“They’re onto me,” she said.

“Stay in cover, fire off a few warning shots,” I said. “Eris, detour into Jungle. I’ll cover Andrei while he gets up his last turret.”

Another loud boom rattled that peaceful forest.

“I’m going to cut over to Jungle,” said Vega. “I can take them from behind.”

“No,” I said. “Go and take Charlie. Let’s pull them out of position.”

“Roger that,” she said. It was nice having her listen to me—and she wasn’t questioning me. I could still tell that she didn’t have complete confidence in me—but she was confident enough to go along with my plans.

I kept my eye on my scope, and I kept my scope down that mid lane. I watched those two bridges, and I scanned the tree line.

I spied some movement between two of those purple-tinged bonsais. I adjusted my scope and leaned in. “Careful, Andrei. I think I saw something back by East Bridge.”

“Turret’s almost up,” he said.

“Could be a sniper,” I said. “Keep your head down.”

And then I saw the movement again. It was dark, so I switched options to night vision. But the fluttering leaves of the forest didn’t make the night vision mode so useful. I tried thermal, but those robots weren’t very hot. Sometimes their guns glowed orange on thermal—but now, I couldn’t see anything.

“Turret is done,” Andrei said. “I’ll fall back to Alpha.”

“Just be careful,” I said.

And then I saw the Nekrol troop darting towards the bridge. I watched as his head turned to spot Andrei, and then his arms lifted up. I didn’t have time to line up the perfect shot, so I quickly squeezed the trigger once I was more-or-less aimed at him.

My quiet gun thumped and the leg of the Nekrol troop fizzled off, making him fall to the ground. I cocked another cartridge into the chamber, aimed at the crawling robot’s head, and—

Pop!

I cracked his skull into pieces and his body slumped to the ground, lifeless.

“They’re making a move on Bravo,” I said.

Another boom echoed through the woods. “I’m holding them back,” Trix said.

“Just reached Charlie. Starting the takeover now.”

“Eris, what’s your position?” I said.

“I see Trix—and there’s their guys!” She started shooting. The enemy shot back, and suddenly the woods were loud with a blazing firefight. My heart jumped again. It only took a single stray bullet to end a life. I couldn’t lose Eris. Our kids needed their mother.

“Stay in cover,” I said. “How many do you see?”

“Two,” Eris said, still unloading lead into that forest. From my position, I could see the fluttering glow from their muzzle flashes. Smoke billowed up as another boom shook the ground. Trix was engaging alongside Eris.

“Get the guy on the right!” Trix said.

“I’m trying!” Eris replied.

There was a single unit unaccounted for. I knew it was a risky move, leaving my post, but I wanted to help with the fight. I didn’t want to defend a beacon that wasn’t even in play. I knew that I could probably start a beacon takeover—though that would be risky too. But I wanted to help my girls. I had to make sure the Nekrol went down before they went down.

“I’m looping to your position,” I said, standing from cover. I rushed towards Jungle, which was a good hundred yards away. I crossed a slippery bridge and then my heart plunged into my stomach as I passed through Huts: a series of bamboo shelters around small fishing ponds. Those huts were perfect for hiding a Nekrol troop. If it had been a simulation, I would have cleared each and every one of those huts before going to Jungle, to be safe, but now, I just had to get to Eris and Trix before it was too late.

The ground was soft and squishy, as if it had rained recently—but it was just the thick humidity in the air on that moon. That humidity made it difficult to breathe, almost like I could feel the moisture soaking into my lungs. I was tempted a few times to cough some of that fluid out, but I was trying my best to stick to my own plan of being stealthy.

I could see Eris and Trix now, taking cover behind trees as bullets snapped through the forest. One of the Nekrol troops was doing a good job of peppering Eris’s tree, chipping away at it, one blast at a time.

I rushed up, as close as I could get before the bullets started fizzling past me dangerously. I took a knee and scanned the trees, now using my scope’s light-enhancement. The woods were dense and it was hard to find a good shot. I could see some movement, which I was almost sure was a Nekrol troop, so I fired. I missed, so I shot again. It was hard to see where my shots were landing, especially with Eris occasionally leaning over and spraying thirty or forty shots into the trees—and Trix launching the odd explosive, sending up smoke and dirt and bark chips.

Bullets cracked the trees around me. Now, I was basically shooting blind, feeling like I was at a complete disadvantage with my weapon. This was not an ideal single-shot scenario.

Nakuru really wasn’t an ideal sniper map, off of mid. Jungle was dense. The deep system of streams was perfect for navigating around the map unnoticed.

In the distance, one of Andrei’s turrets roared. It was a Bravo turret.  “Anyone close to Bravo?” I asked.

“Negative,” said Vega. “Charlie takeover is at eighty percent.”

“I’m finishing the turret install at Alpha,” said Andrei.

“Shit,” I said.

I could still hear those turrets roaring, and I could hear a Nekrol troop firing back at them. Now, Andrei had little cameras on each turret. “What are your guns seeing, Andrei?” I asked.

“Hard to tell. It’s so dark,” he said.

I wanted to fall back, to keep them from taking Bravo. We could win by holding Alpha and Charlie, so it wasn’t the most important spot to cover—though if we could keep their pair of infantry units pinned in Jungle, take out their guy at Bravo, then we had an easy victory…

But I just couldn’t leave Eris and Trix. I had to protect them. I had to provide covering fire, if nothing else, to stop the Nekrol from taking my girls out. I stood up and fired a series of shots towards the muzzle flashes in the distant bushes.

A flurry of green sparks rose up. “I think I got one!” I said. Then the tree next to me snapped loudly as bullets tore away its bark. I dropped back down. “Maybe not—I don’t really know.”

The air tolled as Vega captured Charlie.

“Good work, Vega.”

“Want help in Jungle?” she asked.

It was tempting to say yes, for the sake of keeping Eris and Trix safe. But for the sake of winning, holding Charlie was more important. I had to bite down on my tongue before forcing myself to say, “We’re okay.”

“Ouch!” Eris screamed.

“Eris!” I yelled. Then I bounced out from cover and dashed towards her, risking my life to get closer to her. I dove down as gunfire rained down around me. She was on the ground. “Are you hit!?”

She laughed. “I got sliver on my finger,” she said. “Relax, Kyrie.”

“Oh,” I said. “Sorry. I looked, and, uh, you were down.”

“I’m in cover,” she said.

“I’m starting the Alpha takeover now,” said Andrei. “Wish me luck.”

Now, his turrets were quiet, but they were still active. Did the troop manage to sneak by, into Beacon Bravo? Did he circumvent Bravo altogether, and was he now on his way to Alpha? Or did the turrets do their job, killing the lone straggler.

“How many active units are on the map, Vega?” I asked. Vega always seemed to know the answer, though I had no idea how she knew.

“We don’t control Bravo,” she replied.

“Oh,” I said. “Do you need to control Bravo to get that info?”

“Yes. You didn’t read that manual I dropped off in your room, did you?”

“I skimmed it,” I said. But I actually hadn’t opened it yet.

“Get up Kyrie,” Eris said, giving me a nudge. Before she stood up, she had to wrestle her big boobs back into her top. She groaned. “My tits are leaking again.” With her boobs in her top, she rose up and fired fifty rounds into the forest, nearly making me deaf as she sprayed left and right.

And one or two of her bullets connected and did the trick. There was a loud pop and green sparks and metal bits flew into the air before we all heard the loud thump of a heavy robot plummeting to the ground.

“Yes!” she cried. “Oh, it feels so good to be back.” She dropped her empty mag and slammed a new one in place. She marched out of cover, ready to make an advance on the enemy. I wanted to beg her to stay back, just for her own safety, but I couldn’t just throw my own hit-them-hard strategy out the window because I was suddenly scared of losing my girls. We had to play with confidence. We had to plough forward and be strong.

It was playing it safe that almost got the Lagolians eliminated from the universe. They were nearly pushed to the brink by the Nekrol before I came in and started inspiring them to take more risks. Now, we had to maintain that momentum and that winning attitude.

“Trix, come with me back to Bravo,” I said. “Eris, hold Jungle. Make sure they don’t try to pull a cheeky flank.”

“Yessiree, captain,” Trix said, suddenly bouncing up to my side. Her face was blackened like a cartoon character, from firing her bazooka over and over and over. The smell of gunpowder made me sneeze.

We hurried together to Beacon Bravo, over a pair of slippery bridges and then we properly checked each hut at Huts before making our way to the beacon. I saw both of Andrei’s turrets, aiming at the same patch of forest. And there was a gentle plume of smoke rising up from behind a pair of thick bushes. I approached cautiously, with Trix watching my flank. I used my foot to move the shrubs aside to reveal Andrei’s kill: a steaming Nekrol scout.

“That’s Alpha,” said Andrei, and then the air chimed.

“Should we take Bravo?” Trix asked.

“You start the takeover, just to be safe. Everyone else, hunker down and stay safe. We have time on our side.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Vega whispered. “I’ve got eyes on a retreating infantry. He’s on route to pass right by me.” A few seconds later, her battle cry filled our ears and the match was over: a perfect victory.

“That was fun!” Eris exclaimed. She emerged from Jungle, now with her gun pinned to the little holster on her back. She was using her hands to stuff her breasts back down into her top. “It feels good to be back.”

“Good job, Kyrie,” Vega said. “That was a clean, decisive win.”

“Yeah, Kyr. Great work,” Trix said, slapping me on the ass.

“Thanks, ladies,” I said.

“Oh my God, and I can actually drink tonight!” Eris said, bouncing up and down. Her big boobs once again managed to nearly escape her top, so she pushed them back down.

“Did I level up?” Andrei asked. “I’ll meet you guys back at Lunar Alpha.” Now, he was running back to the portal to see if he leveled up. Eris and Trix both giggled.

Then Eris stepped up to me. “Thanks for the help, Kyr,” she said with a smile.

“Sorry I couldn’t hit anything.”

“It’s not a sniper’s map.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like there’s been a good sniping map since Cygnus.”

“You could always learn to shoot an infantry rifle.” She showed me her gun. “Kari used to occasionally dress as an infantry when we didn’t need a sniper.”

Her gun was a bit intimidating. It was big and loud. I’d seen girls fall over trying to shoot it on Alpha Centauri. Though I wasn’t afraid of it. I was bigger than Eris, with more muscle on my body now than I’d ever had in my life.

Maybe it was the thought of getting up close with the Nekrol that made my nerves tingle. I liked sitting back and picking them off from the safety of cover. I was good at landing those long-distant headshots.

But maybe it was time for a change of pace.

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

“We’ll do a simulation tonight. You can play infantry and I’ll snipe.” She giggled as if she’d just suggested a sweet date at a nice restaurant, and not me experiencing death from a whole new vantage point.

CHAPTER IV

We were met with a few members of the ship’s medical staff and a few of the queen’s officials, congratulating us on another star system capture. Kuzu was there, and so was Britzi. Everyone hugged and cheered.

“Four more wins and we’re back on Lago,” Trix said, and then she blushed as Kuzu gave her a big hug. Her eyes turned wide and she froze for a moment, as if she’d never received unprompted affection before. “Great work out there, Trixie!”

“T—Thanks,” said Trix, seemingly stunned as she watched Kuzu bounce over to Vega to squeeze the life out of her. Then Kuzu wanted to see Vega’s sword, as she hadn’t seen it yet.

I was making my way back to my room when she jumped on me from behind, wrapping her arms around me and squeezing. “Great work out there, Kyrie!” Kuzu said, now with her strong thighs wrapped around me as well. She didn’t want to let go, so I couldn’t look into her eyes.

“Thanks, Kuzu,” I said. “Hope you didn’t mind watching from the control room.”

“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do!” she said, finally letting go of me and dropping to her feet. I turned to face her. “I really liked that fast snipe you made on that guy. You really got him good.”

“Thanks.”

“I had some time to look over the Beltrace map,” she said. “I have a few ideas of how we can win it easily.”

“Oh yeah?” I said. “We should go over them later. Beltrace is the underground map, right? Is that the next star system?”

She nodded her head, clasping her hands behind her back. “I know it’s not the best map for a mech, but I was thinking that dressing me might actually take them by surprise.”

“We can think about it,” I said. “Are you going to be at the party later?”

“Of course,” she smiled. “You too?”

“I think so. Eris wants me to run a simulation with her, then I’ll swing by afterwards if I have the energy.”

She leaned forward and kissed me suddenly on the lips. “How’s your energy level now?”

She stared into my eyes before looking slowly down at my lap. I looked back and saw that we were now alone; the rest of the crew had migrated down towards the war room to watch the replay. “I think I have a quickie in me,” I smirked.

I was a bit tired, but thanks to that speed upgrade, I felt like I had to do a lot less sprinting during the skirmish. In fact, I felt more spritely than usual. Kuzu grabbed my hand and rushed me down the hallway to one of the meeting chambers. She closed and locked the door after scanning the room to ensure it wasn’t being used.

It was a large room with big windows that looked out at the lunar mountains. The place was filled with sofa chairs and couches, and the side walls each had long tables for studying.

Kuzu spun around to face me, giggling. She put her hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes. “It was weird not fighting today,” she said.

“Every day you don’t have to fight is a good day,” I smiled.

She shrugged her shoulders. “I like fighting. It’s good exercise.” Then she leaned in and kissed me. Our lips locked and she quickly slipped in her tongue. A few seconds later, she was rubbing her body against mine, moaning softly.

“Why so frisky?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she giggled. “Energy to burn, I guess.”

We kissed again. I realized, as our tongues wrapped together, that I had never fucked Kuzu alone before. She was always quick to join our orgies, but she’d never found me for a bit of one-on-one time. It was nice having her alone. For so long, I’d wanted to give her the proper attention that she deserved. Now, I felt bad that I had errands to run before my simulation with Eris. I felt bad that I couldn’t make my rendezvous with Kuzu last an hour or two.

But I did have fifteen minutes before I was needed elsewhere, and I knew I could do a lot in fifteen minutes.

She was rubbing my cock through my pants, so I reached down, under her skirt, and I went to rub her pussy through her panties—but she wasn’t wearing panties. She giggled. “Surprise,” she said.

I used two fingers to pry open her soft lips, and then I rubbed her warm clit in circles, until I could feel little drops running down my fingers. She moaned, still sucking on my tongue.

It took her hands a minute to figure out how to get my belt off so that she could pull down my pants and boxers. She was quick to grab my erection, squeezing it and stroking it. “You’re so hard, Kyrie,” she moaned.

“You’re so hot.”

I tilted her head back with my hand so that I could suck her neck while she jerked me. Then I put both of my hands on her waist and I hoisted her up into the air, making her gasp. She weighed next to nothing: sixty pounds at most. I was pretty sure Lagolians had hollow bones like birds. And their springy muscles didn’t have a ton of weight to them either.

It helped that the gravity on that ship wasn’t quite the same as gravity on Earth. Lagolians called it Neutral Gravity, but they called Earth ‘1.3 Gravity’.

I lowered her down, sliding her slit against my abdomen before it connected with my tip. She looked down and let out another moan. She grabbed my throbbing tip and pulled it up to her dripping hole. “Fuck me, Kyrie,” she whimpered, and then I let her slide down another eight inches, filling her with my thick girth. “Oh God,” she cried, digging her claws into my shoulders.

I held her firmly in place as I thrusted in and out of her wet hole.

“Don’t stop,” she moaned. I had no plans to stop. “Just like that, Kyrie. Oh God, Kyrie, that feels so good. Don’t stop!” Her claws dug in deeper and her thighs clamped my hips. I turned her around and stumbled over to a wall, pinning her against it so that I could fuck her properly.

Pushing her hard against that cool wall, I began driving into her, hard and fast, making her gush. She closed her eyes and threw her head back. “Oh God, Kyrie! Just like that! Fuck my little pussy! Oh, fuck!” I drove into her harder and harder, faster and faster. I was impressing myself with my own speed, looking down at her pussy as my shaft slid in and out. Now, I was plunging her with impossible speed. I was fucking her so hard and so fast that her eyes were rolling into the back of her head. She stopped moaning, and now her lips were just parted and her body was tense with what I think was a powerful orgasm.

Her body started trembling, but I didn’t stop fucking her. Her hands suddenly slipped off of my shoulders and her body went limp just as I started to come. I filled her hole with a thick gush of cum, and then she finally broke her silence. “Oh God, yes…” she groaned. And then I had to help her over to the couch to set her down.

I’d never seen anything like it. She couldn’t move a muscle in her body. “Are you okay, Kuzu?” I asked.

“I’m great,” she said softly. “I—I think I’m still having an orgasm.” Her eyes rolled back and she trembled all over. Her pussy gushed onto that couch, expelling more warm fluid along with much of my cum. “Oh God, it’s still going!”

I had to laugh. I was starting to like this speed upgrade. It was coming in handy in more ways than one.

I grabbed a cloth to help clean her up. It was two minutes before she was finally coming back to reality, apparently finished with her five-minute-long orgasm. Now, her whole face was dark red. She blinked a few times and then let out a deep sigh of relief. “Where did that come from, Kyrie?” she asked as I wiped her pussy for her, like a proper gentleman. I tossed the cloth into a nearby bin.

“Speed upgrade,” I said.

“Money well spent,” she said, making her eyelashes flutter.

“It was free, actually,” I smiled. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I have to meet Vega for a training session with the recruits.”

“Just leave me here. I think I’m just going to lay for another fifteen minutes or so.” She sunk back into the couch and let out one last moan, as if there was still a little bit of lingering euphoria surging through her body.

CHAPTER V

Eris loaded up Beltrace, with me and her against five random Nekrol troops. She had the Nekrol troops set to level-one, with intelligence set as low as possible. “They’re going to be dumb, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy,” Eris said, punching a magazine into her Ryon Infantry Rifle. I was holding the same rifle.

“What level are you, Eris?” I asked.

“Twenty-eight,” she said.

“So why do you use a level-one gun?” I asked.

She smiled, apparently happy that I asked. “It’s super versatile,” she said. “It’s one of the lightest infantry guns that we stock on Lunar Alpha. And it’s not like I’m using level-one ammunition. I use Ryon Hornets.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“When you reach level fifteen, you can start using hornets. They shoot further and can penetrate almost anything. Oh, and this is a level twenty-five magazine that holds eighty rounds. Yours only holds thirty.”

“I see,” I said, looking down at my own gun. But it was hard to see in that dark cave.

“Turn on your night vision,” she said, pressing a button on the side of her head. A band came out from behind her ear and wrapped over her eyes.

“Whoa,” I said. I felt around for the same button; it took a minute to find it. “Have we always had these?”

“We only use them when we need them,” she said. “Can you see better now?”

“Totally,” I said, looking around the dark tunnels of Beltrace. It was an old mining system, with rusty rails and passages going in every possible direction.

“But if you’re trying to hide, turn your night vision off. It casts a glow that the enemy can easily spot.”

“Gotcha,” I said.

“So you studied the map, right?” she asked, perking herself up. Her simulation bodysuit fit her much better than her real-life bodysuit. Now, her breasts weren’t bulging out in every direction.

“More or less,” I said.

“It’s a maze—and it’s a nightmare,” she said. “We’ve never actually won a match on Beltrace before. We tried defending it years ago, but the Nekrol just beat us on our first attempt. It was a bloodbath—and you’re going to find out why.”

My heart fluttered, knowing there were five Nekrol troops currently on that map, already working their way towards the underground beacons while I stood and chatted with Eris. Maybe we should have had this talk before starting the simulation.

“C’mon,” she said. “Let’s go down mid and we can talk on the way.” She jogged away from me, and I had no idea how she knew that tunnel was mid when there were six other tunnels to pick from, all identical

And then there were so many little forks, but Eris seemed to know her way. Some of those passages were narrow, and some were short. Even Eris had to duck down to make her way through. We had to climb over an old, rusted minecart.

“Kuzu wants me to dress her for the skirmish in two days, but I don’t think she’d be able to get through these tunnels,” I said.

“No way,” Eris said. “The only tunnel that would fit a mech in here is Overhead, and the second they saw that we had a mech, they would definitely rush Underground.” I didn’t know the callouts yet for the map, and Eris could tell. Now, she was looking at me with an unimpressed glare—a look I was used to getting from Vega. “You don’t know this map at all, do you, Kyrie?”

“I’m going to study it tonight and tomorrow,” I said. And hearing myself saying the word ‘study’ reminded me that I had something else that I needed to study. “Shit,” I muttered.

“What is it?” Eris asked. Now, she was starting to whisper as we crept towards the middle of the map.

“I just remembered that I have a test that I need to do, down on Earth.”

“A test? I thought you graduated.”

“Yeah, sort of. I missed my last test while I was dealing with the cops. My teacher rescheduled it. I think it’s still a week away. I have time to study for it. I can start studying another day—after we win Beltrace…” And then I tried to think of how many days were between the battle for Beltrace and my final physics exam, which I hadn’t even started studying for. I needed that last grade to properly get my diploma, and I needed to get a decent grade if I was going to have the marks I needed to actually qualify for university.

It was the last thing that I wanted to think about, but now, Chorus was close. We were just a few wins away from taking over the Lagolian home star, and then I would get my life back. We still had no idea just how far back we needed to fight the Nekrol: maybe two star systems after Chorus, maybe three, maybe five, maybe ten—maybe one hundred.

But eventually, I would be returning to my normal life. I would be needing to get some sort of degree or another so I could start a career. I thought a lot about staying with the Lagolians—and the prospect certainly wasn’t off the table, especially now that I had nine kids on Lunar Alpha. But I still couldn’t bring myself to just leave my old life behind. It’s not so easy to just leave your parents, your friends, and vanish. And even if I stayed with the Lagolians—once the war was over, I was still going to need something to do. Andrei had a whole world of opportunities, seeing as he was already one of their star engineers. But my only skills were on the battlefield. I could land a headshot, but soon there would be no heads left to shoot.

“I just want to get this test done so I can stop thinking about school for a few months—or maybe a year.”

“Shh!” Eris said suddenly, putting her hand on my chest to stop me. “Okay, here’s your chance to shine, Kyrie. Take the lead.” She gently pushed me ahead of her, and now I was facing a dark tunnel, which curved to the right. I looked back at Eris, and she was urging me to move forward quietly.

So I started to head forward. I had my rifle braced against my shoulder. The tunnel was beginning to widen out as we reached Beacon Bravo. Now I could hear it too: the soft grinding of robot gears. They were coming towards us. So I stepped towards the wall, took a deep breath, and they came around the bend: two armed soldiers with green-glowing eyes.

I opened fire, yelling as I sprayed across their chests. They were close—too close for comfort. One of them nearly got his gun up to shoot, but I managed to drop him before he could get a shot off.

Both robots fell to the ground, and my hands and arms were buzzing from the shock of the gun’s recoil. My entire magazine was empty: thirty shots emptied in a matter of two seconds.

“Reload, Kyrie,” Eris said from behind me. With shaking hands, I dropped my old magazine, which was burning hot, and slammed a new magazine into place. It took me a moment to find the bolt to arm the action. Then I took a deep breath and she giggled. “We’ll have to work on your reload speed.”

“I don’t think I like this map,” I said. It reminded me of playing Doom with my brother’s friends as a little kid. They would laugh whenever I screamed: a five-year-old playing his first first-person-shooter. My God, that game scared the hell out of me as a kid…

“You’re doing fine,” she said. “But now they know we’re here, so we should pick a new route. Which way do you want to go? Left, or right?”

“Let’s go left,” I said, with no clue what the difference was.

We went left, down a narrow passageway.

“The trick to playing infantry is to relax,” she whispered behind me. “I can see that you’re tense. If you’re tense, you aren’t going to land your hits.”

“Easier said than done,” I said. It didn’t help that those tunnels were hot, easily forty-degrees Celsius, and humid. I had no idea if it was sweat dripping down the back of my neck or the condensation that was dripping from the ceiling.

That long tunnel brought us to a huge, open cavern. Looking up, I could see a sliver of sky, as if we were at the bottom of a deep cavern—or a deep crack in that moon’s surface. “Wow,” I said.

“It’s pretty up there,” Eris said. “Maybe once we capture the system, we can go have a picnic up there or something.”

“That sounds nice,” I said.

And then gunfire pinged off the rocks around us. I yelped and Eris ducked down, pressing her body firmly against the rock ledge. Five feet ahead of us was a drop into a deep abyss, and that abyss stretched forty feet across that cavern. “Don’t fall, Kyrie.”

“Thanks for the tip,” I said.

Another round of shots cracked the rocks around us. I looked up to see a Nekrol mech, stationed about one-hundred yards away, next to Beacon Bravo. I opened fire, but my bullets went everywhere. It wasn’t easy to control the spray of that gun, shooting more than fifteen rounds per second. I think I pinged his shield once.

“We need to back out,” Eris said. She managed to get back into the tunnel, but I wasn’t so lucky. The enemy mech launched a rocket, which connected with the ledge behind me, breaking it and sending it crumbling to the ground. My only option now was to dive into the abyss or to run towards the mech.

I ran towards the mech as it opened fire on me with its machinegun arm.

“I’ll loop around, Kyrie!” Eris shouted, now running back to our original tunnel.

I shot at the mech, emptying my whole mag. Instead of attempting a split-second reload, I switched to my gun’s grenade launcher. I lobbed a nice loud explosive into that mech’s face, making it stumble back while its shields flickered. Then I performed a lousy reload, which took about eight seconds (Eris could reload in less than one second). I dropped to one knee and fired upon the mech, reducing its shield to nothing as it tried one last time to pepper me with gunfire.

Had it been a real mech in a real skirmish, I would have been dead. This must have been the dopiest, clunkiest piece of metal I’d even encountered in battle. It could hardly shoot in a straight line and it kept pausing, as if it was trying to decide what to do, malfunctioning with some outdated processor.

From thirty yards away, I emptied a steady thirty rounds into its midsection and made it fizzle to the ground. “I got it, Eris!” I said, now with my first three simulated kills as an infantry.

“Great work, Kyr—ah!” She screamed suddenly and I heard the gunfire echoing in the tunnels.

It was only a simulation, but my heart was still sent aflutter. I still got up to my feet and sprinted. “Eris!” I yelled, turning the corner sharply and rushing down to where I thought she was. “Are you okay?”

“Help!” she said, and more rounds were unloaded, making that hallway flash like the catwalk at some fashion show.

I turned the corner quickly and found myself face-to-face with the enemy—literally. I raised my gun to shoot him but he swatted it out from my hands with his own gun, painfully crushing two of my fingers. “Shit!” I yelled. And then I grabbed onto his gun with both of my hands, trying to wrestle it away from him.

I’d never been so close to a Nekrol fighter before. He was taller than I realized, and thicker. His arms were strong, not letting go of that gun—but I was just strong enough to stop him from turning it on me.

His mouthless face let out a deep groaning sound, almost like a sort of beacon call to his last remaining ally. He shoved his gun into my chest, knocking the air out of me, and then I used the last bit of strength I had to throw myself at him, successfully wrestling him to the ground.

For a split second he dropped his gun, and it was just enough time for me to turn the muzzle against his jaw. Then, it was a fight for the trigger—a fight that I won, blasting a shot right up through his head, ending his artificial life instantly.

With no time to spare, I aimed up, just as the final Nekrol troop rushed towards me. It was a race for the trigger. I beat him to it, sending a pulse of green Nekrol hellfire through his sternum.

Seconds later, I was awake in the simulation throne, heart still pounding. Eris jumped out from her chair and then she pulled me to my feet. “That was amazing, Kyrie!” she gasped. “You’re a natural! I mean… you need to work on reloading faster. And you could definitely work on keeping your gun straight when firing. Shooting in bursts would probably be a good start. But for a first-timer—wow!” She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me. “Thanks for saving my life too.”

“Don’t mention it,” I said.

Then she leaned back and I felt something wet against my chest. I looked down to see two wet spots on my shirt: one on each pec. “What the hell is that?”

“Oh, sorry,” Eris said, looking down at her own top, which was wet in the same spots. “My breasts are leaking again. I need to pump. God, I swear these things are getting bigger! Look how big they are, Kyrie. What am I even supposed to do with these… Kyrie?”

“What?” I said, clearing my throat.

“Are you aroused right now?” I watched her nostrils flare as she sniffed, smelling my pheromones.

“Sorry,” I said. “You just keep grabbing your big boobs.”

“Does lactation turn humans on?” she asked, looking slightly disgusted.

“No, but big tits sure do,” I said.

“Really?” she asked, strangely perplexed. Then she grabbed her boobs and giggled. “Then my breasts must be really nice for you right now.”

“They’re actually enormous,” I said.

“Your pheromones are quite strong right now, Kyrie. Do you want to have sex with me?”

“I won’t turn down the offer,” I said.

“Well, because you saved me, I’ll allow it. But I’ll ask that you be careful, as I’m still quite tender down there from giving birth to nine babies.”

“I can be careful,” I smiled.

She smiled. Our lips locked. I moved my hands up and down her soft body. She didn’t waste much time, reaching down and gripping my cock firmly in her fist. “My God, Kyrie,” she sighed. “I can’t get over how big you are.” She squeezed me hard, and it almost hurt. I let out a small gasp, and then she was suddenly on her knees, with my cock out and pressed against her lips.

I wasn’t the best influence on those galactic bunny girls. Before meeting me, Eris didn’t even know what a blowjob was. Now, she couldn’t wait thirty seconds before dropping to her knees to suck on my cock… and she was getting awfully good at it. She bobbed her head like a perfect slut, using her plump lips to massage every inch of my girth, flicking the tip of my cock with the tip of her tongue, making me leak in her mouth. “Oh, Kyrie,” she moaned, squeezing my cock again with her fist before aggressively sucking my tip.

“Shit,” I moaned, worried I was going to come in her mouth before even getting a shot at her pussy. “Okay, okay—stop.” I had to pull my dick away from her so I wouldn’t come too soon. I wanted to enjoy the moment.

Now she was on her hands and knees, pretending to be a kitten, seducing me with her giant ass, which was now calling to me as she swayed from side to side. Her plump pussy seemed to bulge out from between her thick thighs. I dropped to my knees and used both of my hands to spread her butt cheeks apart, so I could see inside of both of her tight holes. She moaned. A trickling of fluid fell out of her and dripped onto the floor, so I did the smart thing and I stuffed the hole, stopping the leak.

She purred and moaned. “Oh God, Kyrie, it feels so good!”

I couldn’t believe how tight she was. Her body made absolutely no sense—not at all like a body that had delivered nine children. The Lagolian body must have been made of tight elastic. Her plump lips squeezed my girth and I groaned loudly.

With my knees planted firmly on the ground, I fucked her. In the reflection of a nearby window, I watched as her big tits swung back and forth while she moaned and screamed. Breastmilk dripped from her nipples, which I’m a bit embarrassed to say turned me on quite a bit.

I tried not to fuck her too viciously, though it was tempting. I bit my tongue and maintained a nice, hard-but-slow pace, so I wouldn’t hurt her recovering body. I didn’t last long. I think it was the warm drops of fluid dripping down my shaft and off of my balls that did me in. I filled her cute hole with a thick ounce of cum, and then I pulled out to watch her beautiful pussy, agape and spilling. I slapped her on the ass for good measure.

It was nice having her back to normal.

CHAPTER VI

I woke up with Trix’s face pressed against mine. She was snoring loudly, with her mouth open. I went to roll over, to get another hour or two, and then I noticed that the bed was otherwise empty. It took a moment for my eyes to properly open, and then another moment before I noticed Eris at the mirror, curling her hair, and Vega next to her, naked and holding a tight black dress up to her body.

“I think the white one looks better,” Eris whispered.

“Should I try the blue one on again?”

“I told you: I don’t like the blue. You have no ass in the blue dress.”

I sat up slowly, stretching out my arms before looking at the clock. It was only 7:00 AM.

Eris was in a white dress: short and revealing, like most of her outfits. She was wearing white leather boots, which almost looked like cowgirl boots, and now, with her hair properly curled, she was tying in a white bow to keep her long bangs back. “What’s going on?” I asked.

Vega turned to look at me. Her cheeks turned a tone of red, so Eris spoke for her. “Vega’s ceremony starts in an hour. I was just about to wake you up.”

“Her ceremony?” I asked. It was nearly impossible to keep track of every Lagolian celebration and tradition.

“Her sword ceremony,” Eris said, as if it was something I’d already been told about.

I blinked a few times. I waited for the proper memory to come to me—but I was pretty sure nobody mentioned a ‘sword ceremony’.

“I should get down there,” Vega said, now squishing her thin body into a tight white dress, which wasn’t so different from what Eris had on—just three sizes smaller, and showing off less cleavage. “I’m sure they need to run through a rehearsal or something.”

“I’ll be down in twenty,” smiled Eris, and then Vega looked at me for a moment with blushing cheeks before darting out the door.

I rolled out of bed and gave my legs a moment to wake up before I was properly upright. The day before had been a long one: the battle in the Holodnor bazaar, the skirmish on Nakuru, the simulation with Eris in the Beltrace mines, fucking Kuzu, fucking Eris, teaching young snipers on Alpha Centauri…

“So maybe someone mentioned this ceremony to me—but just jog my memory,” I said, rubbing my eyes.

“The Queen is retiring Vega’s old sword,” Eris said. “Lagolians venerate weapons in a special way—especially ones that have served in so many battles, like Vega’s sword.”

“Weird,” I said.

“Don’t humans do anything like that?” Now she was trying to figure out a way to stuff her tits into her top so that they weren’t spilling out in every direction.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe with sports. I think some teams retire jerseys.”

“Vega’s pretending like it’s not a big deal, but I can tell that she’s excited,” Eris smiled. “It’s a big day for her. She’s never had a weapon retired before.”

“Have you?” I asked.

She nodded her head with a cute smile. “They retired my first rifle after it got damaged and I had to get a new one. I had four hundred and twenty kills with that gun. I miss it sometimes. I also set a few shooting records with it. It’s down in the Hall of Legends, where we’re going for the ceremony. I can show it to you after the ceremony.”

“Sure,” I said.

“I heard they want to retire your Ryon Long Rifle,” she said, turning away from me to check to see that her curls were even on the left and right sides.

“My Ryon Long Rifle? Why? I only used that thing for, like, five fights.”

“Yeah, and one of those fights was on Cygnus. Lagolians are still talking about that match, Kyrie. Nobody’s ever shot with that kind of accuracy before. I’m willing to bet Queen Syabus retires your old rifle once we win back Chorus.”

“That would be cool, I guess,” I said.

“C’mon, Kyrie. Get dressed so we can go down. I don’t want to miss the festivities.”

“Festivities?” said Trix, suddenly springing out of bed. “I’m in! What are we doing?”

“Sword ceremony,” said Kuzu, emerging from the bathroom. She was putting large gold hoops through her ears: earrings she almost certainly picked up on a trip down to Earth. Kuzu’s outfit was my favorite of the bunch: black, tight, with a wide gap down the middle of her chest, which didn’t come together until her pubic area. It was tied up with laces, showing off her perfect cleavage. I found myself staring at her amazing body, her long, smooth legs, and her—

“Kyrie!” they all seemed to snap at me at once.

“We can do that later. We’re running late now!” said Eris. Maybe I was a bit aroused. Trix surprised me with a slap on the ass. It was a hard slap, waking me up; maybe it was just what I needed.

We gathered down in the Hall of Legends, with a large crowd of Lagolians. They were all dressed up in their best clothing, looking like a crowd attending a royal wedding. We managed to get seats near the front, where a stage was set up. The wall behind the stage was adorned with weapons, looking like a sort of luxury armory: rifles, swords, bazookas, pistols, and a pair of mechs staged in large glass cabinets. In the middle of the stage was Vega’s sword: the one being retired. It was mounted on a black wire stand, with three lights shining down on it. It had been recently polished, making it shine like a sword descending from the heavens.

Queen Syabus took to the stage first. She raised her arms and the crowd became silent. Now, she was dressed more like a pagan queen, in a long black robe, with a crown of leaves around her head. Her feet were bare on that flat stage.

She held the sword up high and the crowd became silent. Then, the group of she-monks took to the stage, wearing curious costumes: flared skirts, pyramid tits, white all over. The girls all had their hair gelled back and slicked down the length of their backs. Their cheeks were bright red with blush and their lips were black with lipstick that looked like old engine oil.

The sword was passed down the line of she-monks. They each said a blessing in an old language before it came to the final girl. Then, Vega took to the stage. The Lagolian crowd raised their arms into the air, palms facing Vega as she stepped the sword to an empty spot on the wall.

Queen Syabus walked up to Vega and shook both of her hands at the same time, arms crossed over. “Blessed be your new sword as blessed was your old,” she said. Vega blushed, and then the queen waved the she-monks off of the stage, and the crowd dispersed, all knowing that the short ceremony was over.

“I’m so happy for her,” Eris said, swaying from side to side with her hands clasped together.

A group of higher-ups went to greet Vega. I wanted to go and congratulate her as well, but she looked busy—and overwhelmed. She was talking to important Lagolians, so I figured it was best to give her some space and some time.

“Want to see my old rifle?” Eris asked with a big smile on her face.

“Sure,” I said.

She took my hand and led me into the Hall of Legends. It was a long circular hallway that joined at the stage. We slipped by Vega and went down slowly. Some of those weapons were old, looking like guns from World War II. There were little plaques under all of them, with dates that I didn’t understand. “How old is that one?” I asked, motioning towards a long sniper rifle with a steel barrel and a wooden stock. The plaque said 1012C.

“That’s old,” she said. “It’s one of the older weapons on the ship, from the second civil war on Lago.”

“How old are we talking? Five hundred years?”

“Over two thousand now,” she said. “Now it’s 744D.” She said it as if I had any understanding of how they tracked their years.

“Wow,” I said.

We went further down and found an even older relic: a rusty sword with two long blades. There was no date on the plaque, but there was a little blurb. ‘An early Lagolian war blade. Date unknown. Believed to possibly be from the Swamp War of 633-2B.”

“You guys have been fighting for a long time,” I said.

“One day it will all stop,” Eris said with a tone of hopefulness—or maybe it was naivety. “Soon.”

Next, we looked at a large metallic sphere, smooth all around. There wasn’t even a subtle seam fusing the ball shut. It was about the size of small car. “What’s that crazy thing?” I asked.

“Pulse Bomb,” she said. “It’s an old model. They’re bigger than this now—and stronger.”

“What does it do?” I asked.

She smiled strangely. “We use them after we conquer systems, when we’re worried that enemies are still on the captured moons. They came in handy during the Ekturian War. Sometimes the Ekturians would leave cells of troops behind, usually in underground tunnel systems, and they would try to attack us outside of the skirmishes. The regulator rules are a bit foggy on whether or not it’s allowed to leave troops on an unstable system, but there are loopholes. You’re allowed to defend your home planet, and sometimes races argue that they have multiple home planets. We took a few instances to regulator tribunals, but we never got a clear resolution. So we started using these pulse bombs. After a capture, we would drop them all over the moon. Well—I shouldn’t say drop. They work by burrowing into the ground, with one of those…” She pointed to a picture of a large drill on the wall. “They go about fifty meters under the ground, and then they explode, creating a pulse wave about fifty kilometers wide. It makes most tunnels and caves collapse.”

“Sounds deadly,” I said.

“We would be using them on all of the systems we’ve been capturing from the Nekrol,” she continued, “but they haven’t been leaving troops behind—at least not yet. We’re pretty low on resources these days, so we only have a few dozen left down in storage, and we don’t have any in production. I’m sure you’ll get to see a few get used on Lago when we capture it. It’s quite the sight to watch from above, in a ship.”

Then she skipped over to a familiar sight: a Ryon Infantry Rifle. It was scuffed up, scratched, and dented. There was a clean bullet hole through the firearm’s action. The plaque said 700D, and under the date was her name: Eris D63-AA412B.

“Is that your last name?” I asked.

She nodded her head. “It’s my identification tag. And that’s my old gun.”

“416 confirmed kills,” I said, reading the plaque. “That’s a lot of dead robots.”

“It’s been a long war,” she said.

The gun was pink in spots, but that pink was faded and scraped and peeling. “Did you paint it yourself?”

“When I first got it,” she smiled. “General Dryas didn’t like that, but they let me keep it like that.”

I looked around at the other weapons, and then I noticed a sight I’d never seen before. Enclosed in a large glass case was a sort of exoskeleton: a scary copper-toned machine that was made to enclose a person about the height of an above-average Lagolian. “Shit,” I said. “That thing is intense.” Also in the container was a hefty shotgun, worn from what must have been hundreds of battles. “Is that like some sort of proto-mech?”

“No, it’s just tank armor,” she said. “Heavily customized, of course—and loaded with almost every imaginable upgrade.”

I walked over to it and saw the various packs fused to it: shield upgrades, weapon upgrades, mechanical upgrades… “Why don’t you guys ever strap on some tank armor?”

“Well,” Eris said, “Vega is the only active fighter on the ship with a level high enough to wear one, but it wouldn’t suit her playstyle. Exoskeletal tank armor can’t even be used until level-forty. This is a level fifty-five model. They don’t even make these anymore—and haven’t for hundreds of years. The company that made them, Hanzo Industries, got shut down for manufacturing weapons and armor that was too powerful for the RWC—the Regulator Weapons Code. Now, the only way to find something like this would be in loot.”

“Loot?” I said.

“Stuff left behind by enemies when you capture their system. You know what looting is, right?”

“Sure—It’s just weird that you call it loot.”

“Back in the day, companies would make extremely powerful weapons for special customers, using loopholes in old manufacturing rules. Now the rules are extremely strict, but these old weapons are… grandfathered in, so to speak. So we call this ‘rare loot’, items that aren’t in production anymore because of changes to the intergalactic munitions’ codes. They can still be found and they can still be used, but they can’t be sold… legally. But that doesn’t mean they’re illegal to use. Like I said: they’re grandfathered into the system.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ll give you a good example,” she said with a beaming smile. “There’s this gun that I really want. It’s a Hanzo Industries PX-50. It had a starting magazine capacity of one hundred, it can shoot at 6000 FPS, twenty-five rounds per second, with almost no recoil.” Her eyes were glowing with wonder as she described the killing machine. “It’s lighter than a Ryon Infantry Rifle, more accurate—supposedly—and it was made to be used by a level thirty. Now, to make something with similar specs, they could only market it to level fifties. But can you imagine? With a single magazine—armed with Hornets, of course—I would be able to take down a mech with full shields.” I’d never seen her beam like that before.

“Where can you get one?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “They only made a thousand of them before they were forced to shut down. Those guns are still out there—maybe in museums like this one, maybe being used by some deadly fighters, maybe lost in abandoned crates on moons far away from here. I’m guessing they pop up on the black market from time to time, on Holodnor, but selling them is illegal.”

“Are there any cool sniper rifles out there?” I asked. “That a level five like me could use?”

“Oh, I’m sure,” Eris said. “Companies used to find all sorts of loopholes before the regulators came around and started cracking down.”

“Tell me more about these regulators. I keep hearing about them.”

“That’s a long story,” she said. “A few hundred years ago, they were… How can I describe them? A group of religious radicals. They believed—and I guess they still believe—that it’s their job to maintain the order of the universe, as designed by the Ancient Builder Race. They think the Ancient Builder Race were sort of like… demigods who seeded all of the races in the universe and created the portal system. Does any of that make sense?”

“I guess so,” I said.

“They became very powerful as more and more races joined them. They have thousands and thousands of level-sixties in their ranks. So when a race decides to cheat the rules, building their own weapons that go against code, they can deal with it pretty easily. They control Holodnor and other neutral planets and moons, and now I think they control just about every single weapon manufacturing system, including Ryon, V-Series, Rexo, Joblex, and so on.”

“And what do they think of the Nekrol?”

“They don’t care. We tried to make a plea to them when the Nekrol started attacking us, but they just told us that the Nekrol weren’t breaking any rules. They make their own guns, their own shields, their own mechs…. but they make them to RWC. They follow portal protocol.”

“Aren’t they afraid that the Nekrol will eventually come for them?”

She laughed and shook her head. “Are you kidding? Imagine five Nekrol warriors facing off against five level-sixties, using gear like this.” She motioned to the insane exoskeletal piece of armor. She had a good point too. Vega was level-forty and she was almost capable of taking on an entire Nekrol squad by herself. Now, with her new sword, she was even more powerful… and she was still twenty whole levels shy of being a level sixty. How many more upgrades would she get before reaching that apparent-maximum level?

“Aren’t you worried that the regulators will eventually try to conquer the whole universe?”

Eris shrugged her shoulders. “Some people think it will happen; some call it a conspiracy. Races have tried to do it before. All have failed so far. What’s unique about the regulators is that they’re not just one race. They’re a group of beings bound by an ideology, and I suppose that makes them more dangerous. But for now, they’re the reason we even stand a chance against a race like the Nekrol. If they weren’t out there enforcing rules, we would be toast.”

“I guess so,” I said, looking back at the exoskeletal machine. And that’s when I noticed the plaque. “Wait,” I said, looking closer. “Syabus… As in Queen Syabus?”

Eris perked up and giggled. “That’s right! She was a warrior, a long time ago. She retired at level-sixty, with twelve hundred wins and only four losses.”

“Wow,” I said, ogling the armor again.

“She was a badass chick. She knows war better than anyone. And speaking of war, we should probably get an infantry rifle into your hands down on Alpha Centauri. You are going to dress as an infantry tomorrow, right? We need to work on those reload times.”

“Okay,” I said, looking around that amazing museum one last time. Maybe she was right: maybe one day one of my guns would be there, and generations of Lagolians would look at it and read the story of how I saved them from annihilation.

It was something to strive towards, anyway…

Eris took me down to Alpha Centauri. She didn’t even bother getting changed, and her soft post-pregnancy body proved to be a serious distraction when she was running me through shooting drills. Whenever she fired, her butt and boobs would jiggle in the most amazing way. “Focus, Kyrie,” she must have said fifty times.

“You wore the dress,” I said.

“God help us if the Nekrol ever show up wearing short skirts,” she said, rolling her eyes.

I managed to get my reload time down to three seconds after about fifty practice runs. I still had no idea how she could do it in under a second. It was almost like her hand disappeared for that split moment. The whole act was done before the old mag even hit the ground. “You’ll get better,” she told me.

Though I didn’t have much time to get better. It seemed like no time passed at all before I was once again standing in that black portal room, ready for another skirmish.

CHAPTER VII

To take Beltrace, I dressed Eris, Vega, Trix, and Andrei. There were too many little tunnels and flanks to go in without Andrei’s turrets, and the tunnel system was ideal for Vega’s close-combat playstyle. I had to think hard about dressing Trix instead of another infantry unit, but I figured Trix’s mines could come in handy in the case of a long game.

The plan was simple and classic: Vega would go deep and pick of stragglers; Eris and I would take Beacon Bravo while Trix and Andrei set up their devices around all the flanks. Andrei had studied that map inside and out, and seemed to think that he knew the best places to hide his automatic guns, so I trusted him.

“Let’s win this map so we never have to see it again,” Vega said softly, looking out the small window on the portal room door.

Vega didn’t have a lot of losses on her record, but Beltrace was one of them. It was a loss on Eris’s record too. The Lagolians had been able to hold every other star system for at least a few months; they held Kentaurus for eighteen months against the Nekrol… But not Beltrace. On Beltrace, they were 0-1. “I hate this place. It’s literally hell,” Vega continued.

“We’ll be fine,” I said. I took a deep breath. It wasn’t the best time to be trying out a new class. And now I was starting to sweat—and not just because I could feel the heat of the Beltrace underground. I made the call to go ahead with the attack on Beltrace. I figured we had enough momentum to just steamroll through… but now I wasn’t so sure. I wasn’t ready to face real Nekrol troops in close-quarters situations. Sure, we beat some simulated Nekrol troops set to dumb-dumb mode. Sure, Vega had a new sword that seemed to be even more effective than her old sword… but it still felt like we were just going in and flipping a coin.

“Doors in two minutes,” Vega said.

“Just stick to the plan,” I said. “We’ve got this. We can beat them to Bravo and… we’ll be fine.”

“Anyone hear the new KZ track?” Trix asked. She was chewing on a piece of bubblegum.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“She’s a musician.”

“No one here listens to KZ, Trix,” Vega said without looking back.

“Right. I forgot that you’re all lame.”

“Doors in one minute.”

Now, I found myself wishing that Petra was still on Lunar Alpha, and not floating aimlessly in deep space. Now, she was almost two weeks into her lifetime sentence, unable to move her body while tubes and needles kept her alive. She would have thrived on a map like Beltrace. I could have put her in instead of me… I certainly couldn’t shoot like her.

“Just be quick,” I said again, and then the door suddenly clunked open. We rushed out and immediately split into our determined directions. I did my best to control my breathing as Eris pulled slightly ahead of me. I just had to stay focused. I just had to stay alert and shoot exactly like I shot in my shooting drills with Eris.

“Planting my first mine,” Trix said.

“Where?” Vega asked.

“In a tunnel.”

“Which tunnel?”

“I don’t know, they all look the same. You don’t seriously know the callouts for every single tunnel, do you?”

“Trix went down Courtside,” said Andrei, huffing into his microphone. And of course Andrei knew all the callouts.

“I don’t want to die stepping on one of your mines, Trix,” Vega growled.

“I don’t want to die of boredom, studying a map with over fifty unique callouts.”

“Alright, girls. Break it up. Let’s focus on winning this,” I said. “We’re about halfway to Beacon Bravo. I’m expecting another delayed push from them.”

“I’m putting down my second mine,” said Trix. “And by the way, Kyrie, I think you should really check out KZ. I think you’d like her stuff.”

“Thanks, Trix. I’ll do that later.”

“We turned around a bend and saw the end of the tunnel, where the main tunnel system met in that large, open cavern. The black stone Beacon Bravo was there, perched on a mountain of rock in the middle, with six stone bridges leading to it, looking like some demonic castle. “Here we go. Eris, you cover me while I complete the takeover.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she said.

And then they fired on us. From across the wide cavern, a pair of Nekrol troops began to unload green glowing lead, making us fall to the ground, trying to find cover behind short rocky lumps. “They rushed! They rushed!” I yelled.

“Taking fire!” Eris yelled. A bullet nearly ripped into her leg, breaking the stone next to her thigh instead. She gasped and pulled her legs tight against her chest, barely in cover at all. “Wait for their reload!”

There was a sudden pause in the shooting: our cue to attack. We both rose up and returned fire on the pair of Nekrol troops, standing on the other end of that cavern. Now, they were rushing another pair of scouts into the black stone beacon. “They’re taking Bravo!” I yelled over the roar of my machinegun, which was empty after two seconds of firing. Eris made her magazine last longer—partially because she was doing a better job of staying calm and utilizing burst-fire, and partially because her magazine capacity was way better than mine.

I pulled off a decent four-second reload and continued firing, just as she began her snap reload. But those rifles weren’t made to shoot hundreds of rounds in seconds. I could already feel the heat radiating off of my gun. I knew I had to give it time to cool down before unloading a third magazine. We both ducked back into cover.

“I landed a few hits,” Eris said.

“I think I did too,” I said. “They’ve definitely started the Bravo takeover.”

“You have eyes on all five?” Vega asked.

“Just four,” Eris said.

“Possibly one hanging back to capture Charlie,” Vega whispered, now in enemy territory. “Let’s not let our guard down.”

“Y’all need help over there?” Trix asked.

“Get your mines down and then make your way over here. Loop back so you don’t get caught out of position,” I said.

“Just two more mines to go down.”

“We’ll need your rockets to clear out the beacon,” I said. And it was time to return fire again. Eris went up first, blasting a full magazine, landing a few hits on reloading troops. I stood up next, taking a breath before shooting at the enemy on the left. Two of my shots hit his chest, powering him down, sending him to the ground, lifeless. “That’s one!”

Eris was now pounding the downed Nekrol’s friend, filling him with well-placed lead. “And that’s two,” she said, winking cutely.

“Now we need to clear out that beacon,” I said.

“Don’t rush it. Wait for me,” said Trix.

“I’m coming up on Charlie,” whispered Vega.

Eris and I split up. She went right and I went left, circling the beacon with our guns drawn, backs to the stony cavern wall. The cavern became silent. It seemed like vital minutes were passing and we weren’t taking any action.

“Charlie is clear,” Vega whispered. “They skipped it.”

“So where’s their third?” I asked.

“Maybe lurking in the tunnels, looking for an easy kill. Maybe down at Alpha, stealing a second beacon… It’s anyone’s guess.”

“Great,” I groaned.

I took a series of deep breaths in that hot, humid silence. The pair of scouts weren’t emerging from that beacon. I didn’t see Nekrol scouts too often; they were rarely dressed for battle, so I really didn’t know what they were capable of. Even in simulations, they hardly ever made an appearance.

“What’s your ETA, Trix?”

“I’m going to come clean,” she said. “I’m lost. I think I made a wrong turn somewhere.”

“Shit,” I grumbled.

“I think I’m close… or maybe I’m near our portal. I don’t really know.”

“We need you here, now.”

Then, a pair of canisters lobbed out from the portal entrance. They hit the ground and began to fizzle. Smoke billowed out, growing into a large plume, which quickly surrounded the beacon.

“No one told me they could do that,” I said.

And then I saw one, running on four legs like a dog, darting through the smoke and into the tunnels.

“That’s not good,” I said.

“What is it, shooter?” Eris said.

“I saw one of them. He, uh, went that way. Into that tunnel there.” And now I felt like the fool, not knowing the callouts any better than Trix.

“Just one, or both of them?” she said.

“I don’t know. It was just a quick glimpse. Just one of them ran by. The other could still be in the beacon.”

“Well that’s not good news at all,” Eris said.

“Should I capture Charlie?” Vega asked. “Then maybe you can loop back and take Alpha. We can win without Bravo.”

“This is a nightmare,” I said.

“Welcome to Beltrace.”

I looked around. That cloud of smoke was growing and growing, filling that cavern while at least one deadly Nekrol scout was hunting in the tunnels.

“Make the call, Kyrie. What are we doing?” Vega said, apparently feeling the need to remind me that I was in charge.

“Trix,” I said, “are you almost out of the tunnels?”

“I think so,” she said.

“It’s a yes or no question.”

“Then no. I’m still lost. But I think I recognize this area here… Oh, wait… No. I don’t think I’ve been here.”

Gunfire roared down one of the tunnels, echoing through the whole system until a silence returned to the cavern. “Everyone okay?” I asked.

“I think my turret got one,” Andrei said.

“Charlie takeover is at forty percent,” Vega whispered. “But I’m a sitting duck here. Some backup would be nice.”

“Okay, okay,” I said. “We’ll abandon Bravo. Eris, come with me to take Alpha. Trix, try to find Beacon Charlie. Andrei, meet us at Alpha, and try to watch one of the flanks with your shotgun.”

We sprang into action, now only with ten minutes left on the timer. We controlled nothing. The Nekrol controlled Bravo. “We can still win this,” I said, and I think I was just trying to convince myself.

My skin turned cold as we entered the cave system. It was a narrow passageway, with little forks every fifty yards, and long curves that obscured vision. I was happy that I didn’t have my usual sniper rifle—but I wasn’t thrilled that I would soon be facing a Nekrol, face-to-face.

Eris sidled along the left wall and I took the right. We moved slowly, despite the fact that our time was running out.

“Two units left,” I whispered. “At least one of them is a scout.”

“Charlie is at seventy percent. I think I hear something outside the beacon. Is it one of you?”

“Negative,” said Trix. “I’m still lost.”

“Should I abandon the takeover?”

I had to make a split-second decision. We didn’t have time to end the takeover and restart it. But I didn’t want Vega getting killed. Winning Beltrace wasn’t worth losing Vega. “Stand down. Prepare for an attack.”

“Roger that,” she said.

“Cancelling at seventy percent?” Trix said with a baffled voice.

“Just find your way out of that maze, Trix,” I said.

Now, I could hear footsteps. “Andrei, is that you?” I whispered.

“I’m down Cleaver.”

I had to look at Eris. She shook her head, letting me know that Cleaver was nowhere near us. She dropped down to one knee and readied her rifle. I turned the other way and waited for the flank attack. The footsteps were getting louder, but with the echoing, it was impossible to tell where the sound was coming from.

A sudden boom made us both jump. Pebbles and dust rained down on our heads.

“That sounded like one of mine,” Trix said.

I started standing up, then one of the creatures raced around the bend, barreling on four legs like a robot dog. It zoned in on me and sped up. I stumbled back, firing on the creature, but my shots seemed to ping off of its curved armor.

I yelled. Eris spun around quickly and fired on the creature as well. A few of her Hornets penetrated, but it wasn’t enough to kill the thing.

I fell back and it rose up like a horse about to lunge into a gallop. Long blades shot out from its front arms and it prepared to fall down on me. I had to make a quick decision, and I’m not sure my decision was the wisest choice—but it was better than doing nothing and being killed.

I flicked the little switch on my rifle, switching to my explosive grenade. I turned my face away and fired at the thing’s chest, and then my vision was filled with fire. I felt the intense heat burning my skin as the scout was launched backwards.

I was pretty sure that I was on fire—about to live a life of a burn victim.

Eris grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back, dragging me across the hot stone floor. I blinked a few times. My vision came by slowly, but my eyes were sore and dry.

She patted my head quickly. “Are you okay, Kyrie!?” she said.

“Huh?” I groaned.

“Your hair was on fire! Your eyebrows are gone!”

“Is he dead?”

“The scout? Oh, he’s dead. But you—are you okay?”

I groaned. My body was sore, but I could feel all of my extremities. “Go and capture Alpha before we run out of time.”

Then, Vega grunted as she stabbed the final Nekrol scout with her beautiful sword. “Got him!” she said. “That should be all of them. I think I have just enough time to take this beacon.”

I caught myself smiling as I stared up at that cavern ceiling. I may have briefly been on fire, but we were winning Beltrace, and with any luck, that meant I would never have to see that God-forbidden moon ever again.

Andrei eventually came to pull me to my feet. He dusted the blackened dust off of my shoulders. “You look better with eyebrows,” he said.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.

“Don’t worry, Kyrie,” Vega said in my ear. “We have a cream that will make your hair grow back within forty-eight hours.”

“I’m not still on fire, am I?” I said, feeling my face with my hands. I was still tingling all over. My skin felt like it was constricting, dry all over.

“No,” Andrei said. “Wait.” He looked at my back and gave me another pat. “Okay, you’re good.”

CHAPTER VIII

The medical staff gave me a thick white cream in a small tube and told me to rub it on my face every few hours. “And make sure you eat as much as possible. That will make the hair come in faster,” the doctor said to me. “And the cream might make you feel hungrier than usual, so be sure to give the body what it’s asking for.” The cream smelled unsurprisingly like carrots, and it made my skin tingle even more than the fire that had briefly been on my face down in the Beltrace mining system.

But it worked. Within an hour, there were small stubbly hairs, and by the end of the second hour, it almost looked like I had eyebrows: wispy, thin eyebrows, but eyebrows nonetheless.

And the doc was right: three hours after applying the white goop to my face and head, my stomach was groaning. I felt like I could tackle an entire Big T’s BBQ buffet on my own. I ate some of the crackers that were in my room, but it wasn’t enough, so I headed down to the food court to find something more substantial.

For two credits, I got a mountain of fried vegetables and three stacks of Gorcakes, which looked like pancakes but were actually made of some sort of lab-made meat, which tasted a bit like a chicken cutlet.

I got a few curious looks from casual Lagolians as I dug into the mound of food. My face was still tingling from the cream, and I swear I was getting hungrier and hungrier, even though I was now eating.

I finished all three Gorcake stacks. I ate all my vegetables. I spent another two credits on what was essentially carrot cake and an apple pudding, which normally looked repulsive, but now I was so hungry that everything looked appetizing, even the Korka stew, which was basically a bowl of mushy grass with chunks of Gorcake meat mixed inside of it. I had two steaming bowls.

Then, I was immobile. The lethargy hit me hard, as if I’d just finished three Thanksgiving feasts at once, and I slumped into my seat and groaned. A group of Lagolian teenagers giggled at the sight of me, and I couldn’t blame them. “Don’t judge me,” I moaned, not wanting to embarrass myself by looking at them.

“Eat enough, Kyrie?” a girl asked behind me. I strained to turn my head, seeing Kuzu standing in a little floral dress, which was almost certainly from Earth. In fact, I was sure I recognized it from the Aritzia window display at the mall.

“For now,” I said. “Explain to me how a cream can make a person so hungry.”

“I don’t think it’s the cream; I think it’s you forcing your body to create new cells at an unnatural rate.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

She took the seat across from me and smiled. She didn’t look like she had much to say. She looked strangely lost, or maybe bored, as if she was hoping I could give her something to do. “What’s up, Kuzu?” I asked.

“I was down on Earth this morning,” she said. “I tried something called a cinnamon bun. Have you heard of it?”

“Sure,” I said. “They’re pretty good.”

“Do humans really eat that much sugar? My teeth are still sore.”

“They do, but they shouldn’t.” I groaned, rubbing my stomach, which was embarrassingly plump at the moment.

She slouched into her seat and looked around aimlessly, looking like she had nothing to say, but she was hoping I would say something.

“So, uh, sorry about not dressing you for Beltrace,” I said. “I meant to talk to you about your strategies, but it got so busy.”

“It’s fine, Kyrie,” she smiled.

“It wasn’t a fun battle,” I said. “And I’m not sure your mech would have fit in half of those tunnels.”

“It’s really fine, Kyrie.” Then she smiled. “I’m just happy we’re winning. Just a few more wins and we’ll be home. Or, I guess I should say, I’ll be home.” She looked down at the table. “It’s weird to call it home, though. I was only three when we were forced to leave. It’s not like I remember it there.”

“Well, it will be your home for the rest of your life,” I said.

“Exactly,” she said. “And your home too, right?”

“I think I’ll stick around. I’m weighing my options.”

“It would be great if you stayed.”

“I’m just trying to figure out what I’ll do once the war is over.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, looking genuinely perplexed. “You’ll impregnate us and help us to repopulate our species.”

“That’s more of a hobby—not really a career.”

“Well, you may be expected to impregnate five or more girls a day for many years. It will be very time consuming.”

“What!? Is that what you’re all expecting of me?”

She giggled. “I’m screwing with you, Kyrie. Though maybe… I don’t know… When we get to Chorus, you and me…” She looked away from me as her face flushed.

“I can knock you up, Kuzu, if that’s what you’re asking.”

She bit her bottom lip and shrugged her shoulders. “I think our babies would be cute. Don’t you?”

“I won’t turn down the sex,” I grinned.

Now, she was looking into my eyes. She gently brushed her raven hair off of her brow. “And now,” she said. “Maybe we can do a dry run now.”

“That sounds like fun, but I don’t think I can move right now. If I bend over you, I might throw up on you, and that wouldn’t be too sexy. Maybe later though.”

And then I watched as the joy seemed to vanish from her eyes, as if I’d just smashed her heart into ten thousand little pieces. “Okay,” she said.

“What’s wrong? It’s just the cream—and all the food I just ate—and the fact that I was on fire a few hours ago.” I felt insane for turning down sex, but I was genuinely worried that I would vomit if I did too much moving. I had a good three pounds of rabbit food churning in my stomach.

“It’s nothing, Kyrie. It’s fine.”

“I want to fuck you, Kuzu. It’s just a bad time.”

“I know,” she smiled, but that smile was forlorn.

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing,” she said, turning her gaze down to her lap. She was now twiddling her fingers together on her thighs, definitely with something she wanted to say.

“Spit it out.”

“I’m feeling like… I’m feeling like a bit of a third wheel right now. Maybe even a fourth wheel.”

“Because I’m not dressing you for battle?” I asked.

“No. I mean, yes, but not just that. I know you made time for me the other day, and that was fun and great, but… I’m not trying to complain. I know that it’s not my place in the breeding circle. But I know Vega is really special to you, and you have that deep connection with Eris. And Trix—she satisfies you sexually in ways that I just can’t. I mean—I don’t think I could handle you in my bum the way she can.”

Now I felt myself turning dark red with a mix of embarrassment and defeat. “I like you a lot, Kuzu. I don’t like anyone more than anyone else.” Though I wasn’t entirely sure it was true. It was hard to balance the girls. I wasn’t used to having a harem. I really did have feelings for Vega that weren’t quite the same for the other girls. And I had kids with Eris. “And I’m not expecting you to put out the way Trix does. That’s her thing, and I guess that’s what makes her special.”

“So what makes me special?” she asked, tilting up her head to look into my eyes.

The question caught me by surprise, and I didn’t have a quick answer for her, making me feel like a sack of shit. I stuttered for a moment before saying, “You’re beautiful. You’re, uh, a lot of fun to be around. You’re a damn good fighter.”

She made a fake smile. “Thanks, Kyrie.” But it was obvious she could tell that I couldn’t actually answer her question. “I’m sorry. I’m not trying to fish for compliments, and I’m not trying to play the victim. I’m happy, Kyrie—honestly. I guess I’m just having… I don’t know—maybe it’s just hormones.”

“You’re a special girl, Kuzu. I care about you. And I’m going to dress you for the next battle. I think the next map is more open, and better for a mech.”

“Thanks, Kyrie,” she smiled. “I’m going to dart over to the library. I’ll try to come up with some ideas for you: things you can do on Lago once this war is over.” She jumped to her feet in her cute little floral dress. She came up next to me and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek. “You’re a good leader, Kyrie. I hope you don’t think I’m just some mopey complainer.”

“Not at all.”

I gave her a spank on the ass for good measure, making her yelp before giggling.

“You look kind of cute with short hair like that,” she blushed, and then she spun around, skipping away from me in a cute and childish way.

CHAPTER IX

I maybe overcompensated a little bit that night with Kuzu. I went to her room for the night for a little bit of one-on-one time. I figured we would make love for an hour or so: kiss, foreplay, fuck, and then sleep. But we got a bit carried away. The order went more like: kiss, foreplay, fuck, kiss, foreplay, fuck, foreplay, fuck, kiss—and so on.

The action started around 10:30 PM and it was around 4:00 AM when I ended up falling asleep, with Kuzu’s thigh wrapped around my head, my tongue pressed into her gaping and reddened slit. And amazingly, she must have fallen asleep at the very same moment, because when I woke up in the morning, my cock was still in her mouth. She was snoring. I’d used her thigh as a pillow, and I’d been snoring against her pussy for hours.

The room didn’t smell too great: like sex and sweat. My first cumshot was dried on her breasts, the second cumshot was dried on her back. The bedsheets were wet from her many gushing orgasms, and from our collective perspiration.

I tried to wriggle out from under her, but I ended up waking her up, and I’m not sure she even realized that she had fallen asleep to begin with. Reacting quickly, she grabbed my cock and stuffed it back into her mouth, starting to suck as if she had never stopped. I paused for a moment and thought about telling her it was the morning now, but her tongue and lips felt so good that I went along with it. I even gave her ten minutes of licking, making her gush one more time before I groaned and ejaculated into her mouth. She swallowed and wiped her lips—and then she turned to see the sun out the window and she gasped. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know. Morning time.”

“Were we asleep?” she asked.

I laughed.

She groaned as she sat up. She stretched out her arms, yawning as she tilted back her head. I looked at her beautiful breasts and noticed that one was slightly bigger than the other; I liked that. I leaned in and lifted her soft breast and sucked on her nipple. “Stop, Kyrie,” she said. “I have a lot to do today—oh…” She relaxed and let out a soft sigh. “Okay, that feels kind of nice.”

There was a knock at the door. I knew to react fast, rolling off of Kuzu and covering my erection with the bed sheets before the door opened. Lagolians didn’t have a great respect for privacy. It was apparently standard to knock once before letting yourself in. And the girls never locked the doors, and they looked at me like I was crazy whenever I flicked the lock.

Now, there were three young women standing in the doorway. I recognized one of them: Iva, the fifteen-year-old marksman who nearly died in the skirmish on Alpha Centauri. “Oh, hey Kyrie!” she said. “We were just looking for you!”

Kuzu had her blanket pulled up to cover her breasts.

“You were?”

“Eris said you were here,” she smiled. “We were, uh, wondering if you could, um…”

“Can you take us down to Earth?” her friend asked. “And buy us some clothes with your Earth money?”

They all smiled, showing their teeth, hands all clasped behind their backs.

“Please?” Iva asked, swaying gently from side to side.

I looked at Kuzu. She just laughed. “Go ahead, Kyrie. Just be back before the evening simulation.”

So I took the girls down to Earth, to the mall in my hometown.

The girls were all dolled up: makeup, skirts, heels, jewelry, and berets to hold down and obscure their long ears. They were giddy with excitement when they saw the large shopping mall, bustling with cars and shoppers. It was a Saturday: a terrible day to be at the mall when the goal is to not be seen by too many people.

And I didn’t know how to tell the girls that they were getting a bit too close to me. They were trying to blend in and act more human by clinging to me, mimicking what they were seeing from other girls. They didn’t seem to notice that the other girls were all in monogamous pairs with their boyfriends; that was a detail that was overlooked. And I didn’t really have the heart to tell the girls to stop clinging to my arms and to stop holding my hands.

I got a few looks… maybe more than a few. The Lagolian girls were cute in their short skirts and tight tops. I must have looked like some sort of alpha chad to some people, and like some sort of womanizing polygamist to others. One old woman looked at me with horror on her face, and the next guy I saw looked like he wanted to give me a high-five.

I had my credit card with me: my Earth credit card, which only had a credit limit of eight thousand dollars. The girls seemed to be intent on spending the whole amount. In the first store, they looked at me strangely when I said, “Try to keep it under a hundred and fifty bucks maybe… fifty each.”

“Per store?” Iva asked.

“Maybe for the day,” I said.

Then the girls gasped in horror, staring at me like I was some sort of monster. They didn’t understand the human money system, and I’d made the mistake of telling the girls my credit limit on the flight over.

On Lunar Alpha, they received an allowance from the queen. Clothes were generally free, with a few exceptions and a few limitations. In fact, most things on Lunar Alpha were free, and the regular allowance seemed to be only for recreational items and delicacies.

For Lagolians who didn’t need to do any business in the intergalactic marketplace, money wasn’t terribly important. It wasn’t something they thought about on a daily basis like humans. It wasn’t something most of them even thought about on a weekly basis.

So the three young women truly couldn’t understand why my stress level was so high when they came up to me with a stack of clothes that was at least a thousand dollars high. “Please, Kyrie?”

“That’s a lot of cash,” I said, feeling a whiteness entering my face.

“You’re going to make me go broke,” I said.

“What is broke?” It was a foreign concept to the girls.

I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Fine. Get the clothes.”

“Thanks, Kyrie!” They rushed the stack of clothes to the cashier, holding my credit card. I felt conflicted. I had a couple of credit cards. If I was really just going to stay on Lago once we won Chorus, then I really didn’t need that money. But if I decided to go back to Earth once this was all said and done… I didn’t want to return to Earth with twenty thousand dollars in credit card debt.

So I let them run wild in the mall, like starving lions that broke into the zoo’s zebra enclosure. They were apparently set on maxing out my credit card. “Whose money did you use to buy the clothes you’re wearing now?” I asked.

“Oh my God, it was so annoying!” the young woman told me as she lugged four bags of clothes with her down the long mall hallway. “We tried bartering with the cashier, but she kept telling us that they don’t barter. Then we tried offering trades. She didn’t want anything, not even a brand-new processing screen, which was a thousand times better than the one she was using. We must have come back down ten times, with clothes, weapons, food—but the woman stuck by her strict no bartering rule, and she even threatened to call your Earth police on us, though I’m not sure what we were doing wrong. Then Iva had the idea of asking humans to loan us the money. We found a man in the shopping complex who was happy to buy everything for us, and all he wanted in return was to take pictures of us in his home.”

“Oh God,” I said. “Please tell me that’s all you did with him.”

“Of course, Kyrie. That’s all he wanted. Why are you so shocked by his proposition?”

“There are some weird guys on Earth. You have to be careful. He took pictures of you with your clothes on, right?”

“Yes,” she said, looking at me with a curious look of confusion.

Then she spotted an expensive dress store, and she darted into it with her friends. I caught up with them a few minutes later, after swinging around the food court to grab myself an iced coffee and a slice of pizza. The girls looked at the pizza with horror. “What on Earth is that, Kyrie?” Iva asked, keeping her distance from it.

“It’s pizza. Try it.”

The girls approached slowly, looking at it as if it was a squirming, dying cockroach. Iva went in first, leaning over, wincing, opening her mouth slowly… she took a bite, and then her eyes lit up. “I want one,” she said suddenly. Then the next girl tried it, and then the next. My pizza was gone within thirty seconds, and now the girls were demanding I buy them a whole pizza to share. It wasn’t long before they caught onto the iced coffee as well.

It was an expensive day.

“Kyrie?” said a familiar voice. I turned to see Larry and Kenny coming towards me, both looking puzzled as they stared at my posse of young women.

“Oh boy…” I groaned.

“Are these your friends?” they asked, their eyes lighting up.

“Um, yeah. They’re… family friends.”

Larry and Kenny took seats between the girls, blushing all over. “I’m Kenny.”

“And I’m Larry.”

They stuck out their hands, but the Lagolians weren’t familiar with handshakes. They just stared at those extended hands. Iva assumed Larry was asking for a slice of pizza, so she placed one into his hand. “Kyrie bought this for us, so you will have to pay him back. He’s very serious about his money,” she said softly.

Larry looked utterly confused, now staring at the slice of pizza. He ate it anyway.

“Are you all from Denmark?” Kenny asked, noticing Iva’s accent.

“Yeah,” I said, before the girls could vocalize the confusion that was currently on their faces. “They’re from Denmark. They’re here on the same exchange program as Vanessa.”

“So getting locked up,” Kenny grinned. “Is that the trick to scoring with chicks, Kyrie? Be honest with me: did you come across some sort of manual for seducing women or something?” His friend chuckled next to him.

“They’re just friends,” I said.

“Be honest with me, Kyrie. You’re a handsome, young man. These are beautiful, young women—and ladies, you truly are beautiful—y’all are more than just friends.” He was grinning ear-to-ear.

Iva was quick to shake her head. “I tried to breed with Kyrie but he rejected me because of my age,” she said.

And now I was turning beet-red all over. “Iva…” I said.

“Oh, jailbait,” said Kenny, inching back. Now, both men were staring into my eyes.

“What?” I said. “I told you, they’re just friends… Friends, uh, of Vanessa. They wanted me to take them to the mall.”

“Kyrie is buying us clothes,” said the little blonde with an innocent, cute smile. Then the men noticed the mountain of shopping bags.

There was a long silence before Kenny said, “You didn’t actually rob that bank, did you, Kyrie?”

“No,” I laughed. “I just, uh, got a bonus at work.”

“Work?”

“You know… teaching English in, uh, Denmark.” I probably should have thought up a better excuse before coming down to Earth. Or maybe I should have just avoided my hometown. I suppose we could have landed that ship anywhere: Paris, Berlin, Tokyo… Or maybe it would have been good to actually visit Denmark, so I could actually know what I was lying about when I lied my ass off.

“Alright, Kyr, we’ll leave you and your, uh, ladies alone.” They backed away from the table slowly, looking at the young women as they feasted on pizza. With their ears hidden away, they looked strikingly human—but they weren’t acting at all human. I’d gotten used to the Lagolians over the past couple of months and now I was realizing that there were small—and not so small—details that I’d overlooked. Their mannerisms were different. They ate differently, taking small fast bites of their food. They walked differently: more elegant and soft-footed. They spoke with a sort of Russian bluntness that easily offended people who didn’t understand their culture.

“We should get back to Lunar Alpha,” I said.

“Just a few more stores!” the girls begged. So I let them spend more of my money. Iva had the idea of buying lingerie for what she called my ‘concubines’. I squirmed in discomfort at the thought of taking three underage girls into a lingerie store, but I did like the idea of dressing Vega, Eris, Kuzu, and Trix up in some new outfits for bedtime, so I allowed the young girls to pick some things out.

But things got extremely uncomfortable when the little blonde came out in a strappy piece of lingerie that hardly covered her pussy or nipples. “You can’t try this stuff on!” I gasped.

“Why not? Does that sign not read ‘changing room’?” she asked, turning around to show me her backside. Her tail was now exposed, making my heart skip a beat. We were getting looks from the other shoppers: the men shopping for their wives and girlfriends in particular.

I rushed her back into the changing room. “Don’t you like the outfit?” she asked. “I’m roughly the same build as Vega. Look at me and imagine her in it.” She spun around again, clasping at her breasts and giving them a light lift.

“No,” I said. “I mean—it’s a nice outfit. We’ll buy it. But you shouldn’t be wearing it. You’re too young! You’re going to get me arrested all over again.”

“Arrested? Why? Is it illegal for a man to be out with young women?”

“No,” I said. “I mean, I don’t know. I guess it depends. This probably doesn’t look good.” At least the girls looked more-or-less eighteen thanks to that quick Lagolian development.

“Kyrie, is that you?” a voice behind me asked. I spun quickly to see Ria standing with a look of amazement on her face. She giggled, trying not to look at the scantily clad blonde next to me. “Wait—this isn’t the girl you brought to prom.”

“Um,” I said, now wishing I would have turned the girls down when they asked me to take them to Earth. “She’s one of Vanessa’s friends. It’s a long story. She’s just a friend. And her friends—they’re friends too. We’re all just friends. I guess this looks pretty bad, huh?”

It didn’t help that Iva slipped up and took my hand. “Hello,” she said to Ria, leaning against me. “Are you one of Kyrie’s friends? Nice to meet you? I’m Iva.” She smiled, and it took me a moment to notice that she was dressed in a sheer nightie, with nothing on underneath.

“Iva!” I snapped. “You can’t put the lingerie on in the store. You have to get dressed.”

“I don’t understand. We’re buying it, so what does it matter?”

“I never knew that the Danish were so… different from us,” Ria giggled.

“Very different,” I blushed. “Very, very different. There’s a big cultural adjustment when they come here—and, uh, as you can imagine, when you go there. Anyway, how have you been? How was the rest of prom? I’ve been meaning to track you down. Oh! I got everything cleared up with the cops. I’m innocent, so don’t worry about any of that.” I laughed awkwardly. Iva and the blonde were still standing next to me, in their lingerie. “Girls, go change now. Please.”

“Prom was fun,” said Ria. “A bunch of us went to Steve Bukowski’s house after the dance. His parents let us have some booze. We danced, played cards. It was a pretty chill night. It was too bad you couldn’t be there.”

“If I’d had my way, I would have been there.”

“There’s always the ten-year reunion,” she smiled.

“I won’t miss that one,” I said.

“Everyone thinks you’re some high-profile drug dealer or something.” Then she eyed my Lagolian girls and the pile of shopping bags that was now at my feet. “You’re not, right?”

“Don’t be crazy,” I said. “I’m just a guy… just a regular guy.”

“I like your new haircut,” she said, eyeing my buzzcut: the hair that had grown back following the fiery explosion.

“Thanks,” I said.

Then she looked down at my arms. “I know this is a personal question, but I have to ask… Have you been taking steroids?”

“What? No. Why?”

“I swear you’re a size bigger than when I saw you last.” She reached out and put her hand on my chest, which was hard. I think the speed upgrade had made all of my muscles tighter and firmer. The endless skirmishing and training sessions were taking its toll on my body as well.

“I’ve just been working out,” I smiled.

“If you say so.” Now she was feeling my arm, shaking her head with narrowed eyes. “So tell me honestly. How many girls do you have on the go right now?”

“Girls?” I said. I laughed and bit down on my lip. “I told you, these girls are just friends.”

“Okay, but you made that weird comment the other night when you climbed through my window—something about your Danish side-chick being okay with you seeing other girls. You made it sounds like—oh, I don’t know—like you have some whole harem or something.”

Then she laughed for a moment before looking into my eyes and pausing. “Wait,” she said. “You don’t have a… harem… do you?”

“What?” I said. “I mean…” I cleared my throat. “Like I said. Uh… It’s not like I’m some sort of polygamist. It’s not like I have sister wives, or whatever. They just… they do things differently over there.”

“In Denmark…” she said.

“Exactly,” I said. I was starting to think that I should have picked a more obscure country as the foundation of my lie.

“So you do have multiple girlfriends then,” she said, staring into my eyes.

“They aren’t like girlfriends.”

“Booty calls?” she said.

“They’re more important than that.”

“I don’t think I’m following,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s more than sex and less than dating?”

“That about sums it up,” I said. “You think I’m a creep, don’t you?”

“I do,” she said. “But I’m morbidly intrigued at the same time. I knew that was a thing in the Middle East and in some parts of Africa, but I had no idea it was happening in Denmark.”

“It’s not like everyone does it,” I said. I knew I was giving her too much information. I knew that I was blowing all of my chances with her. Maybe this was the final nail in the Earth coffin for me. Maybe this was the final sign that I needed to set my sights on staying with the Lagolians on Lago. I could visit Earth once every couple of months—until the credit card companies came looking for me.

“Weird,” Ria said shaking her head. Then she turned to a rack of satin nighties and began thumbing through the options. “But, uh, it’s always something that I’ve been curious about.” She said it quietly, and casually, not looking into my eyes. And was she suggesting what I thought she was suggesting? Did she want me to include her into my bunny girl harem? Would the other girls accept her? Was I allowed to bring a human into the mix?

“Wait. Really?” I said.

“I know you think I’m some sort of prude, Kyrie, but I can be pretty open-minded.”

“I didn’t ever think that you were a prude.”

“I’m not saying I would stick around. I’m not even saying I’ll like it. I’m just saying that I’m intrigued and willing to experiment. I definitely don’t think we have everything figured out over here.”

“Of course,” I said, brightening up.

Now, the young Lagolians were rushing up to my side, with piles of lingerie in their arms. “The girls will love these outfits, Kyrie,” said Iva, holding up one particularly slutty dress from the back of the store where they sold costume lingerie. The dress in question was in the style of ‘Japanese schoolgirl’, cut extra short in the skirt.

“Alright, Kyrie, I’ll let you get back to… whatever you’re doing,” Ria said. “And, uh, give me a call if you ever want to hang out.”

I watched her as she sauntered away, eyeing the odd sexy outfit before making her way out of the store.

CHAPTER X

We only caught the end of the ceremony as we returned to Lunar Alpha. The queen was on the stage with Eris. In the queen’s hand was a long sword, which didn’t look terribly different from Vega’s new blade. She was gently pressing the flat part of the blade against Eris’s forehead. Both women closed their eyes.

I moved up next to Vega, who was watching with a large crowd of silent Lagolians. “What’s going on now?” I asked.

“Eris is being promoted,” Vega whispered.

“Promoted?”

“Promoted to general. She’s replacing General Dryas.”

“Seriously?” I said, looking up at Eris, stunned that she was going to be the ship’s new general. She had big shoes to fill. General Dryas was a beloved woman—and a busy one. As general, most of the military decisions would fall onto her shoulders. Since General Dryas had been killed, the girls had left all of the decision making up to me—and at times it was a lot to handle. Eris had been going off with the queen before and after each skirmish to discuss stats and battle plans, but when it came to deciding who to dress for battle, and battle tactics, the girls had been looking to me.

“She’s walking under a big shadow,” Kuzu said. “I think she’ll do fine, but there’s going to be some adjusting.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t promote Vega,” whispered a nearby Lagolian girl, whose name I didn’t know.

“They would have if they didn’t need Vega on the battlefield,” replied Kuzu. Now, Eris and the queen were walking off of the stage. The ceremony was over.

“So what,” I said. “Does this mean Eris won’t be fighting in skirmishes?”

“She can’t,” said Vega.

“Why not?” I asked.

And now all the girls were staring at me. “Oh,” Vega said softly. “Um, maybe that’s something to talk about with her.”

My heart fluttered down into the pit of my stomach. I didn’t want to think that it was possible, but there was a swelling dread burning inside of me that said that it was true.

“I’m pregnant!” Eris said, throwing herself at me and wrapping her arms around me. She giggled before giving me a big kiss on the lips. “I just found out this morning.”

“Is that even possible!?” I asked. “You just gave birth a week ago!”

“You look surprised, Kyrie.”

“No shit! You can’t get pregnant a week after having a baby… having nine babies! Whatever happened to nine months in, nine months out? You just… can’t do it!”

“Of course you can,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “Humans can’t? My God, how did humans manage to populate the Earth!? It must have taken tens of thousands of years!”

“Yeah, it did!” I said. And then I started stuttering. I had no idea what to say. I wasn’t ready to live through another month-long pregnancy cycle. I wasn’t ready to endure her wild emotions. And now she was going to be in charge of an army with those impulsive feelings!?

“I’ve been talking to the queen about this for the past week,” Eris said. “We weren’t going to go ahead with the promotion until after we reached Chorus, but then I found out about the pregnancy, and Queen Syabus decided that I may as well act as general now since I can’t fight in battle.” She shrugged her shoulders as if it wasn’t a big deal. “What’s wrong, Kyrie? You like our nine kids now, don’t you? Just imagine how happy you’ll be with more.”

I had to keep reminding myself that having babies wasn’t that big of a deal for the Lagolians—not nearly as much as it was for humans. “So who are we going to dress for battle then?” I asked, trying to change the subject so I wouldn’t have to think about the next few weeks.

“Tomorrow? I have to think about it,” Eris said with a surprisingly commanding tone. Picking the team for the battle on Jestar would be her first official duty as general.

General Eris… it didn’t sound right in my head. It didn’t sound right in my ears, either. “General Eris,” said a middle-aged Lagolian woman with long black hair. She stood tall, at attention. “You’re required down on the Alpha Centauri training field.”

Eris perked up with a smile. “I’ll be right down.”

Then she gave me another hug. “We’ll talk more later, Kyrie. Bye, girls!”

“Bye, Eris—I mean, General Eris,” said Vega. And even she was left moving her tongue around in her mouth, trying to get a taste for the new title. Then Vega turned to me. She smiled for a moment before letting a small laugh slip. “Congratulations, Kyrie.”

“Thanks,” I said softly, still wrapping my head around what had just happened.

CHAPTER XI

I was happy to have the Joblex sniper rifle back in my hands. The stress of playing infantry was a bit too much to handle, though I was sure it was something I would get more acquainted to. I just knew that I could snipe. I knew that I could take out targets at two, three, four-hundred yards. With that infantry rifle, I was lucky to land hits at fifty yards, and I really didn’t want to get that close to those Nekrol robots.

I peered through the portal door window and saw that it was dark out. I wasn’t surprised. That moon supposedly only got three hours of sun each day, and thirty-three hours of darkness. Now, there was a blueish glow from the planet around which that moon orbited.

My heart fluttered when Britzi and Trix both stepped into the black stone portal room. Andrei had already been there when I arrived, and I knew that Vega would be filling the fifth role.

I’d told Kuzu that she would be playing the next battle. After Eris was given the promotion to general, I’d just assumed she would be dressing Kuzu. “This isn’t the squad we ran the simulation with,” I said, trying to be polite in front of Britzi, who hadn’t practiced with us.

“Last minute adjustment, orders from General Eris,” said Vega as she stepped into that portal with her shiny sword in her hand.

“I really think we should go in with a tank,” I said.

“Team comp came from the general, Kyrie. She discussed it with the queen. We’ll be fine with Britzi.”

“No infantry, no tank,” I said. “I mean—I like Britzi. And by the way, hi Britzi. Long time no see… But we have no one to absorb damage, and no one for mid-ranged battle.”

“Hey!” Trix said. “I like to consider myself very versatile.”

I bit down on my tongue to stop myself from telling them that I’d promised Kuzu a spot. But now it wasn’t up to me. I was in charge of leading the squad, not picking the squad. “Hey, Eris. I know you’re listening up in the war room. Don’t you think we should have a tank?”

But I knew she had no way of replying to me. I still didn’t quite understand it, but the Ancient Builder Race had constructed that portal system in a way that disabled inbound communications and signals. We could send signals out, but Lunar Alpha couldn’t send signals in. I’m sure it had something to do with keeping the battles fair—but it made things a wee bit inconvenient at times, and now was one of those times.

“No time to shuffle things around, Kyrie. Let’s focus. Jestar is a tricky map and we need to be sharp,” said Vega.

“Okay,” I said, still feeling that trembling guilt in my stomach. I knew it was going to be an awkward conversation with Kuzu once the match was over. I was sure she would understand that it wasn’t my call. Maybe she was even in the control room, hearing me go to bat for her. “Uh, so without a tank, we can’t really forge ahead with our original rush plan. We need to think of something different.”

“Want me planting mines?” Trix asked, already thumbing the mines around her waistbelt.

“No, no,” I said. “The map is too open for that.” I thought for a moment as the minutes counted down until the doors opened. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do: Britzi captures Beacon Alpha while Andrei plants all three of his turrets around it—two facing the beacon, one facing the right flank… What’s it called again?”

“Side Trail,” Vega said.

“Right, Side Trail. Then, with turrets down, Andrei can watch the left flank with his shotgun—what’s the left flank called again?”

“Are you talking about Warehouse?”

“Right, yeah. I think Andrei can cover that whole side with his shotgun. Once Alpha is captured, Britzi can come up to us, up mid. We’ll wait for her there and then we’ll make a push for a Bravo capture. Trix, just shoot everything you’ve got down mid. Don’t stop pounding them until we have the beacon. Once we capture, we can spread out a bit and play a solid defensive game.”

“Okay, Kyrie,” smiled Britzi. She just seemed so out of place with her soft smile and her long angelic blonde hair. She didn’t look at all nervous. Even Trix, with all of her excitement, looked a bit on edge: tense in the shoulders and unable to stand still.

I eyed Britzi’s belt, noticing a sidearm and a whole bunch of tubes, which I think were various syringes. I still had no idea how she healed the wound I suffered to my stomach. I couldn’t see any medical devices on her, and I was too embarrassed to ask how she did what she did. Like every question I asked the Lagolians, I’m sure I would have been met with unimpressed glares and, ‘We don’t have time to explain that kid stuff to you, Kyrie,’ or, ‘Didn’t you read the manual we brought to your room?’

I couldn’t stop thinking about Kuzu, sitting there with a bored look on her face, once again with that idea in her head that she was nothing more than a third wheel: an occasionally convenient pawn and nothing else.

But she was special. She was important. She never got many kills in battle, but that wasn’t her job. She could absorb so much damage, and she was perfect for keeping the Nekrol distracted while Vega and I took out stragglers.

Though it really did seem like we were working just fine without her. I really was starting to think that we didn’t need a mech on our crew. It was a lot easier to play stealthy games without her. And we didn’t need to be constantly worried about her shields, and her mech wasn’t constantly being dragged into the mechanics bay so girls could spend days sweating over fixing it.

The mere thought of her being somewhat of a detriment made my heart swell with guilt. The fact that Eris decided to swap her out at the last minute made me think that I wasn’t alone with my thoughts.

“Two minutes,” said Vega. “You sure you don’t want me going deep, Kyrie?”

“The map is just too open. I think we need to stick together until we have a handle on things—and until we know their composition. I’m expecting snipers, and their snipers are usually pretty sharp. I wouldn’t want you getting caught out of position.”

“Roger that,” Vega said, nodding her head.

And now I was trying to figure out how we were going to get Vega into the battle on that relatively open map. The map was laid out like a big banana, with Beacon Alpha at our end, Beacon Charlie at the Nekrol’s end, and Beacon Bravo right in the middle of the long bend.

It was an open bend. Sunken deep in a mountainous valley. Side Trail was on the inside of the banana: a long series of tunnels in the rock that were large enough to fit massive construction vehicles—too wide for a swordswoman to sneak down. Warehouse was a literal warehouse, to the left of Beacon Alpha. It was a massive structure, filled with piles of gravel, with windy mountain roads on the other side of it, which zigzagged up and around the banana bend, all the way up to Beacon Charlie. Those roads were too open for a swordswoman—even if she managed to hide in the trees, which looked like extra-large pine trees.

Mid, Warehouse, and Side Trail were the only routes up the map. In every simulation we ran, all the action always happened on mid, but that didn’t mean I was willing to let my guard down. But even mid wasn’t safe for a close combat unit like Vega. It was wide and relatively flat, with a large five-story rig next to Beacon Bravo. Cover existed only in the form of old, abandoned crates, barrels, and rusted vehicles around that rig. Otherwise, the map was about as open as the battlefield on Sol’s moon.

“Here we go,” said Vega, and then the doors were open. It was time to run. Luckily for Andrei, Beacon Alpha was only about sixty yards away from our portal, so he got right to setting up his heavy turrets, saving him the hassle of lugging them halfway across the entire map. Britzi floated right into the beacon tower and commenced the takeover.

Now, the three of us were on our way up mid to Beacon Bravo. Trix was bouncing in the lead and Vega was running, sword drawn, right behind her. And it wasn’t until that moment that I realized how vulnerable we were. With Vega holding back and waiting for an opportunity that might never exist, it would just be Trix and me against the whole Nekrol squadron. We weren’t equipped to take on five units—not without some support. Maybe my plan was crap. Maybe Eris doomed us by scratching Kuzu at the last minute.

It was only three minutes of running before that large rig became visible around the bend. The portal next to it was hard to make out in the darkness. We ran a little bit further before settling into cover. I switched my scope to night vision mode and watched the bend. Trix got into a nice center position and alternated her view between the Warehouse flank and the Side Trail flank. Both were just small passageways in the rock: deathtraps for anyone who wanted to try using them—but they were deathtraps for us if we neglected to watch them.

“See anything, Kyr?” Trix asked.

“Negative,” I said.

“Second turret’s up,” Andrei confirmed in our ears. “Third’s going up in two seconds.”

I could see Vega from my position, up ahead and in cover behind a stack of oil drums. She was lost in shadow, but I could just make out a slight glow around her blonde hair. “Comfy, Vega?” I asked.

“Just waiting for your command,” she said.

“Move up,” I said. “Coast is clear. We can get you closer to that beacon. Maybe we can even sneak you inside.”

I watched her silhouetted body rise up and then bound gracefully over that stack of drums. Then I lost sight of her until I caught a quick glimpse of her ducking down behind a rusted pickup-looking-truck, about fifty yards ahead. “Tell me if you want me closer,” she whispered.

“That’s close enough for now,” I said.

“Alpha is at fifty percent,” said Britzi with her innocent smile permeating her voice.

“We’re in a good position,” I said. “Trix, just keep watching those flanks.”

The map turned silent. I always hated that silence. It was worse than any firefight. I preferred having my eardrums pounded and permanently damaged to that horrid silence.

Then I caught some movement in my scope as I scanned mid. A troop took cover behind a long container. “We’ve got movement,” I whispered. “Long mid, four hundred yards.”

I saw a second troop sneaking up and taking cover. “Two guys,” I whispered.

“Should I start shooting?” Trix asked.

“No. Hold on.”

I watched them approaching—now three units—moving up one at a time, taking cover and taking turns. Now they were about three hundred yards up, and about two hundred yards from the tower.

The bell tolled first for the Nekrol, droning dreadfully in that dark, calm air. “They have Charlie,” Vega confirmed.

Then our bell tolled. “We have Alpha,” Britzi said. “Moving up to Bravo now. See you all in a couple of minutes.”

“Can I shoot, shooter?” asked Trix, sounding more eager than I was used to—even from her.

“Wait,” I said. And maybe I should have let her shoot. Maybe stopping their push would have been smart. Now, they were springing into action. A roaring mech ripped around the bend and fluttered through the sky towards Bravo. “Mech’s coming fast,” Trix said.

“I see that,” I said.

I tried to line it up in my scope, but it was turning slightly at an awkward angle, moving behind that large rig and obscuring my shot. And during my hesitation, the Nekrol troops continued their advance. “Damnit,” I said, trying to line one unit up in my scope. “Okay, okay—open fire,” I said.

Trix, mostly blind, launched a rocket towards the enemy. Two seconds later it boomed and provided a full second of orange glow on that dark map. She hit nothing, but the Nekrol push came to a pause. I finally got the mech in my sights. I took a shot, making its shield glow and flicker. It turned to me suddenly and started firing—too far to be accurate, but the bullets pinging around me were enough to make me duck down with a defeated feeling swirling in my gut.

“Want me to move up?” asked Vega.

It seemed like a dangerous move, but it didn’t seem like we had a ton of options. “Alright,” I said. “Just be careful.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she said calmy, bouncing over her cover and darting towards the tower. The Nekrol spotted her and fired, but she was fast and she kept her direction erratic enough that she couldn’t be pinned down. After ten seconds, she was gone; I didn’t know where and the Nekrol didn’t know either, so the map became silent again…

Until Trix lobbed another bomb, this time trying to hit the mech that was making a slow approach on the beacon. A loud pop rang through the air, and then Trix screamed.

“Trix!” I gasped. “Are you okay?”

“It was a close one!” she said. “They’ve got a sniper. No clue where.”

“Stay down. Lob shots from behind cover,” I commanded.

“I know you’re all busy, but I’m just letting you know that I’m in position at Alpha,” said Andrei.

I came up and tried to scan for an enemy sniper. Trix was useless until we could take him out. But I couldn’t see anything but that mech, and I knew shooting at the mech meant giving my position away to the sniper, even with that Joblex Quiet Marksman S-2.

Trix lobbed a blast over. It landed surprisingly close to their mech, making his shield glow for a moment as dust and debris rained down on him. “Nice shot, Trix,” I whispered. “About three feet to the right and you had him.”

“I’ll keep trying,” she said.

And then I saw the quick pop of light as another loud snap filled the air. Their sniper was far away, shooting from beyond three hundred yards. His silhouette blended in with his cover, even when I flicked on night vision, so I tried switching to thermal. With thermal on, I could see the faintest orange glow—just enough to know that it wasn’t just another oil drum in my sights.

I tilted up two full notches. There was no wind so I didn’t have to adjust for windage. I drew a deep breath of air into my lungs, paused, and then I squeezed the trigger.

The sniper dropped and a grin crossed my face. It was nice to be back into my comfort zone, with a sniper rifle in my hands. “Sniper’s done,” I whispered.

And Trix stood up on cue, turning to the mech and lobbing a hefty rocket right at the side of the machine. The blast was enough to disable the shield, giving me the opportunity to put a violent blast through its hull, making it spark and stumble.

I would have finished the job, but now they were shooting at me: a pair of Nekrol troops, about two hundred yards away. Bullets ripped through my wooden cover. Dust shot up around me and splinters of oak casket peppered my face, making me wince away. One of the troops launched an explosive round from his secondary barrel. The explosion enveloped me, but it didn’t touch me thanks to Britzi, who was now next to me, holding her hands out to create a glowing white bubble around us. She smiled at me. “Got you, Kyrie,” she said. Bullets pinged off of that temporary shield. My heart skipped a quick beat, knowing that I was living on borrowed time yet again.

I sunk down and waited for Trix to make the next move.

But it wasn’t Trix who struck next—it was Vega. As I stood up to place one of the troops in my crosshairs, I saw her silhouette rise up. I saw her swipe with conviction, and then I saw that robotic body slump to the floor.

Next, I heard the roar of Andrei’s turrets and the deep boom of his shotgun.

And finally, I saw the bright orange explosion as Trix landed one of her RPGs right on that final Nekrol infantry.

We still had fifteen minutes to spare. It was probably the most dominant victory I’d ever been a part of. We worked well as a team…

Without Kuzu, once again.

I made a point of tracking her down after the match. I found her in the empty meeting room where we had our quick romp just a few days before. Now, the tone in that room was much different. She sat and stared out the window, not even turning to me when I said, “Did you get a chance to see the skirmish?”

“I did, Kyrie. Great work out there. Another flawless victory.” I didn’t detect sarcasm in her voice, but the enthusiasm didn’t seem genuine.

“Just a couple of wins and we’ll be on Chorus.”

“I know. Crazy, right?” She still wouldn’t look at me.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, even though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

“Nothing, Kyrie.”

“Look at me,” I said. She was reluctant to turn her head to me, but she did it while wiping under her eye with the sleeve of her shirt. “You’re crying,” I said.

“I’m fine.” She forced a smile. “I’m actually happy, just feeling a bit emotional about it all—that’s all.”

“If it had been up to me, you would have been there on Jestar this afternoon.”

“Well I guess it’s a good thing that it wasn’t up to you, because Britzi saved your life and you guys won in something like twenty minutes without taking a single casualty. That’s impressive.” She wiped her eye again.

“We would have won just as easily with you,” I said. “Eris made the call, Kuzu. And apparently she had orders from Queen Syabus.”

Kuzu let out a small laugh before looking back out the window. “Well if Queen Syabus wanted me out, then it was probably for the best.”

I put my hands on her shoulders and started to rub. I didn’t get much of a response out of her. I tried to think of something to say: anything that might help her out from her funk, but I couldn’t think of anything. I cleared my throat and rubbed harder. “The queen is probably just saving you for the important battles.” As I said it aloud, I realized it didn’t sound too probable. No battle was more important than any other battle

“Maybe that’s it,” Kuzu said.

“Want a taste of that speed upgrade again?” I whispered into her ear, hoping to cheer her up.

She was unusually quiet.

“C’mon, Kuzu. Let me help you relax,” I said, turning her to face me, but she wasn’t able to look into my eyes.

“Are you hoping to breed with me tonight, Kyrie?” she asked. “If so, it would probably be more comfortable in the bedroom.”

“Maybe we can go to your room. We can go at it like the other night,” I said.

“Whatever you’d like, Kyrie.” She tilted her chin up high. “Though if you’re thinking of breeding with me out of pity, I will probably pass. Unless, of course, it’s an order.”

“What?” I said, feeling suddenly awkward and uncomfortable. “No, it’s not out of pity. I just—I thought it would be fun. I want you to relax.”

“Okay, Kyrie. Sure.” She forced a smile. “Though perhaps it can wait until later. I think I’d like to be alone right now to think, if that’s okay.”

“O—Okay,” I said. I watched her for a moment. She still wouldn’t look into my eyes. I didn’t want to push her. I knew that it was sensitive. I wanted to tell her that there was more to life than just fighting in battles, but I felt like I was facing a similar conundrum. We had one more star system to conquer before Chorus. Nobody knew how many star systems we had to go through to push the Nekrol away for good, but now that was seeming like an inevitable reality. And what would I do then?  When the war ended, would I just float around, knocking up girls and living like some sort of sultan with my harem of women. At least sultans had kingdoms to rule.

I would just be… there, unemployed, going from bed to bed like some sort of Charles Bukowski character, trying to find meaning in an endless cycle of procreation. Back on Holodnor, I heard that alien mention something about hiring mercenaries. Maybe I could sign up for that: fighting for pay on strange planets… It was an idea, at least.

I left Kuzu and went to find Eris. She was up in the war room, going over stats. She turned to me with a smile and said, “Congratulations, Kyrie! You leveled up today!” She swiped her hand and pulled up my screen. Sure enough, I was showing as a level seven. “Wow,” I said. “I’ll be a level sixty in no time.”

“You’re this powerful as a level seven; I can’t even imagine you as a level sixty, beefed up with upgrades.” She giggled. “Maybe you’d be our next king. King Kyrie.” She giggled again.

“Is that a requirement for ruling? Being a level sixty?”

“There are other requirements, but being a high level helps.”

“So who becomes queen if Syabus croaks?” I asked.

Then Eris’s face turned suddenly white. She looked around quickly.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’re not allowed saying stuff like that,” she whispered. “It’s against the law.”

“Talking about the queen dying?”

“Yes!” she hushed, looking around again. “It’s not funny, Kyrie. Don’t get us in trouble.”

“I was just asking a question,” I said. “Jeez. Relax.”

“If something terrible were to happen, the more likely replacement is Bridge Commander Pru. He’s a demolitionist like Trix. He retired about twenty years ago at level fifty-two, with—let me think… Seven hundred and forty wins and eleven or twelve losses.”

“Wait,” I said suddenly. I shook my head. “Twenty years ago? Who were you fighting twenty years ago?”

“There was the Ekturian War, which lasted eighteen years. Before that was the Arcturus War, which lasted ten years. The Hundred Years war was before that, also with the Ekturians, but also with the Garangians getting involved, and the Bierthics. Then we had our Second Civil War on Lago—that was the one where we overthrew Queen Lyaya. The First Civil War was more complicated and fought between a number of factions.”

“So what you’re saying is that Lagolians fight a lot,” I said.

“I guess we know war better than most races,” she said.

“And Queen Syabus fought in which war again? The one with the lizard people?”

“You know the Ekturians?”

“I saw some on Holodnor,” I said, “when I was with Vega.”

“Oh! There you go! Yes, we killed about twelve thousand Ekturian skirmishers during that war.” She said it with a frightening casualness. “Queen Syabus was younger than me back then too, which makes her stats even more impressive. She was only twenty when she reached level fifty.”

“That woman scares me,” I said.

“So did you come to pick me up for dinner?” she asked, perking up.

“Sure, if you want to grab dinner. But, uh, I actually wanted to ask a favor.”

“What is it, shooter?”

“For Tuesday’s battle, I was wondering if you would consider dressing Kuzu.”

“Kuzu? For Garangee?”

I nodded my head.

“No, I don’t think that would make a ton of sense,” she said. “Besides, you played so well with Britzi today. Let’s not fix what isn’t broken.”

“I think we would do even better with Kuzu—no offense to Britzi or anything. She’s a great girl. She’s good at doing the whole support thing, and she’s super hot… but I just think Kuzu would be a good fit.”

Eris was silent for a moment as she gazed into my eyes. Then she turned to her set of screens. She waved her hands right, then left, moving windows. A big swipe up pulled up a set of maps, then a few more swipes made Garangee fill our screen. We were looking at an overhead view.

“This is Garangee,” she said. “On the right is our portal—the portal to Jestar—and on the left is the portal to Chorus. See all of this green between the two portals?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“It’s a jungle: thick, humid, overgrown…” Eris used both of her hands to zoom in on the map, and suddenly, we were looking down a jungle trail. “Here’s the trail system,” she continued. “Low hanging trees, tons of ditches and foxholes.” Then she swiped down again, showing an underground tunnel. “There’s a whole system of tunnels down here too that the Nekrol can use to get to any beacon.”

“Don’t show my dad or he might get some Nam PTSD.”

Eris stared at me strangely. “What is Nam PTSD? Is it a type of food?”

“No, it’s… never mind. It was bad joke. Go on.”

“We’re expecting the Nekrol to dress scouts and infantry. It’s going to be deadly close-quarters combat, Kyrie. We’re going to need Trix’s mines, Andrei’s turrets, Vega’s close combat expertise, and then infantry support to take the beacons. Right now, I’m thinking of dressing you with one of the rookie girls.”

“You’re going to send a rookie instead of Kuzu?” I said, already knowing that Kuzu’s heart was going to shatter.

“It’s not a matter of experience, Kyrie. It’s the simple fact that a big mech wouldn’t give us any advantage on a map like Garangee. Sorry, Kyrie. It’s just not sensible.” Then she grabbed both of my hands. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll pick the right team composition and we’ll win. That’s all that matters. Now let’s go get some dinner. I actually have a few hours before my next meeting; I was thinking we could go down to Earth and maybe try some Earth food.” She beamed with a nervous smile. “One of the girls told me it can be really good but it can also be really disgusting.”

“That about sums it up,” I said.

“Just give me ten minutes to change into something cuter. And I don’t want to hear any battle talk down there! General’s orders!” She giggled.

CHAPTER XII

If I was going to stand a chance on the Vietnam-style jungle map of Garangee, I was going to need some sort of edge. I’d been having awful nightmares about Nekrol scouts, jumping out at me like lions hiding in tall grass. Those blade arms made my skin shiver cold. And my low-level infantry bullets just pinged off of their thick beetle-like carapaces. I didn’t mind the idea of dying from a bullet to the head, but being shredded to pieces by a blade-wielding robot dog… that was less enticing.

The next morning, I slipped out of bed early. I tried not to make any noise, so I wouldn’t wake up Eris or Vega or Trix or Kuzu. I didn’t want them coming with me. I didn’t need Vega telling me why my plan wasn’t the best idea; I didn’t want Trix convincing me to buy from some shady back-alley vendor… This was something I wanted to do on my own.

I grabbed a white robe from the closet and slipped it onto my body. I carefully grabbed my Tribute Card from my nightstand. It took me a full minute to open and close my door, creeping out slowly, not making a single sound. I was getting flashbacks to Fight Night, trying to get down to that basement simulator room without waking up my girls.

But now, I wasn’t doing anything illegal. Now, I was off to improve myself.

I really wasn’t sure why I wanted to go alone so badly. It probably wasn’t the wisest idea, seeing as I’d gotten myself in so much trouble the last time that I was alone on Holodnor—and I’d only been left alone for fifteen minutes. I could have probably benefited from Vega’s help, and Eris’s infantry expertise could have probably come in handy. Maybe Trix’s connections would have been useful.

I made my way through Lunar Alpha. It was a quiet morning. Very few Lagolians were up and about. I went by a large, open room where they were working on creating decorations for the Return-To-Chorus Parade. With our steamrolling momentum, every Lagolian was positive that they were going to be back on Lago before the end of the week. It seemed like a bit of a premature celebration to me, celebrating the end of the war before the final few battles had even taken place, but I suppose I couldn’t blame them. We’d won many games in a row now without suffering a single casualty. Two out of three of the hardest maps were behind us: Cygnus and Beltrace. Garangee was going to be a challenge, but the girls were confident in their ability to take back Chorus.

That premature celebration was putting pressure on my shoulders as the squadron leader. I didn’t want to let anyone down, and I felt like I was already letting them all down, going into each fight without even knowing the map callouts. I felt like we were getting by on sheer luck, and that luck was due to run out eventually. I had a terrible feeling it was going to run out at the worst possible time.

Right now, while Lagolians prepared banners and streamers and music and parties—this seemed like the worst possible time.

I had to do everything in my power to ensure our last few matches ended as victories for the Lagolians.

I made my way down the tunnel to the portal. The girl by the door was asleep. I had to tap on her shoulder, making her gasp. “Sorry, but I need to get to Holodnor,” I said.

“Oh,” she said, rubbing her eyes and blinking a few times. “You have permission from General D—I mean, General Eris, right?”

“Correct,” I said.

And she probably would have looked into it had it not been well-known on the ship that I was regularly fucking Eris and sharing a bed with her. The portal guard didn’t hesitate before tapping a few buttons and changing the portal to Holodnor. “You’re going in alone?” she asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Oh,” she said. “People don’t generally go to Holodnor alone. But that seems to be popular today, and you said you have permission, so go ahead.”

My gut groaned softly, as if it was trying to tell me to go back. And what did she mean when she said that going in alone seemed to be popular today? I didn’t think too much into it as I stepped through the portal into the bitter cold of Holodnor.

It was a windy day on that neutral icy moon. The platform was bustling with aliens, some familiar varieties, some completely new to me. The most remarkable type that I could see from my area on the platform was a tall black figure: so black that its body seemed to be absorbing light like a black hole, and all around his body was a sort of radiation, like the visual refraction on a hot desert horizon.

The creature turned to look at me, possibly sensing that I was looking at him. I looked away swiftly, remembering Vega’s advice—or maybe it wasn’t advice so much as a strict rule to follow around unknown aliens.

I boarded the train minutes later, walking into the door after four short rat men. They literally looked like creatures from a children’s cartoon, hauling duffle bags and grunting as they waddled. I was waiting for a cartoon cat to run up and chase them off. One of the rats turned to look at me, and this time I wasn’t so quick to look away. They weren’t quite as intimidating as the eleven-foot-tall black-hole man. The rat grimaced, so I turned to look out the window.

“What are you?” a raspy voice asked in that Basic Tongue language.

I looked back and saw the rat staring up at me. “Excuse me?” I said.

“What are you?”

“Human,” I said, using the English word, seeing as there wasn’t a Basic Tongue word that I was familiar with.

“Hoo-Min?” he said, narrowing his tiny, beady eyes.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Never heard of Hoo-Min.”

“What are you?”

“What system are you from?” he asked, ignoring my question.

“Sol,” I said, but I was starting to wonder if Vega would approve of me giving the creature so much information.

“Sol?” he said, looking at his rat friends. They all shook their heads and then looked back at me. “There’s no life on Sol.”

“Well, there is. Humans are on Sol.”

“Hoo-Mins,” he said with a giggle, as if the word was funny. Then his friends laughed. Their tongues snapped as they laughed, and beads of rat spit speckled the floor. Then he looked at me, blinking his beady eyes a few times. “Allegiance?”

“Excuse me?”

“Allegiance?” he said again, in the exact same tone.

“I’m not sure,” I said.

“Not sure?” And now he looked utterly puzzled. He turned to his friends and asked something in his own clicky, snappy language. Every tenth word actually sounded like a word. The rest sounded like he was eating small nuts. One of the rats looked at me and said, “Lagolians?”

“What about them?” I asked.

“Allegiance?” he asked. “They control Sol, don’t they?”

“Oh. Yeah. We’re allies, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Why the questions?” I asked.

Suddenly, the original rat perked up with a smile on his face. He adjusted his white robe and smacked his ratty lips together. “Best weapons, best prices,” he said, and then he motioned towards his duffle bags. “Come with us, come with us,” he said. Now, the train was entering the Holodnor market city. The rats lugged their heavy bags towards the train doors. They fought through the legs of a number of aliens to get off the train and onto the platform. They looked back at me and waved me to follow them. “Come, Hoo-Min! Come, come, come!” There were four rats, each with a heavy duffle bag.

I followed them, keeping a safe distance. That churning in my gut was growing stronger. I kept telling myself to slip away, to stop following the creatures. This is exactly how I got into trouble the last time, and this time I didn’t have Vega to bail me out. Now, we were approaching an alley-way, making this whole scenario seem even more sketchy. “Sorry, I think I’m going to pass on this,” I said.

“No!” shrieked one of the rats. “We just want to find somewhere private—more comfortable that way.” He smiled and smacked his lips. The little monsters gave me bad vibes.

We didn’t go much further: another fifty yards down the alleyway before the rats looked around to ensure we were alone. It was official: I was regretting this.

One rat went further up the alley to stand guard. Another doubled back, giving us a fifty-yard bubble. “This already seems illegal,” I said.

“No!” shrieked the salesrat. “Not illegal. Don’t insult us. We don’t operate illegally. We’re friends—same allegiance, same allegiance—friends with Lagolians. Good friends.” He smiled and then he unzipped the first bag. “You’re a warrior?”

“Sure,” I said tentatively.

“This is new loot—rare loot! We captured Babalolo just last week. Lots and lots of rare loot. Just look, just look.”

He pulled out a handgun, which looked similar to what I saw on Britzi’s waistband in battle the day before. “Pre-regulator Ryon,” he said. “Enhanced capacity, powerful FPS. Nothing like it today before level forty. This? Level fifteen. Hold it! Hold it!” He handed it to me.

I remembered Eris telling me about rare loot. I also remembered her telling me that it was illegal to sell it, and that it could only be acquired by ‘looting’. “It’s nice, but I’m pretty sure you can’t sell it.”

He gasped. “Not for sale!” he said, suddenly looking around nervously. “Never for sale. We aren’t criminals, Hoo-Min. Do not offend us. This Ryon YYZ can’t be bought. But if you were to buy a Standard Ryon P-Series, maybe the YYZ could be a gift.” He pulled another handgun out from the bag. It looked similar to the rare loot handgun; this one looked even more like what I’d seen on Britzi’s belt. In fact, it was a replica—the exact same model.

“I see,” I said. “A loophole.” Though I had a feeling that this wasn’t a legal loophole.

“It’s not a loophole, Hoo-Min. It’s a gift, from one ally to another. Please don’t offend us. I can tell you aren’t interested. What class?”

I hesitated for a moment before saying, “Infantry.”

Then he grinned. “Rare loot! Pre-regulator Rexo Industries, back when they were Rexo Arms. See here, see here! Rexo Arms Infantry-10. Level ten rifle, one-hundred round magazines—ten included—double barrel doubles rounds-per-second. Look, look.” He pulled the gun out from his bag. It was a pretty gun, scuffed up in a few spots, but otherwise quite nice. “Look—nice feature,” he said, pressing a button on the gun’s top rail. A scope suddenly rose up. “Adjustable optics, night vision, thermal, target finder. A gun like this today? Level twenty-five—no! Level-thirty!”

“Right…” I said. It was a nice gun: black pair of barrels, making it look a bit like a shotgun, white stock, and bands of purple injector tubes to transport the explosive gas that propelled each blast. It didn’t look quite as modern as what I’d been using, but it did look more deadly.

“Buy a Standard Ryon Infantry Rifle, we can give this to you as a gift.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said. I wasn’t even level-ten, so I couldn’t use the gun. And now, with Eris out of battle, I couldn’t even gift it to her.

“Not good enough?” the rat asked.

“I’m level seven,” I said.

“Oh,” it said. “Why didn’t you say so? We have level-five, rare-loot.” He called to his friend who came rushing up with a heavy black bag. They zipped it open and pulled out a slick black unit with three barrels: two wide barrels to shoot explosive rounds and one narrow barrel to shoot regular rounds. It was a heavy machine. “Also pre-regulators,” he said, grunting as he held it up. “Not made for my race—no, no—too heavy. But you.”

I took it from him. It really was quite heavy. I held it up and gave it a test aim, making the rats shriek suddenly. “Careful, Hoo-Min! Careful! It’s armed! It’s armed!”

“It is?” I said. It seemed silly to have the gun armed in the duffle bag.

“Built-in charger mag, fifty rounds, eight second cooldown reload—automatic reload. Very nice feature. Uses Zya Charges, not bullets. XO-5, made by XO—no longer an active company, shut down by regulators for making OP weapons.”

“OP?” I said.

“Overpowered,” he clarified. “This is a special gun—very special. You won’t ever see another one—and it will be gone by the end of the day, I guarantee it. XO-5 is a little-known legend. Few have heard of it, but anyone who has heard of it knows it’s one of the best low-level infantry rifles ever made. What are you using now?”

“Um, Ryon, I think. Just the standard infantry rifle.”

The rat giggled, sending a shower of spit onto the ground by his feet. “Kid’s toy,” he said. “This is what you want. If you can control your burst firing, it will never have to cooldown to reload. Just imagine the possibilities, Hoo-Min.”

“It’s nice,” I said, holding it in my hands carefully. It was tempting.

“It’s even been upgraded. Previous owner put two power packs on it. See?” The rat strained to reach up, pointing out the two small boxes fused to the side of the gun, with tubes running into the gun’s action. “OP, OP—definitely OP. One charge with this is equal to… I don’t know—four charges with your Ryon. Buy this. I mean, buy a Ryon Infantry Rifle, we’ll gift you this. You will be much happier, much safer, much more OP.”

“I don’t know,” I said. My God, it was tempting—assuming he wasn’t lying to me. Now I was wishing Eris had been there with me. “I—I think I have to pass. But thanks for showing it to me.”

His mouth fell open. “Best deal,” he said suddenly. “Five hundred credits. Unheard of deal.”

I checked my card quickly, seeing that I only had three-hundred and twenty credits. “I’m sorry, no,” I said.

“Four hundred,” he said. “Last offer. It’s worth a thousand at least.”

“Sorry.”

“Three-hundred, I won’t go lower.”

And there was that temptation again. I’m not even sure it was the idea of being stronger that made me grin; I think it was the idea of stepping into the portal chamber with some rare loot that would certainly turn heads—to own a gun that no other Lagolian would ever own.

“I just have to pass,” I said, and then I turned away from the rat. He groaned and mumbled something snappy and wet under his breath. The rats didn’t try to stop me, and I was relieved to get back onto the main street, surrounded by aliens who didn’t seem to be up to shady business.

I was feeling a shroud of regret. I believed the rat when he told me that the gun was OP, and that I would never get a deal that good. I don’t know why I believed him, seeing as he was a literal rat doing shady business in an alleyway, but I believed him nonetheless. But it just wasn’t worth the risk, and it wasn’t exactly what I originally wanted to find when I slipped out of bed that morning.

Now, I was looking for an upgrade. I saw a few stores, with Griars behind the counters. I wasn’t in a big rush. We didn’t have a skirmish until the next day, and Eris didn’t have us in a simulation until later that afternoon. I did want to see my kids before getting into the simulator, but I still had tons of time for that.

I suddenly found myself standing in a familiar place, seeing the bullet holes in the wall where I shot at that gorilla alien before getting into a firefight in the bazaar. Now, I was peering down that side-street, seeing that tarped bazaar and all of the shoppers swarming through it. I carefully went down, keeping my hood on my head. I didn’t want to be recognized by any of the aliens who saw me fighting a week earlier.

I scanned around and spotted that upgrade shop, and then I slipped inside the small space, which was stacked high with dusty upgrades. “No hoods on in here,” said the shop owner with tension in his voice.

So I slipped off my head and he let out a small gasp. “It’s you,” he said, smiling suddenly. “A face I’ll never forget.”

He had a lot of human features—looking perfectly human at a glance. But his head was elongated like an Egyptian god. His jaw was strangely flat and his neck was unusually long, though it was hard to see his neck with his scruffy beard. “You did me a great service the other day.”

“I’m glad I could help,” I said.

“I hope that upgrade has done you well,” he said, stepping out from behind the counter, exposing his strangely thin legs. In a way, he looked like a human drawn by a four-year-old without a full understanding of proper human proportions. He stepped with long strides to the far wall. “You’re looking for another upgrade?”

“I am,” I said.

“You’re infantry?”

“Right now,” I said.

“This will save your life one day,” he said, slipping out a box. “Toughness. Especially important for those of us with thin skin.”

I held the box. TOUGHNESS (5) was written across the side of it. “It won’t make your skin stop bullets or anything like that,” he continued. “But it will help. Every little bit helps. I know—I used to be infantry too, a long time ago.”

“How much?” I asked.

“Normally? A thousand. For you? Three hundred. That’s how much it cost me to get in the shop. I make no profit. But you helped me.”

“That’s very kind of you,” I said, but now I was eyeing a different upgrade on the wall, one that wasn’t quite so dusty, so I could make out the lettering: INTELLIGENCE (7). “How much for this one?”

I slipped it out from the stack of boxes, feeling a bit like I was playing Jenga.

The man eyed the box and then looked at me. “That’s a serious upgrade,” he said. “Old, but serious. Two thousand.”

“Oh,” I said, handing the box to him. “I’m afraid I don’t have that kind of money.”

“I’ll do twelve-hundred, for you—and again, that’s what it cost me to get it in the store.”

“That’s very kind, but I honestly don’t have that much, otherwise I would do it.”

“How much do you have?”

“Three-twenty,” I said.

He stared at me for a long moment, and then he stared at the box for a long moment. I heard him groan slightly and watched as his lips pressed thin. Was he actually considering it? “I’m not lying to you about it costing me twelve-hundred to stock,” he said softly.

“I’m not doubting you.”

“It’s a serious upgrade. But why would you want it? You said you’re an infantry. We sell these mainly to monks, scholars, engineers—not to warriors. I think you should consider the toughness upgrade. I’ll even give it to you for two hundred.”

“Is there a cheaper intelligence upgrade that I could get with my money?” I asked.

Then he groaned again. He looked at me and then he looked at the box in his hand. He let out a deep breath and handed it out to me. “Just take it,” he said, closing his eyes as if he didn’t want to see me taking his prized possession. “Three-twenty, and it’s yours. But next time you come in I’m expecting you to make it up to me—at least a little bit. Promise me your business from now on. Don’t go shopping in the other upgrade shops.”

“That sounds like a deal to me,” I smiled, now holding that old box, which felt like it was made from thin pine. “I really do appreciate this. I hope you don’t think I’m trying to pressure you into giving me a deal.”

“Do you need help administering it?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve never done it.”

He sighed. “Sit down, turn around. It’s not a fun feeling, so brace yourself.”

“Oh, good…” I said, taking a seat on the stool that he pulled out from behind the counter. He pushed my head gently, making me look down at my lap. Then he pressed two very warm fingers against the base of my skull.

“Take a deep breath,” he said as he slipped the thick tube out from that box, which could have fit fifty of those tubes inside of it. I felt the dull pressure of the tube against the back of my neck. I knew what was coming: I knew I was about to get a jab—

But I didn’t think it was going to hurt so bad that my whole body would become paralyzed with tense pain.

I fell off the stool, onto my knees, and for a good thirty seconds I was sure that he’d killed me because the drug had been administered incorrectly.

“Try to relax, my friend,” he said, kneeling down next to me and putting a hand on my back. “Physical upgrades are never fun, but they’re worth it.”

“I swear I felt that needle in my brain!”

“I’m sure you did, because that’s where it went. Now try to relax. The serum is expanding your brain tissue. It takes a few minutes. Relax and keep your heart rate down so there aren’t any complications. Just relax, my friend.” He took my Tribute Card. Was he robbing me? Was this all just a ploy to kill me and steal my money?

I wanted to jump to my feet to fight him, but I was paralyzed. My body was trembling and the pain was getting worse. I tried not to scream, but it wasn’t so easy. I could feel my brain swelling. It was horrible. It felt like my skull was going to pop from the pressure and liquified brain matter was going to billow out from my eye sockets. And where was the man now? Was he gone? Did he even own that shop, or was this just another heist?

My heart was pounding, despite his advice. Then, a moment later, he was next to me again, on his knee, with his hand on my back. “Here,” he said, pressing a cool pad against the side of my neck. I felt a sudden surge of ice through my body, and then the pain was cut in half. I was able to breathe and blink. The pain was subsiding. “A little bit of Crolium. Just don’t tell the regulators that I gave it to you. It should help with the pain. New upgrades have a bit of Crolium mixed into the serum, but you just took a very old upgrade—still a good upgrade, but old.”

“So I’m not dying?” I said.

He laughed. “No. You’re just becoming smarter. I’m always reluctant to sell intelligence upgrades to regular shoppers because they always come back and haggle with me. It’s always harder to haggle with upgraded brains.”

I was able to stand up. Now, my proper vision was returning to me. The shop owner was staring at me. “Feeling better, my friend?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Thanks—I—I think.”

“No, thank you,” he said, “for stopping those crooks. They took over one hundred thousand credits worth of upgrades, so I owe you. But don’t think you can just come here and get free stuff forever.”

“Of course not.” I took a deep breath. “I should be going. Thank you again.”

He nodded his head and I skirted out of the store, still feeling a throbbing pain in the back of my neck.

I didn’t feel any different. My thoughts didn’t seem to be any more profound. I couldn’t help but wonder if the upgrade was legit or just some sort of placebo.

Though I did notice something that was possibly different. I felt much more… familiar with the Holodnor streets. I could remember my way around better as I made my way back towards the train station. As I turned corners, I knew which shops I was going to see. I remembered which shops were run by Griars without having to look. My memory was unquestionably sharper… or maybe it was just the placebo effect.

Now, I could see the train station materializing in the distance, but I was stopped by a curious sight: a shop called WISDOM. I paused and looked at the sign for a moment, trying to decide what a ‘wisdom’ shop might sell. Then, the door opened and a blonde girl slipped out. She had long bunny ears and she was holding a thick tome in her arms. She knelt down, placing the tome on her knee so that she could use one hand to pull back her ears and flip up her hood.

“Britzi?” I said, and then she froze suddenly, looking around for a moment before spotting me. Her cheeks flushed red and she smiled.

“Kyrie?” she said.

I looked around before crossing the road. She seemed to tense up, apparently worried that she’d been caught. She wrapped her arms tighter around her thick book, which appeared to weigh about fifty pounds in her petite grasp. It seemed like she was trying to hide the cover of the book, which I couldn’t read—not because of her hands, but because it was in another language, made up mostly of symbols.

“I would appreciate if you wouldn’t tell Eris about seeing me here,” she said softly.

“Sure,” I said with a small laugh. “You’re not up to something bad, are you?”

I said it as a joke, so I wasn’t expecting her face to turn red and her eyes to become wide.

“Wait… Are you?”

“Please don’t tell her that you saw me here,” she said.

“Okay, okay,” I said. “I said I wouldn’t say anything—but now you have me worried.”

“Here… follow me,” she said. “It’s best we don’t talk in the open.”

I followed her carefully, and she was moving fast for a short girl. Her big blonde hair bounced on her shoulders with each step. She had to use her hand to keep her hood up a few times, as her big hair and her ears tried to nudge it back. She was leading me down a side street, and then she was leading me away from the hustle of the market city, towards the snowy hills of Holodnor.

It was colder outside of the city; the wind was sharper, biting the exposed skin—but Britzi didn’t even seem to notice. She kept looking back to ensure that I was still following her. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“To an old place,” she said. “It’s quiet there.”

It was a bit of a hike through those quiet, icy hills. I looked back at the town, which looked so big from inside, but from outside, it just looked like a dense core with nothing around it. “Are we allowed to be out of the town like this?”

“Why not?” she said.

“The regulators aren’t going to find us?”

Then she turned to me, looked into my eyes, paused for a moment, and said, “I am a regulator, Kyrie.”

“Wait. Really?” I said.

She nodded her head. Then she turned around and continued to rush over that last hill. We came upon some old stone ruins, which reminded me of Stonehenge. There were others there: about a dozen aliens spaced out, minding their own business, seemingly in meditation. Britzi motioned me to follow her across the space, to a stone circle that was sunken into the ground. The stairs going down into the pit were crumbling and uneven, all carved with symbols that looked a lot like the symbols on Britzi’s book.

“This is Martock,” she said. “It’s an ancient place. We think it was built by the Ancient Builder Race.”

“Looks old,” I said.

“This planet has many hidden ruins like this,” she continued. “And this planet is about four-hundred times bigger than your planet, Earth. It’s mostly unexplored.”

“That’s pretty cool—but why did we walk all the way here?” I looked up at a stone spire, which must have been fifty feet tall. It was inscribed from top to bottom with symbols.

She looked around and then she inched closer to me. “I’m not really supposed to have this book.”

I looked down at it. “What is it?”

“The Book of Khai,” she said.

“Who’s Khai?”

“Some people think he was a prophet of the ancient builders. Some think it’s blasphemy to suggest such a thing. This book isn’t canon, so it’s kind of taboo to be seen with it.” Then her eyes seemed to glow and an excited smile stretched across her face. “I’ve been saving up for it for a long time—since I found out there was a copy for sale in town. It wasn’t cheap, but I’ve been dying to read it. A digitized version doesn’t exist. It’s actually… illegal to own without the proper permits.” Now she was whispering, looking around constantly to ensure we weren’t being spied on.

“Should we really have it here then?” I said.

“It’s safe here. The regulators deemed all of these Holodnor ruin sites as safe zones for prayer and study.” Then she showed me the book. “It cost me 12,000 credits. I’m still not sure how I’m going to explain how I lost 12,000 credits—but look!” She opened the book and showed me the old, brittle pages. “It’s a real copy of The Book of Khai. It was independently verified as a legitimate print. It was preserved so well. I really shouldn’t have it, but I couldn’t help myself.”

“So what’s the big deal anyway?” I asked. “What’s so crazy about this book?”

“Well, lots of stuff,” she said, grinning as if she was a bit excited about the fact that she was doing something naughty. “But the big problem with Khai is that he suggested anyone can reach divinity regardless of whether they’re a believer in Him or not. It’s kind of contradictory to the teachings in the official regulator canon.”

“And what do you think?”

“I don’t know,” she smiled. “I haven’t read it yet. I just have a vague idea of what’s inside. I know that there are some special meditations that describe how to speak with the ancient spirits—that’s also a bit controversial, because Khai says that you can do it anywhere while prophets like Mozza and Piya are strict about it only being possible in a temple.”

“So what you’re saying is that humans aren’t the only people bickering about religion,” I chuckled.

“Do humans believe in Him too?” she asked, suddenly intrigued and attentive, ears erect, eyes wide.

“There are a bunch of religions on Earth,” I said. “And then there are the different denominations. Most modern religions are monotheistic.”

“Interesting! I’d love to study human religions,” she said, still staring into my eyes with that beaming look. “And tell me, Kyrie: do you believe in a higher power?”

“I don’t know. I don’t really think about it too much to be honest. I’m more like one of those ‘live your life to the fullest no matter what comes next’ kind of guys.”

She nodded her head slowly, now with narrowed eyes, as if she was trying to wrap her head about what I’d just told her… Or maybe she thought that I was a complete moron. “Okay, Kyrie,” she said. “Why don’t we try something?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Sit down on that stone there,” she said. “Let your back rest against the back stone, and plant your feet firmly on the ground.” I took a seat on the stone. To my left was another stone seat: larger and taller—and to my right was a shorter version. Across from me was a tiny chair, for someone the size of a house cat, and next to that seat was a seat for someone three times my height.

“Now what?” I asked, nestling my head into a convenient rounded groove.

“Now just take a few deep breaths. Try to empty your mind.”

“Easier said than done,” I laughed.

“A trick we give to new students is, try to just imagine white—no shapes or words, just a white canvas with nothing around it. Imagine it’s in a quiet forest, but you can’t see the trees—you can only hear them. All you can see is white. Try really hard to imagine that. Close your eyes.”

“Alrighty,” I said, playing along with the little game.

“Keep your eyes closed. Keep imagining white.”

I did my best to imagine that whiteness. All of my problems kept sneaking into that white scene. I thought about Earth. I thought about all of my friends, now preparing to go off to university. I remembered that I had a test coming up in a couple of days, which I hadn’t studied for. I thought about the upcoming skirmish on that jungle moon. I thought about those robot dogs with their long swords.

“Your mind isn’t clear, Kyrie,” she said. “I can feel your thoughts. Tell them to go away. Tell them they can come back later. Don’t tell them with your words—just brush them away and focus on the white. Focus on the white and try to feel the stone against your back, and the stones under the palms of your hands. They should feel warm now—almost like they’re buzzing. Really try to feel that buzzing.”

“What are we trying to accomplish here?” I asked.

“Quiet, Kyrie. Just play along. Think of white and feel the stones.”

I tried to tell my problems to go away, and they seemed to comply, floating away so that there was just that white canvas against that white background. I could imagine the gentle rustling of leaves, the distant cheeping of merry birds—and I could feel the stones. She was right: it almost did seem like they were buzzing, like there was a current running through them.

“Relax, Kyrie. Relax your arms and legs. Sink into your seat. Keep thinking about whiteness.”

“Okay.”

I spent the next five minutes in complete silence. I have to admit that it was relaxing. I didn’t feel cold in that seat; I was actually pleasantly warm.

“That’s better, Kyrie,” she said in a soft voice. “Now, try to make the canvas go away. Make so that there’s nothing there at all.”

I did my best.

“Good. Now it’s quiet,” she said. “Now we can talk. You can hear me, right?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“No, don’t answer me with your words, Kyrie,” she said. And in that moment, I realized that she wasn’t speaking to me with her mouth. Her words were entering into my brain seemingly telepathically.

It was freaky enough to make me jump out from my seat, suddenly tense all over, feeling strangely violated. “That’s not right!” I snapped.

She was sitting in a seat across from me, with her eyes closed. Suddenly, those eyes fluttered open. She blinked a few times and then she giggled. “Why are you so scared?” she asked.

“You were just in my head!”

“I was just sending you a message,” she said. “It’s not like I was reading your thoughts—though there are some people who claim they can do that. In fact, that’s one of the controversies of Khai—he claims it’s possible to read thoughts and even put ideas in the heads on non-believers. It’s all very provocative.”

“Well I didn’t like that.”

“We didn’t even get to the good stuff.”

“What’s the good stuff?”

“Getting answers to your questions, feeling the divine, wisdom, projection—there are lots of possibilities once you reach zero-point.”

“Zero point?”

“The state you were in just now—or almost in. You weren’t quite there. I could still feel your thoughts swirling around.”

“So there’s some truth to this stuff then,” I said, looking down at her big book. Then I looked around at those big stones.

“Of course there is,” she said with a surprised giggle. “How do you think I healed your wound in battle the other day?”

I paused for a moment. I’d assumed that she healed me with some sort of tool or technology. I figured she had some sort of healing gun or something.

“You’re really tripping me out right now,” I said.

“It’s good to believe in something, Kyrie,” she said with a smile, and the comment seemed strange and out of place, but it made me think—especially after hearing her voice in my head.

“So basically, you think that the Ancient Builder Race were gods. Is that right?”

She giggled, covering her lips. “No,” she said. “We think that they were close to God. We think that they reached a level of divinity that we’re not even close to scratching right now. Then God instructed them to build the portal system between the stars, and to travel from system to system, putting the level system into the DNA of every intelligent race.”

“And for what reason?” I said.

She giggled again. “Well, it’s not so easy to explain it, Kyrie. I’ve been studying this since I was little. It took me ten years to learn what I know now, and it would take me more than ten minutes to explain it to you. But if you’re interested, I can start you on the right track. Maybe we can meet again and I can teach you a few things.”

“Okay,” I said. “But I’m pretty busy right now. I’ve got this bitch of a test coming up, and then there’s the skirmish tomorrow. In fact, the girls are probably awake now and wondering where I went. I don’t want to freak them all out again and make them think that I ran away.”

“Then let’s go,” she said, reaching out her hand to pull me to my feet. And in that moment, I swear that she was glowing an ethereal sort of glow. It was snowing around us, but that snow wasn’t falling down on her, as if there was an invisible bubble around her. Maybe there really was something to this religious stuff. Maybe the universe was a bit more complicated than I originally thought.

CHAPTER XIII

“Doors open in five,” Vega said.

I stood next to her, looking out that small window on that portal door. But there wasn’t much to see: trees, bushes, trees, and more trees. It was a dense jungle.

We won three of the four simulations we ran the day before, but my confidence was below seventy-five percent. Each simulation was close, and only one was casualty-free. Now, I was responsible for leading the crew to victory. Any deaths were going to fall on my shoulders.

And I didn’t want to lose anyone. I didn’t want to lose Vega, Trix, Britzi, or Andrei. And I sure as hell didn’t want to die. I died once in our Garangee simulations, getting stabbed through the back by one of those Nekrol scouts. God, I hated those vicious little creatures, walking upright one moment, sprinting as fast as a small car the next. They weren’t easy to shoot, and they were quiet. That jungle was the perfect place for them to thrive.

“Just stick to the plan,” I said. I didn’t feel like going over the plan. It was a simple plan that involved four of us sticking together while Vega hunted in the thick jungle. Her senses were keener than ours. She could hear those things coming. Though she died in one simulation as well, stepping on a Nekrol mine, put down by a rare Nekrol demolitionist.

Now, we were all praying that the Nekrol weren’t dressing a demolitionist.

“Doors in three,” Vega said.

“Anyone have any jokes?” Trix said. Even she was nervous, tense in that room of tension. Normally, she was bouncing off of the walls with excitement. Now, she was just standing in the corner with a pale face. She died in two of the simulations: once when she stepped on a mine and once when she was stabbed in the head. I think that second simulated death really scared some reality into her, and I couldn’t blame her.

Nobody answered Trix.

I was pretty sure that it was my job, as team captain, to motivate the troops. I was pretty sure that I was supposed to get them all excited for battle, beaming with confidence, ready to take on those robot killers. But I couldn’t stop trembling. My heart felt cold. I could already feel the dampness of that terrible jungle map. I had to keep reminding myself that we were just one win away from Chorus.

“We’ve got this,” I said softly, but it seemed like nobody heard me.

“One minute,” Vega said.

“Just in case I don’t make it,” Andrei started, “I want you all to know that the last month has been the most fulfilling and rewarding month of my life. There’s a letter in my room—just in case—if one of you could bring it to my parents, that would be wonderful. Kyrie, if you make it out, maybe you could do it.”

“You’re making it out of here, Andrei. Cut it out with that shit.”

“I’m just letting you know that there’s a letter.”

“Fuck your letter,” I said. “Don’t get demotivated. We’re going to win and we’re all going to walk out of here. Then, in two days, we’ll be on Lago.”

But nobody replied.

“Five seconds,” Vega said, stretching out her back before getting ready to pounce. Then the door clicked and she kicked it to make it open faster. She was gone before any of us could break out of our paralysis. By the time we were all out of that portal box, Vega was deep into the jungle and out of sight. I admired her motivation, but even she was terrified. She was always more intense when she was scared.

“We take Alpha first,” I said softly. “Let’s hurry.”

The jungle pathways were badly overgrown. The bugs were huge and beyond annoying, buzzing right up to my earholes and hovering there, as if they were trying to drive me to the brink of insanity. That’s where they apparently all wanted to land: right inside of my earholes. “Damnit,” I said, swatting a big one away.

“You okay, Kyrie?” asked Trix, who was at the back of our line.

“These bugs,” I said. The bugs weren’t in the simulation.

They weren’t bothering the Lagolians, but they were going after Andrei too. He hated them even more than me, constantly throwing his head to the side, trying to attack the bugs with his shoulders because his hands were busy carrying turrets.

“First intersection coming up,” I said, leading the pack.

Andrei rushed ahead of me.

“Don’t waste any time,” I said. We all stood and waited while he got that first turret set up.

“I’m in enemy territory,” whispered Vega. “No movement yet.”

Andrei worked fast. He’d gotten his setup times down to about ten seconds—but those ten seconds were so valuable that early in the game, feeling more like ten minutes. “Hurry up, buddy,” I said.

“Almost done,” he said, pressing a few buttons, making the turret come to life.

We carried on, down the path towards Alpha. Britzi ran ahead to complete the capture. I took my position to the left of the tower and Trix went right while Andrei hid a turret in the trees, facing the beacon entrance.

The four-minute takeover took a lifetime. I could hear my own heart pounding, and I swear I could hear Andrei’s heart as well, even though he was twenty yards away, guarding one of the hatches that led into the underground tunnel system. He had his shotgun ready, finger over the trigger. Sweat made his forehead glisten.

“Bingo!” Britzi said, and then the bell tolled in the air.

We were expecting the Nekrol bell to go off, but it didn’t. They weren’t capturing Charlie. They either skipped it and went straight for Bravo, or they were out hunting us, more interested in killing all of us instead of winning the match.

“Be ready for them,” I said as we gathered together at the mid path that went to Bravo. I considered splitting up, sending Trix down the left path and Andrei down the right with Britzi; it would have been a better way to secure more of the map, but it also increased our chances of suffering a loss. I wasn’t prepared to take the risk.

The jungle was quiet. Another pesky flying beetle skimmed my ear, making me gasp. Now, we were in battle territory. The Nekrol could be anywhere: lurking in the jungle shadows, hiding up in the trees, skirting through the tunnels beneath our feet.

“Stop!” Trix said, and we all stopped suddenly. The jungle was quiet. “Did you hear that?”

She turned slowly, aiming her smaller bazooka at the woods, ready to fire at the first sign of movement.

“I didn’t hear anything,” I whispered.

“Something moved,” she said. But it could have been a big bug fluttering in the forest, brushing up against a branch. Those bugs were really complicating things. We were all facing different directions now. Britzi had her handgun out, with her back pressed against mine.

“We need to get to Bravo,” I whispered. “Time’s running low. Let’s keep—” And then I saw something move beyond the distant trees. Something was indeed there, watching us, waiting to make its move.

Trix saw it too. She fired, setting off a loud explosion about thirty yards away. The heat from the blast tickled my face. Andrei pumped his shotgun and sent a heavy blast into the forest. Even Britzi dropped to her knee and fired off five rounds.

“Get into cover!” I yelled, seconds before Trix launched another explosive in the direction of the movement.

Then, just as I was starting to think we were firing at some jungle cat, the enemy returned fire. Bullets blasted out from the dense jungle, penetrating the rising smoke from Trix’s explosives. “They’re firing back!” Trix said, even though we all knew it.

Britzi dove against the ground, nestling up against a fallen tree. Andrei fell against a log and started shooting blind rounds into the forest, hoping to land a hit. I thought about firing back as well, but I knew the chances of landing a hit were slim, even if I sprayed thirty rounds in the rough direction of their shooters.

I took a knee next to a tree and looked at my panicked crew. I tried to stay calm, listening to the attacker, trying to decide if there were multiple shooters, or just one. At first, I thought there were two, and then I realized I was hearing an echo off a distant cliffside.

Andrei’s hands were shaking as he reloaded. Trix fired another explosive blast.

“It’s a distraction,” I said. “Stop firing. Trix, you lead Britzi and Andrei ahead to Bravo. I’ll cover you. Go, go, go!”

It took them a moment to spring to life, terrified of being hit by a stray bullet. It was a bit of a risk, but I was pretty sure the attacker was low on ammo. His shots were fewer and fewer, and then there was a sudden silence: a confirmation that it was a single shooter, now reloading. I stood up and started firing careful rounds between trees. It was enough to keep the attacker in cover—and I was pretty sure I knew roughly where he was, so I lobbed an explosive shell at his cover, just to keep him down while my crew evacuated.

With ten rounds left in my magazine, I made an advance, leaping over a log and trudging through the thick jungle, now off the path. I fired a shot every second, keeping my enemy down, and then I took cover quickly, waiting for his response.

He didn’t know where I was; when he rose back up, he started firing on my original position, giving me time to reload quietly. I watched as twigs fluttered from the force of each Nekrol bullet. I rose up slowly, spotting him with his rifle butt planted firmly against his shoulder. I took aim at his head and dealt with him with a quick burst of bullets to the head.

The troop dropped hard to the ground. I turned quickly to scan the area for additional troops, but my initial assessment was correct: it was a lone shooter, likely trying to distract us while his friends captured a beacon, or maybe they were making a push on Alpha.

Andrei’s turrets would let us know if we had to drop back. Now, we had to forge forward.

I moved quickly to catch up to my frightened teammates. They were on edge, but for some reason I felt cool. I felt like things were going well, and the Nekrol were acting predictably.

“There’s Bravo,” said Trix.

“Don’t rush in,” I said, coming up from behind them. “Let’s fan out and secure a perimeter. Andrei, you stay here to watch the flank. Trix, you go right, I’ll go left. Britzi, go up with Trix and then stop at the three o’clock position, right of the tower.”

The jungle was once again quiet. There was a good chance there were Nekrol troops already inside, working on that takeover. And it made sense: it was the most logical conclusion to make after seeing their rush distraction tactic. If they were rushing Alpha, we would have heard one of Andrei’s turrets by now. If they were delaying an attack, Vega would have found at least one of them.

We moved around the building slowly. It was too quiet. “What’s the plan? Should I run in to start the takeover?” Britzi asked.

“No,” I said. I thought for a moment. I felt like I was playing Texas Hold ’em, sitting with three-of-a-kind, trying to figure out if my opponent could have a straight after the river. What other strategy could they be running with a mid-rush distraction? “I’m going to approach the door. Trix, on my command, lob a heavy explosive inside, then I’ll rush in. Britzi, come in behind me with shield support.

“You think they’re in there?” she asked softly.

“I know they are. Vega, you loop back to Alpha, ensure they don’t try to pull any last-minute rotations.”

We moved into position slowly. I gripped my gun confidently. I don’t know why, but I just suddenly felt so sure that we were in position to win the match. We were up one unit, which always felt like an advantage. But now, it seemed like we were miles ahead.

I put my back to the wall and whispered, “Now, Trix.”

The rocket-propelled grenade fluttered by my face and into the tower, exploding with a deep boom. I didn’t waste a second, spinning into the doorway with Britzi behind me. One Nekrol was shattered into pieces, the other was spinning to face me, seemingly disoriented from the blast. I unloaded ten hard rounds into his chest before spinning to deem the tower cleared. “Britzi, start the takeover.”

She rushed over to the console and I ordered Andrei to come in and secure the door with his shotgun. “Trix, you get into position with eyes on the beacon door.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

Now we had a massive advantage: five-to-two, with two beacons under our belt. They didn’t even have Charlie. A victory seemed obvious. But I knew better than to celebrate. I’d seen enough late-game carnage to know that the match wasn’t over. And I knew that the Nekrol weren’t always aiming to win; sometimes they just wanted to cause some pain to slow the momentum.

I crept out of the tower. It seemed asinine to have three units inside of a single tower, ready to be blown to pieces by a single grenade. I rushed quickly to the trees. “Update me, Vega,” I whispered.

“Can’t find anything,” she said. “They’re being sneaky.”

“Probably scouts,” I said, and I could feel my skin turning cold just thinking about the horrible things. So I settled into the woods, across from Trix. Now, I could see her and she could see me, and we had a clear view of that beacon to stop any intruders.

“Twenty percent,” said Britzi.

“Everyone hold,” I said. “We’ve got this. Just stay alert.”

“I hear something,” Trix whispered, turning to the woods. Now her back was facing me, making me feel more vulnerable. I tried to see what she was hearing, but I was sure that I could hear something too: a distant pattering in the jungle, which stopped the moment I looked back. My heart skipped a beat. The silence returned in a terrible way.

I heard the mechanic creaking of Nekrol bones—or maybe it was just the groaning of an ancient tree, swaying in the gentle wind.

I looked back to check on Trix, but now she was gone. “Trix?” I whispered.

She didn’t answer.

Nekrol scouts were silent killers. They could sneak up without making a sound, and they were quick with the kill shots, using their long blades and surely some technology that could determine exactly where the victim’s heart was. “Trix, answer me,” I said.

Still, she didn’t answer.

And I heard that groaning again. I turned around and saw it lunging at me. I fell back and fired. The first burst of shots pinged off the creature’s hull, but one bullet managed to ram the joint holding on his right arm. It was enough to make him twist midair, crashing down at my feet with a heavy thud.

“Kyrie!?” Andrei yelled.

I couldn’t reply. I had to focus. I kicked at the heavy metal creature as it tried to scramble to its feet. I shot at it, having to spread my legs so I wouldn’t shoot my own knees off. I was trying to hit his head, but now he was flailing and flopping, like a bird trying to recover from a bad landing. Bullets pinged off of him. One almost went right back at me.

Finally, he got onto his feet. My magazine was empty. I tried to start a reload, but he came at me. I had exactly enough time to ram the butt of my rifle into his chest, just as he pulled his sword-arms back to stab me. I knocked him off balance—just enough that I could quickly ram a new magazine into the feeding path. I pulled back the arming bolt and fired again, this time with my iron sights lined up with his forehead.

He fizzled and crashed.

“You okay, Kyrie?” Vega asked, and now it sounded like she was running.

“I’m fine. There’s one unit left. Trix still isn’t responding. She’s not at her post.”

“Takeover is at sixty percent,” Britzi said.

I rushed over to Trix’s position, worried I was going to find her dead body between the bushes. Instead, I found blood on the leaves.

“She’s not here,” I whispered. “There’s still something out there—probably a scout. Stay on high alert.”

“One unit isn’t going to capture two beacons in fifteen minutes,” Britzi said.

“Never say never,” I said. Now I was trekking into the forest, following the beads of blood on the leaves. Why did she go silent? Why didn’t she yell for help?

I heard a sound: another groan, coming from ahead of me. I dropped to a knee and prepared to fire. I considered spraying down the forest and retreating back to the beacon, but I still had hope that Trix was out there. I wanted to believe that she was okay. I wasn’t ready to lose her—not after everything we’d been through together.

She had a rough go in life, and it seemed like she was just starting to get onto the right foot. Her life had finally taken a positive turn, and she was quickly finding admiration on the ship with the Lagolian population. I even saw one of Lunar Alpha’s fan shops selling Trix posters in the store window, next to the usual Vega and Eris posters.

Now, she was likely dead—but I wasn’t going to give up on her.

I knew I needed to stay by that tower to ensure victory, but I just couldn’t let Trix down if there was even a slight chance of rescuing her. So I rushed towards the sound. I heard it flutter, then I tripped suddenly, falling to the ground. I looked back to see what I tripped on, and that’s when I saw Trix, holding her throat with both hands. She was bloodied and her face was turning pale. “Trix!” I gasped, and I crawled up next to her.

Her throat was cut and she’d been stabbed multiple times by the scout.

She couldn’t speak. Blood trickled out from her mouth. I put down my gun against my better judgement. I pressed both of my hands against her collarbone, leaning all of my weight on her to try to slow her rate of breathing. It was a trick I saw on a TV program years earlier, that I was only suddenly remembering now—at least I was remembering it.

She used her weak hand to try to push me off, but I needed to slow her breathing to slow her heart rate, and I needed to slow her heart rate to slow the blood loss.

I repositioned myself with my knee on her chest and now with my hands around her throat in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

Then the scout rose up. His gaze met mine and then he crouched down, ready to pounce. I was unarmed, with no way of defending myself. I knew it was foolish to drop my gun, but it was Trix’s only hope.

The scout jumped.

Andrei fired from ten feet behind me.

The force of his heavy shotgun decimated the Nekrol’s chest, draining the life from the A.I. unit instantly. Bits of scout rained down on me as I winced my face away.

Andrei stood with a shocked look on his face for a moment before he noticed Trix and came to life. “Keep the pressure on her chest,” he said, dropping down next to me. He got to work tying up her arm to stop the bleeding from the cut on her wrist.

“Ninety-five percent,” Britzi said.

“Britzi! Stop the takeover and get over here!” I said. “Vega, get here as fast as you can and restart the takeover.”

“It’ll be cutting it close,” she said.

“Whatever. If we make it, we make it. If we don’t, we try again another time. We need Britzi here, now.”

And had she arrived five seconds later, it would have been too late. Trix’s eyes were just starting to close as Britzi pressed her palms against her chest and closed her eyes. A moment of silence preceded a soft glow, coming from Britzi’s hands.

Andrei watched with wide, amazed eyes and parted lips. He leaned back and shook his head in disbelief. I held Trix’s hand, squeezing it to keep her awake. I knew she was dead if she fell asleep.

Trix gasped, successfully pulling air into her lungs. I squeezed her hand harder. “You’re going to make it, Trix,” I said.

“She’s really weak,” Britzi said. “We need to get her to the doctors fast.”

My clothes were ruined with blood the second I lifted her up, but that was the least of my concerns. We had to get her out and I wasn’t going to waste another second. With Andrei’s help, we ran her back to the portal. We left the system before Vega even completed the takeover. The whole way, Britzi was whispering a prayer in another language—maybe something from her new tome.

There was a good chance that all of our efforts were for nothing.

CHAPTER XIV

I couldn’t bring myself to leave the infirmary waiting room. Eris came up and insisted that there was nothing I could do. “You’re more useful to us rested,” she said. It was getting late now—close to midnight. “We won’t be getting news about Trix until the morning.”

“She’s still unstable,” I said. “That’s the only update I’ve gotten.”

“They’re going to do their best. She lost a lot of blood out there, and she suffered a number of deep wounds.”

“I just don’t understand what happened. One minute she was there, and the next she was gone.”

“Her camera went off,” Eris said. “We don’t know what happened either. I’m guessing the humidity messed with the comms system. We had problems with the humidity on Garangee the last time we fought there too. But let’s try to stay positive, Kyrie—even if Trix doesn’t pull through. In two days, we’ll be fighting for Chorus. We’re going to see our home world for the first time in fifteen years—and it’s all thanks to you.” She smiled, but I just wasn’t in the mood to smile. I couldn’t believe that anyone was talking about anything other than Trix. Eris could apparently tell. “Trix would be happy knowing that she died securing the victory. She registered a kill and an assist in one of the most crucial skirmishes in recent Lagolian history. C’mon, Kyrie, let’s go back to the room and get some sleep.”

“I just can’t do it,” I said. “I want to be here for her.”

“There’s no convincing you, is there?” she said. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and then she left me alone. “Call me if you want me to bring you anything.”

Next, Vega came up to try her hand at convincing me to leave. “Even if they get an update on Trix tonight, they won’t tell you until the morning,” she said. “Just set an alarm and be here before seven. You’ll still be the first to hear anything.”

“I’ll just wait here,” I said.

“You’ve got that test tomorrow, Kyrie,” she said. “I know that probably seems inconsequential at the moment, but you told me yourself that it’s your most important Earth test, and that they won’t let you redo it. Staying up here won’t help Trix.”

“I know,” I said. “But I’m going to stay up here anyway. I won’t be able to sleep in bed regardless.”

She sighed. “Everyone’s talking about you on the ship. You’re really a hero.”

I forced a smile. It was just hard to care about what she was telling me; it just seemed like a distraction, even if it was true. “I’m just lucky.”

She shook her head. “Not today,” she said. “I mean—yes, usually you’re lucky. When you landed those hits on Cygnus—I’m convinced that was luck… skill mixed with luck, but mostly luck. On Valvoline, when you were shot and survived, that was luck: dumb luck even. Kentaurus was insane luck—you nearly got shot while fucking Trix. Then on Nakuru the other day, you just ran across the map, straight through Huts. If a Nekrol had been in a hut, you would be dead right now. But today—today was different. That wasn’t just luck out there. You were calm and you were… thinking. I watched your replay, Kyrie. You made a number of very non-Kyrie moves, like when you snuck up on that Nekrol infantry and determined it to be a distraction. When you ordered Trix to clear the beacon with her RPG… You were thinking two steps ahead of the enemy. Maybe you’ve finally grown some sense, or maybe you got some sort of intelligence upgrade behind our backs.” She giggled.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess I was just a little sharper today than usual,” I said. “But it wasn’t enough. We should have all walked out of that portal at the end—together, unharmed.”

“Winning Garangee with a single casualty is impressive, Kyrie.”

“It’s not good enough. I let Trix down.”

“You possibly saved her life.”

“I’ll wait here to find out.”

“If that’s what you want to do, then I’ll leave you to it. Just know that tomorrow you have your test—assuming you still want to go and take it—and then we’ll be running a few Chorus simulations.”

“Goodnight, Vega.”

I kissed her on the lips, but I still felt that impending emptiness inside of me. I hated the thought of going down to the bed without Trix. I hated the thought of losing one of my girls. They were all special to me in their own ways.

It was a long night. That waiting room chair was far from comfortable. Lagolian nurses kept coming up to me to tell me there wouldn’t be any updates until the morning, but I just couldn’t force myself to leave. I knew it made no difference, but I just couldn’t do it…

It was around 1:00 AM when I started thinking about Britzi. I watched her on Garangee, pressing her hands against Trix, almost stopping the bleeding with that ethereal glowing light. She claimed it wasn’t magic, and it wasn’t technology—unless she was hiding something in her battle glove. Surely there was something in that glove: some sort of healing UV light… Or maybe it really was the harnessing of divine power. She did show me that impossible things were possible.

I closed my eyes, tired—but there was no way that I could sleep, no matter how tired I was. There was just too much anxiety fluttering in my brain, clouding my thoughts, making my heart race.

I was responsible for Trix’s injury—maybe even her death.

I tried not to think about it. I tried to do what Britzi showed me on Holodnor, clearing the anxieties from my brain. I tried to push everything away. I tried to think of a white canvas, and then I tried to make that white canvas disappear. I just wanted a moment of peace. I wanted a brief escape from the crippling stress.

And for a moment, I felt a small wave of relief. I managed to clear my mind. I managed to keep that whiteness in my head while the sounds around me faded into nothingness.

Then suddenly, I could see the infirmary hallway, even though my eyes were still closed.

I was able to stand up, even though I was still sitting in my chair.

I was able to turn around and see myself, eyes closed, slumped in that uncomfortable seat, even though it was entirely impossible.

Was I dreaming?

I looked around. A nurse came by. She looked at my slouched, sleeping body before walking right through me, on her way down into the staff-only section of that hospital ward. She turned and went into Trix’s room where the doctors were still hard at work.

I looked back at my body. Was this really happening? Or had I finally snapped? Had the stress finally produced a mental breakdown?

I floated down the hall, weightless. I went through the glass doors, which didn’t need to open. Now, I could hear the doctors and nurses going back and forth. “We need another transfusion.”

“On it now.”

“We need it fast.”

“It’s up.”

“Doctor, the Intoctin you asked for.”

“Thank you. How’s that fusion coming?”

“The tissue is too dry.”

“Wait for the transfusion. Get another ready…”

I approached the room. A nurse came out, making me jump, but she didn’t even see me as she passed right through me. I looked back at her as she paused abruptly, stopping and looking around as she was suddenly overwhelmed by a sort of cold shiver. The delay was short; she kept on her way to get the next transfusion. Was I some sort of ghost?

I turned into the room and sidled around the curtain. Now, I could see Trix, on a hospital bed, surrounded by a team of doctors and nurses. There were bloodied sheets piled around the group, and splotches of blood on the ground. They were trying to fix her gashes, which were deep, cutting through muscle and organ tissue. Trix’s vitals weren’t good. Machines beeped aggressively for a moment before the doctors managed to stabilize her, but that stability only lasted a minute before the beeping started again.

One of the nurses looked up at me—and then I realized she wasn’t a nurse at all. I was looking at Britzi, wearing a white robe, with her long blonde hair glowing down her shoulders. She smiled at me before looking back down at Trix. She had her hands on Trix’s chest, and the hands of the doctors and nurses passed through her hands as they worked, as if she was a ghost.

“She’s stable again,” the doctor said. “She’s fighting, there’s no doubt about it.”

Now, Britzi had her eyes closed. She was focused, making Trix’s chest glow bright. I was stunned into silence.

Surely, this was a dream.

A nurse passed through me again, rushing in with another blood transfusion bag. She got it hooked up quickly.

“Put your hands on her,” a voice said, and it was a moment before I realized it was Britzi. She was looking at me again.

“Me?” I whispered, worried I was going to be caught. But nobody heard me—nobody except for Britzi.

She nodded her head. I walked up and looked down at Trix, who looked to be in rough shape, pale all over, almost lifeless—but not quite. My heart fell into my stomach.

“Put your hands on her,” Britzi said again.

“Where?”

“On her stomach,” she said. So I did it. I put my ethereal hands onto Trix’s stomach. I could feel something: a coldness… an emptiness. My heart sank lower.

“Think about light,” Britzi said softly.

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine a light. I remembered that warm feeling when Britzi healed my bullet wound. Now, I could feel some of that heat. I could see a light through my closed eyelids.

“She’s stabilizing,” the doctor said. “Her vitals are back up.”

“We have conditions for fusion. Fusing now.”

“Liver is working again, Doctor.”

“The transfusion is working. Turn it up. She’s moving. We have her.”

I opened my eyes to see Trix, but now, I was just staring at the hallway wall. I was sitting in that uncomfortable chair. My back ached and my heart was suddenly sent aflutter. Down the hallway, I could see more nurses and doctors rushing in and out of Trix’s room.

I couldn’t hear what they were saying through the closed glass doors, but I could see some hope on their faces. Trix was alive and it suddenly seemed like there was some hope that she was going to pull through.

The hullabaloo died down over the next couple of hours. Many of the doctors left, many of the nurses left. Now, there were just a few people on staff, making me think that Trix was stabilized and the situation was under control.

Finally, I was able to doze off—or maybe I was dozing off for the second time. I slept in that chair for the next couple of hours. When I woke up, the infirmary was totally silent. I couldn’t see a doctor or nurse anywhere. The clock was set to 4:45 AM.

I stood up to stretch my back. I made it crack in four places before I let out a loud groan. Then I noticed those glass doors were open. “Anyone here?” I called out. But there was no reply—until…

“Kyrie?” a raspy voice called out.

My heart slammed hard into my chest. I rushed down the hallway and spun around the corner, into her room. Her eyelids fluttered and her lips curled into a tired smile. “You’re alive!” I said.

“What are you doing up?” she asked. Her voice was broken and hard to hear.

“The real question is, what are you doing up?” I came up to her side and I grabbed her hand with both of my hands. She felt so delicate.

“I can’t sleep.”

“You need to sleep.”

She stared into my eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said.

It took me a moment to realize she wasn’t apologizing for being awake. “It’s fine, Trix. I’m sorry—I let you down.”

“No, I let you down,” she said. “I turned off my comms system. It was stupid, but I thought I had a minute.”

“What? A minute for what?”

She blushed and looked away. “I was… cheating.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I bought something that I’m not allowed to have,” she said. “I’ve been bringing it into skirmishes. You can’t tell anyone or I could get into a lot of trouble—you know, with the regulators, and with Queen Syabus.”

“What is it?”

“Map tracker,” she whispered.

I waited a moment for additional information, but she offered none. “What’s a map tracker?”

“It’s a device that was banned a long time ago, when the regulators took control of the galaxy. It’s a little screen that can scan the map and show me where active units are. Lots of races use them in secret. The guy who sold me mine told me he sells about fifteen each week.”

“Why is it illegal? The portals don’t stop you from bringing them in the way they stop you from bringing in more than five units.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Take it up with the regulators. I guess it makes battles unfair. Maybe it’s true. I owe my map tracker for a lot of my kills. Don’t tell anyone—seriously. If the regulators find out that I’ve been using it, they’ll take all of the star systems I used it on and gift them to the Nekrol as a penalty.”

“Well maybe you should just get rid of it then,” I said.

“I’m pretty sure I dropped it when that scout jumped me. It’s still on Garangee. As soon as I’m out of here, I’m going to go and find it, and I’m going to get rid of it. Maybe I can sell it on Holodnor for a few thousand credits.”

“No. You’re going to get rid of it by throwing it into the ocean or a fire or deep space. No more illegal shit.”

“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “In my defense, I bought it a year ago, long before I met you.”

“I’m just going to pretend like you never told me about it, and you’re going to get rid of it.”

“I had a dream about you,” she said, changing the conversation suddenly, “while I was out.”

“No kidding.”

“And it wasn’t a sex dream,” she smiled. Then she coughed. I took her hand and squeezed it. It was so nice to see her with a smile on her face.

“Maybe you should get some sleep,” I said. “I’m happy to see that you’re alive though.”

“Have you thought about breeding with Britzi?” she asked.

I paused for a moment. “Why are you asking that?”

She shrugged her shoulders again. “That’s what my dream was about. I like Britzi. I mean—she’s a bit naïve, but I like her. I think you would make suitable offspring.”

“You’re starting to sound like Queen Syabus.”

She laughed. “Don’t you like Britzi, Kyrie? She’s petite, and blonde—I know you have a thing for blondes. She’s got a tight little bod, cute ass, perky tits. She’s got those thick lips; I bet she could suck a mean cock.”

“Trix,” I said. I was happy to see that she was back to normal.

“I’m sure she has a tight pussy too.”

“Trix!” I hushed.

She giggled. “Don’t get mad at me. You’re the one getting aroused, shooter.” She looked down at my crotch and raised her eyebrows. “Want to get into some trouble?”

“How do you even have any energy right now?”

“You’re the one making me all hot with your pheromones, Kyrie. You need to learn to control yourself around me.” She grinned teasingly.

Now my face was dark red. This wasn’t the conversation I was expecting to have when I stepped into that room—though I wasn’t sure why I wasn’t expecting it.

She pulled my hand down across her abdomen, across her pelvis, pushing my fingers between her legs. “Trix! Are you insane?”

She nodded her head. “Rub me, Kyrie. Don’t get me all turned on and then leave me hanging.”

She pushed hard on my hand after pulling up her thin white hospital gown so that my fingers were pressed against her bare pussy. I looked back at the door, worried a nurse was going to walk in and spot us together. “I’m not even supposed to be in here,” I whispered.

“That makes it more fun,” she smiled.

She made me rub in circles, gently mashing her plump lips. A small warm gush escaped her tight slit. “This is actually crazy,” I said.

“But you like me, so you’re doing it anyway. Finger me, Kyrie. Oh God, just like that.” She gripped the bed sheets, suddenly finding strength that didn’t exist five minutes earlier. “Oh yes—don’t stop. Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Stick them in me. Get another fucking finger in me, Kyrie. Push it deeper. Don’t stop. Faster. Oh God. Oh God.” She let out a small gush. “Fuck, that felt good. Don’t stop.” I watched as her abdomen flexed and contracted. Her knees lifted up. It was probably too much under the circumstances, but I felt like it was my duty to give her what she wanted, even though it was sort of her own fault she was now on that hospital bed. “Fucking finger me, Kyrie. Faster! Faster! Oh God! Don’t stop! Make me come! Make me come! Oh God, it feels so fucking good! Oh God! Oh God! Yes! Yes! Don’t stop! Oh fuck!” She gushed again. Now my hand was dripping. “Fuck, Kyrie, it feels so fucking good.”

“Excuse me!” a voice yelled out from behind me. We both turned to look, seeing the white-faced nurse in the doorway. I pulled my hand out from Trix’s slit and hid it behind my back, forcing a smile.

I was kicked out of the infirmary—not even allowed to sit in the waiting room. But I went back to my room with a smile on my face, and a stiffy in my pants. The smell of my pheromones woke the girls up as I tried to crawl into the bed, so I spent the next hour humping the pussies of Vega and Eris, eventually coming deep inside of Vega’s tightness. It was a well-needed release after my little fooling-around with Trix. Kuzu wasn’t there, otherwise I would have given her a good pounding too.

And it seemed like I only got to sleep for fifteen minutes before Vega was tapping me on the forehead. “Kyrie, get up,” she said. “You’re going to be late for your Earth test.”

I groaned. “Fuck.”

I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, hoping I was just having a nightmare.

“I told you to get some sleep last night, Kyrie. Now get up. Put an end to this human school business so we don’t have to think about it any longer.” She tugged me out of bed with impressive strength—though I’m not sure why I was impressed or even surprised, seeing as she sliced robots into pieces on an almost-daily basis.

CHAPTER XV

I did my test alone in that school classroom. The teacher was wearing colorful beach shorts and a Hawaiian T-shirt. Next to his desk was a beach bag with a change of clothes and a towel. He must have checked the time on his phone every five minutes throughout that long three-hour examination. I’ll admit that I felt a bit bad for him—and a bit guilty, because it was one of the nicest days of the summer, and he was there voluntarily. “You don’t have to use the entire amount of time,” he said to me after just one hour.

I usually did use every available minute. I usually needed every little leg up that I could get. But when he told me that I didn’t have to use all three hours after just one hour, I was already nearing completion. I was shocked to see that I only had two pages left, and the questions were… easy.

For once, I felt like I remembered all of the pertinent lessons. I remembered the formulas. I didn’t even have to refer to my formula sheet after the first five minutes of the exam; they just… stayed in my head. And when it came to the theoretical section of that physics exam, I found myself constructing wonderful paragraphs, managing to explain all of the relevant theories and how they applied to each question.

Even the teacher was surprised when I walked up and handed him the test. He looked down at it and then he looked into my eyes. “Do you need help?” he said.

“No. I’m done,” I said.

“Done? The whole thing?”

I nodded my head. He looked at me for a long moment and then he looked down at the exam. He picked it up carefully and flipped it open, reading through my answers. I stood there for a few minutes, watching as his eyes narrowed into what was an undoubtedly suspicious look. “Kyrie…” he said. “We need to talk.”

“Talk about what?”

“Just wait there,” he said. He went over to the phone, dialed a local number, waited a moment, and then he returned to his desk. “Take a seat.” So I sat back behind my desk, trying to wrap my head around what I’d done wrong.

I was starting to think that I’d gotten every answer wrong, and now they were going to give me a lecture about wasting everyone’s time. The principal of the school came in, also dressed for the beach. He walked over and spoke quietly with my physics teacher. Then he thumbed through my test, grunted, and stepped over to me. “Explain yourself, Kyrie Aaron.”

“What?”

“Just come clean, son.”

“Come clean about what?”

He stared at me for a long moment before turning to look at the teacher. “Did one of your friends give you the answers?”

“No. Did I get a good grade?”

“You didn’t get a good grade,” my teacher said from behind the plump principal. “You got every single question right. Even Hannah Stockner didn’t get every question right.”

I caught myself grinning. “I guess I just studied the right stuff.”

“Don’t toy with us, son,” said the principal, now leaning forward with his palms on my desk. The desk slipped under his heavy weight and he nearly fell over, stumbling and then catching himself. He cleared his throat. “Just tell us the truth.”

“You think I cheated?”

“You came into this test with a D-minus,” my teacher said, once again leaning over to see past the principal.

“Well, I did have extra time to study while I was in the slammer.”

“Bullshit,” said my teacher.

Then the principal whipped his head back. “Lawrence!”

“Sorry, sir.”

The principal looked at me. “Empty your pockets.”

I pulled out my empty pockets. But one pocket wasn’t empty; I had my Tribute Card on me. The principal grabbed it and examined it. “Ah ha,” he said. “What is this? Some sort of digital cheat sheet? What does this thumb button do?”

“It’s my credit card,” I said.

“Don’t mess around with me, son! I have four credit cards. I know what credit cards look like!”

“I don’t know what to tell you. It’s a credit card.”

He tinkered with it for the next five minutes, sure that there was a way to make it show test answers. “So if it’s not a cheat sheet, how did you get all of those answers?”

“I just studied.”

The principal growled and the teacher groaned. Then they both were back at the desk, thumbing through my test. A long five minutes went by. The principal took a few minutes to snoop around my desk. Then he looked at the teacher and asked, “Did he leave to use the bathroom at any point?”

“He’s been here the whole time.”

He checked under my desk again. He made me take off my shoes so he could look inside. “Is the answer sheet in your undies, son?” he asked.

“No! I didn’t cheat!”

So they had the idea to fire off random questions while watching me carefully. I was able to answer them easily, because I’d just encountered them on the test. They weren’t even clever enough to come up with new questions, or to take questions from some old test.

They both shook their heads in disbelief. Then, my teacher picked up his pen, scribbled on my test, and handed it back to me.

A+.

I grinned. “So that’s it then,” I said. “I’m done high-school.”

“I guess you are,” said the principal. “But if you cheated, we’re going to find out. In fact, let me look in your ear!” He looked in my ear, but there was nothing there.

“See you guys later. Have fun at the beach.” I smiled and went off to meet Vega, so we could head back up to Lunar Alpha, to get ready for the siege on Chorus, so we could take back the Lagolians’ home world.

CHAPTER XVI

I met Vega in the park down the street, and we took off for the moon straight away. She kept side-eyeing me with a strange grin on her face. After a few minutes, I finally cracked and said, “What’s so funny?”

“What?” she said, playing dumb.

“You keep looking at me like that. Cut it out.”

“I’m not looking at you,” she said with one last little grin. Then she sauntered over to the ship’s control board. We were halfway between Earth and the Moon when Vega pressed a button, bringing the ship to a stop.

I shook my head. “Out with it already,” I said.

“You don’t breathe a word about this on Lunar Alpha,” she said.

“About what?”

Then she slipped out from her sweater and she pulled down her black leggings, exposing her red strappy leather lingerie. A thin strap was all that covered her nipples, and an even thinner strap was all that covered the slit between her thighs. She blushed and pressed her lips thin. “Congratulations on finishing human school, Kyrie.”

My eyes beamed and my lips parted. “W—What are you wearing?”

“I went shopping on Earth,” she said.

“With what money?”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“I want to know,” I said, almost drooling at the sight of her body. Those leather straps came up her calves and her thighs, crisscrossing around her abdomen, disappearing under her perky tits, before emerging across her collarbone. She walked over to a corner and slipped into a pair of red high heels, which matched the outfit.

“I enlisted some help from Trix. That information isn’t pertinent. I have the next hour free for you, and, uh, you can do as you please to my body.”

“I can?” I said. My heart skipped a beat.

She nodded her head. “Even if, uh, you would like my bum—since it’s a special occasion, I can make an exception.” Her face was dark red.

“Just how much help did you get from Trix?” I said. I think my face was redder than hers. I was already full-erect.

“Just drop it,” she said, now grimacing. “Accept the gift, Kyrie.”

“Come here,” I said.

I hardly felt like I deserved to put my hands on her sides. Her skin was warm and soft. I moved my hands up, cupping her breasts, and then I moved them down and around, grabbing her butt cheeks. She let out a soft moan, looking down at the bulge in my pants. “The outfit is satisfactory?” she asked.

“It’s awesome,” I said.

She used the tip of her finger to draw a line up the length of my erect bulge, stopping right on my tip. “It pleases me to please you, Kyrie.”

We kissed. My hands explored her body and she spent some time feeling my muscles, which were getting bigger and harder every day. She tried to grasp my pecs, and then she spent a minute running her fingers along my rolling abs. She whimpered and moaned. Her body trembled and shuddered. I spent some time kissing her neck and her chest, and then I noticed the glimmer down her legs: an expulsion from her tight hole. As I looked, a drop fell from that thin strap and splashed on the floor. I got my cock out and pressed it between her legs, letting her drip onto my shaft.

We kissed again. Then, foreheads pressed together, she said, “Congratulations, baby.”

“Thanks,” I said, fingering her lingerie out from her slit so that I could press in my bulging tip. She took a sharp breath in and froze all over. A moment later, she bit her lip and I pressed into her. “Oh my…” She moaned. I felt her tight lips clenching my girth. I sunk deep and then I began to thrust, watching as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. I made her gush and moan. “Faster, Kyrie,” she said. “Please fuck me faster.”

“I’ll fuck you how I want to fuck you,” I grinned. “You told me I could do as I please to your body.”

She moaned again. I grabbed her tit and squeezed hard before gently pinching her nipple and rolling it between my thumb and pointer finger. I pulled out of her. I let her moisture drip off of my shaft, and then I pressed my tip between her butt cheeks, making her gasp. “Kyrie!” she said.

“You made the offer,” I said.

“Oh God,” she said before I was even inside of her.

Her back door was tight, and she was clenching hard. “Relax,” I whispered, and then she finally managed to unclench, allowing my shaft to sink inside.

“Oh fuck!” she yelled. I could feel her puckering.

“Relax, baby,” I said, holding her firmly with both of my hands. I was a gentleman, thrusting slowly at first, getting her tight rear warmed up before I gave it the proper pounding that it needed.

“Oh my fucking God,” she moaned. “It’s so big, Kyrie. It’s so fucking big.” She dug her nails into my shoulders, wrapping her thighs around my body, clinging to me like a spider monkey. I kept thrusting, deeper and deeper, harder and harder, faster and faster. Now, my pelvis was pounding her tush, slapping it hard and loud. Her pussy continued to leak like a broken sink; her liquid ran down my legs. “Don’t you dare fucking stop, Kyrie!” she growled. She liked it. She was naughtier than she let on. “Use your fucking speed upgrade, you fucking prick! Fuck me like you mean it!”

Hell, she was even starting to scare me a little bit.

I walked her into the wall and pinned her hard while I drove into her with everything I had. I leaned back to watch for a minute as I plunged that tight rectum.

“Oh God!” she screamed. “Come in my asshole, Kyrie! Come in my asshole!” She was using her hand to rub her pussy now, and I just couldn’t bring myself to look away.

I gave her what she wanted, unloading my thick cream into her tight asshole. Then we kissed, and my God, we must have kissed for the next hour, mashing our faces together, sucking tongues, playfully biting lips…

We kissed for so long that I became erect all over again, and I thrusted her until I came a second time, doubling my load inside of her ass.

“Just so you know, that’s not going to be a regular thing. It was only permitted under congratulatory circumstances.”

“But you loved it,” I said.

“If you tell anyone that, I will deny it,” she said, looking away from me. She pulled her outfit back on, over her strappy lingerie. Then she pressed a button to make the ship move again, continuing on its rapid course for Lunar Alpha. She spent the rest of the trip cleaning up the mess we made together. I couldn’t help but notice a slight limp in her gait, now that the soreness of the pounding was setting in.

And when we got off of the ship, there was a small crowd of familiar faces gathered at the back of the mechanics bay. Eris was with them, and she noticed us immediately. “There you are! Come on over here!”

“What’s going on?” Vega asked before noticing the matching outfits that were now on Kuzu and Trix and Britzi.

Kuzu looked thrilled in hers, turning left and right to make her skirt float up. Trix looked borderline suicidal, with her arms limp at her sides. “Cheer up, Trixie! It looks cute on you!”

“What’s this?” Vega asked, and then an identical outfit was thrust into her hands by the excited General Eris.

“Redesigned military uniform,” she said. “I figured it was time for a change. We’ve been using the same outfit for one-hundred and fifteen years. What do you think?”

“It’s… white,” Vega said, looking almost as unimpressed as Trix.

“It’s white now,” said Eris with a smile. “This is just the prototype. I found it on Earth, but it’s perfect. The actual outfit will be made with synthetic lunar graphene, like our past outfits. Why aren’t you excited? Those old outfits were so outdated, Vega. They were designed back when our military was ninety-five percent male. These won’t chafe between the legs. They have more shoulder coverage, and the skirt provides additional protection around the thighs.”

“It hardly covers the thighs!” Trix said, looking back to see if her bum was out. It wasn’t quite out, but it was damn close.

“Well they still need to look cute,” Eris said, rolling her eyes. “It covers more while restricting less. You should be thrilled.”

“I look like I’m going to a club,” groaned Trix.

“Exactly!” Eris smiled, thinking Trix finally understood the design.

Eris insisted Vega try on the outfit, so she slipped away and came back, now with an even more exaggerated unimpressed look.

“Sexy!” said Eris.

“I don’t think I want to be sexy on the battlefield.”

“Your outfits now are pretty sexy; not going to lie,” I chimed in. “But these are good too.” I couldn’t help but chuckle, which wasn’t well received by Vega or Trix.

“I love mine,” Kuzu said, and the dress really did suit her. It was what I believe they call a ‘fit-and-flare’ dress, cut short, just beneath the cusp of the bum. The top part of the dress was cut into a V, but not quite deep enough to expose the heart. Around the waist was a tight taper, very tight, forcing the girls into proper posture.

The dresses were white, with a sort of iridescent tulle over top, giving it a soft colorful sheen. But the plan wasn’t to keep the outfit white—not always. “We have programmable materials now,” Eris said to Vega. “We can be a tan color on a moon like Eubuleus, and a soft purple on Lago. They will only be white when we’re not in battle.”

“Can’t we just redesign our current outfit with programmable materials?” Vega asked with a drone.

“No. I’m the general and this is what I think is best,” Eris smiled. “And I got something for Kyrie too!” Then she spun around, reached into a shopping bag, and pulled out the last outfit that I was expecting.

“Where the hell did you find this?”

“An Earth country called Belarus.”

“Why did you go to Belarus?”

“Why is that strange?” she asked with narrowed eyes. I held up the outfit. It looked like something that would be worn by a man at a traditional Slavic wedding. The shirt was white, with a strip of red embroidery up the chest. The pants were white; the crotch was dropped, making them look like genie pants. There was even a red sash to complete the outfit.

“You seriously want me wearing this?” I asked. Now Trix and Vega were grinning at my expense.

“Well, it’s just the prototype, Kyrie. It will be made with synthetic lunar graphene, with programmable top layer materials. Andrei liked it.”

“Of course he did…” I said.

Then there was a silence as Eris stared at us. “Don’t you guys like your new outfits?” she asked softly, suddenly looking like a wounded puppy: eyes watering, lips quivering.

We all perked up and nodded out heads quickly. “Oh no, I like it!” I said.

“It’s really growing on me,” said Vega.

“I think I see your vision now,” Trix said, red in the cheeks. Nobody wanted to set the pregnant general off. “Now that you say it will be made with programmable materials—that makes so much more sense.”

Eris beamed, tilting her chin up. “I’m glad you like them. I’ve already sent the prototype to armaments, and the outfits should be ready for the siege on Chorus tomorrow.” Eris spent a moment eyeing all of us before she left to go and check on the status of her order. Once she was gone, Vega groaned. “We look like a bunch of sluts.”

“Really?” said Kuzu. “I really think we look cute.”

“I don’t think I can blow anything up in this. It just… It wouldn’t feel right,” said Trix.

“You look like you’re all on your way to a Sailor Moon cosplay convention.”

They stared at me strangely. “What’s that?” they asked.

I just had to laugh. “You look cute.”

“We’re not supposed to look cute!” Vega snapped suddenly, her face turning red. “We’re Lagolians, with a long history of being fierce warriors.”

“Oh, you’ll get used to it,” said Kuzu as she twirled from side to side in her little outfit. She started humming before skipping off to continue with her daily business, tinkering with her mech.

Vega stormed off to change, and it took her a few hours to calm down properly, to stop mumbling under her breath. She was still groaning when I found her later that night, in her own room.

“It’s really not the end of the world, Vega,” I said. “Kuzu’s right, you’ll get used to it. Just let Eris have this. It makes her happy.”

“I just think it could have waited a day,” she said. “Now we’re going to be going into Chorus in those outfits. We’re going to look like idiots during a moment that will probably be remembered for the next thousand years or so. Lagolians will paint paintings and erect statues of us, and we’ll probably be depicted in these… outfits.”

“They don’t look any sillier than your last outfit,” I said. “You were just used to that one. At least this one covers your bum.”

“What’s wrong with my bum?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

And then I remembered that Lagolians weren’t as shy with their bodies as humans. As long as their pussies were covered, they were considered decent. There were even a few outfits on the ship that kept the nipples exposed in a strange way. I’d seen Kuzu wearing one of those tight dresses at a party one night, with a long slit across the breasts so that the nipples could feel the exposed air of Lunar Alpha.

“Just focus on winning Chorus. Don’t focus on what you’ll be wearing,” I said. “It will seem inconsequential at the end of the day.”

She stared at me for a long moment before cracking a smile and shaking her head. “You know they’re gone now, right?” she asked.

“Who’s gone?” I asked.

“The Nekrol,” she said. “When we captured Garangee, Chorus became unstable. The Nekrol were forced to retreat all but five units from the moon. So now, it’s probably deserted completely—for the first time since the Nekrol took it from us fifteen years ago.”

“Tomorrow we’ll capture Chorus, and then in three days we’ll capture Djarko, and then you can move back to your homeland.” I watched as her face lit up. Her cheeks were glowing a curious shade of pink.

“It’s going to be so… surreal.”

She turned to look out the window, looking towards that star, which was just coming up over the lunar horizon: Chorus, the star around which Lago orbited. Then, Vega’s face turned a soft white. “But it will be deserted,” she said.

“No more Nekrol,” I smiled, but she wasn’t smiling now.

“No more Lagolians either,” she said.

“Well, you’ll be coming back.”

“A tiny fraction of us,” she said. “When we were forced to leave, we were only able to take about one-hundred thousand Lagolians on the mothership. Everyone else was forced to stay, to battle the Nekrol hordes. We only had so many ships, and not enough time to build more. A few billion Lagolians were left behind. Maybe they were able to survive—some of them…”

“Try to think forward,” I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. “There will be a time to grieve and then a time to rebuild. The best thing you can do is make your planet stronger for the future.”

“I know,” she said without looking at me. “It is what it is… We did what we could. We saved everyone we could. It’s just… hard.”

I gave her a hug and was surprised when she turned into me and hugged me back. She nestled her face against my chest and let out a deep breath of air. “The outfits really aren’t that bad, I guess,” she said.

“Put it on,” I smiled. “Let me see it again.”

She rolled her eyes, paused for a moment, and then she marched over to her closet and picked the outfit up off of the floor where she’d tossed it earlier in a fit of rage. “If you make fun of me—even for a second—I’m going to drag you down to the portal and sell you as meat on Holodnor.”

I won’t lie: my heart skipped a beat, not entirely sure if she was kidding or not. She slipped out of her clothes, turning her naked back to me as she stepped carefully into the battle outfit prototype. She shimmied it up her body and gently stuffed her breasts down into the tight top. She turned to me with an unimpressed look.

“Quit frowning, Vega,” I said, stepping up to her. I put my hands on her sides. The fabric was soft, like silk. She looked down at my hands.

“You’re trying not to laugh,” she said.

“I’m not,” I said. “And I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so self-conscious. Just relax.” I leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. We kissed for the next few minutes, and then her head turned to the side, letting me kiss her neck. At least I thought she was letting me kiss her neck. I leaned back and noticed that she was looking out the window, once again looking out at Chorus, shimmering just over the lunar horizon.

“The outfit is a bit more comfortable than our previous uniform,” she whispered.

I grinned. “Better access too,” I said, pulling out my cock and lifting up her skirt so that I could push my tip between her plump lips. She gasped, looking down, turning red. She put her hands on my shoulders and melted into me. I pushed into her and watched as her skin suddenly glowed, ears perked up, head tilting back. Once my hands were cradling her butt cheeks, she lifted her legs up and wrapped them around me.

“I suppose the access is convenient,” she moaned, letting her body fall down, pushing my rod deeper into her body. “Just do me a favor and pull out. I—I think I can feel myself ovulating.”

I was surprised that she hadn’t gotten pregnant yet. The Lagolians didn’t have a regular estrous cycle. They became receptive during sex, dropping an egg so that they could breed whenever and wherever, just like rabbits on Earth. I’d lost count of the number of times I’d unloaded inside of Vega’s warm, tight pussy. I’d watched my white cream billowing out of her at least a dozen times, but none of those loads had gotten her pregnant. It was interesting to hear her saying that she could feel herself ovulating; it made me wonder if she had some amount of control over her fertility. Eris wanted to be pregnant and seemed to become pregnant based on her own will.

I started thrusting into her, watching with amazement as her lips parted and she moaned, louder and louder. I loved the feeling of her arms wrapped around my neck. I loved the way she grinded her pelvis against my lap, making sure my cock was ramming into that sweet-spot, her G-spot.

I’d fucked Vega dozens of times, and I was always surprised by how tight she was, and how hard she could contract her vaginal muscles, clenching my cock as if she was trying to squeeze the cum out of me… And it always worked; I never lasted as long as I wanted to last when I was with Vega. This time, she gasped when I came, forgetting her only rule.

“Kyrie!” she said before I was even finished coming—but she didn’t try getting off of me. She allowed me to unload inside of her warm fertile hole. “What did I say!?”

“Sorry,” I groaned, and then I managed to pull out, making my cream fall down from her gaping pussy. It made a loud splat on the floor between my feet. “I forgot.”

“I am not missing the siege on Chorus,” she hissed. “Your horniness isn’t taking that away from me.”

And then her wristband beeped, glowing with a sudden red light. “What’s that?” I asked as she looked down at it.

Her face seemed to whiten and her lips slowly parted. “It’s Eris…” she whispered.

“What about her?” I asked. My heart bounced. Something was wrong. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” Vega said.

“What is it, Vega!?” I said. “Are my kids okay? Is it her pregnancy? What!?” My heart fluttered down into the pit of my stomach.

“It’s Chorus,” Vega said. “It’s stable.”

CHAPTER XVII

The room was silent as we all waited for Queen Syabus to enter. Eris’s face was white, but not as white as Vega’s—or as white as Kuzu’s. There was a terribly long silence before Kuzu finally said, “Are you sure it’s not a computer glitch?”

“It’s a signal straight from the portal,” Eris said. “Chorus is stable. Djarko is stable. Zor is stable. Kalikus is stable...”

“How is that possible? Where did the Nekrol go?” Vega asked, breaking her own stunned silence.

Trix came into the room with a panicked look on her face. “It’s a mistake, right?” she said.

“It’s not a mistake. The Nekrol must have just… left,” Eris said.

“Does this mean that the war is over?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“So wait—we can go to Chorus now?”

“Technically, yes. The portal is open. But we need to wait for Queen Syabus’s command. She’s on her way down now.”

“There must be some mistake,” said Kuzu, shaking her head. “Why would they just retreat? Where did they go?”

“We’ll get answers soon enough,” Eris said. “Right now, it’s late. We need to verify the information, complete a set of scans, and send squads to check to see if Lago is indeed safe. Then we can figure out how to make the announcement.”

Two of Queen Syabus’s officials filtered into the room. They brought silence with them, but Queen Syabus still wasn’t there. I looked around the room at the stunned girls. But it was the face of Kuzu that was especially heartbreaking. She was looking at the star map, which was now on the screen, showing all of the stars that the Lagolians now controlled. The number had nearly doubled suddenly. Chorus was now green. Eight star systems beyond Chorus were green.

“Maybe it’s some sort of trick,” I said. “The portal can only detect units within a certain range, right?”

“It’s worth considering,” Eris said. “Maybe they’re trying to lure us into some sort of trap… But that would be violating galactic war regulations, and that’s not something the Nekrol have ever done before. But it’s a possibility. We aren’t going to make any sudden moves. We’ll do a full lunar scan of Lago. I’ve already ordered the scan of orbiting bodies. It’s underway and the report should come within the hour.”

Finally, the door opened and Queen Syabus came in. She had a tired look on her face, and her hair was pulled back into a messy bun. “I want to see the original signal,” she said, heading straight for her seat and ignoring everyone in that room.

Eris was quick to pull up the direct signal from the portal. It was a simple set of lines, translated into Lagolian. At 11:00 PM, Garangee turned stable. At 11:12 PM, Chorus turned stable. At 11:16 PM, Djarko turned stable. Then Zor went green at 11:17 PM, and Kalikus went stable just a few dozen seconds later. “It looks like the Nekrol retreated back, all the way to the tri-portal on Roth-12, where our controlled territory ends. It’s unclear where they went from there. Roth-12 is still unstable.”

“Why?” the queen asked.

“We haven’t figured that much out yet.”

“We need to prepare the armies to perform a full sweep of Lago. I want one hundred ships ready by the morning. I want a full report and clearance by 10:00 AM.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

Queen Syabus took another minute to stare at the screen, reading the portal signal and looking over the updated star map. Then she stood up and left. Her job was seemingly done and she apparently had nothing else to add. And there really wasn’t much to say. We could only speculate, and there was no sense in staying around to speculate. On her way out the door, she said, “I want regular updates as information comes in. I’ll be awake.”

“Yes, your majesty,” said Eris again. And then the queen was gone.

After another silence, there was a moment of celebration. Smiles filled the room and some of the girls hugged. I caught Vega with tears in her eyes, lips pressed thin as she tried not to smile. Kuzu was the only one who didn’t seem happy. She stared at the screen for a long moment. The next time I looked over at her, she was gone, having slipped out of the room while nobody was looking. Maybe she wanted to be alone.

The celebration only lasted fifteen minutes. Eris brought silence to the room by saying, “Everyone needs to return to their rooms. Get some sleep. In five hours, we’ll be sending you all down to secure Lago.” She smiled as she said it.

“Yes, general,” Vega said, nodding her head.

But it was hard to sleep knowing that the war was quite possibly over. There was a small chance that the Nekrol were trapping the Lagolians in some last-ditch effort to stop the Lagolian momentum. But the data suggested that the Nekrol had simply realized they weren’t going to win. They were probably tired of sinking resources into a never-ending war. They were robots, sure, but resources are finite—even for robots. It took them fifteen years to conquer the star systems between Chorus and Sol, and they lost them in a fraction of that time. It seemed perfectly possible that they just weren’t prepared to spend another fifteen years reclaiming lost ground. It seemed perfectly possible that they decided to go off and harass another race—maybe those rat creatures that I met on Holodnor.

I did manage to get a few hours of rest, unlike Vega, who kept tossing and turning next to me. I woke up a few times and saw her standing by the window, staring out at Chorus, apparently uninterested in sleeping. When I woke up to my alarm in the morning, Vega was already set to go, in her new cute outfit (fresh from armaments), with her sword on her back. “We’ve been assigned to secure Kreea.”

“Kreea?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.

“The old capital city,” she said. “Our ship leaves in twenty minutes, so get dressed.”

I pulled myself to my feet and got into my new battle outfit, looking somewhat like I was larping as a Cossack warrior. Vega handed me an infantry rifle and she smiled. “Ready to see Chorus?” she asked.

“It’s so surreal,” I said. “But I’m ready.”

We were met by Kuzu in the hallway, along with two of the younger infantry girls. “No offense, Kyrie,” Vega said. “But I’m going to command this mission. I know Kreea pretty well.”

“It’s fine,” I said. I didn’t mind letting her be the leader; it made sense, after all. Kreea wasn’t even a portal map, and it didn’t exist in the simulator. I’d never even heard of it until fifteen minutes earlier.

Vega led us all down to the mechanics bay, which was now bustling with armed Lagolians, looking like a battalion ready to storm Normandy. The large room was loud and buzzing with excitement. Girls were already boarding those disc ships, ready to blast off to see their home moon for the first time in fifteen years—and for many, it would be the first time ever.

Vega turned to us and perked up. “We’ll take our time,” she said. “There’s no clock this time. There’s no rush. We secure one building at a time—together—and if we encounter any action, we focus on getting a signal to HQ. We don’t dive right into battle. Got it?”

We all nodded our heads.

“If the Nekrol are hiding there, there won’t just be five of them. It seems unlikely that there will be any action, based on the reports that came in this morning, but that doesn’t mean we can let our guards down. The lunar scan showed no signs of life in any of the cities.” Then, she turned strangely pale as she paused. It was good to know that there probably weren’t any Nekrol warriors, but it likely meant that there weren’t going to be any surviving Lagolians either. “Keep your comms on. There will be four other units in Kreea with us, securing different sectors. You can switch your comms to the general channel if you need to communicate with them.”

“Got it,” said Kuzu, nodding her head. The mechanics were now loading her mech into Vega’s disc ship.

Vega nodded her head, and then we all followed her onto the ship. It was now 9:58 AM. “Two minutes to clearance,” Vega said, firing up her ship. I settled in next to her. The rookie girls took seats, looking pale and nervous and tense by the wall. Kuzu did a quick check of her mech. Now, she had a smile back on her face, and she was colored with excitement. Maybe this would be her chance to fight for Chorus. Maybe this was the chance that she missed out on—that everyone missed out on when the Nekrol left.

Vega’s wristband beeped. “Queen Syabus just gave the go-ahead. Setting course for Lago. Everyone ready?”

“Ready,” the girls said. I nodded my head in agreement. The ships around us began to rise into the air. We went up with them, and then we waited in a short queue as the ships turned and went through the large opening, into the wide portal that was now set to Lago, showing the pinkish-purple clearing where the battle would have been fought if the Nekrol hadn’t fled overnight.

Once in the Lagolian atmosphere, we went up, high into the air. Now, we all looked out at the landscape: rolling hills of pink and purple, long rivers and flowing streams going in and out of forest clusters. It would have looked like Earth if those were yellow and green tones. Vega was trying hard to focus on controlling the ship, but her attention kept drifting out the clear walls, looking down at the moon where she spent the first half of her life. Her eyes glowed, and at one point I was sure I could hear her heart pounding into her ribcage.

“Okay,” Vega said, taking a deep breath. “Setting course for Kreea.” She pressed a few buttons. The ship turned, and then we entered into that near-warp-speed that could get us from Earth to the Moon in matter of minutes. Now, we were ripping over the large moon, flying over incredible forests and mountains and giant bodies of water before we finally slowed down over a large city, which looked a lot like Kentaurus now: reduced to piles of rubble and ruins. Though unlike Kentaurus, Kreea was overgrown. The planet was already in the process of consuming that old, abandoned and blown-up city. Vines constricted entire walls. Purple grass suffocated roads, with pink weeds billowing out from every crack on every surface. Some parts of the city looked indistinguishable from the forest parks that had never been touched by cement and metal.

The air on Lago was humid and salty. The conditions weren’t ideal for metals, so they hardly ever used metals as building materials, because rust set in so quickly. Now, buildings that had been made with metal were almost completely eroded away. Vega and Kuzu both looked out with wide eyes. They were silent, gasping occasionally as the disc came to a stop over a large clearing where a statue once stood proudly; now, it was a pile of rocks.

“We’re here,” Vega said softly, looking around at the city. It looked like it had been abandoned for hundreds of years. The plants on that planet worked quickly. Most of the walls were even covered in a pinkish-green moss, making them blend into the landscape. If this was Kreea after fifteen years, then after thirty, there would be nothing left. Some buildings even had large trees growing out of them, breaking through the crumbling rooftops.

“Are we going down?” I asked, clutching my rifle.

“We have to wait a minute. The ship is doing a scan for active life. I have it set to scan a five-kilometer radius. Once it’s finished—and it should only take a moment—we can go down. So far, I’ve only picked up small heartbeats: mice and groms, probably. Maybe the odd corpaca or deer. I’m not detecting any mechanical activity. No radio signals or tandem signals that the Nekrol usually send out. If they’re here, they’re possibly dormant—maybe even powered down. I am picking up a lot of metallic materials, and organic materials beyond plant life.”

“I’m ready to go down, said Kuzu, now climbing into her mech. Overnight, the mechanics had rigged a sort of dish onto the arm of the mech, replacing the cannon arm. Presumably, the dish was for scanning for life, just as Vega was now doing with the ship.

“Scan’s almost done. No explosive materials detected,” Vega said, and then the silence returned to the ship. I watched a deer run out from a crumbled building. It looked up at our ship, paused for a moment, and then darted away, down the street. A pack of deer followed. And they really did look just like Earth deer. “Okay, let’s head down. We’ll clear the area while the ship moves north to scan the upper sector of the city. If anything is hiding here, we’ll find it.”

The ship came down slowly. Every heart on that ship was racing.

Finally, the hatch opened. “Go, go, go!” Vega commanded, and we all filed out, Vega taking the lead. We rushed to the first building and took cover inside, spreading out and crouching before receiving our next order. “Check windows,” Vega whispered as she clutched her sword, ready for any attack. Maybe we were being overly safe, but it wasn’t wise to take any risks. We didn’t want to be the ones to die hours before the official end to the war. We’d come too far for that.

I went to a wide hole in the wall, which had once been a window. I noticed the bullet holes around the trim. The wall around the window was blackened years earlier. Now, it was almost completely covered in moss.

The street outside was clear and quiet. “Clear,” I whispered.

“Clear,” said the girls.

“Scan shows no activity,” said Kuzu, who was still outside, moving slowly down the road as she turned her dish from left to right. “Buildings are empty.”

We moved to the next building and went through the same protocol, moving through one room at a time. I had a little scare when a Lagolian ship rumbled overhead: a crew moving to another sector of the city to complete their own set of scans.

We were in our fifth building when Vega got a message from HQ. “Patatora has been cleared. They’re clearing debris for Lunar Alpha now,” she said, pressing her finger against her earpiece.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“One of our biggest cities,” Vega said. “They’re telling us to finish clearing Kreea before returning to help set up the new base.”

We cleared another thirty buildings. Then, we started finding bodies of both Lagolians and Nekrol warriors.

Pieces of the A.I. robots were everywhere: blown up and scattered. Charred Lagolian bodies made the girls squirm and gag. But mostly, we found skeletons. The battling hadn’t lasted more than a few years. Ten (or maybe more than ten) years of decomposition on an abundant planet didn’t leave much in terms of organic matter. Though there were a number of blood stains that stood the short test of time. The girls wept a few times.

We were in that city for hours, until the sun was starting to set. Then we boarded Vega’s disc and set off for the other side of the moon. As we came to a slow above Patatora, I saw the giant planet that Lago orbited, rising up and glowing on the horizon. It was a similar shade of pinkish-purple, casting that magical glow onto that Lagolian moon. Behind it was another moon, rising at a slightly faster speed. The young Lagolian girls stopped and gawked at the sight. Kuzu froze and her lips parted. Even Vega had to pause to take in the sight: one she was familiar with but hadn’t seen in so long.

“Incredible,” I said.

“We’re home…” Vega whispered.

And then she looked down and I did the same, seeing the ruined city of Patatora. Patatora wasn’t nearly as dense a Kreea, the capital, and the wild vegetation of Lago had worked its way across most of the city. Buildings had been completely flattened by bombing raids. The odd wall was left standing, now covered from top to bottom in vines and moss—but bullet holes were still very visible: a harrowing reminder of the chaos that besieged the moon after Lunar Alpha left.

Crews were already hard at work, clearing up debris with mechs and large tractors and clunky discs that floated in the air, using huge nets to lift away boulders and crashed Lagolian and Nekrol ships. The work would stop every time a body was found. Then, all of the Lagolians would stand and salute the body as they placed the fallen down in a large field. After a few hours, that field was almost filled shoulder-to-shoulder with skeletons and charred corpses. Some of the charred bodies were so rigid that they weren’t able to pry the firearms from their dead hands, so they were put to rest holding their guns.

The sound of weeping was constant and it nagged hard at the soul. But there was hope in the air as well. There were tears of joy as Lagolians saw familiar sights and felt their native ground beneath their feet. Lagolians fell to the ground and thanked their god, and many rejoiced with hugs and cheers.

But the bodies kept piling up, bringing silence back to the population.

Mechs went down the streets. “Until further notice, all Lagolians are expected to remain within the confines of Patatora! Until additional sectors are deemed safe, please do not leave the designated area!” The announcement was made over and over, and it kept going well after every single Lagolian had it memorized.

Guards were stationed around the edge of the town, to stop intruders from coming in and to stop curious Lagolians from venturing out. The Lunar Alpha engines remained idle, and the population was on high alert, ready to board and escape at the first sign of a threat. There was still a possibility that the Nekrol were hiding underground, waiting to emerge and attack Lunar Alpha in a bid to win the war through unregulated means. It was seeming more and more unlikely by the minute, but the chance was still there.

Every hour, a new report would come in from another city. Lagolian squadrons were still finishing their safety checks. Towns were deemed safe—and empty. Each report was bitter-sweet: peace was more certain, but it was becoming increasingly clear that there were no survivors.

Billions perished to the Nekrol: an incomprehensible massacre, beyond anything Earth had ever experienced.

The Lagolians were decimated, but they were victorious. Now, it was time to start rebuilding, and there wasn’t a wasted minute.

I woke up the next morning to the loud roar of heavy machinery: giant work machines razing ruins while clever engineers took their measurements for the new city. There didn’t seem to be any red tape holding them back.

I looked back at my bed, at Vega and Trix, who were now snuggled up together, snoring peacefully. Eris was hard at work and hadn’t slept more than a couple of hours in a few days. Kuzu just hadn’t been around much, and now, I wanted to find her.

I went down to her room, but she wasn’t there. Then I went to the common room where she often hung out, but she wasn’t there either. So I went down to Lago and meandered the loud, rumbling streets, trying to stay out of the way of all the large machines that were apparently desperate to make that moon normal again, creating a nice home for the thousands of children quickly growing up on Lunar Alpha. The kids hadn’t been taken down to see Lago yet. Nobody under fourteen was allowed to visit the moon until the entire place had been deemed safe. Some suggested it might take weeks to scour every nook and every forest and every cave. Some were saying months—and I’d even heard one group of Lagolians saying it would be at least a year before they allowed the race to properly move back down onto their native soil, where their race evolved and lived for millions of years.

It became quickly obvious that I wasn’t going to easily find Kuzu. That city was buzzing with thousands of working Lagolians, and many of them were obscured behind tinted mech glass. So I went back to the ship, sat for a while by the window in the food court, meandered the strangely empty hallways, and then I started on my way back to my room. I was halfway there when, by chance, I spotted Kuzu.

She was alone, behind an almost-closed door, in a room that was designated for studying Lagolian students. Now, she was at the small desk by the window, not using the computing device, but instead staring out at the woods beyond the city. Her gaze was glazed over, looking like she was asleep with opened eyes. “Kuzu?” I said.

It was a few seconds before my words made it into her brain, and then another few seconds before she made herself blink and register that I was talking to her. “Oh,” she said robotically. “Hey, Kyrie.”

“What are you doing in here?” I kept my distance from her, sensing that something wasn’t quite right. There was a tension in that small, lonely room. Something was really bugging her.

“Just waiting,” she said.

“For what?”

She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “My next shift, I guess. They have me clearing debris, but they stopped me after ten hours. Mandatory ten-hour breaks after every ten-hour working session.”

“Oh, really?” I said.

She nodded her head. Then she turned back to the planet.

I took a small step towards her, feeling a peculiar coldness that seemed to be all around her. “Something wrong?”

“Nope,” she said without turning to me.

“I mean—not to call you out or anything, but everyone seems happy but you. I don’t like seeing you like this.”

Now she was silent, refusing to look at me. My words seemed to sink her into a deeper depression, and that coldness became even sharper.

“Kuzu?”

“What?” she said.

“I just want to help cheer you up. The other girls are talking about building a home. Trix even has some drawings of what she has in mind, and—”

“—I just don’t get it,” she said suddenly.

“Get what?”

“Why they left. They just left. They just… gave up, right before the big, important battle. It’s just so… anti-climactic. We’ve been at war for as long as I can remember. My friends died on the battlefield. There was so much pain and sweat and suffering… and then they just left. They didn’t even give us the chance to finish them off.”

“Well, maybe it’s for the best, Kuzu. It’s better they just surrender than taking a few more lives with them.”

“I would have died,” she said softly, still without looking at me.

“Don’t be crazy.”

“I’m not being crazy. It’s the truth.” Finally, she turned to look at me. Her eyes were wet and her lips were pressed thin. “I would have died fighting on Chorus—even if we lost the fight, I would have rather died.”

“Is this your way of telling me that you’re suicidal?”

“Don’t be annoying, Kyrie,” she said, turning away from me with a small scowl. Was she angry with me? I’d never seen her angry before. “You don’t get it.”

“No offense, but I don’t know if you get it. You have your home back. The war is over. No more of your friends are going to die.”

Now, she was silent, with no rebuttal.

“Why don’t you come get some food with me?” I said.

Still, she wouldn’t speak.

“Kuzu, c’mon,” I said.

“I want to be alone.”

“Well I don’t want you to be alone. You’ve been down for weeks now. I hate seeing you like this. This isn’t who you are.”

“My parents were warriors,” she said. “They both died here, on Chorus.” She pushed her tongue against the inside of her cheek. “When the Nekrol first showed up and Lunar Alpha retreated to Garangee, they played defense. Back then, we didn’t know anything about the Nekrol. We didn’t have them built into the simulators; we didn’t know what kind of firepower they had. And back then, they had higher level units. They came in with a level-forty infantry who killed nineteen Lagolians before my daddy took him out. But they both died, here, fighting for Lago. That was fifteen years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It is what it is. It’s how they wanted to go out. My dad was a vet from the Ekturian War—level thirty-eight with two-hundred and ninety kills. Dying for Chorus was ideal for him… better than dying of old age.”

“You fought for Chorus, and I’m pretty sure you must have a few hundred kills.”

“I’m a level-twelve with eighty-four kills, Kyrie,” she said, glaring at me with narrowed eyes.

“That’s it?” It was hard to believe.

“It’s irrelevant now,” she said. “You’re right. The war is over and I should be happy about it. And you’re right—I gained eleven levels with sixty-two wins against the Nekrol. I guess I shouldn’t be complaining.” But her tone was almost sarcastic. Maybe I was missing the point.

And maybe she did just need some time to get over it. Maybe she needed some time to realize that the war had ended in the best possible way and now she could look forward to a lifetime of peace and happiness, not worried she was going to be sliced to pieces by some Nekrol scout, or blown apart by some Nekrol demolitionist.

I lingered in that room for a long moment, and then I took a step backwards, towards the door. “I’ll leave you alone then,” I said, feeling strangely guilty. But why was I guilty? Was it my fault that she was upset? Did I come in and somehow steal her thunder? Did Andrei and I take away some glory that had been reserved for her and the other Lagolian fighters? They were losing before we showed up. Now, they had their home back.

Maybe I really was just missing something…

I turned towards the door, and then she spoke. “So are you heading home then?”

“I’m going to grab some food and then I’m going to head back to my room.”

“No. I mean—the war is over now. Are you going back to Earth?” She turned and looked into my eyes, and then I froze. It wasn’t something I’d actually considered since we found out the Nekrol had retreated. She was right: I could go home now. They didn’t need me anymore. This was the opportunity I’d been looking for… at least I thought it was what I was looking for. I originally didn’t want to go back to Earth because I was afraid of abandoning them. Now, there wasn’t much holding me back. I knew that I could make visits back to Lago to see the kids and the girls, but I could have a relatively normal life back on Earth. It wasn’t too late to apply for colleges, so I wouldn’t fall behind my friends. I could take Ria out before some other guy got to her, and maybe I could have something like a normal human relationship…

But now, that wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t have much desire at all to head back to Earth. I didn’t really want to go back to human society, with the nine-to-five wage-slave grind, endless debt, being a nobody on a planet with billions of people, constantly bickering and fighting over some political election or another. I wanted to stay with the Lagolians. I wanted to help them rebuild. I wanted to be with my harem of beautiful girls. “I think I’m going to stay.”

There was a short pause. She turned to look at me again. “Really?” she said.

“Sure.”

“What about your Earth school that you were always going back for?”

“I guess I don’t need to go back,” I said.

“What about mating with an Earth human?”

“I don’t know. Maybe one day, but I probably have enough kids for now.”

“What about your human family?” She looked completely perplexed.

“I’ll visit from time to time,” I smiled. “But I like my Lagolian family. I’m here because I like Eris and Vega and Trix—and you, Kuzu.”

“Well I’m not ideal genetic stock,” she said. “I’m thin and I have small breasts—not ideal for carrying or breastfeeding large litters; I’m not at all like Eris.”

I laughed. “I still like you.”

“I don’t even have good warrior genetics. Without a mech, I’m frail and weaker than most Lagolian girls.”

“I don’t care about that,” I said, still laughing.

“Then what do you care about, Kyrie?”

“You’re fun and clever and passionate—and you’re beautiful.”

“None of that would transfer to a subsequent generation,” she said, rolling her eyes as if I was talking nonsense.

I stepped up to her and put my hands on her waist. I’d almost forgotten how petite she was, almost childlike in my grip. “You’re more valuable than you think you are.”

“I can’t even pleasure you the way Trix can,” she said.

“Says who?”

“I’ve seen Trix pleasuring you, Kyrie. I’ve seen your face turn dark shades of red with her.”

And now I was blushing. Trix did manage to satisfy my naughtier curiosities, but Kuzu was special in her own ways. She always completed a threesome—and a foursome; she had a way of bringing the other girls into the act. Maybe it was the fact that she was likely-bisexual and never hesitated when I asked her to eat the other girls out or to suck on their breasts. But even when I was alone with her, the sex was satisfying. It wasn’t remarkable in any specific way that I could pinpoint; it was more… well-rounded. She wasn’t too fast, not too slow, not too wild, not too gentle.

“Are you wanting to breed with me now, Kyrie?” she asked with a whimper.

“We should probably close the door.”

“Everyone is down on Lago,” she said. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

“If you say so.”

I slid my hands up her body, until my fingers were around her top, which was easy to pull down over her small, perky breasts. She let out a sigh as I cupped her breasts and squeezed, pulling playfully until I was tugging on her nipples. “Oh God, Kyrie,” she moaned.

It was nice to see her starting to relax. She closed her eyes, bit her lip, and let a small smile slip out when I squeezed and pulled a second time. Seeing that smile was a relief. She seemed to like the breast massage I was giving her, so I kept going. I carefully sat down and lowered her down onto my lap.

She let out a long, soft, cute sigh before saying, “I’m glad you’re going to stay, Kyrie. I have to admit that I was worried you were going to leave us.”

“I don’t think I could force myself to leave.”

“Good,” she said, and then she whimpered again as I leaned in to suck on her now-erect nipple. “Oh God, Kyrie. That feels good. Don’t stop. But you have to tell me…” She gasped suddenly. “I can feel your erection! My God, Kyrie, you’re so hard! And it’s throbbing… Oh God…” She squirmed and moaned. “Tell me why you like to suck on my breasts? What’s the point? Is it part of some human mating ritual? Don’t get me wrong—oh God—it feels good; it feels really good. But it’s not something I’ve ever heard of before. In fact—oh God, just like that! —in fact, it’s something that babies do, so I don’t understand why it feels so good. Are you listening to me, Kyrie?”

“I’m listening,” I said. “Just try not to overthink it, Kuzu. I just like sucking your tits.”

“Okay. I suppose that’s fine. Maybe suck on the other one now. You’re going to make me ovulate, Kyrie. Your pheromones are so strong right now.” She wriggled her body, and I could feel her plump pussy lips through her tight leggings, nestling around the bulge of my cock. She began to rock back and forth, massaging my length with her tight pussy bulge. I couldn’t stop sucking on her nipple.

She pushed her fingers into my hair. She moaned and gripped two handfuls of hair before pulling. Her thighs trembled. She pushed her body down harder, grinding her slit down hard against my rod. Now I could feel her wetness seeping through her leggings, seeping through my shorts.

I laughed. “You’re going to make me come.”

“Don’t stop sucking me, Kyrie,” she said, pushing my head back down. So I kept sucking her perky nipples. Now, I had my hands on her butt cheeks. I let a sly finger slip between her cheeks, finding her little back door. I pushed a fingertip into her and felt her clenching hard. Another warm gush seeped through our clothes. I felt her tight lips quivering, clenching, gushing.

Her skin was so soft and so warm. She smelled so fucking good. I loved the way her catlike body curved and contracted on top of me. Now, her amazing slit was grinding on the tip of my cock. The pleasure was intense, making my heart race. I pulled her head down and made her kiss me. She forced her tongue into my mouth. She sucked my face until I grabbed her black hair with my hand and pulled her head back, making her gasp.

“Oh God!” she moaned loudly. “Oh God, Kyrie! Oh God! Your big cock feels so fucking good against my little clit! Oh God!”

And I wanted to fuck her. I wanted to stick it in her and pump her little body with my seed. But I didn’t make it that far. I never even got my cock out from my shorts. I unloaded in my boxers. I felt my warm cum gushing against my pelvis and ruining my outfit. My cheeks flushed red and I froze, and she looked down at my lap with a gasp, watching as the wet spot began to grow. “Kyrie, did you ejaculate!?”

“I guess so,” I said, shying away, feeling like a fourteen-year-old who just had his first embarrassing sexual experience.

“We can’t reproduce if you ejaculate in your pants,” she said, as if it was something I didn’t know.

“It just happened!” I said. “But just pretend like it didn’t happen. We’ll, uh, get back to my room, get cleaned up, get some dinner, and we’ll have a proper go at it in an hour or so.”

She blushed. “Okay,” she smiled. And then she took my hand and giggled, looking down at my pants. It didn’t help that there was cum trickling down my thigh, escaping from my shorts.

I won’t lie: it was embarrassing. But I made up for it later, fucking her until she couldn’t stand upright. And it was nice having her sleep with me for the first time in what felt like weeks: snuggling her tight bum against my lap, and her soft dark hair under my chin.

Life on Lago was shaping up to be… perfect.

CHAPTER XVIII

After what was quite possibly the longest and most restful sleep of my life, I went for a stroll with Kuzu down on Lago. I held her hand as we walked the recently cleared streets. Amazingly, about five square kilometers of Patatora had been repaired, seemingly overnight—not the buildings, but the streets and sidewalks looked brand new, and the rubble and ruins had been moved away, except for a few buildings: historic sites that were deemed too important to be removed; they would stand as pieces of history, landmarks of another Lagolian age.

A statue of Queen Syabus was being erected in the middle of what looked like a large traffic circle. The statue was already twenty feet tall and they’d only finished up to the queen’s sternum. Lagolians used their ships to lower giant rocks down, which they carved with heated beams from a large machine that looked a bit like a mobile grain elevator.

It was a loud area, with another set of large machines humming nearby, digging out the foundation of what was likely going to be a large building. So I was surprised to see Andrei sitting in a folding chair, reclined, with a drink in one hand and a stack of textbooks at his side. “What the hell is he up to now?” I said.

“Why don’t you go find out? I’m going to see if they need any help,” Kuzu said, and then we parted ways after a small kiss. Andrei peered up at me as I approached him. He only gave me a quick smile before returning to reading from the thick tome that was perched on his lap. I eyed the title on the top of the page: Phiamar Physics: Application and Designation.

“Doing some light reading, Andrei?” I asked.

“There are equations in here that would change the Earth overnight,” he said, thumbing to the next page.

“I’m sure. They’ve been at it here for a lot longer than us.”

“It’s really amazing how much Einstein had right—and how much he had wrong. I mean—just look at this.”

He turned the page to me, showing me a diagram of what appeared to be an atom. I didn’t look at it for too long before saying, “Have you taken five minutes to relax since the war ended?”

“Relax?” he said. “I am relaxing. This is a dream.”

I had to cover my ears as a large dump truck rolled by, carrying a few thousand pounds of concrete debris. “You know there are areas you can hang out where they aren’t working, right?” I had to yell so he could hear me.

“I’m trying to multi-task,” he said. Then he nodded towards the under-construction statue. “That’s called a Prion Beam. The way they work it is really fascinating. It’s got a set of three gears and a solanator, and there are mirrors on the gears—”

“At least put on some ear protection!” I said.

He smiled. “I heard you’re going to be staying here, now that the war is over.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Who told you?”

“Coraro,” he said.

“Who?”

“Didn’t you meet Coraro?”

“No? Who’s Coraro?”

“Anyway, word got around.”

“What about you?” I asked. “Are you going to stay here?”

“No way,” he said quickly. “I mean—I’ll come back from time to time. But I’m going to spend the next couple of months here and then I’m going to head back to Earth for college.”

“Really?”

He nodded his head. “I’m basically going to cram as much knowledge as I can here and bring it back with me. Hopefully I can revolutionize a few things over there—maybe even get the human race to space… properly.”

“You really think that’s a good idea?” I asked, once again covering my ears as they reloaded the Prion beam so that they could continue carving that stone statue.

“Sure. Why not?”

“You think humans will be better off when they find the portal on Sol? You think they’ll be better off when they find out about Holodnor, and they realize there’s a whole galaxy that they can hypothetically conquer through war?”

“You never struck me as the hippie type, Kyrie,” he said, looking back down at his textbook. “It’s inevitable. We already went to the moon. Had we just landed a few hundred miles away and found the portal, humans would have already met the Lagolians, been to Holodnor, discovered the regulators, and found all of this information. Last I heard, the Chinese and the Americans are both racing to get back to the moon. One country is going to find that portal, Kyrie.”

“I suppose you’re right,” I said. “And I guess you just want to etch your name into the history books, huh? Are you going to tell everyone that you got your info here, or are you going to pretend like you figured it all out yourself?”

He grinned. “Are you going to rat me out?”

I had to laugh. Andrei had never struck me as a guy who wanted anything to do with any spotlight, but I suppose all humans have a little bit of that temptation buried deep inside of them.

“You know, Tesla once claimed that his breakthroughs came from a higher power. Maybe he came up with less than we think.”

“Just don’t let all of this get to your head.”

“Don’t be silly, Kyrie. Relax a little bit. We just won the war, after all.” He grinned and turned back down to his book.

“Kyrie!” a female voice shouted behind me. I turned and saw Vega waving me down. So I said my goodbye to Andrei and then I jogged over to her, away from the noise of the construction. “I was looking for you on Lunar Alpha.”

“Why? What’s up?”

“I want to show you something. We’re going to lose our window.”

I followed her back to the mothership. We went to the mechanics bay and got into her little ship. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“I was assigned to clear the Gorro Lake zone, about two hundred kilometers from here,” she said with a beaming smile. “It’s a special clearance and I’m due to be done in four hours. I want you to come with me.”

“Sure,” I said as I boarded the ship. I was hardly on the ship and she already had the engines going. The door wasn’t even closed before the ship lifted up off of the ground. “What’s the big rush?”

“Well, it’s a big area to clear in four hours,” she said. “And I want to show you around before we run out of time. It will probably be a month or two before the area gets cleared to the public. I had to beg Eris to give me the clearance. Queen Syabus hasn’t given specific permission for Lagolians to travel to remote areas yet, and Gorro Lake is considered remote.”

“Is this the lake where your dad took you?” I asked, remembering one of our first intimate conversations, which took place on that very ship. She turned to look at me with wide eyes and a cheeky smile. She bit down on her bottom lip and turned a cute shade of pink. “There’s a chance the cabin is still there.”

I was happy for her, but I could tell that she had her hopes way, way up. “Just don’t be too sad if it’s not there. We can always build a new one,” I said. I didn’t want to crush her enthusiasm, and thankfully I didn’t. She still couldn’t stop smiling, excited to see an area that left such a big impression on her as a child.

“I spent nearly an hour begging Eris,” Vega said. “Don’t be mad, but I kind of used you as an offer. She’s expecting some alone time with you later.”

“Alrighty,” I laughed.

“Here we are,” Vega said, bringing the ship to a slow as we zipped over a large forest, with a shimmering lake materializing in the distance. “Gorro Lake,” she said softly. Her eyes glistened brighter than the water as the ship lowered down—though there weren’t any spots to land. The woods were too dense.

The distant mountains were enormous and treed from top to bottom. The pink and purple leaves in that sector were especially vibrant, casting a pinkish glow on everything, including us.

Vega took the ship down onto the water, stopping it inches before we touched down. Then, she made a long bridge extend out from the hatch, pushing all the way out to the shore. But before we stepped out, she pointed across the water. “There it is,” she said. I could see the old dock, which looked exactly like a small dock a human would build for his own little lake fishing boat. And in the trees behind the dock was a cottage, engulfed in trees but still prominent from that low angle. “That’s his cabin,” she said.

Then she hopped down onto the thin metal bridge. The air was surprisingly crisp: cool and humid, but still. A symphony of bugs and birds filled the air, but the woods were totally still. All of the animals were in hiding, save for a pair of creatures that looked like large pigs with antlers; they were drinking from the lake, seemingly unaware that we were there.

“It’s exactly how I remember it,” she said, looking around.

It was a beautiful place, as beautiful as some of the most stunning spots on Earth, but I was more interested in watching her in her little military dress, eyes full of wonder, lips curled into a perfect smile. Her sword was on her back, which seemed unusual; she usually had it drawn whenever she was in a military scenario—and this was, technically, a military scenario. We were there to clear the area of threats: any traps or snares left behind by the horde of A.I. killer robots.

I stayed by the ship and watched as she walked to the trees, feeling the leaves with the palm of her hand. She looked up at the massive forest and let out a soft sigh. “I really can’t believe we’re here right now. In a weird way, it feels like I never left. I’m half-expecting to turn my head to see my dad there.” She laughed nervously, turning to look down the shoreline. “Or to look down and see that I’m just a little kid, and the last fifteen years were just a dream.”

“Well one day you’ll look to see your own kids playing around here,” I smiled.

“Do you want to come to see the cottage with me?” she asked, finally turning to look at me.

We walked the shoreline. She was so strangely relaxed, but I didn’t feel quite so undisturbed. I kept hearing noises in the forest: probably just little animals, but the noises were enough to make me lift my rifle, expecting an ambush. It had been forty-eight hours and the Lagolians hadn’t detected any signs of Nekrol presence. They had remote-controlled ships orbiting constantly, scanning every inch of that moon—but it was a big moon; nothing was guaranteed.

Vega climbed the rickety steps up to the wooden cottage. Vines had overtaken the doorway. She ripped them down with her gloved hands so that she could tug the door open, which groaned with fifteen years of inactivity.

The dust made us both sneeze, even before we walked into the old space. Vega tried flicking on the light, but the power was dead. So she walked to the window and grabbed an old rag, using it to wipe away the dust so light could come in from outside.

It wasn’t a big space, and it wasn’t remarkable in any way, but it was cozy. There was a couch, a small kitchen, and a little bedroom with a big bed. “I used to sleep on the couch,” Vega said, hopping onto it, sending a plume of dust into the air. We both sneezed again. Then she laughed. “I swear it’s normally cleaner than this.”

“It’s nice,” I said. “I can imagine all of the memories you made here.”

“I’m just so happy to see that it’s still here. Then she turned and noticed something just as I noticed it: four bullet-sized holes in the wall, letting beams of light through. We stepped over. Vega ran her gloved fingers over the holes. “At least they spared the structure,” she said.

“Did you have family living here?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “But there are some other cottages around here. I’m guessing the war eventually found its way out here, and everywhere for that matter.”

There was a loud fluttering, making us both jump. Vega pulled her sword off of her back in a fast second, and I crouched down, spinning towards the door, ready to fire upon an intruder. But the sound was just a bird taking off nearby.

“We only have a few hours to make sure this area is cleared,” she said. “We should probably get on it. I just wanted to show you this spot.”

“It’s a lovely spot,” I said. My heart was pounding.

She smiled and walked to the door. I stood up. Then she turned to me. “So tell me, Kyrie. What do you think I should do?”

“About what?” I said, narrowing one eye.

“Now that the war is over,” she said. “I’m twenty-nine and close combat is my only skill. I’ve got a lot of life ahead of me and, unless Queen Syabus finds us another war, I’m going to have to find a new profession. So what do you think I should do?”

“I guess you can do whatever you want to do. Paint pictures, write books, film movies… maybe you can be a carpenter or something, I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

“I’ve never really thought about it—not until recently. I guess I just assumed we would be fighting forever. I really didn’t think the war was going to end so… abruptly. I mean—I figured we would be fighting the Nekrol for years, even after we took Chorus. They controlled about a dozen star systems beyond Chorus before they retreated, after all—maybe more beyond that.”

“I heard that people pay good money for mercenaries on Holodnor. Maybe you can get into that,” I said.

“I don’t think many races would hire a female mercenary—especially a Lagolian female. We’re too small and dainty.” She smiled. “Though I’ve heard of Lagolians selling themselves on the Holodnor black market for other means.”

She opened the door and took a step out. Then, a heavy blast splintered the door frame inches from her head. She screamed and fell back. “Vega!” I shouted, rushing up and grabbing her, pulling her back just before the barrage of green-tinted hellfire rained down on the front of that cottage.

I looked down at her face, which had a series of small cuts and splinters. “Are you okay?”

“It’s Nekrol fire,” she said. “We need to get out of here. I should have done a scan! Why didn’t a run a damn scan!?”

Shots pierced the wood walls, buzzing by us narrowly. “Let’s get out of here before they blow the cabin up,” I said.

“There’s a back door. This way.”

We went into that small bedroom. Vega used her body to crack that door open, breaking through the thick vines that had consumed it over the years. We rushed into the forest behind the cabin. Gunfire roared around us. “Fire back, Kyrie!” Vega said.

So I spun around and dropped to my knee, trying to locate the source of the firing. I couldn’t see them, so I just started firing back, sending small bursts into the trees across the water. They fired back at me, chipping up the trees and logs around me until Vega tugged on my shirt and pulled me down into cover.

“I’m an idiot,” she said.

“Why?” I asked, pumping a new magazine into my rifle.

“Because I left the comms in the ship,” she groaned. “And now I’m guessing they have the ship surrounded. We’re in a bit of trouble, Kyrie.”

“We’ve fought our way out of trouble before,” I said. “You can sneak around and flank them. I’ll keep firing. Though I’ve only got eight more mags here.”

“It’s suicide. This isn’t a skirmish, Kyrie. It’s an ambush. There could be fifty or a hundred of them. We’re not shooting our way out of this with eight mags. We need to retreat into the forest and figure out how to signal for a rescue. If we can survive for long enough, Lunar Alpha will send a crew to find us. C’mon, I know these woods.” She grabbed my wrist and led me away from the battle. We cowered as we rushed over fallen logs and through dense bushes. The old trails were overgrown, but still there. We only stayed on the path for a few minutes before slipping off.

And for a moment, I thought we were away from the action. Then, a green pulse ripped through the side of the tree to my left, showering both of us with chips of bark. “Damnit!” I yelled, tripping to the ground.

“They’re making ground on us!” Vega cried, pulling me up. “They don’t normally move this fast. C’mon, Kyrie. You need to speed up.”

“Go without me,” I said. I knew I was slowing her down, even with my speed upgrade. I could only move so fast—and she could jump like a deer, bounding over low foliage and through thick undergrowth.

“I can’t just leave you,” she said.

“Just go!” I said, standing up and turning towards the gunfire, firing back to hold them off, so Vega could make her escape.

My heart raced as adrenaline took over. The hot fire from my muzzle made me wince away for a moment as I emptied an entire mag without releasing the trigger, spraying the forest to hold them back.

There were multiple shooters: maybe five, maybe ten—maybe more. I don’t think they could see me clearly because Nekrol hellfire was sizzling all around. I looked back to make sure Vega was escaping—and she really was gone.

My heart fell down into my stomach. I knew I stood no chance against a full-fledged ambush. I knew that this was probably the final moment of my life, but at least it seemed like I was dying for a good cause: giving Vega a chance to survive. She did know those woods after all, and without me holding her back, she could easily get away.

A hot, painful blast cut through the skin on my side, making me scream. I fell to the ground and grabbed at my new wound. The heat of the blast was so intense that it fused the wound mostly shut. “Son of a bitch!”

I groaned before punching a new magazine into my gun. My body ached as I pulled back the bolt. Now, I could hear them coming: approaching, crunching, fanning wide around me. I still had six mags left; if I was efficient, I could at least take a few out and keep them stalled for another minute or two. So I stood up and fired, but a blast from a Nekrol infantry rifle sizzled my wrist, making me scream again, dropping my gun.

I winced away and waited for the killing blow. I was hoping for a headshot, or maybe a direct shot to the heart: something that would end me abruptly, without much pain. “Wait!” a voice called out. “He’s not Lagolian! Cease fire!”

I turned slowly, holding my wrist tight to slow the bleeding. I could see figures in the forest, staring at me with tall ears. They were Lagolians, holding Nekrol weapons, approaching me slowly, guns drawn, ready to fire on me if I so much as flinched. “D—Don’t shoot,” I said, trying not to flex a single muscle in my body.

CHAPTER XIX

They didn’t look like the Lagolians on Lunar Alpha. They weren’t wearing ship-issued clothes. Instead, their outfits were made up of old, tattered clothes, laid over hard armor, which appeared to be made from Nekrol scraps and old mech pieces. Most of them were women, though there were some young men in their ranks: about thirty of them in total, moving in on me slowly.

“What are you?” asked a woman with a pair of black braids.

“Don’t shoot me. I’m human. Please don’t shoot me. I’m unarmed. Frisk me. I swear I’m unarmed!”

“Why do you speak our language? Are you a mercenary?”

“No,” I said. “Well—not really. I’m from Sol. Humans are from Sol. We’re on your side. We’re good guys. Don’t shoot me.”

Two Lagolians came up behind me. Their feminine hands quickly started patting me down all over. One of the girls grabbed my cock through my pants, making me gasp—and then she gasped as well, pausing for a moment and blushing before working down my legs. She cleared her throat and stepped back. “He’s clear, Gaelia.”

“What do we do with him?” asked a girl with frizzy blonde hair.

“We can’t take the risk,” said one of the younger girls in the back. “He’s probably a merc.”

“We should take him in and question him. Hook him up to the crusher so he talks,” said another.

“No,” said the leader with the braids, who was apparently named Gaelia. “He’s got an earpiece.” She reached into my ear and pulled it out with a surprisingly aggressive yank.

“Ouch!” I said.

“It’s imperial,” she said before crushing it with her gloved hand, letting the small pieces fall to the ground. “He’s definitely a merc. Our position is already compromised.”

She raised her gun. This position felt strangely familiar, reminding me of when I first met the Lagolians, and they nearly ended me in that forest on Earth. Now, they were all raising their rifles on me, about to blast me into tiny bloody fragments.

“Don’t!” I yelled.

“Don’t shoot him!” Vega’s voice called out. All of the girls turned to see Vega with her blade across the throat of one of the scrappy-looking Lagolian males. His face was whiter than the bleached stones by the lake. His lips were parted as that metal began to push into the skin on his throat, even drawing a small drop of blood. Now, all guns were turned on Vega. “Shoot me and he dies with me,” she growled.

“Vega,” I said. “Why didn’t you run?”

“I’m not leaving you here, Kyrie,” she said. Then she turned to the army. “Drop the guns now!” Her voice roared, making some of the young fighters jump. “Do it!”

And they followed the order, slowly pacing their guns on the forest floor. But Vega kept that blade to the boy’s throat.

Then, a silence overwhelmed the woods.

But there was one girl who wasn’t putting her weapon down: Gaelia, looking unimpressed, with her tongue hard against her cheek. She was ready to put a shot right through the boy’s chest, just to take Vega out.

“Put the gun down, woman,” said Vega.

“Rot in hell, you imperial piece of shit.”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re on about right now but if you’re looking to get yourself killed, along with all your friends, you’re off to a great start.”

“We survived the last fifteen years; we can survive you and your little sword.”

Vega and Gaelia stared at one another as if they were engaged in some sort of life-or-death staring contest.

“Alright, how’s about we all put down our weapons at the same time,” I said.

“Shut up, mercenary.”

“Don’t tell him to shut up or I’ll slice your boyfriend’s head clean off of his pencil neck,” Vega barked.

“He’s not my boyfriend, bimbo whore!”

“Call me a whore again, scrappy! I dare you!”

“Vega!” I shouted. “Put the sword down. That’s an order!”

She turned her head to me with wide, shocked eyes. “Kyrie!” she said. “Do you want us dead?”

“I don’t want anyone dead! You’re all Lagolians! Why the hell are you fighting right now?! Put the sword down!”

Vega’s lips pressed thin and she growled before easing her sword off of her target’s throat. She bent down and placed the blade on the forest floor. The boy ran away, clutching at his throat and gasping for air. Now, the girls all picked up their blasters and aimed at us, but they didn’t fire.

Gaelia looked at me, and then she looked at Vega. There was a terrible silence in the air.

“What are we doing, Gaelia?” asked one of the armed girls.

The silence persisted.

“Are we shooting?”

“I don’t know!” Gaelia snapped. Then she stuttered. “Take out the blonde’s earpiece and frisk her.” Then she looked at Vega. “Why do you have a mercenary? And what happened to the Nekrol?”

Vega looked at me, as if she was looking for permission to answer the question, so I nodded my head. “The Nekrol retreated,” said Vega. “We captured Garangee a few nights ago and then the Nekrol went into full retreat. Now we hold every star system up to the tri-portal system on Roth-12.”

Gaelia just stared, eyes narrowed, as if she wasn’t sure if Vega was telling the truth or not.

“Are you saying you came in on Lunar Alpha?” Gaelia asked.

“Yes.”

“Prove it.”

“Fine. I’ll have them send a transport from Patatora. Let us go back to our ship.”

“Don’t you dare tell them that we’re here,” Gaelia snapped suddenly. Now, all the troops were looking nervously around.

That silence returned, until Vega shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but the war is over. We forced the Nekrol to retreat. We’ve been scanning Lago for the past forty-eight hours and we haven’t detected a single Nekrol in any sector.”

“We aren’t worried about the Nekrol,” she said.

“Then who the hell are you worried about?”

They looked at one another, seemingly unsure of who to believe or what to think. And we must have looked just as confused.

Then, Gaelia nodded her head towards Vega. “Who’s the queen?”

“Queen Syabus.”

Then Gaelia laughed. “Still? And how’s that?”

“She’s done a fine job under the circumstances. She’s leading the rebuild now.”

“You’re either downright stupid or completely naïve,” Gaelia laughed.

“What are you on about, scrappy?”

“Call me scrappy one more time,” Gaelia said, raising her firearm. It was scary how much the two women had in common.

“Break it up,” I said. “Put the guns down. There’s obviously something being lost in translation here and we’re not going to get to the bottom of it by bickering like this. Vega’s telling you the truth. The Lagolians were being pushed back by the Nekrol. They landed Lunar Alpha on Earth’s moon in Sol, and then we started fighting them back together. The Lagolians were actually pushed all the way back to Pythias before we started winning ground. We won Garangee the other day, and then the Nekrol retreated. Two days ago, the queen ordered Lunar Alpha to land here on Lago. That’s all the truth. Now tell us your side of the story, and then maybe we can figure out what the hell is going on.”

Gaelia looked at both of us, and then she cleared her throat. “After Lunar Alpha left, fifteen years ago, the Nekrol stormed Lago and began exterminating everyone, led by imperial commanders and generals.”

“Wait—what?” Vega said, suddenly flushing white.

CHAPTER XX

We were frisked again before being taken to a nearby cottage. As a safety precaution, they cuffed us both and kept us cuffed until we were seated at a table, with ten different troops armed and aiming at us, just in case we decided to try something. Now, we weren’t angry or annoyed about it; the precaution was understandable, assuming their claim was genuine.

“They’ve been hunting us for fifteen years,” Gaelia said, placing her Nekrol battle rifle down on the kitchen counter. The cottage had been fortified with sheets of armor, looking unsuspicious from the outside, but like a bunker on the inside. There was even a small base underneath, with an old wooden door as the only entrance in and out. Or maybe the base wasn’t small at all—it was impossible to tell seeing as we were being kept upstairs.

Two girls stayed by the cottage’s only two windows, peering out, nervously on guard.

“We noticed the Nekrol ships leaving a few days ago. We watched them all heading towards the portal. For the past two days, there hasn’t been any aerial activity at all. Usually there are at least two or three aerial scans every day.”

“How did you manage to survive?” I asked.

“Luck, mostly,” she said. “And we found that their scanners can’t seem to penetrate more than half an inch of standard lunar graphene, so all of our bases are coated with at least a few layers.”

“What level are you?” Vega asked suddenly—the question seemed inconsequential.

“Thirty-five,” said Gaelia.

Vega let out a little snicker.

“Vega…” I said. It really wasn’t time to compare dicks, so to speak.

“I’ve killed level-fifty commanders, girly, so you can wipe the smirk off of your face.”

I shook my head. “So why would Lagolians be commanding the Nekrol armies?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation back on topic.

Gaelia shrugged her shoulders. “We’ve spent the past fifteen years trying to figure that out.”

“Does Queen Syabus know?”

She shrugged her shoulders again. “How could we know? We’ve been hiding in holes. We got a bit of information using the crusher. One troop we captured talked a little bit. He told us that it was a twenty-year-plan. He told us General Morix was in charge of the operation.”

“General Morix was the general before Lunar Alpha left Lago. He stayed behind to lead Lago’s resistance against the Nekrol invasion,” Vega said to me.

“Well that’s what we thought too, at first,” Gaelia said. “But he switched sides pretty quickly. He sold us out. Maybe it was to save himself—we don’t know.”

“How do I know you aren’t lying?” Vega asked.

“Why would I be lying?” Gaelia said.

“It doesn’t add up. You’re suggesting that the queen engaged the Nekrol to wipe out Lago—but we also just spent the past fifteen years fighting them and being killed by them. We were on the verge of losing everything until we found Kyrie and his friend.”

“I’m not telling you who’s responsible or why, I’m just telling you what we know. We pretty much stopped trying to speculate years ago. We’ve been focusing on surviving.” She turned to the small kitchenette and poured herself a mug of what looked like coffee, but smelled like burnt grass.

“Well then we need to tell Queen Syabus right away, in case the rogue Lagolians are still here,” Vega said.

“You aren’t telling Queen Syabus anything,” Gaelia growled. “Not until we know for sure that she doesn’t want us dead.”

“It wouldn’t make any sense,” Vega said shaking her head.

“It’s irrelevant. You aren’t saying anything. In fact, you aren’t going anywhere. You’re staying here.”

“Bullshit,” Vega snapped. “They’re expecting us back in less than two hours. When we don’t show up, they’ll be sending a search party.”

“We’ll hide,” Gaelia said, crossing her arms and tilting her chin up.

“They’ll find us. You’re looking at the father of the general’s children,” Vega said, turning to me. Now, everyone was looking at me, so I smiled, showing my teeth awkwardly.

“Who’s the general?” Gaelia asked after a pause.

“General Eris.”

“Never heard of her.”

“She’ll have every Lagolian from Lunar Alpha here, armed and ready to kill to get Kyrie back.”

Now Gaelia was looking into my eyes. “What did you call yourself? A human?”

“That’s right,” I said.

“Cross-breeding with Lagolians?”

I nodded my head. “To be fair, nobody told me how easily you get pregnant.”

“Well that puts us in a bit of a predicament, doesn’t it?” Gaelia said, turning to her troop of guards.

There was another long silence in the room.

“They aren’t giving us much of a choice. We can either believe them or not. It’s up to you, Gaelia,” said the young blonde by the window.

Gaelia looked back at us. “It is odd that they were scouting with just the two of them…” she said. “And I can tell them not to rat on us, but how can we know if they’ll keep their word?”

We sat in the tension of that room for the next two minutes, which felt as long as two hours, and then Gaelia groaned. “Okay,” she said, shaking her head. “I guess we let them go back. But let me just say this: if you tattle on us, and an imperial army storms down on this forest tomorrow, we’re going to be ready. I’m not saying that we’ll win, but we’re going to take as many of you out as we possibly can, and we won’t make it easy on you. We’ve been surviving in these woods for fifteen years and have made it through more than a couple waves of attacks.”

Vega stood up. “Good. Then take my cuffs off.”

Gaelia hesitated. She didn’t seem to like Vega very much, and to be fully honest, I wasn’t terribly fond of how Vega was acting. She was so cross with the survivor, when she should have been thrilled to see that there were survivors at all. She didn’t seem to believe the girl, and her distrust had me wondering if Vega’s suspicions were warranted. But why would they be lying? Why else would they have secret bases hidden deep in the forests of Lago? It’s not like they were with the Nekrol, even though they were using Nekrol weapons and covered in Nekrol armor.

They took off our cuffs and allowed us to leave. They followed us back to our ship with their weapons, but once we were at the tree line, they stopped. They wouldn’t go closer to the ship, probably worried they would be seen by one of the ship’s cameras, tipping off Lunar Alpha.

We boarded the ship but we didn’t leave right away. Vega turned to me before looking out at the trees around Gorro Lake. “How are we going to explain our injuries then?” she said.

“We can say we fell,” I said.

“Really?” she said. “You fell on a rock that was hot enough to fuse your wound shut?”

“Well what do you suggest?”

“Cover it up and don’t show anyone. We’ll get in a lot of trouble if they find out we found survivors and didn’t tell anyone. The other option is we tell Queen Syabus. In fact, that’s what we probably should do. It’s our obligation as soldiers of the crown.”

“But what if the queen had something to do with all this?” I said.

“Oh, don’t be nonsensical, Kyrie. We also spent the past fifteen years fighting the Nekrol, Kyrie. Queen Syabus isn’t some sort of a masochist.”

“Fair enough…” We stared at each other for a long moment. “Well maybe we can tell Eris and get her opinion. I’ll command her not to tell Queen Syabus. I can do that, right?”

“I suppose you can, seeing as you’re her breeding alpha. Though if her will to tell Syabus is strong enough, it might override her loyalty to you… though knowing Eris, I doubt that would happen.”

“And we can tell the other girls too: Trix and Kuzu. We can have some sort of vote—or maybe we can come up with some sort of solution. They might have ideas.”

The ship was quiet when we returned. Most Lagolians were in town, helping with the cleanup and the rebuild. Vega messaged Eris and asked her to meet in my room for a secret meeting. I messaged Kuzu and Trix. Within fifteen minutes, everyone was there, and I made sure the door was closed before we told them about our day at the lake.

Eris was shocked and white all over. Trix’s reaction was teetering on anger; she was already coming up with wild conspiracy theories. Kuzu covered her mouth with both hands and shook her head. “Oh my God—that’s so awful,” she said.

“Long story short, we don’t know what to do,” I said.

“We have to tell the queen,” Eris said.

“No,” me and Vega both said in tandem, and I was surprised to hear Vega’s ‘no’ come out so quickly. I turned to look at her and saw that she almost looked just as surprised by her own ‘no’.

“The only reason I can think to not tell the queen is if we think she might want these Lagolians dead,” Eris said, and then her eyes widened as she looked around the room. “You don’t actually think that, do you?”

“I don’t know what to think,” I said.

“I’d believe it,” said Trix, standing up and pacing around the room. “I’m sure you’ve heard the theories before.”

“What rumors?” Eris asked.

“Oh, you’ve heard them: that the queen has girls quietly killed who aren’t genetically ideal. Not naming names, but a friend of mine told me she saw the queen’s top officials taking five gagged girls down into the basement release hatch room.”

“That’s fiction!” Eris snapped.

“I have no reason not to believe her,” Trix said, crossing her arms.

“Was this one of the girls in your little Fight Club by any chance?” Eris asked, and then Trix’s face turned a shade of red.

“That’s irrelevant.”

“So wait,” I said, shaking my head and trying to get a grip on what Trix was suggesting. “If this is some sort of eugenics thing, how does that add up?”

“It’s not that hard to figure out, Kyr. She picked the top hundred thousand Lagolians to board Lunar Alpha and left the rest behind to die to a horde of A.I. robots that she contracted.”

“But we were also fighting the Nekrol,” Vega interjected.

“A little bit of survival of the fittest thrown in to make it even more effective,” Trix said with a small, curious grin.

“We lost all our best fighters early in the war,” Vega said, and it was a good point. The Lagolians lost literal war-heroes during the first ten years of the war. In fact, they lost war-heroes up until the end of the war: Ilyra, Myrah, Kari, General Dryas…

“I’m just saying it’s possible,” Trix said.

“It seems unlikely,” Vega said, shaking her head. “But I can’t help but believe the survivors. Maybe Lagolians were behind all of this. It makes my stomach turn just thinking about it, but it’s possible. There were many Lagolians who thought we would have been better off with Queen Lyaya’s utopian fantasy. Hell, there are still Lagolians who think that.”

“Are you outing yourself?” Trix asked with a grin.

“Don’t start with me.”

“Maybe some Lagolians just changed sides to escape death,” said Kuzu. “That’s what happened in the Ekturian War. Hundreds of Lagolians thought we were doomed and hid on Kalikus before it went unstable so that they could join the Ekturian ranks.”

Both Vega and Eris spat on the ground simultaneously. I wasn’t sure if that spit was for the traitorous Lagolians or for the race of black-skinned lizard people.

“We need to make a decision,” I said. “And before we do, I’ll just point out that Gaelia and her people put a lot of faith into us, sending us back here alive.”

The room became silent.

“We’ll find them one way or another,” Eris said. “We have scans scheduled in the area, and multiple waves of ground patrol. They can’t hide forever.”

“Maybe we can just sneak them back onto the ship,” Kuzu said, perking up as if she had the best idea ever. “We’ll just sneak them aboard and Trix can meet with her criminal friends to get them quietly registered into the system. Maybe we can even do it without Queen Syabus or her officials finding out.”

“Cute idea, Kuzu, but it’s not practical,” said Vega.

“And what do you mean, my criminal friends?” Trix said with a dropped brow.

“Don’t you have those?” Kuzu blushed.

“We told them we weren’t going to rat on them. We should at least live up to our promise.”

“You’re going to get me in a lot of trouble,” Eris said cautiously. “I almost wish you wouldn’t have told me about this.”

“Maybe you can have scans in the area rescheduled, or moved elsewhere,” I suggested.

“Now you’re trying to get me in some serious trouble.” She rolled her eyes.

“If you have to send crews to the area, just send us—until we can figure out a way to assimilate the survivors.”

“I’ll play along for a few weeks—at most,” Eris said. “But I’ve got kids and I don’t want them to grow up without a mother. I’m not getting ejected over this. So please do me a favor and get to the bottom of this quickly.”

I winked. “Sure thing, General Eris,” I said.

“Don’t tease me, Kyrie,” she said, trying to look as professional as possible, standing upright with her chin up. “And don’t forget that you promised to meet with me alone this evening.” She turned to leave the room, blushing slightly while the other girls tried not to let their little laughs slip.

CHAPTER XXI

The tension on Lunar Alpha was thick over the next few days. Eris pulled some strings for us, so we could take a ship out from the protected zone to deliver supplies to the Lagolian survivors by Gorro Lake. We were trying to help them—but more than anything, we were trying to win their trust. Vega sat down with Gaelia and tried to convince her to take her crew of survivors to Patatora. “If you reveal yourselves publicly, what are they going to do?” she said. It wasn’t a terrible plan, but Gaelia just shook her head.

“No way in hell,” she said firmly. “We’re staying here.”

On our third trip to Gorro Lake, the survivors were working on crafting armor outside of the little lakefront cottage that hid the entrance to their underground base. I also noticed a few heavily armed troops returning through the back door, heading straight down into that base, which we weren’t allowed to see. It looked like they were coming back from some sort of training exercise—almost as if they were preparing to defend themselves from an attack… or maybe they were preparing to be the assailants.

What made me more nervous than anything was when Vega mentioned the name ‘Queen Syabus’ and two of the girls in the room spat on the floor, the same way Vega and Eris spat when we were talking about the Ekturians. It was clear that they’d determined that Queen Syabus was their enemy, responsible for all of the death and suffering on Lago, though they couldn’t quite explain how the theory made much sense, seeing as Queen Syabus had also spent the past fifteen years fighting the Nekrol horde.

“Maybe a few of you can come to Lunar Alpha,” Vega said. “Don’t give away your position—just test the waters.”

“They’ll set us up,” Gaelia said, shaking her head. Now, she had her long braids wrapped around her head, looking like she was preparing for some sort of traditional Dutch celebration.

“I understand your hesitations, but I think you’re being paranoid,” Vega said.

Then Gaelia leaned over the little cottage table, now with a smirk on her face. There was a fire in the cast iron stove—a unit that looked like something that could be found in a human cottage; the fire crackled warmly, releasing a pleasant woody smell. “Did you not tell me that you had to get special permission to travel here?” she asked Vega.

“We don’t just need special permission to travel here. We need special permission to travel anywhere outside of Patatora. In fact, we’re currently supposed to be in the Eluna Lake region right now.”

“And don’t you think that’s a bit fishy?” Gaelia asked, still with that smirk on her face. “I mean—it’s been a week. You’ve scanned the whole moon. But still, Syabus won’t allow anyone outside of the city. What is she afraid you’ll find?”

“The Nekrol,” Vega said with confidence.

Gaelia laughed. “You’ve scanned the entire moon at least five times. You don’t strike me as a dumb girl, Vega. Nekrol troops emit standard EPO frequencies. If they were here, you would have found them in seven hours. It’s been seven days.”

“They don’t emit anything when they’re dormant—not even EPO frequencies.” Vega’s eyes narrowed. I could tell that they were about to get into another fight. I was tempted to put my hand on Vega’s shoulder in an attempt to calm her down, but I knew the attempt would probably just accomplish the opposite.

“When they’re dormant, they emit a receiver frequency. Don’t play dumb.”

“Quit calling me dumb.”

“Girls,” I said, hoping to bring the conversation back to civility.

“Queen Syabus is looking for signs of activity, but she’s not looking for the Nekrol,” said Gaelia, still smirking. “She’s looking for us. Had she called off the scans on day two—or even day three—then I probably would have relaxed somewhat. But now we’re on day seven, and these scans are still ongoing. We still hear the discs whizzing overhead at least twice each day. Our unit in Corpaca Falls told us that three different ground crews did full sweeps of the area.”

Then Vega paused. “Unit in Corpaca Falls?” she said. “You have more than one unit?”

Then Gaelia’s face turned red. She’d given away more than intended. “It’s just an outpost,” she said, looking away and sipping her coffee.

The back door opened and three more Lagolian units came in, clad in armor, carrying heavy Nekrol rifles. They eyed us before slipping through that basement door. Vega watched them carefully, examining their gear before turning to look at Gaelia. “Preparing to attack or defend?”

“Whatever we have to do to save ourselves,” Gaelia said.

“Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

“Likewise.” Gaelia stood up and walked to the counter to pour herself another steaming mug of Lagolian coffee—something I still wasn’t brave enough to taste. “Maybe instead of bringing food and clothes, you could bring us a few weapons. We haven’t been able to access the portal to Holodnor, so we’ve been stuck with these low-level Nekrol guns.”

“I’m pretty sure that would be treason,” said Vega.

“You can support your people or you can support your government. The choice is yours I suppose.”

Once we were back on Vega’s ship, Vega shook her head, groaned, and said, “I’m getting tired of these psychopaths. They’re determined to start another civil war.”

It was hard to know who to trust. Gaelia made some good points, but the theory just didn’t add up.

I was starting to agree with Vega, thinking that the survivors were just suffering from some form of PTSD-induced paranoia—and then there was a conundrum. Lagolians were shouting at one end of Patatora. Everyone stopped working and rushed to see what the pandemonium was about. I went with them, with Kuzu at my side. A large crowd had already formed by the guards at the west end.

Now, a dozen Lagolians were walking towards the town, emerging from the west forest: ten men, two women. They were older, dressed in rags and old, worn armor. Unlike the survivors at Gorro Lake, this crew was armed with Lagolian firepower: high-level infantry rifles, sniper rifles, and a scrappy mech that looked like it had seen at least a hundred battles without getting a nice buffing.

“It’s Commander Kairo!” someone shouted. “It’s Commander Kairo!”

A few of the older Lagolians broke away from the guards to run to the survivors. A horn went off to alert the rest of the town.

“Survivors!” someone shouted. “There are survivors over here!”

Imperial officials rushed in to greet the scrappy, scarred men and women. Another set of officials stood by to keep the rest of us back, giving the survivors some space.

I watched as Commander Kairo gave a woman a tight hug: reunited for the first time in a decade and a half. People clapped and cheered. Kairo had tears in his eyes as he brushed back his blonde, floppy ears and long hair. He waved to the crowd before the officials rushed him towards Lunar Alpha, along with his scrappy crew of misfit warriors.

I spied Vega in the crowd. She was beaming: smiling, lips parted, watching Commander Kairo with her hands clutched at her chest, looking like a teen girl at a Jonas Brothers concert. I have to admit that I was a bit jealous; I had to try to convince myself that she was just happy to see more survivors, and that she wasn’t fawning over the Lagolian Viking nomad.

This was wonderful news; it meant that there were more survivors than we thought. Gaelia mentioned that there was a band of survivors at a place called Corpaca Falls. Gaelia had at least three dozen units in hiding at Gorro Lake. Now, there were a dozen survivors marching in from the woods to the west of Patatora. Maybe—just maybe—there were thousands of survivors scattered across Lago.

CHAPTER XXII

Only a few people were let into the auditorium where the survivors were taken once they had a chance to get cleaned up and fed. A few of the survivors were taken to the infirmary to have battle scars and wounds inspected.

Nine were ready in the auditorium to answer questions from the officials.

I was lucky enough to be let in with Kuzu, Vega, and Eris, along with two dozen other Lagolians. “We didn’t think the war was ever going to end,” said the blonde Commander Kairo. Up close, I could see that he had four long scars on one side of his face—maybe a close encounter with a Nekrol scout.

“How did you manage to survive?” the queen asked.

“We hid when we could. We moved around as much as possible, covering our tracks as we went. And we fought. When we formed our crew ten years ago, there were almost two-thousand of us. Now… well, we’re all that’s left.” He looked like he was getting choked up, but he kept his chin tilted high.

“Are there others that you’re aware of?” asked the queen.

“No, your majesty.” Then he cracked a smile, letting out a deep sigh. “My God, it’s such a relief to see your face.” He cleared his throat. “There are probably more survivors out there—I suppose I can’t say for sure. We’ve been mostly contained to Goradoro. The Nekrol took our ships out five years into the war. We lost most of our mech support a year after that. We had a stronghold with some decent scanning equipment, but that was lost around the eight-year-mark. Since then, we’ve just been on foot… moving from place to place… surviving.”

“Are they really gone?” one of the surviving women said. “The Nekrol—did they really retreat completely?”

“It would seem so,” the queen said. She stepped up to Commander Kairo and put her hand on his shoulder. She smiled and nodded her head. “Your bravery is commendable.”

“Likewise, my queen,” he said. “We really weren’t sure if you were ever going to make it back for us—but I had hope. I knew you wouldn’t let us down.”

The queen smiled, and then she turned to look at me. “Well, you can thank the human. The situation was dire before we found him on Sol.”

Commander Kairo turned to look at me. I felt a strange wave of humility, and then I felt awkward and shy. I forced a smile and tried to think of something to say, but no words slipped out.

“On Sol?” said the commander. “Intelligent life on Sol?”

“Not on the beacon moon, but on the planet it orbits. We will fill you all in on that later. But Kyrie came in and helped us to win a number of portal skirmishes.”

“Glad to help,” I said.

“He’s a curious-looking creature,” said the commander with a small laugh, as if he thought I couldn’t hear or understand him. “But I’m grateful for him. I don’t know if we would have survived another year here.”

“We’re still completing our scans of the lunar surface, looking for signs of Nekrol activity. So far, we’ve found nothing,” the queen said. “But we’re not going to let our guard down… I have to ask, Kairo. It’s been so long since I last saw you. What level are you now?”

“I haven’t had the equipment to check in years, but when I last checked, I was a level-fifty-five.”

“Amazing!” said the queen.

“It would have been great to have had access to some stronger equipment.”

“Well, we’ll have you properly outfitted as soon as possible. Once you’re ready, we’ll get you on the ground to finish up our lunar sweep.”

“I’m ready now, my queen. Anything for you. Anything for the Lagolian people.”

The queen stepped in to give him a firm hug. She gave him a pat on the back and he did the same; it really seemed like they were old friends.

Though the embrace did leave me wondering why he stayed behind when Lunar Alpha was loaded up. Perhaps he wanted to stay to fight for Lago against the Nekrol hordes. Maybe that was a valiant move, but it also seemed like suicide. He was lucky to be alive, lucky the Nekrol didn’t drop a gigantic nuclear bomb on the moon as soon as they took control of the system. And his comrades all seemed like perfectly qualified individuals: the type of people the queen would have wanted on Lunar Alpha when they picked a mere hundred thousand from a population of billions.

It seemed perfectly plausible that they chose to die with their people rather than running away. I couldn’t judge them for that. There was a time that I was prepared to run away with the Lagolians when I thought that Earth was going to be enslaved by the evil robots.

“You must have so many stories,” Kuzu said suddenly, with a similar beaming look to the one that Vega still had on her face. The queen looked over swiftly. Kairo chuckled and the other survivors smiled in a bitter sort of way.

“Stories, sure,” he said. “Nothing I want to revisit. Not now.”

“I’m sure it was a traumatic experience for all of you,” said the queen. “And perhaps you can tell us if you’re aware of any Nekrol bases here on Lago. What happened when they left the system?”

“It was strange,” said the dark-haired woman next to Commander Kairo. “The day before they left, we were engaged in a full firefight. We must have exchanged ten thousand rounds over the course of that day and night. Then, around noon the next day, their ships just went up into the air and left. We were just about to raid a base, just forty kilometers north of here. We were camped out, watching them through our optics. It was weird, like a switch went off. One moment, they had snipers on the walls. The next moment, those snipers turned around and started to form a line, getting onto a large ship. They just… left, as if they received some simultaneous command. We had no idea what was happening—but they took everything; even their walls collapsed and were loaded onto their ships.”

I was tempted to pipe in and ask about Lagolian traitors, but I didn’t want to let them know that I had any insider information. So I bit my tongue for a moment while I tried to figure out how to word my question. “Were they alone?” I asked.

Suddenly, everyone turned to me. “Alone?” Commander Kairo asked after a long silence.

“Who was commanding the armies?” I asked. “I mean, they’re robots. Someone must have built them.”

“There are many theories about where they came from,” one of the queen’s female officials said suddenly. “Nobody knows for sure. I’m sure the survivors know even less than us. The leading theory is that a young intelligent race managed to create a semi-sentient form of A.I., which quickly took them over and wiped them out—maybe thousands of years ago. Now they likely just build themselves.”

“But someone must be commanding them. They were clearly commanded to retreat, after all,” I said, and then I saw the dagger stares all around me. I was chiming in more than I was supposed to, but they were putting up with me because they felt like they owed me.

“I still think the Ekturians are behind this,” said Commander Kairo. “That’s what I thought when we first received their signal at Roth-12, and it’s what I think now. Maybe it was just an act of revenge for the Ekturian War.”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” said Queen Syabus. “We’re on peaceful terms with the Ekturians and we don’t want to jump into another war. If this was an act of revenge, we’ll certainly find out and we’ll punish them properly. But right now, we’re still investigating.” The queen really seemed to be proving to be the voice of reason. We really could only speculate—and there was no shortage of speculation.

The blonde commander turned to look at me again, examining me curiously the way every Lagolian had examined me when I first turned up on their ship. Our gazes met for a moment, and then I was suddenly overwhelmed with a strange sensation of familiarity. Had I met him before? No—it was impossible. He’d been stranded on Lago for the past fifteen years, since I was three-years-old.

But I was sure that I’d seen his face somewhere before.

When he was leaving the room along with the rest of the survivors, I realized where I’d seen him before: in the Lagolian weapon museum, in a picture on the wall next to Queen Syabus’s crazy exoskeletal armor.

So once the meeting had convened, I made my way down to that Hall of Legends, where Vega’s sword had been retired just a week earlier. I was alone as I went into the long circle of weapons, heading straight for that photo—and sure enough, there he was, posing in a photo with Queen Syabus… and a few other familiar faces.

The older woman with the dark hair was there too, dressed as a sniper, looking much younger but still definitely recognizable. Two other men were also dead ringers. One part of me though it made sense. Queen Syabus’s former war partners were more likely to survive a war; they had the knowledge and skills and access to the better firepower. Though it did seem a bit strange that men and women who knew Queen Syabus on a personal level were the ones to survive during a genocide of billions.

No one else seemed to think that it was a big deal, so maybe I was just overthinking it; maybe I was just reading into the situation more than I should have been.

So I tried not to think too much into it, but that became difficult the very next day, when I went down to the mechanics bay with Vega, to get on a ship to head over to Gorro Lake. As we were approaching our ship, a Lagolian man stepped in front of us. He was dressed in the new military outfit: the same curious Cossack warrior outfit that Eris had me wearing. He smiled, turning up his chin to show off his freshly trimmed beard, speckled with grey and white. “Where are we heading today?”

Vega perked upright, placing her feet down close together—almost touching. “The Ryva Sector,” she said.

“Issuing commander?”

“General Eris.”

“Ryva is outside of the permissible zone.”

“Special permissions,” Vega said, keeping her cool. She was certainly keeping her cool better than me. The man in front of us now was one of the survivors, apparently not at all interested in taking any breaks to recover from fifteen years of war. He was a buff dude, with arms like Greek pillars, and a chest like a bear. He had scars on his face, on his chest, and on his wrists—and there was even an impressive scar across every finger on his right hand.

“I have to check your credentials before I can allow you through,” he said. Then he eyed me, making me tense up, perking up right next to Vega. “Just the two of you?”

“That’s right,” said Vega, and then we watched as he walked away to make a call to his superiors.

“They’re going to track us,” Vega whispered.

“Why?”

“I just have a feeling in my gut. Looks like we’re really going to Ryva.”

The large man came back with a warm smile on his face. “I’ve been asked to keep you here for a minute. The bridge commander is going to call General Eris to discuss the matter. You don’t mind, do you?” He looked into my eyes, sending a cold chill trickling down my spine.

“I don’t mind,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “Do what you have to do.”

We watched as he strolled away, stopping the next ground crew before they boarded their ship. They weren’t held up for nearly as long. He stepped aside and they boarded their ship and went off to wherever it was they were commanded to clear.

“Are we about to get into some shit?” I asked.

“I doubt it. Just relax,” Vega said.

“Seems weird that they’re giving us a hard time on this,” I said.

“It’s not that weird. We’re heading outside of the permitted zone.”

“Do you recognize this guy?” I whispered, watching as he went to the next crew, checking their credentials.

“He’s one of the survivors,” she said.

“I know. But do you recognize him—from before the war?”

Vega looked at me for a moment and then she shrugged her shoulders. “Why?”

“It’s just a question.”

“I don’t recognize him, no. Now do you want to tell me what you’re on about?”

I sighed. “Nothing. It’s just weird—that’s all. They show up here yesterday, and today they’re already in control.”

“They’re high-level Lagolian warriors who know the situation here on Lago better than anyone else. Don’t tell me you’re getting swept up in Gaelia’s conspiracy theories.”

“I just think it’s weird, that’s all.”

“I just think you need to relax,” she said, shaking her head. Now, the large Lagolian man was walking back towards us. He looked dead-serious for a moment before smiling suddenly and clearing his throat. He had to look up in order to look into my eyes, as he was a good six inches shorter than me, but somehow it felt like he was taller. His presence was powerful.

“New plans,” he said. “General Eris said that there was a mistake. She meant to assign you to The Rovoso Sector, not Ryva. Good thing I checked in.”

Vega nodded her head. “Roger that,” she said.

“You know your duties?” he asked. “Just to be clear, it’s a three-hour ground sweep. Clear all structures and make notes of anything remarkable.”

“Yes, sir,” Vega said. I didn’t like her taking orders from another man—especially one that had only been on the ship for twelve hours or so. She didn’t know him or where he even came from.

The man looked at me, apparently waiting for me to call him ‘sir’, but I just nodded my head and said, “Thanks.”

He watched us carefully as we got onto our ship. Vega loaded the directions to Rovoso, and then we went up.

“That was weird,” I said.

“Quiet, Kyrie,” she said. “We’ll talk later.” Then she pointed to her earpiece, suggesting there was a chance that they were listening in on us.

Was Vega starting to feel suspicious? Or was she just nervous that I was going to clump her into my conspiracy theory, getting her in trouble with her superiors? It wasn’t easy, but I managed to keep my mouth shut on the topic for the next three hours while we finished the ground sweep on Rovoso. It was a flat forest: sparse and with only a few old, deteriorated structures. We found a few relics from the war: shards of Nekrol armor, casings from Lagolian firearms, and some devastation from a decade-old firefight.

It was dark when we returned to Lunar Alpha and got out of our battle uniforms. We took out our earpieces and then we went to one of the private boardrooms on the rarely-used third floor of the ship. “Eris must have panicked,” Vega said to me. “That’s probably the last time we get clearance to leave the permitted sector.”

“What about the survivors?” I said. “The real ones—the ones at Gorro Lake?”

“The real ones?” she said, narrowing her eyes and looking suddenly offended. “Kyrie, I get that Gaelia is pretty and she’s good with words, but you can’t just believe everything she says. She’s been living in a hole for over a decade. A decade is a long time for theories like hers to spin out of control.”

“I didn’t say anything about her being pretty,” I said—though Gaelia was quite pretty in a natural-beauty sort of way. Her long dark braids made her skin look so fair and soft. She had cute freckles and a nice toned figure. “It’s just… what if these are those guys?”

“What are you on about?”

“These survivors: Commander Kairo and the other guys—what if they’re the bad Lagolians that Gaelia was talking about? Did she not say that the Nekrol were fighting alongside imperial troops?”

“We can’t believe that without proof. That’s a serious accusation, Kyrie. And if you go around throwing accusations like that, you’re going to get yourself—and me—into a lot of trouble.”

The door suddenly opened and we both perked up. Vega even let out a small gasp. Kuzu stepped into the room. She was wiping tears from her eyes before she noticed us. Then she let out her own gasp. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize this room was—oh, hey Kyrie. Hey Vega.”

“You okay, Kuzu?” I asked.

“Oh me? I’m fine.” She smiled, but only for a second. That smile suddenly drooped and then she let out a long groan. “Okay, maybe I’m not totally fine. I was just given new orders. They had me doing ground sweeps in the woods, which was fine, but now they want me hauling garbage from the city to the new landfill to the east. I’m not going to lie—it’s a bit of a nightmare. I get that every job is important, but seriously? They want me hauling garbage!? I risked my life for four years, fighting skirmishes with Nekrol warriors, and now they’re assigning me to haul garbage!?” She was getting progressively angrier and angrier with each sentence that came out from her mouth. “It’s a pointless job. The mech is pretty much just constantly set autopilot. Occasionally I have to turn it off to listen to orders in my earpiece. What a waste of time!”

“It’s just temporary,” Vega said.

“Easy for you to say—they don’t have you cleaning up trash!” she snapped. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lash out like that. It’s just… It’s fine. I’ll be fine. It’s for the greater good. I should be happy to help out.”

“We were turned around today. No more going to Gorro Lake,” Vega said. I was a bit surprised that she was willing to tell Kuzu.

“What? Why?”

“They just didn’t let us through. One of the new field commanders checked our credentials and called Eris. She told them she made a mistake. Gaelia is probably wondering what’s happening now. She’s going to start getting really suspicious when we stop showing up.”

“We need to find a way to get to her, to tell her about the new survivors,” I said.

“But how?” Vega said.

“I don’t know,” I said. “There must be a way to sneak a ship out of here.”

“Good luck,” she said, rolling her eyes. “They have the bay locked down tight, and they’re scanning every possible frequency on the moon, so don’t think about trying to send Gaelia a message.”

“Maybe we can distract them somehow,” I said. “I mean—the ships are quiet. How many people will be watching the bay in the middle of the night? Maybe we can just distract whoever ends up on guard duty. Would they notice a missing ship in a bay with a hundred ships?”

“The radars would pick up the takeoff,” Vega said. “The only way out is with permission from Eris or one of the bridge commanders. And after today, I don’t think Eris is going to be pulling too many strings.”

The room became silent. We were all out of ideas. But I was determined to find a way to get to Gaelia, to get her thoughts on the new band of survivors. I had a feeling I knew what she was going to say—she wasn’t about to trust anyone, and she still didn’t even trust me—but it didn’t seem right to leave her in the dark.

Maybe it would even come as a good surprise to her. Maybe I would mention the name Commander Kairo and she would jump up and down with joy, recognizing the name. Maybe it would be enough to bring her out of hiding.

As we were getting up to head back to our rooms, I looked out the window at a fleet of ships, buzzing by, carrying building materials from one end of town to another. They were a lot like the ships that were used to zip around space, but slower—not much faster than a human helicopter. They could carry large loads in huge nets.

But what caught my attention was that they were leaving the ships on the work sites, the way construction workers leave their diggers on work sites. I found myself eyeing the large metal discs, wondering if one could get from Patatora to Gorro Lake.

“Hey Vega,” I said before she slipped out from the room.

She stopped a turned to me. “What is it, Kyrie?”

I pointed at the ships. “Have you ever flown one of those before?”

At first, her eyes narrowed, as if she thought the question was out of place and pointless. Then I watched as she realized what I was suggesting.

CHAPTER XXIII

It was late when we slipped out from the ship, past midnight, hours past curfew. Vega kept groaning under her voice as we moved from ruined building to ruined building. “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she whispered, shaking her head. She was acting like I was forcing her to do it, but I hadn’t needed to use that particular power. I didn’t have to twist her arm or beg or barter or make any demands; deep down, she wanted answers just as badly as me.

We reached one of the newer buildings, which was going to be a housing complex. The doors and windows hadn’t yet been put on, so we slipped into the quiet structure and tiptoed over to the back entrance. “I just want you to know that we could get jail time for this,” Vega said to me, glaring at me with a flat expression.

I winked at her. “I’m starting to think you like being naughty.”

“Don’t start with me, Kyrie.”

Then she turned to the door and crept up, looking around for guards. The guards were out there: twenty Lagolians were on night duty, watching the town borders for intruders—and watching the town for people sneaking out.

Vega eyed one of the clunky-looking construction discs. “They aren’t meant to travel long distances,” she whispered. “And they’re not exactly meant to go fast.”

“But they can travel long distances, and they can go fast… right?” I said with a little smile. I don’t know why, but I got a kick out of her nervous demeanor; it was actually kind of cute.

“I’ve never driven one,” Vega said without looking at me. “But I looked up the control module and it seems straight-forward enough. It’s a new model, which is actually a good thing. They used to make them with tracking hardware but they stopped including those with the budget cuts that came ten years ago. The question is, can we get it out of here without being seen?”

“If they see us, will they chase us?” I asked.

She stared at me for a long moment, with only the light from the planet we were orbiting against her back. “That depends on how fast we can get out of radar range.”

“Stop right there! You’re under arrest!” a deep female voice shouted behind us. We both spun around fast.

“We were just going for a walk!” Vega snapped quickly.

And then the mysterious Lagolian started to giggle. She covered her lips with both of her hands and said, “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself!”

“Kuzu!” Vega growled. “What the hell are you doing here!?”

“I saw you both slipping out of bed and I wanted to come,” she said, pouting suddenly. “Why doesn’t anyone ever invite me in on the fun?”

“The fewer of us getting arrested, the better,” I said.

“I can help,” she said, clasping her hands behind her tail. “I’m good at sweet-talking. I’ve been told I’m very charming. And I really want to meet Gaelia.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, shaking my head. “You can come, but don’t be upset when you end up being arrested with us.”

“Why would we get arrested?” she asked, tilting her head to one side in a cute sort of way.

“We’re basically rolling the dice. Maybe they see us leave, maybe they don’t.”

“They won’t see us,” she smiled, and then she nodded towards the disc we were planning on hijacking.

“That’s the ship,” Vega said. “It’s not even equipped with an invisibility field. It’s not a military craft.”

“No, silly,” she said. “Behind it!”

And behind it was a standard mech, equipped to move heavy debris around the worksite. “You want to take a mech to Gorro Lake? I don’t think we’d all fit inside,” Vega said.

“I’ll create the distraction while you get the ship ready. Just trust me. C’mon!” Now, Kuzu was leading the way, ducking and jogging out from that dark building, towards the large worksite next door. She was too confident to stop and look around, even when she darted under one of the bright work lights.

“This is crazy,” Vega groaned, chasing Kuzu. I did my best to keep up, but now, the girls were employing their Lagolian speed.

I looked left. I spotted a guard, armed with a rifle, standing with his back to us. Beyond him was the tiny silhouette of another guard. Now, getting caught seemed like an inevitability. Maybe this wasn’t worth the risk.

“Get the ship ready but don’t turn it on yet,” Kuzu whispered. Vega opened the hatch and rushed me on. The walls didn’t turn clear like they did in her spaceship. Now, it felt like we were enclosed in a tuna can, with only a few small windows. There was an unfortunate body odour smell on the ship.

“What is she doing now?” Vega whispered, looking through one of the small windows at Kuzu, who was now climbing into the construction mech. The light came on in the little cockpit. The machine hummed. I peered out the left window; the guard hadn’t noticed the commotion yet.

Kuzu hopped down from the mech, leaving the glass dome window open, just as the mech started to walk to a pile of debris. Now, Kuzu was darting towards us. Vega opened the hatch and Kuzu scrambled in. “Did they see me?”

“I don’t think so,” I said, now watching the mech as it dug its scoopers into the rubble. The rocks crunched loudly as the mech let out a gush of steam, engaging its hydraulic strength.

“What exactly is the plan here?” Vega asked.

“Just wait until they’re distracted, then take off,” she smiled.

Now, the mech was turning towards the landfill at the other end of town. It started marching, hauling two large scoops of debris. We watched for a few minutes. Finally, one of the guards noticed the marching mech and rushed over to it. He tried to see into the cockpit before looking around. “Anyone know how to turn this off?” he called out. He started jogging next to the mech. “It just turned itself on!”

A minute later, two more guards were next to him, jogging alongside it. Now, they were out of earshot, but they were clearly in a commotion, unsure how to operate the modified war machine. Kuzu giggled at the sight. “Okay. Better take off before they send in the pros.”

Vega hesitated. She looked down at the control module. She slid the chunky slider forward, making the ship hum. It rattled for a moment before trembling and then stabilizing. “Here we go,” she whispered, and then the ship wobbled up into the air. “Setting course for Gorro Lake.”

She hit the button, and we were all expecting to be sent into hyper-speed. But instead, the ship slowly accelerated. My heart stopped as I tried looking out the window, to ensure we weren’t being seen. It didn’t help that all of the ship’s lights turned on suddenly, shining down on Patatora below. “This isn’t going great, is it?” I said.

“I don’t think they’ve noticed us yet,” Kuzu said, standing on her tiptoes, face pressed against that little window.

“Well at this rate, they’ve got another ten minutes to turn around,” Vega groaned. She tried flicking a few switches, hoping she could speed things up. “Oh no,” she said, freezing suddenly.

“What?” I said—and then I heard the loud crash below. “What was that!?”

“I dropped the cargo,” she said. Her face turned red.

“Okay, now they’re looking,” Kuzu said.

“That was my bad,” said Vega, now smiling nervously. I looked out the back porthole and saw a long net fluttering behind us, now empty.

“Are they calling us in?” I asked.

“Hard to tell. They’re far away now. But they’re rushing back to Lunar Alpha.”

“Any chance we can make this thing go any faster, to get out of radar range?” I asked Vega.

“Well, at this speed, we’re twenty minutes from being out of radar range, and I think we might be close to max speed… though we are still accelerating.”

The three of us went to the back of the ship and watched as we left Patatora. Now, Lunar Alpha was just a silhouette against a forested backdrop, getting smaller and smaller. “I don’t see anything,” Kuzu said. “Maybe we’re in the clear.”

But she spoke too soon. Suddenly, a pair of discs rose up from the mobile moon base. They floated in the air like little dots for a brief moment, and then they started towards us.

“They’re coming to intercept us!” Vega said, rushing over to the controls.

“Okay, maybe we should take this thing down before we get into too much trouble. We can pretend to be drunk—that’s what my friend’s older brother did when he was arrested for getting into a fight, and they actually let him off,” I said.

“Hold on,” Vega said, ignoring my suggestion. She tilted the ship down. We were all nearly tossed over. Now, we were headed into the treetops. “We’re going to lose them.”

“Are you insane!?” I said, clutching the small handrail along the ship’s wall.

“If they can’t see us, they can’t catch us… I think,” she said, and then we penetrated the branchy wall with a heavy thud. The ship groaned. Vega managed to pull the ship up just before it hit the ground.

Now, she was clutching a joystick with two hands. Her stance was wide as she yanked left and right, dodging thick trees, her face glued to a small window.

“Watch out!” Kuzu screamed before we narrowly missed an especially massive tree. The edge of the ship skimmed it, creating the most horrible sound of screeching metal. But the ship managed to carry on.

“This is suicide!” I said.

“We’ll be fine,” Vega said with a strained voice. “There’s just, uh, one little problem.”

“What is it?” I asked, wincing as a tree branch crashed through the small port hole—it wasn’t enough to stop the ship as it cruised under the treetops.

“We’re still accelerating,” she said. “And I’m not sure how to stop it. I can’t exactly take my hands off of the—oh my God!” She pulled up suddenly, making the ship turn up at a ninety-degree angle, dodging an otherwise unavoidable death against an ancient tree. We flew up through the treetops, sending a plume of leaves into the air. She rolled the ship to get the stuck branch out from the porthole. “Push it!” she yelled at me as we completely on our side.

I gave it a hard push and it finally fell through that broken window, which felt like it was sucking the gravity out of the ship. The sound of the rushing air was almost deafening—I could hardly hear Kuzu screaming.

Vega stabilized the ship.

“I see our friends!” Kuzu yelled from the right window. I rushed over and saw the pair of discs, now about three hundred yards away. They spotted us and turned to close in on us.

“I’m taking it down again!” Vega yelled.

“Oh God, no!” I said—but it was too late. We crashed through the treetops again, narrowly missing a pair of trees. “We’re going to die, aren’t we?” The long net behind us caught the tree, giving us a hard tug, throwing Kuzu and I onto our asses. But the net managed to rip off the tree branch before the tree branch could rip off the net.

“No,” Vega said, steering the ship left and right. “Maybe.”

“You’re an inspiration, Vega,” said Kuzu.

“Thanks.”

“No—I mean you’ve inspired our friend here.”

I looked out the back window and saw the fast disc now under the treetops with us, veering left and right to dodge trees. “That’s not good,” I said.

“He’s closing in on us fast.”

“Well yeah,” said Vega. “It’s a war ship against a construction ship.”

“What can they even do to us?”

“Well, he’s one press of a button away from disabling us with an electro-static pulse wave.”

“Are you saying we’re going to crash?” Kuzu said with a bone-white face.

“No, he’s going to crash,” Vega said as we reached a clearing. “Let’s just hope he can control his landing.” She mashed a button on the dashboard, and then I heard the sudden thump sound beneath my feet. I spun around and rushed to the back porthole just in time to see that speeding disc as it tried to swerve out of the way of the construction craft’s net, which Vega had released. But the disc wasn’t quick enough: the net engulfed it, making it teeter. Then, as we cruised back into the thick forest, the net caught the thick branches of two trees, breaking the branches but sending the disc off-balance completely. It spun and fluttered to the ground, sending up a huge cloud of dirt and foliage.

“Damn!” I said, watching that disc as it became smaller and smaller.

“I’m sure he’s fine, but if they catch us, we’re going to be on the hook for a lot of damage. That was a brand-new military space cruiser,” Vega said, still steering impressively to dodge the trees.

“I’m feeling a bit sick,” Kuzu said, now even whiter than before.

“You wanted to come,” Vega said.

I watched as the other disc came down slowly next to the crashed craft. Within a minute, both ships were invisible, far, far away in those dense woods.

Vega steered up at the next clearing, taking us into the sky. Then, once we were a safe distance from Patatora, she rerouted us in a ploy to trick Lunar Alpha’s radars, so they wouldn’t know where we were headed.

I sat with Kuzu and rubbed her back until she threw up into a tin bucket. I had to hold back her hair for her. “Feel better?” I asked.

She nodded her head. “Sorry you had to see that.”

“Don’t sweat it.”

“We’re about twenty minutes away,” Vega said. “Then we have to figure out how we’re going to get back in unnoticed.”

“Let’s worry about one thing at a time,” I said.

There was something strangely homey about flying in that rumbling tin can. It seemed amazingly human, though the technology was still eons better than anything on Earth. The turbulence was just like the turbulence you would expect in a human aircraft. The beeping dashboard sounded just like my dad’s old Bronco when he refused to wear a seatbelt. The lights in the unit even flickered in an annoying way that I would have only expected from something a human made.

We arrived at Gorro Lake in the middle of the night. Vega took the ship down on the lake, right where she landed the first time that we arrived in that cottage destination. Then the three of us headed straight for the survivors’ cottage base, feeling firearm optics watching us, but seeing nothing in the shadows between the trees.

Vega knocked on the door and a sheepish young woman answered. “Is Gaelia up?” Vega asked.

“No,” the girl said softly.

“Well go on and get her.”

The girl scurried off, leaving the door open. We let ourselves in. Kuzu looked around. “Cozy!” she said. There were two armed guards staring at us. I recognized them both from our previous visits. But now, they looked just as unsure of us as the first day we arrived. They kept eyeing one another, as if they were trying to communicate silently. I was getting the feeling that we weren’t exactly welcome there.

It was five minutes before the basement door opened and Gaelia came out. She was wearing a long satin night robe, which was cut low on her chest, showing off a few scars as well as her immaculate cleavage. I hadn’t seen her in non-battle attire before, and I’d assumed she had no tits, because her heavy armor kept her chest flat. But now, I was fairly sure she had the biggest set of tits in the room, by a long—

“Kyrie!” Vega snapped. “Focus.”

“What’s this about?” Gaelia asked, stretching out her arms, showing off a tinge of side-boob. Vega nudged me with her elbow, catching me as I stole one last glace at Gaelia’s body.

“Survivors showed up at Lunar Alpha,” Vega said. “We thought you should know. They were accepted in with open arms, and they’re already helping with the rebuild.”

“Survivors? What survivors? We’ve been putting out signals for a decade. We’ve got tabs on every group of survivors on the Goradoro continent.” Gaelia narrowed her eyes.

“Commander Kairo,” Kuzu said.

Then Gaelia eyed Kuzu, realizing she was there. “Who’s that?”

“She’s with us?”

“I didn’t ask who she’s with, I asked who she is.”

“Corporal Kuzu,” Kuzu said, standing tall with a proud smile on her face. “Level-twelve tank and mech commander.”

“Cute.”

“Thank you,” Kuzu blushed, not realizing it wasn’t meant to be a compliment.

“You can trust her. She’s just here to try and help,” I said.

“Commander Kairo,” Gaelia said, thinking for a moment. “The name is familiar. One of the queen’s guys, presumably?”

Vega nodded her head, and then Gaelia laughed.

“At first I thought you were naïve,” she said. “And then I thought you were just giving your queen the benefit of the doubt. Now I’m starting to think that you’re just a bit slow.”

“Let’s not start this fight again,” I said.

“She’s your queen too,” Vega growled.

“No way in hell,” Gaelia said, crossing her arms. “She’s the devil and I’m starting to think that you’re just her brainwashed little pawn. You’re either blind or stupid.”

“Call me stupid one more time and I’ll strangle you with your own braids.”

I sighed and let them fight, tired of constantly trying to break them up. Sometimes you need to just let dogs fight so they can work out their hierarchy… maybe Lagolians aren’t so different.

They bickered for the next five minutes. I let my mind wander… and then I let my eyes wander down Gaelia’s body. She was standing now, pacing back and forth. Her nightgown had a long slit in the side, exposing her smooth leg and hip, and occasionally a glimpse of her surprisingly round butt. I hadn’t noticed the band of freckles across her nose before—or the freckles on her shoulders and breasts.

Finally, Gaelia rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why I bother dealing with you,” she groaned. “In fact, I’m strongly considering stopping you from going back to your queen. Something tells me you’re on the verge of ratting me out.”

“Something tells me you’re on the verge of storming Lunar Alpha with a lot of dangerous assumptions in your head.”

“Alright,” Gaelia said, standing up. “I’m done with you. I was having a wonderful sleep and now I’m all worked up. Thanks for the heads up about those survivors. I’m sure they really went through a lot and I’m glad you’re treating them like heroes.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“We just thought you should know, in case you recognize any of the names,” I said, finally pulling out the list that I jotted down: the complete list of survivors in Commander Kairo’s crew. “Maybe you know one of these guys was a defector or something.”

She paused and looked at me for a moment before looking down at the list. Then she looked at Vega. She walked over and leaned over the table, planting her hands down on the surface and giving me a pretty good view down the top of her nightgown. I blushed and looked into her eyes and saw that she was examining me. “The only reason I haven’t killed you and your blondie girlfriend is you,” she said to me. “Your naivety is so astounding that it just can’t be an act. And that’s only half meant to be an insult.” She looked down at the list. She scanned through the names before looking back at me. She eyed Vega for a moment. “You know what? Why don’t we go and talk—just the two of us. No offense to blondie, but she has a way of getting under my skin and I’ve more-or-less reached my frustration limit for the day. Stand up.”

I looked back at Vega. I didn’t want to offend her. Keeping Vega happy was more important to me than satisfying Gaelia, who I still didn’t fully trust. But I wanted answers, and I couldn’t let Vega’s crossed arms and frowning, pouty lips hold me back. “I’ll be a few minutes.”

“If he doesn’t come back in one piece, I’m going to gut everyone in this room,” Vega growled.

Gaelia just rolled her eyes. I followed her through that basement door and down into the dungeon… at least it seemed like a dungeon at first.

CHAPTER XXIV

The basement base was well-disguised. The stairs went down into a cold, dark, grungy space, but then there was another staircase, behind another door. At first, the stairs were dark, but then the light from the underground hiding space began to reveal flat metal steps leading into what appeared to be some sort of underground laboratory. The walls were white and smooth and the whole space was well-lit. The walls were all curved and flawless, looking like a hallway from Lunar Alpha. Hell, some areas seemed even more advanced than Lunar Alpha.

We passed an armory, which was well stocked with Nekrol firearms: hauls gained from years of battling. We passed a break room, which was larger than the entire cottage upstairs. Now, eight Lagolian girls were sipping coffees, with rifles propped up next to them. Then we passed an opened doorway that led into a large bay. Inside the bay, I could see a few disc-shaped ships, much like the ones used by the imperial Lagolians. There were also a few black ships, which looked like pieces you’d expect to see in an H.R. Giger exhibit. I assumed they were captured Nekrol ships.

“Nice place down here,” I said.

“It does what it needs to do,” she said without looking at me. Then she turned down a narrow hallway and pushed open a door, letting me through first. It was a dark room with neon purple lighting behind the moldings, looking a bit like some gamer girl’s dorm room. There was a large screen and an unmade bed.

“I’m assuming this is your bedroom,” I said, turning to her.

“You assumed right.”

“Why are we here?”

“There isn’t much privacy down here,” she said. “And everyone can smell your erection. I was doing you a favor.” She stared into my eyes with an unimpressed look.

“I don’t have an erection,” I said. But I might have been a bit stiff from earlier, when she was bickering with Vega.

“So you’re from Sol, huh?” she said, ignoring me. “I’ve spent the past few days trying to understand your motives. Are they paying you?”

“Paying me? No. I mean—yeah, they’re paying me for each battle. But it’s not like I’m a mercenary or anything like that.”

“Explain to me how you aren’t a mercenary if you’re being paid for each battle,” she said. Her eyes narrowed, and I suddenly remembered Ilyra, the tank that was killed on Alpha Centauri. She had a knack for making me feel stupid too—but Gaelia had it down to an artform.

“Well,” I said. “I didn’t know I was being paid until recently. And I would still be helping if I wasn’t being paid, quite honestly.”

She grinned.

“What?” I said.

“Nothing. Keep talking.”

“That’s it. I’m just trying to help, I suppose. The Nekrol were going to wipe out my planet. And now I just want to help my girls out.”

“Your girls?” she said. “That’s cute. Are you a breeding alpha then? I mean—I assumed you were that Vega chick’s alpha. But that ditsy thing—you’re screwing her too?”

“Her name is Kuzu,” I said.

“And you’re screwing her?”

“Maybe. Why does that matter? I’m just here to get to the bottom of all this. They tried to stop us from leaving Patatora. They sent two ships after us and we nearly died getting here. Vega put her life on the line when she could have easily ratted you out to save herself. You shouldn’t be so mean to her—even though she’s being a bit mean to you.”

Gaelia grinned again. “I don’t hate Vega,” she said. “I just like getting under her skin. Call it a mean hobby. She needs to get herself off of the imperial teet.”

“She has no reason not to trust the queen,” I said. “And to be honest, I can’t come up with a great reason either. Even your theory is just… a theory.”

“Open a Lagolian history book or two and you’ll realize that it’s not just a theory. Genocide is nothing new to Lago.”

She reached out and grabbed the list from my hand. She let out a small laugh. “I know a few of these names,” she said. “Some big names from the Ekturian war.”

“You said you saw Lagolians fighting with the Nekrol. Any of these names fit that bill?”

“Sure,” she said. “I mean, it’s not like I have a list of traitors—not living ones, anyway. Sure, we identified a few dozen of the ones we killed. We were able to get a few names from a few prisoners using the crusher—but let’s face it, that’s just hearsay. I’m sure I could have these guys linked with known traitors, but what would that do for you? I’ve already told you and Vega that there were imperial forces working with the Nekrol, and you don’t believe me. You seem to want hard proof, like pictures or videos. Well we don’t have any of that. You can either believe me or not.”

“I believe you,” I said.

She paused, staring into my eyes. “I don’t believe you.” She let out a small grin.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re still trying to convince me to take all of my troops to Lunar Alpha, as if they would just accept us in with open arms. That’s literally how you opened tonight—I came upstairs and you said some survivors showed up on the doorstep and everyone gave them hugs and kisses. You can’t manipulate me as easily as you think, human.”

“I’m not manipulating you. In fact, I don’t think you should go to Lunar Alpha. I don’t even think Vega thinks that, even though she keeps suggesting it. There’s a picture in the Hall of Legends of Queen Syabus with Commander Kairo. I think it’s fishy as hell that he just happened to be the sole survivor after a massacre of billions. I believe you—I just…” I paused for a moment.

“You just what?” She raised her brows.

“I don’t want to believe that someone would do that,” I said. “You’re suggesting that Queen Syabus had billions of innocent Lagolians killed. It’s just… not right.”

“That doesn’t ever happen in Sol?” she asked.

“Not like that,” I said. “Genocides happen. Wars happen. But billions of people… it’s incomprehensible.”

“Awe,” she said with a smile, stepping towards me and putting her fingers under my chin. I was surprised by how soft and dainty those fingers were after fighting for fifteen years. “You’re so innocent. It’s actually kind of cute.”

“They will find you here,” I said, looking into her bright grey eyes. “It’s inevitable. At least if you show up at the doorstep, like the other guys did, they won’t be able to dispose of you so easily. They might just bite their tongues and let you stay… You play dumb, they play dumb, and life goes on.”

She leaned in close to me, taking a deep breath in through her nostrils. Was she smelling me? I paused for a moment as her hands gently pressed against my chest. I watched her closely. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“It’s funny,” she said.

“What’s funny?”

“I swear I can smell your innocence, human,” she said. “It’s a nice smell. It reminds me of when I was a kid.”

“If everyone on Lunar Alpha sees you turn up, the queen won’t be able to get rid of you without causing a fuss.”

She smelled me again, now with a grin on her face. “I’d rather be simultaneously drowned and burned alive in xoric acid.”

She stepped away from me, leaving me with a nervous tingling. I wasn’t sure if I was terrified or aroused. “I’m just trying to help you,” I said.

“If you want to help, then stay here and breed with our women,” she said. “We need soldiers. We can hide underground for another fifteen years and then attack with real numbers. Stop giving your babies to the imperial army.”

“I can’t just leave my life on Lunar Alpha—especially on a hunch,” I said.

She smiled and looked into my eyes. “What you’re really saying is that the girls are prettier on Lunar Alpha. I mean—let’s face it—if this was a genocide, then it would make sense. We were chosen to be left behind. I can still remember when they released the qualifications to board Lunar Alpha, before they took off. You had to be this tall, you had to be able to run this fast, lift this much weight—and the women had to face a panel of men… they never did say what the point of that test was, though I noticed that none of the girls with unibrows made the cut.” Then she looked me up and down. “I can see why the queen likes you though… Tall, strong, handsome. I can see why Vega likes you so much too.”

“I’m flattered,” I said. “But if we’re not going to come to any sort of resolution here, I should probably be finding a way back to Lunar Alpha. I’m still not sure how we’re going to get in, and if we’re not there in the morning, they’re going to know it was us who stole that ship.”

“You stole that imperial craft?” she asked, suddenly raising her eyebrows. “That’s kind of cute. We can get you back.”

“How?”

She giggled and shook her head. “We’ve been dodging the Nekrol for fifteen years, human. We can sneak you by a few guards.” Then she walked back up to me. “Remind me your name. I’m terrible with names.”

“Kyrie,” I said.

“Want to be my mole, Kyrie? We need someone on the inside.”

“I’m not sure I want to get too mixed up in this—not until I know what’s going on.”

“You’re already mixed up in this, dummy,” she said. “You stole an imperial aircraft and you’re meeting in secret with an enemy of the throne.”

“Good point.”

“Every two nights at midnight, I’ll have you rendezvous with one of our girls.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to get out again,” I said.

She rolled her eyes. “Sure you will,” she said. “And it won’t involve hijacking ships. You’ll relay info to us when you get it.”

“Promise me you aren’t going to show up to kill the queen without any proof that she actually did anything you think she did.”

“I’m not making any promises,” she said, rolling her eyes. She yawned and stretched her arms into the air, looking strangely innocent for a few seconds. Her eyes were closed, so I used the opportunity to steal a look at her freckled chest. I wasn’t quite fast enough; she caught me, making me blush. Then she grinned. “Want me to sweeten the deal, Kyrie?”

“Huh?” I said.

“You haven’t gone one minute without looking at my breasts,” she said. “I can’t even begin to understand how you’ve managed to get anything done over on Lunar Alpha.”

“There have been a few challenges,” I grinned, biting my lip.

“Especially with your pheromones. My God—do all humans have pheromones as strong as yours?”

“I guess I don’t know how to answer that,” I said.

She walked up to me and wrapped her arms around me, pressing her body firmly against mine. Her lower abdomen was pressed against my bulge. She pushed herself hard against it and sighed. “So do we have a deal?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’s a yes or a no,” she said. “You get to fuck me and I get info from you.” She grabbed the top of her night dress and pulled it down, showing me her large freckled breasts. “Yes or no, Kyrie.”

“Are you a high enough level for those?” I asked, unable to look away from her large rack.

She reached down and grabbed my hands, pulling them up to her big boobs. I squeezed her, squeezing a moan out from her lips. Then I leaned my head down to kiss her plump lips, letting her push her tongue into my mouth. She moaned again; it was a nice sound.

Her hands found my bulge. She started massaging me through my soft pants. “You’re big,” she said bluntly. Then she moaned. “You’ll have to pull out.”

“Why?”

“I just went receptive,” she sighed. Then she pushed a hand down the front of my pants to grab my cock. She clenched it firmly and moaned. “God, it’s so big.” Then she bit her bottom lip and turned red. “I—I don’t know if it’ll fit.”

“It’ll fit,” I said, watching her hand as she pulled slowly up and down, massaging my fat tip.

“Don’t forget to pull out,” she said. “I can’t be pregnant right now.”

She pulled up the long skirt of her night gown, exposing her cute shaved pussy. She lifted one leg up, planting her foot down on her unmade bed. Then she tilted my tip down, pressing it between her plump lips, which I’m almost sure were freckled like her breasts. “I really don’t think it’s going to fit, human.”

“It’ll fit,” I said, clutching her hips and thrusting into her. She gasped loudly as my cock stretched her damp, warm hole. Her grey eyes became wide and her lips parted wide. A cute sound came out—something like a moan and a whimper. Her fingernails dug into the skin on my shoulders.

Then I fell down on her, pinning her on her messy bed. I used my knees to push her legs apart, wide, and then I started thrusting into her tight body. I wanted to look at her pretty face, but her large freckled tits were too distracting. I couldn’t stop staring at them as they wobbled all over her chest: up and down, left and right, sometimes synchronized, sometimes not at all.

Her ears were perked straight up. Her little pussy was gushing, wetting her bed. She spent a minute rubbing my muscles, and then she brought her hands to her breasts, settling them and playing with her nipples. “Oh God, human. It’s so fucking big. It’s so big!” She strained her neck to look down, as if she was trying to make sure I wasn’t splitting her in half. “Oh God! Don’t fucking stop! Fuck me! Fuck me! Oh God. I can feel it throbbing inside of me!” She gushed again.

Her big tits were too arousing; they were going to make me come, and I wasn’t ready for that yet. I wasn’t done having fun with her. So I pulled out and flipped her onto her chest. I pinned her down hard with one hand and used my other hand to cram my cock back into her stretched hole.

Now her white tail was turned up. Her back was curved. Her ears came back—just far enough that I was able to grab them and pull them, pulling her head back and making her moan. Then I grabbed her braids. I kept pounding her. My pelvis made her ass cheeks dark red. And I would have lasted longer—but then I noticed the mirror across from us. I could see her jiggling breasts, bouncing hard, up and down, her fat nipples erect and pointed outwards from one another.

I couldn’t hold back. I managed to pull out right in time, slapping my cock on top of her ass and spraying down her back. “Oh God, it’s so warm,” she moaned as it trickled left and right, dripping off of her thin frame.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead. “That—That was nice,” I said.

She turned and looked into my eyes with a grin. “Worth it?” she asked.

My heart skipped a beat, remembering our deal. I never properly agreed to it, but the cum now dripping off of her body seemed binding enough. “Definitely,” I said.

She rolled off of her bed and got her night gown back on. “I won’t lie. That was nice,” she said. “But now I need to get some sleep so I can process all of this new information—and you need to get back to Lunar Alpha before you get into trouble. I need you on the inside. If you want to put your dick away, I’ll have a girl come by to grab you.”

Sure enough, a minute later, there was a girl knocking at the door. She peered in. It was the same girl from upstairs, with the same nervous, sheepish look on her face. “Get the other two from upstairs and take them to Patatora,” Gaelia said.

“Okay,” the sheepish girl said.

“You know how to access the south entrance, right?” Gaelia asked.

The girl nodded her head quickly, and then she motioned for me to follow her.

“Bye, Kyrie!” said Gaelia with a blushing smile.

First, we went up to get Kuzu and Vega, then we went down the stairs again, into that bay. We all got into an old imperial disc craft. The young woman fired up the engine and then we floated up into the air with a pair of loud clunks. Those ships were well-used, and dinged up from a number of battles. Some of the panels were dark, as if disabled or broken. The whole back wall was only semi-transparent, as if the technology that made those walls turn clear was only half-working.

The ship hummed as we cruised down a long tunnel that was only ten feet taller than the ship itself. That tunnel must have gone on for twenty kilometers before we were spat out on the side of a tall cliff, over a sloshing bay, lit by the ghostly glow of the crescent planet.

“How are we going to dodge Lunar Alpha’s radars?” asked Vega. Kuzu was glued to the window, staring out at the planet-lit bay.

“Our tunnel system starts long before the radar’s reach,” said the young woman softly. We entered that breakneck warp-speed for a full minute before slowing before a narrow cave. It was pitch-black in that cave, but the ship’s computer was driving, and the computer didn’t require light to see. We hummed down that long cave for a few minutes, seeing the occasional glow of white from small openings that fed air into the cave system.

Finally, we came to a slow in a rocky cavern, lit by orange work lights. The place was desolate and immense. “We’re underneath Patatora,” said the young pilot. “See the stairs there? Those go up into the city. You’re on your own from here.” Then she looked at me. “I was told to meet with you in two nights, down here—so do your best to remember you way back, and make sure nobody follows you here when you come.”

“Okay,” I said. Now, Vega and Kuzu were both staring at me with suspicious looks, unaware of the deal I’d made with Gaelia. We stepped off the ship. Before we got to the stairs, the ship lifted up and started back towards Gorro Lake.

“Are you a double agent now, Kyrie?” asked Vega. She stared into my eyes with that intimidating look that she’d successfully refined over the past couple of months.

“I told Gaelia that I would keep her updated,” I said, feeling strangely guilty. “I don’t see the harm in it.”

“And what are you getting in return?”

“Who said I’m getting anything?” I blushed.

Then she looked down at my crotch and rolled her eyes. “My nose.” And once again, I’d forgotten just how sensitive the Lagolian nose was. The girls could surely smell Gaelia on me.

“It’s not like anyone’s giving me secret information anyway,” I said. “I’m just going to keep them updated and tell them what’s happening around Lunar Alpha and Patatora. I’m hoping they eventually feel comfortable enough to come here.”

“Careful what you say to that crazy bitch,” Vega groaned. “She’s just looking for an excuse to start a civil war.”

“Well it sounds like she might have a good one,” Kuzu said. Vega didn’t seem to have a good response.

There was a silence for a long moment, and then she said, “Let’s just focus on getting back to the ship—and let’s make sure we have a good alibi. In the morning, they’re going to be in full investigation mode, figuring out who took that construction craft.”

It was a long hike up those stairs, but the pair of Lagolian girls didn’t seem to care. Their legs didn’t seem to tire from the constant climb: probably thirty flights of stairs before we reached the inside of an old building on the far end of town, far from where the rebuild was currently underway. We had to climb over piles of rubble and then we had a long trek across town ahead of us, avoiding patrolling guards as the sun started to cast a faint glow on the horizon.

Getting past the first dozen guards was easy: just a matter of waiting, hiding, and running at opportune times in convenient shadows. Getting onto Lunar Alpha wasn’t quite so simple. They had guards at every entrance, including the bay entrances and emergency exits. We tried to find a good way in but there wasn’t one, so we decided to wait until the Lagolian population woke up for work, which was only an hour away. We sat inside of a shelled-out building and discussed our alibi. Then we got into a heated discussion about Gaelia’s genocide theory. Vega was putting her heels in, trying to assure us that Queen Syabus would never pull a move as evil as Gaelia was suggesting, but even Vega couldn’t explain the sudden appearance of her old colleagues as survivors—and Vega wasn’t prepared to accuse Gaelia of lying when she said that there were Lagolians working alongside the Nekrol during the fifteen-year war.

Finally, Lunar Alpha woke up and Lagolians poured out to continue the Patatora rebuild. “We should go in one at a time,” Kuzu suggested. “Fifteen minutes apart—and maybe through different entrances.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” I said.

Kuzu went first, through the main entrance, and then Vega went in through the back way. I have to admit that my heart was racing while I waited for my turn, counting down fifteen minutes until I had to slip out from that building and act as though I wasn’t up to anything unsavory. I could feel sweat on the back of my neck as I walked through the crowds of yawning workers, showing up to rev up their work machines. I tried to force a few smiles, but my heart just wouldn’t stop pounding. I knew that they could smell one-hundred times better than humans, and that probably meant they could smell emotions like fear.

I got a few looks but I tried to convince myself that they were benign. I kept on my way to the side door that I was set on entering through. There was still a guard at the door: a male Lagolian, one of the younger survivors that showed up with Commander Kairo. He turned to look at me while I was still about twenty yards away. He watched my approach, looking down at my body and examining me carefully. I hadn’t met him before, so I convinced myself that he was just curious about my anatomy, seeing as I wasn’t Lagolian.

I gave him a smile and tried to skirt by him casually, but he stuck out his arm before I could make it through the doorway. “Hold on right there,” he said. He had a young face, but his voice was deep and raspy, making my skin tingle for a moment.

“Something wrong?” I asked, biting my tongue in my mouth.

“You’re the human they found on Sol, right?” he asked.

“That’s right,” I said. “Kyrie. Nice to meet you.” I stuck out my hand, and he just looked at it as if he wasn’t sure what to do with it—though I’d seen some Lagolians shaking hands before.

“Nice to meet you too,” he said cautiously, still not taking my hand. “Everyone’s coming out for work, but you’re going in.” He looked slowly up into my eyes.

“I just forgot something inside,” I smiled.

“What’s that?” he said. My heart bounced.

“My phone.”

“Phone?” he said.

My heart skipped a beat again. “It’s a human thing. It’s how I keep my notes.”

He was once again looking me up and down, and I could see that his nostrils were gently flaring as if he was smelling me: smelling Gaelia on me. But there was no way he would recognize her scent; there was no way that he knew Gaelia. I tried to get him onto another subject. “You’re one of the survivors, right?”

“That’s right,” he said.

“You look young. Were you pretty young when the whole thing started?”

“I was nine,” he said. “Old enough to remember it pretty well.”

“I know it’s probably pretty traumatic to think about, so feel free to tell me to shut up—but what was it like, when the Nekrol showed up, after Lunar Alpha left?”

His lips curled into a curious grin. “It was horrible—frightening. I saw the footage on the news: the black Nekrol ships coming through the portal from Djarko: hundreds and hundreds of giant ships. We went into hiding for two years, underground, while they bombed the cities. Then the ground assault started. I was about eleven—maybe twelve by then. I was given a rifle and told to fight.”

“Jesus,” I said.

“Who’s that?”

“Sorry—it’s just a human thing. But, uh, you managed to survive. Now I bet you have some pretty wild stories to tell.”

“Nothing I’m too keen on reliving,” he said.

I noticed the long scar on the side of his face, going up into his hair and inching up his right ear. It was hard to consider that he could have been part of some government conspiracy, especially since he was only nine when the whole thing started.

“Did you count how many of the bastards you killed?” I asked, trying to keep him from asking more questions about me and why I was the only one heading back onto Lunar Alpha.

“I lost count,” he said after a long hesitation. His voice was blunt, and almost unimpressed. “I found out yesterday that I’m a level-thirty-eight.”

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Rak.”

“Well, it was nice chatting with you, Rak. I should grab my phone so I can get to work.”

“Where were you?” he asked suddenly as I stepped by him.

I paused, feeling that tingling chill again. “Where was I? What do you mean?”

“You smell like the woods. Where are you assigned?”

“The woods?” I said. Then I forced a laugh, but it came out as a nervous noise. “Maybe it’s just my human smell.”

“No,” he said. Then he smiled. “And you’ve been with a woman.” He let out an alarming laugh before widening his eyes “You want to know how I survived for fifteen years? I’ve got one of the best noses you’ll ever come across. When I was just ten years old, they would send me into buildings to sniff out Nekrol troops. I could smell the things from a hundred meters away. They put a specific lubricant on their hinges—it’s a distinct smell if you know what you’re smelling for.”

“No kidding,” I said, but now my voice was soft—hardly a whimper.

“They use a specific compound in their explosives too—a really subtle scent that only one in a thousand Lagolians can pick up. So they would send me into fields to sniff for bombs.”

“I bet that was pretty scary,” I said.

“But on you—I can smell at least three different girls, and one smell is particularly strong. It’s a wild smell. She smells like the woods.”

“Okay,” I said, forcing a smirk. “You caught me. I snuck down to the lake with a girl. We went skinny-dipping.”

“Which lake?” he asked.

“The one just on the other side of those trees. I don’t know what it’s called.”

“Which girl?”

“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble,” I said. Now, my heart was pounding somewhere in the pit of my stomach.

“Skinny dipping, huh?” He looked suddenly down at his wrist band. He pressed a button on it, stared at it for another moment, and then he looked up at me with a suspicious look in his eyes. “You know those woods and that lake are outside of the permitted zone.”

“Are they?”

“Don’t play dumb, human.”

“Okay, so maybe I knew that and couldn’t help myself,” I said. “It won’t happen again. I just wanted to take the girl somewhere a bit exciting.”

He stared at me, right into my eyes. “Don’t let it happen again,” he said. And then a wave of relief washed over me—at least for a moment. I saw my opportunity to slip away without further questioning, but for some reason, I felt the need to stay there, conversing with him, to make myself seem less suspicious.

“So how many Nekrol troops were here when the war started?”

“Can’t say for sure. Thousands—maybe a million. They came in huge ships and just flooded the moon. They built factories here and were making new troops every minute using resources they harvested here. We took a number of their factories out, but they just built new ones overnight.”

“It’s a miracle you managed to survive.”

“We did what we had to do,” he said.

“Do you miss it at all?” I asked. Then, his eyes narrowed, looking confused for a moment before looking utterly offended.

“Miss it?” he said. It was only meant to be a continuation of the conversation. I wasn’t trying to pry or make any sort of dig. I was already kind of missing the lunar skirmishes with the Nekrol, even though I was dreading them when the war was ongoing. I liked the feeling of winning and fighting for a good cause. I liked the adrenaline I got from a battle. I didn’t exactly miss the stress—or the heartbreak when things didn’t go so well. Maybe it was a human thing. I’d heard of soldiers coming home from traumatic overseas experiences just to enlist in additional tours. Maybe that’s what I was experiencing to a small degree.

“I watched my brother die in a firefight,” he said.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, turning white in the face. “I can’t even imagine. I mean—I saw some good Lagolians die over the past couple of months. Though it probably made it feel more satisfying when you took down a Nekrol after that—not to say it’s a silver-lining.” I felt like I was rambling, making a fool of myself. I knew I was speaking stupidly, but I kept thinking I could say one more sentence to clear myself of embarrassment, but really, I was just making it worse.

“It wasn’t a Nekrol troop that got him,” the Lagolian man said.

I paused for a moment. “What was it?”

“Another Lagolian,” he said.

I stared at him for a long moment. “What do you mean?”

“He was shot by a defector,” he said. “A group of defectors came for our camp in the night. We had to fight our way out. Only a few of us made it.”

“Why were they fighting with the Nekrol?” My voice was now hardly a whimper. Was he confirming what Gaelia said? Would Vega believe me when I told her about this story?

“I can’t speak for all of them, but a few guys went over to their side just for the sake of preservation. The Nekrol accepted turncoats through the war.”

“No kidding…” I cleared my throat. “Sorry to hear that.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “See this rifle?” he said, holding the rifle up. “It was my brother’s rifle. I’ve always got him here with me.” Then he smiled. “And my brother doesn’t miss.”

A group of Lagolian girls shuffled by, dressed in orange jumpers, looking a bit like prison inmates as they went towards the nearby jobsites.

“I should let you get back to work,” I said.

“Sure thing, human,” he said, watching me as I smiled, nodded, and crept down the long tunnel and onto Lunar Alpha.

Now, I had the urge to track down Vega and the other girls, to tell them what Rak told me. The information was vital—and it was going to be vital for the Gorro Lake survivors. This was a big breakthrough: Rak had confirmed what the survivors said, and now it was hard to believe that he was part of some secret government conspiracy. Maybe everything could be explained without jumping to wild accusatory conclusions. Maybe Queen Syabus wasn’t up to some crazy plot, and maybe I needed to be getting Lunar Alpha ready for an assault from the paranoid survivors at Gorro Lake, who had access to a lot of machinery and firepower.

CHAPTER XXV

Eris found me in my room. She smiled politely at me and I returned the smile. Then she closed the bedroom door and her expression dropped. Now, she suddenly looked like she was about to rip my head off of my shoulders. “A ship was stolen last night,” she said. “There’s an investigation underway. They almost caught it, taking off north, towards the Gorro Lake region. You didn’t have anything to do with that by any chance, did you?” She marched over to me, staring into my eyes.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Don’t be mad.”

“I’m already mad.”

“It’s not good to be mad when you’re pregnant. The stress isn’t good for the babies.”

“Kyrie,” she growled. “You’re going to get yourself in a lot of trouble—and then you’re going to get me into a lot of trouble. We have kids. Do you want them to grow up without parents? Because it seems like that’s what you want.”

“We just wanted to tell the survivors at Gorro Lake that there were other survivors. We were trying to convince them to come out of hiding.”

“And where’s the ship you took?” she asked.

“We left it there.”

“They’re going to find it, Kyrie,” she said. “And when they find it, they’re going to run every imaginable test on it. They’re going to figure out you took it.”

“I’m sure the survivors will deal with the ship, Eris. Relax.”

She shook her head. “They’ve already tracked it, Kyrie. They’ve ordered a detailed scan of the area, which is happening now. We’re waiting for the results, and then they’re going to send in a ground sweep.”

My stomach turned. “Can’t you have it canceled? Isn’t that all up to you?”

“Direct orders from the queen, Kyrie. It’s out of my control. I did my best to slow it down because I had a hunch this all had something to do with you. I was able to stall them for an hour—that’s all I was able to do.”

“Shit,” I said, trying to think of some sort of way to weasel out of this mess. Or maybe the survivors would have my back. Maybe they would do away with that ship before the imperial Lagolians were able to find it. I’m sure they would take it and bring it down into their bay. I’m sure they knew how to disable the tracking software. They spent almost two decades evading Nekrol forces; they weren’t about to be taken down by a rogue construction craft. “Just do your best to stall all of the progress with the investigation.”

I won’t lie: I felt sick. I knew we’d gone too far, and I had a terrible feeling it would all come back to haunt me. Everything was just starting to seem good again: the war was over, all of the drama with the police on Earth had been cleared up, and there was a beaming optimism throughout all of Lunar Alpha…

But now I was facing ejection. They were going to shoot me into space for conspiring with a group of terrorists. Or maybe the survivors were the good guys, and I’d spent the past two months aiding the real terrorists.

I spent the rest of that day in my room, on edge, waiting for my door to fly open, waiting for them to arrest me. It really did seem inevitable. Human investigators could have figured it out with the evidence, using human technology. The Lagolians were far more advanced. While humans needed a clear fingerprint, Lagolians just needed a single skin cell—and maybe even less than that.

But nobody came to my door. It was starting to seem like I was safe. That night, once most of Lunar Alpha had gone to sleep, I crept down the hall to the elevator. I went up to the infant ward. It was dark and quiet. There were a few nurses on staff. One of them looked at me and jumped. “We don’t normally get visitors this late,” she whispered. The children were all sleeping in a large room, surrounded by tall windows.

“I just want to see my kids,” I said.

“At this hour?” she asked.

I didn’t want to tell her that it may be my last chance. “I guess I’m weird like that.” So she took me down the long hall. I got to see all of the little ones, looking so cute all snuggled up in their soft wraps.

We came around a bend and then the nurse pointed at my little flock. “They’re very tired. They played all day.”

They were asleep together in one crib, all piled up in a corner, snoring peacefully. One of the little ones was dreaming: kicking her leg like a snoozing puppy.

“I’ll give you some privacy,” said the nurse. “Try your best not to wake them up.”

So I watched from behind that wall of glass. I did my best to remember their names. I was pretty sure I could identify them all, even though they all looked more-or-less the same.

I must have stood there for two hours, just staring. I started to understand Eris a bit better. Now, I understood why she wasn’t risking everything to help the Gorro Lake survivors; she wasn’t willing to risk what she had on Lunar Alpha. I really couldn’t blame her; I didn’t want to know a life away from my ladies and away from my kids. I had it good there.

And maybe it wasn’t my job to figure out if the government was corrupt, and maybe it wasn’t my job to fix the Lagolians’ problems, and maybe it wasn’t my job to risk my life for the lives of survivors who weren’t willing to make too many sacrifices on their own end.

Maybe I was just doing more harm than good by trying to fix everything, trying to bring everyone together. I thought I had good intentions, but now Vega, Kuzu, and Eris were all on the verge of falling into boiling water.

I had to force myself to come to the conclusion: I couldn’t help everyone and I couldn’t solve every mystery. I had a family and a harem on Lunar Alpha that needed me; I had no reason to think that Queen Syabus was an evil conjurer of genocide. It was time for me to smarten up.

The next morning, I watched from the food court window as the disc craft took off for Gorro Lake, carrying five heavily-armed Lagolians—Commander Kairo and his personal battle crew—off to complete the ground sweep of the area. The aerial scans located the stolen construction craft, left in the lake where we parked it. The survivors must have left it, assuming it was some sort of trap. I was surprised they hadn’t blown it to pieces—though maybe they were afraid attacking it would give them away.

I watched with dread in my gut as that ship zoomed off over the horizon. There were many possible outcomes, but not many positive ones. Maybe the Gorro Lake survivors would attack the crew. Maybe the crew would attack the survivors. Maybe they would tow the construction craft back and find the evidence inside to arrest me and Vega and Kuzu.

The chance of nothing happening at all was just… unlikely.

I looked over and saw Eris at a nearby restaurant, waiting for her order to be cooked up. She looked over at me and then smiled nervously. “Hi Kyrie,” she said. “A ground crew was just sent to Gorro Lake.”

“I saw,” I said softly.

“The plan is to bring the construction craft back here,” she said.

“I figured.”

Then she just stared at me, as if she was waiting for me to jump up and tell her that I had an amazing idea to exonerate myself, saving Vega and Kuzu and keeping her out of trouble as well.

“I put your name in the hat,” she said, “so you, Vega, Trix, and maybe Iva could go and conduct the sweep, but the queen wanted Commander Kairo and his men to go. Now that there are men in our ranks, Queen Syabus will start phasing women out of military roles—making it more like it used to be.”

I could tell that she was an anxious wreck, worried this whole grand theft spaceship debacle would get me ejected. “It’ll be fine, Eris,” I said. “Try not to stress out about this.”

“I’m supposed to watch the mission from the war room,” she said. “They’re going to complete a fifteen-minute area scan before hitting the ground.” Now she was staring into my eyes, looking like she was about to cry. So I was shocked when her lips parted, she hesitated, and then she said, “That gives you fifteen minutes to pleasure me sufficiently. It may be the only time we get together in the next little while—maybe ever—so I’d rather not take no for an answer.”

I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. It’s not like I was doing anything anyway: just sitting and waiting and hoping for the best, expecting the worst, allowing my dread and anxiety to consume me entirely. So I was happy to sneak off with Eris. I was happy to take her hand and rush down the hallway towards her own personal office. It was nice to hear her giggling with excitement, knowing we were doing something naughty and fun; it seemed like it had been a long, long time since we’d been really naughty.

We closed her office door and then she spun towards me and wrapped her arms around me. “I really don’t want to lose you,” she said, eyes watering quite suddenly.

“What’s the worst that happens?” I said. “It’s not like anyone got killed.”

“Well, if they find out you’ve been conspiring with conspirators, that’s treason. I don’t think your hero status will get you out of treason charges.” She pushed her pelvis up against my lap and then gently grinded herself against my body. I could feel the small bump of her latest litter.

“Let’s not think about problems until they’re actually problems,” I said, looking down at her curvy, fertile body. I cupped her breasts and squeezed—which was nice at first, and then little wet spots started forming and I realized I was squeezing milk out of her breasts.

She moaned. “Why did you stop? That felt good,” she said, grabbing my hands and pulling them back up to her breasts. “Drain me.” She forced me to squeeze her leaky milkers, making those wet spots bigger.

“I—uh—I don’t know if that’s my thing, Eris.”

“Well make it your thing because it feels good. I swear I’ve been on the verge of bursting all day.” Now, her bunny milk was dripping on the floor, dripping off the bottoms of her large, round breasts.

A minute later, she grinned. “Are you sure it’s not your thing?” And she was referring to the smell of my erection, which was quickly hardening. How could I help it? Her giant tits were soft. My hands weren’t big enough to hold them. Her drippy nipples were swollen and fat; how could babies fit the nipples in their mouths?

I quickly shimmied down my pants, letting my erection breathe, springing up. She pressed her pregnant belly against it and moaned before looking down at it. “You need to start behaving, Kyrie. I don’t want to lose this.”

“I’m doing my best,” I said.

“Do better.”

She reached down and clutched my cock. She grabbed it so hard I nearly screamed. She squeezed it, moaning, pulling back to reveal all of my throbbing tip. “I want it in me,” she sighed.

“I want it between your tits. Get on your back.” I pushed all of her files off of her desk, clearing some space so she could lay down. She didn’t waste any time, squirming up onto the desk and lowering herself down with a grunt. Maneuvering was difficult while pregnant, but she was doing a fine job. I climbed up on top of her and looked down at her bare chest, which was glistening with spilled milk. Now, I could see beads of milk dripping out from those fat nipples. I pushed my cock down against the middle of her chest. “Push them together.”

“My breasts?” she asked.

I nodded my head. She sandwiched my cock with her giant knockers. I took them from her, pushing them hard together, making them leak even more. “What is this, Kyrie?”

“A titjob,” I said. “It feels good.”

“What do I do?” she asked.

“Shake them for me,” I said. “Like this.” I demonstrated by pulling her big tits up and down. Milk kept oozing down her chest mountains in every direction. She took the breasts from me and started to copy my demonstration. I watched the top of her chest as my cock’s tip emerged and disappeared, over and over. Her big breasts were perfect.

She let out a soft moan. “I see,” she said. “It’s satisfying. You’re draining my oversupply and I get to smell your pheromones up close at the same time. Now I understand why humans like this.”

I don’t think she quite understood it, but she was genuinely enjoying it. She was moaning louder and louder, occasionally licking the tip of my cock when it was close enough, just to taste whatever natural chemical it was she was smelling.

“Save some for the kids,” I said, watching as the milk kept pouring down.

“You don’t understand, Kyrie,” she said, shaking her head. “I have to empty my supply six times a day. The new pregnancy has my hormones out of whack and I’m creating a massive oversupply. Oh God, this feels so good.” She pushed her tits harder together—so hard that milk sprayed a whole foot into the air, making me flinch. She closed her eyes and moaned louder. Now, her hands were around her nipples. She kept squeezing her nipples, making them gush.

So maybe I was into it more than I thought I would be. Maybe it wasn’t the turnoff I was worried it would be. It was actually pretty hot, spilled all over her chest, glistening, sparkling. It wasn’t long before her chest was glistening with another substance—this one much thicker and stickier than breastmilk.

“Oh my God, Kyrie,” Eris gasped, straining to look down at her chest. She was mashing her breasts against each other, watching as my thick serum billowed out from the tightness between her soft fertile breasts. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much cum!”

I groaned and then I flopped over next to her. It was a minute before I turned my head and saw that she was staring at me, looking unimpressed. “You didn’t save any for inside of me, did you?”

“Sorry. Can you wait ten minutes?”

“No. I’m late now,” she said. “You’re going to have to do me a favor and—”

She stopped speaking suddenly, looking at the door with a small gasp. “What is it?” I asked, sitting up.

She took me by surprise, bending over and sinking my cock into her mouth. She started sucking aggressively, feeling like a vacuum being suctioned to my crotch. “Hey!” I said—though it felt kind of nice. “W—What are you doing?”

“Quick,” she whispered. “Hide.” She pushed me towards her office’s closet door.

“What was that?” I laughed.

“I’m sucking away your pheromones so that nobody smells them! You aren’t supposed to be in here.” She jumped to her feet and pushed me into the closet, closing the door on me as she reached with her free hand for a little bottle of what I assume was mouth wash. Ten seconds later, I heard the door opening. My heart fluttered; I had no idea what the hell was happening, or why Eris was so on edge.

“Your majesty!” she said with a lot of fake enthusiasm. “I thought I heard you coming down the hallway. I was just on my way to the war room. Sorry I’m a little bit late—I wanted to run through some of the numbers that came out of the Cryston Sector this morning.”

“Hush, hush, don’t worry about that,” the queen said. “Commander Kairo has the mission under control and the chancellor is overseeing operations. Sit down, sit down.”

“Of course, your majesty,” Eris said. I heard her dart across the room. Her footsteps were small and quick: nervous and tense. She cleared her throat as the queen paced the room with careful, meandering steps. “Is there something you wanted to talk to me about?”

“I’m not going to lie, General Eris,” the queen continued. “When I was forced to select you as general, I assumed it would be a temporary role, but your hard work and tough decision making has impressed me. You’re a good fit for the role, and I intend to keep you as general.”

“Even with Commander Kairo here?” Eris asked—and I could practically hear the stars twinkling in her eyes.

“Commander Kairo’s old-school approach might not be as relevant with today’s fast-pace skirmishing. We’ll see that he keeps his role as commander, and perhaps he can be on the consultation panel for warfare and skirmishing. That’s all yet to be decided. But I wanted to talk privately with you about the matter, and discuss your thoughts before making any final decisions.”

I did my best not to squirm in that closet. It was a tight space—and short, making it so I had to fold my neck down and bend my knees slightly. I was already starting to feel the aches of a ninety-year-old man.

“Well, I’d be thrilled to continue serving as general, your majesty,” said Eris. “Even though I don’t suspect we’ll be seeing any more warfare in the next little while.”

The queen laughed in a wholesome sort of way, almost as if she was laughing at Eris’s naivety. “There will always be fighting, sadly,” said the queen.

“Of course. And I know that my role as general extends beyond portal skirmishing,” Eris said quickly. “I fully intend to get a good grip on the illegal Crolium trading happening on Lunar Alpha. I have some ideas I’d like to run by you—perhaps now, if you have the time.”

I tried not to groan. I had a feeling I was about to be spending a long time in that closet.

“Now’s not the time for that,” said the queen. “There’s a much more important matter that needs discussing. It’s a very serious matter, and a private one. Do you understand?”

“Of course.”

“I need you to understand,” the queen said firmly. “No matter is of higher classification. It’s not a matter that was even known to General Dryas.”

“What is it, Queen Syabus?” Eris said, now speaking softly.

“We’re expecting to find Lagolians today with our ground sweep at Gorro Lake,” Queen Syabus said quietly. “Survivors, possibly many of them.”

“Well that’s great news, isn’t it?”

“These are hostile survivors,” said the queen. “They will be hostile towards the imperial army and towards Lunar Alpha.”

“Why?”

The queen let out a small sigh. The conversation kept getting quieter. Now, I had my ear against the door, trying to hear what they were saying more clearly.

“We made our return to Lago five years earlier than anticipated,” the queen said. “Finding the humans on Sol changed the trajectory of the initial plan.”

“What plan, your majesty?”

“I feel the need to remind you that this is highly classified information. The punishment for sharing this information is a lifetime ejection.”

“I understand,” Eris said.

“The Nekrol were commissioned to assist in a large-scale population reduction on Lago. We hired them for a twenty-year period, but didn’t quite make it the full twenty years. Commander Kairo, as well as fifteen other commanders, remained on Lago to organize and facilitate the operation.”

There was a long silence. I was shocked they couldn’t hear my heart pounding—or my head spinning.

“I—I don’t… I don’t understand,” whimpered Eris.

“Reserve your feelings for your personal time, General Eris,” the queen growled. “And let me remind you one more time that this is highly classified information. It’s an operation that was planned for many years, starting the year the Ekturian War ended. Lago’s population had reached a critical mass. Generations of proximity breeding—combined with losing our best stock in a long war with the Ekturians—created a weak population that was mostly reliant on the throne, bleeding resources for years, making us terribly vulnerable to another Ekturian invasion.”

“Are you saying that this has been a genocide?” Eris asked, now sounding like she had tears in her voice.

“Don’t speak such nonsense, General!” snapped the queen. “If you can’t reserve your emotions, I’ll be terminating your contract.”

“Yes, your majesty,” Eris said softly.

“The population of Lago needed a reset. There was an opportunity to turn Lagolians into a powerful, intelligent race of warriors, and we took that opportunity. It was a difficult decision to make, but being a good leader means making difficult decisions. We hand selected the strongest and most intelligent Lagolians onto the PKS Preservation—now we call it Lunar Alpha—and we took them away while the Nekrol, led by selected officials, facilitated the removal of undesirable traits. Quit crying, General. You’re making me regret my decision to promote you. I understand you may be hormonal with your pregnancy, but get a grip. Wipe your tears. I’m telling you all of this now because we’re about to receive reports from Gorro Lake—reports of survivors. Commander Kairo has known about the Gorro Lake resistance group for years now. They’re mostly underground and we will deal with them using a new generation pulse bomb. Look at me, Eris! Quit crying. Be strong for your race.”

“It’s just… not right.”

“That’s not up to you to decide,” the queen snarled back. “Thousands of Lagolians dying each year from genetic conditions that don’t need to exist—that’s not right. Lagolians with bodies so weak and so immunocompromised that they can’t work or provide for themselves—that’s not right, and it didn’t have to be that way. We were heading towards an age of poverty and hunger that Lagolians haven’t known in thousands and thousands of years. The amount of consumption! Pointless consumption while resources dwindled and dwindled… and the fighting, the bickering, the anger, the hostility. Revolts, riots, death, sickness… We made a difficult decision—one that only affected a single generation of Lagolians—and made the next ten thousand years prosperous, healthy, happy. Look into my eyes, Eris. Focus. Stop crying—and stop whimpering. Look into my eyes and answer this question.”

“O—Okay,” Eris said.

“You have a hospital, and in this hospital, you have ten babies. Are you following me? All ten babies are sick—perhaps they’re even your babies. Don’t you have ten babies, Eris?”

“Nine,” she said.

“Well let’s say nine then. You have nine babies in a hospital, and they’re all sick. They’ve caught a bad fever. And in this hospital, you have one nurse. Nine babies and one nurse. Are you still following me, Eris? Because you aren’t looking at me. Look at me and listen. Nine babies and one nurse. All of the babies can be saved with some careful attention. But there’s one baby with particularly terrible symptoms. The fever is quite bad and the baby is struggling to breathe, struggling to keep his organs functioning. The nurse has to decide if she’s going to help that one baby—because he needs her full attention if he’s going to pull through—or if she’s going to help the other eight babies. You see, their needs aren’t as severe. Sure, they will die without attention, but the nurse can spread herself between the eight and save them before their symptoms worsen. Now, Eris, let’s say that you’re this nurse. I already know your answer, but just tell me: who are you going to save?”

“But this is different,” Eris said. “Nobody had to die.”

“Oh, but they were dying every day—every hour! I know you’re young, but surely you remember a little bit of life before Lunar Alpha. Surely you remember the Patatora Riot. Surely you remember the outbreak of Garangee Fever… Or maybe you don’t remember, but I’m sure you’ve read about the events. The Goradoro Famine? Then Ten Years Hunger?”

“I know,” Eris said.

“Those won’t be issues any longer. Even once our population reaches those limits—billions of Lagolians—those issues won’t exist any longer. We’ve eradicated Garangee Fever, Groms Disease, Pietri Syndrome, Cospisica Disease—they’re all gone.”

“I know, but—”

“But what?!” snapped the queen. “The Loron Gene that was detected a thousand years ago, found in every single serial killer in the past thousand years—it’s gone. It doesn’t exist in a single living Lagolian. Well, unless it exists at Gorro Lake, or at one of the other surviving camps. I’m only going to tell you one more time, General Eris: stop crying. You’re testing my patience.”

“I’m sorry, your majesty.”

“Look,” she said. “Here are the initial ground reports coming in now. Commander Kairo has found evidence of intelligent life in the Gorro Lake region—just as we expected. Pull the report up on the big screen. Pull yourself together and then we will pull up Kairo’s feed.”

“Y—Yes, your majesty,” said Eris.

There was a silence. I tried to inch closer to the edge of the closet door. A sliver of light was creeping through: enough of a sliver that I could see into the room with my face pressed carefully against the edge of that door. Now, I could see Queen Syabus putting her hand on the white-faced Eris. “It’s a leader’s job to make hard decisions,” she said softly, now sounding like she was trying to console a child. She even had a gentle, motherly smile on her face now. “There’s always been the risk of this going public, and everyone finding out about what we’ve been doing for the past fifteen years… many more years than that, really, if you consider all the planning. It’s a risk that we took, risking our reputations for the greater good. There’s a chance that I will be remembered in a worse light than Lyaya, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for Lago.”

Eris looked up slowly, looking into Queen Syabus’s eyes. “We left behind children,” she said slowly.

“One generation of children—a sacrifice for the next thousand generations. Don’t weep, sweet Eris. They will be remembered. Commander Kairo and the other commanders ensured it was quick and relatively painless. Speaking of Kairo, he’s calling again. It’s time we loop him in. Wipe those tears off of your face and put him on the big screen.”

“Yes, your majesty,” Eris said.

My face was hot. My hands were clenched into fists. I wanted to storm out of that closet and tighten my hands around the queen’s throat. I wanted to choke her out and ensure that she wouldn’t live to see another day after what she’d done to the Lagolians.

But I knew it wouldn’t do any good—not now. The carnage was already done. The queen might have been the primary force behind the genocide, but there were many more players in her cruel game. And I knew that her guards were standing outside of Eris’s door, ready to burst in at the first sign of a struggle. I wouldn’t get far before they apprehended me and launched me into space.

I couldn’t kill the queen with my bare hands the way I wanted to—but I was determined to make her pay.

“Your connection is poor, Commander,” said the queen.

“I—Kr—Chh—hear me now?”

“That’s better.”

“Rak is working on the formal report now, but I thought it would be best to touch base with you personally, my queen,” said Commander Kairo. I could see a hint of the screen from inside of that closet. I couldn’t see the commander, but I could see the pinkish forest behind him, and the glimmering lake that was certainly Gorro Lake.

“Go on, commander.”

“I see General Eris is in the room with you,” said Kairo. Kairo had a tone of uncertainty in his voice.

“She’s with me. I brought her up to speed on Operation Determination. You can speak freely, Commander.”

“Understood. In that case, we’ve detected a tunnel system under the lake, stretching out to the eastern mountain range. We’ve been unable to find any entrances, but there are signs of active life in the area: footprints, residue radiation from Nekrol munitions charges. We’re seeking permission to act swiftly. It’s, uh, only a matter of time before we’re detected and determined to be a threat.”

“Permission granted.” The queen turned to Eris. “Eris, have a pulse bomb delivered to Commander Kairo at Gorro Lake now. Don’t waste any time—go and place the order now.” She turned back to the screen as Eris scurried off. “Kairo, are you in need of reinforcements, or can you handle operations on your own?”

“I think for the sake of keeping this discreet, we can manage with just the five of us.”

“Have you operated a pulse bomb before, Commander?”

“Yes, your majesty. Not me personally, but Jyo, our demolitionist—he’s familiar with pulse bombs.”

“In that case, I’ll have the bomb dropped off and you and your team can arm it. Let’s not get any additional units involved. And please do me a favor—when you put the formal request in for the pulse bomb, put down a different location so that Gorro Lake stays off of the formal record.”

“Absolutely. Thank you, Queen Syabus.”

“Be safe, commander.”

Eris ran back into the room. “Is it ordered?” asked the queen.

Eris paused, stuttered, and then she nodded her head quickly. Queen Syabus smiled and put her hand on Eris’s shoulder. “Relax, sweet Eris. Think of the future. Think of the paradise your children will inherit.”

“Y—Yes, Queen Syabus.”

There was a long silence as the queen stared into Eris’s eyes. Then, she left the room, closing the door behind her while Eris broke down and wept. I waited a minute before slipping out, rushing over to Eris, putting my arm around her. “Get up,” I said.

“She killed all of them,” Eris cried, shaking her head.

“It’s not your fault.”

“They were all murdered!”

“Eris, try to calm down.”

“Billions of people died! Children!”

“I know, I know.”

“I can’t do it, Kyrie. I can’t go on like this. I don’t want this. I don’t want to live knowing the truth. Please—Please tell me I’m just having a nightmare. Please!”

“Eris, pull yourself together. I need you to focus. Did you actually order that bomb? Eris, look at me. Take a deep breath. Is there actually a pulse bomb on its way to Gorro Lake?”

She wasn’t able to reply, but she was able to nod her head.

“Is there any way to stop it?”

She shook her head, sobbing and wiping her eyes with her sleeves. She wasn’t able to pull herself up off of her knees. “I can’t do anything. I mean—I could call and cancel the order, but it would only buy a minute or two, and it would get me into a lot of trouble. I need to be here for our kids, Kyrie—but I can’t be a part of this. Oh God, Kyrie, please tell me that I’m having a nightmare.”

“How long does it take to arm a pulse bomb?”

“Not long… a few minutes if you’ve done it a few times before. You have to punch in codes and there’s an arming sequence. I guess if it’s not something you’ve done many times… five minutes? You can ask Trix, she used to arm them all the time. The bomb is being loaded up now, into a transport craft. It will take thirty minutes to get there, a few minutes for Kairo and his men to reach the bomb, and then five minutes at most for them to arm it… then add in a few more minutes for them to evacuate the area.”

“Get me on a craft,” I said, standing up. “And call Vega and Kuzu and Trix.”

She looked up at me with big, glimmering eyes. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Intercept the bomb,” I said.

She kept staring at me. “Commander Kairo is a level fifty-six, Kyrie,” she said. “The lowest level with him right now is a level thirty-one demolitionist. Just for reference, Trix is a level sixteen. You would be utterly outmatched—and then if you did manage to beat them before they could arm the pulse bomb… then what? Then you’re a pariah. You wouldn’t be able to come back to Lunar Alpha without being arrested and ejected. It’s a suicide mission, Kyrie.”

“Gaelia and the girls at Gorro Lake are innocent, and they’re about to be dead. And they have kids down there,” I said, staring into Eris’s eyes. I watched the last bit of her heart shatter into pieces.

“Why is God doing this to me?” she asked, turning to look down at the floor.

“I need you to hurry, Eris. I need you to get me onto a craft. I’ll go alone.”

“No,” she said. She wiped her eyes again. “I’ll summon Vega and Kuzu and Trix. You’re right, enough children have died. You have to stop them. I would come with you, but—I have an idea.” She pulled herself to her feet. “I need to make it to the ship’s broadcasting system. Take helmets with you—I’ll run your camera feeds through the ship… maybe we can expose Commander Kairo and Queen Syabus to all of Lunar Alpha.”

I gave her a hug, and a kiss on the lips.

“But Kyrie,” she said softly.

“What?”

“This means you might not ever see your kids again,” she said. “Even if you survive.”

“I know,” I said, suddenly with the urge to cry. But I had to be strong—for her and for all of Lunar Alpha. “But maybe someone else will get to see their kids again because of this. Order the ship.” I gave her one last kiss and then I darted out the door.

CHAPTER XXVI

I didn’t have a ton of time to explain the situation to the other girls, but I did my best. I wasn’t about to take them on that suicide mission without getting their consent. I tried to quickly summarize what the queen said. “The bomb’s already on its way to Gorro Lake, so if you want to come with me, come. If not, stay back. I’m not going to judge you or try to force you to come with me.”

“I fucking knew it!” Trix said. “And I’m so in. Let’s fuck these pricks up.”

We were in the mech repair room, just next to the mechanics bay. It was a private area, though we had to whisper occasionally as mechanics slipped in to grab parts.

Vega just stood with her lips parted, looking into my eyes as if she wasn’t sure whether or not to believe me. Kuzu stood quietly, staring off into the distance, looking at nothing. Her skin turned white and I had to gently grab her arm to bring her back to reality. “I know I’m not giving you a lot of time to process all of this,” I said. “But Gaelia and her people are going to be wiped out in the next thirty minutes if we aren’t fast. The pulse bomb is already en-route.”

“Well then we have to go,” Vega said after taking a deep breath. “If it’s true, then we have to stop them. We have to at least try.”

“That’s the spirit. Let’s go fire up the ship. Kuzu, are you coming?”

She kept staring off with that blank look.

“Kuzu?” Vega said.

“I just—I can’t believe it. It’s like my whole life has been a lie.”

“I’d like to help you process all of this, Kuzu, but we really don’t have much time to hash this out.”

She finally looked into my eyes. “I’ve spent the past five years fighting for my people—but maybe I’ve been fighting against them. It’s not right… It’s not fair…”

“Well here’s your chance to make it better. Are you coming, or not?”

She took a deep, defiant breath, and then she nodded her head. “I’ll load up my mech,” she said.

“Let’s do this,” Vega said, marching to the door and pushing it open. We all followed, trying our best to look unsuspicious. It was hard not to break down into a full-blown panic. I had to bite down on my tongue, and I could see that Kuzu kept wiping away rogue tears.

There was nobody between us and the craft; we had a straight shot—until a voice called out, “Hold on! I need to check your permissions!” We looked back to see one of Kairo’s men running towards us.

“Check them with General Eris. We’re on a tight timeline,” I said.

“It won’t take long.” He rushed up. “Name?”

“Kyrie.”

“It says you’ve been granted access to a ship, but it doesn’t say why.”

“It’s classified,” Vega said.

“Well then I need to check your status with the higher ups. You’ll have to wait.”

“We don’t have time to wait,” Vega snarled.

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t authorize a ship until I have confirmation from my superiors.” I looked around and noticed that Kuzu was gone. I couldn’t help but wonder if the pressure got to her. Maybe she thought we were about to be busted and decided to save herself. I couldn’t blame her; it would really suck to get arrested before we even had a chance to fight.

“We are your superiors,” Vega said.

Then the man laughed. “How old are you? Eighteen? I’ve been fighting the Nekrol since you were three years old, girly.”

“I’m twenty-eight,” growled Vega. “And I’ve fought in hundreds of skirmishes, and I’m a big part of the reason Lunar Alpha made it back to Chorus to begin with!”

“While you were fighting in some cute skirmishes, we were here fighting a real war,” the man grinned, oblivious to the fact that we knew the truth.

Vega took a deep breath and then let it out slowly through clenched teeth. Then she stormed over to the ship and opened the door herself. “You aren’t authorized to take that!” the man said, chasing after us. Trix and I boarded with Vega, ignoring the man, and then the man came onto the ship with us. “Get off right now or I’m reporting you.” Then he looked down at Vega’s sword, which was clenched in her fist. “You’ll regret using that on me,” he said.

The air suddenly became quiet. The man reached for a sidearm and stepped back from Vega. His gaze moved around the ship. He looked into my eyes for a moment, and I could tell that he knew: he knew that we knew the truth. Now, he was determined to stop us.

But he didn’t stop us. Instead, he just dropped to the ground like a sack of old apples. His body was limp and lifeless, as if he’d just been… turned off.

Now, standing in the doorway was Kuzu with a blushing smile on her face. She was holding up a white pistol, which didn’t look like a military weapon at all. “What is that?” I asked.

“It’s from one of the emergency medical kits they installed in the bay after Andrei’s turret incident a few weeks ago.” She put it down on the dashboard by the door. “It’s a sedation gun. Don’t worry. He’s not dead.”

“I guess we’re taking him with us,” Vega said. “Get his earpiece and break it, so he can’t call us in. I’d say we have about five minutes before they’re onto us.”

“And five minutes before the bomb shows up at Gorro Lake,” I said.

Vega turned on the ship.

“I’ll get my mech. Open the big hatch!” Kuzu raced off the ship and was back within thirty seconds, stomping her large mech up the ramp and onto the tight disc craft.

“This might be the dumbest thing we’ve ever done,” Vega mumbled.

“Speak for yourself,” said Trix, getting her rocket launcher ready for battle. “I can’t wait to stomp these fuckers into the ground. Even if I can just bag one of them, it will be so worth a lifetime in deep space.”

Kuzu stayed in her mech. Her gaze was lost again as we rose up and floated out of Lunar Alpha. She looked like an athlete, about to step out for her Olympic performance: focused and determined. Maybe this was the chance to fight for Lago that she was looking for, that she didn’t get because Eris didn’t dress her in the final skirmish. Now, we were all getting that chance: a chance to stop true tyranny and save the lives of many Lagolians, reshaping the future of that moon in a system far, far away from Earth.

CHAPTER XXVII

We cloaked the ship before entering the Gorro Lake region, landing on the lake, next to the entrance of Gaelia’s cottage. Commander Kairo was on the other end of the lake with his squad, still waiting for the pulse bomb to be delivered. We kept a close eye on them, ensuring that they weren’t noticing us; we were far away—about three hundred yards—but they were trained killers with sharp senses.

“One of us should go and warn Gaelia,” Vega said, watching Kairo and his men: small dots on the far end of the lake. “The rest of us can stay on the cloaked ship for now—reduce our chances of being seen.”

“I’ll go,” I said. “Gaelia seems to trust me.”

“Be careful,” Kuzu said. She had her helmet’s visor down, likely with the binocular function engaged so she could spy on our Lagolian rivals. “Their sniper is armed and ready. He keeps looking this way. You’ll have a short window.”

My heart fluttered. Their sniper was a level forty-two, probably armed with firepower that I hadn’t even seen before. Hell, his high-level bullets could probably aim themselves like tiny, ferociously fast heat-seeking missiles. “Tell me when it’s safe to run,” I said. My voice cracked slightly.

Kuzu now had her camera’s feed up on the ship’s main screen, showing us a 10x zoom on our opponents. They were spread wide in a tactical formation: Commander Kairo with a newly upgraded infantry rifle, Rak with a hefty firearm, Jyo, their demolitionist, holding a long rocket launcher that made Trix’s launcher look like a child’s toy, and that sniper, guised in a ghillie suit, holding a drool-inducing Ryon Legend Series K-88.

Reality was hitting hard and fast. Maybe we didn’t stand a chance against this crew. We were about to face off against four of the deadliest Lagolians in modern Lagolian history—and there might have been a fifth in the woods with them, out of sight. Their combined kill count—which was now on the screen along with their stats—was well into the thousands… many of those kills were probably Lagolians.

“He’s looking this way now,” Kuzu whispered. Now, that sniper was aiming right at our cloaked ship. He paused. His red optic glowed as it flashed Kuzu’s visor camera. The ship became silent. I was almost sure I could hear all of the hearts pounding.

“Shouldn’t there be five of them?” Trix whispered. Her knuckles were white as she clutched her RPG-launcher.

“They dressed a fifth for this mission,” I said. “I have no idea where he is—or what he is.”

“He’s still aiming at us,” Kuzu said. “Is there a chance he’s looking at us with thermal? If he is, we’re in a lot of trouble.”

“Why isn’t he looking away?” Vega asked.

“The others are looking this way now,” Kuzu said. Now, her voice was shaking.

“Did they detect us?” Trix asked, backing into the wall, as if the extra few feet would be the difference between life and death if the opposition opened fire.

“I—I don’t know,” said Kuzu.

Commander Kairo raised his rifle. The red-dot sight on the top of his gun suddenly stretched out, turning into a scope. He was aiming at us now.

We all froze. Cold terror flooded down my spine. These weren’t Nekrol warriors. They weren’t going to miss. Their guns could probably penetrate disc hulls.

Then, he lowered his weapon. He turned to the sniper and said something before turning away. The sniper kept aiming at us for another ten seconds, and then he turned to scan the woods.

“I think this is your window, Kyrie,” said Kuzu.

Vega, with a trembling hand, opened the hatch so I could run out. My legs were frozen. I knew I wouldn’t see the bullet coming. I knew it would end my life before I could even feel any pain—and maybe that was a good thing. It was probably better than being ejected into space, unable to move my arms or legs for ninety years.

“Go, Kyrie!” Vega shouted.

So I ran. I closed my eyes and darted towards the cottage. For a moment, it felt like I left my heart behind. Then, I felt it suddenly thrashing in my chest. My legs felt numb. Every muscle in my body was tense, locked, nearly paralyzing me. But somehow, I managed to make it to the wall of the cottage. I jumped into cover and flattened my back against that wooden wall. I looked back at the ship, which now seemed to be gone: invisible as it remained cloaked on that shimmering water. I knew that my teammates were looking back at me. I peeked around the corner to look at Kairo and his men; they were still in formation, unmoved and undisturbed.

So I crept along the cottage wall and knocked on the window. “Open up and let me in!” I said, trying not to yell but trying to be heard at the same time.

I kept knocking, knowing there wasn’t much time to spare. I could hear the distant humming of an approaching craft: surely the construction craft that was transporting the pulse bomb and the drill that would take it into the ground once it was armed.

Then a voice said, “Gun on the ground.” I looked to my right to see a pair of Lagolian girls, dressed in scrappy plates of armor and pieces of leather, both aiming at me with Nekrol rifles.

I followed the order, kneeling slowly and placing my sniper rifle on the ground. “Don’t shoot me, alright? I’m here to see Gaelia. It’s important. I need to talk with her now.”

“What about?”

“You need to evacuate this area. They’re bringing in a pulse bomb. They’re going to collapse your entire base.”

The girls looked at each other and then back at me. Their eyes were wide and their faces were quickly whitening, so I knew that they believed me—or they were at least open to the idea of believing me. “A pulse bomb?” said one of the girls.

Then we heard the loud humming coming overhead. We all looked up to see the clunky metal disc hauling the huge sphere beneath it. I guess that was all the proof they needed. Once I got them out of their hypnotized daze, they ran off to retrieve Gaelia, leaving me outside, sticking close to that cottage wall so I wouldn’t be detected by the craft.

The craft didn’t make a landing. It went into the forest to find a clearing. Commander Kairo and his men watched the craft, not sure where exactly the unit was going to be dropped off.

The back door of the cottage flew open. Gaelia came out with a Nekrol rifle and three guards, also armed. The guards ran around the building while Gaelia came up to me. “Did you tip them off?” she growled at me.

“No!” I said. “They knew you were here long before we took back Chorus. They just didn’t have the resources to take you out. Now they do—and now you need to get everyone out of here.”

“If they set off a pulse bomb, it will destroy everything,” she said. “Our homes will be obliterated.”

“I know—that’s why we need to move, now. Vega and a couple other girls are here with me. We’re going to try and intercept them. You need to evacuate your people.”

“We need to stay and fight,” she said, leaning around the bend to see Kairo and his men.

“It’s not worth the risk,” I said. “Get out of here and let us deal with them. They’re some of the queen’s most powerful troops.”

“I’ve got thirty units ready to fight,” she said. Then she turned around to shout at one of her guards. “Get every soldier ready for battle! Get everyone else on ships, bound for the base at Eluna Lake.”

“Yes, Gaelia!” the armed guard shouted, nodding her head. She darted back into the cottage and I heard the basement door flying open as she dashed down the stairs.

“I don’t know if you have time to get them all ready,” I said, watching as Kairo and his men started into the forest, off to arm the pulse bomb. “Everyone within fifty kilometers of that bomb is going to be dead in fifteen minutes.”

Gaelia squirmed. She groaned. She looked through the window of the cottage, at that basement door.

Kuzu, Vega, and Trix were running off of the ship now. “C’mon, Kyrie!” Kuzu shouted. “We need to get to that bomb before they arm it!”

“It’s a suicide mission, Gaelia,” I said. “Let us take the hit. Gather everything you can and get out of here. Eris is broadcasting all of this on Lunar Alpha.” I tapped on my helmet, next to the little camera. “There’s going to be a revolt. The queen won’t get away with this—but this whole area is probably going to be flattened. I know you have kids down there.”

“Son of a bitch!” Gaelia groaned, throwing her head back. Then she turned to her guard. “Tell the troops to get out with everyone else—you too.”

“Are you sure?” the guard asked with shocked, parted lips.

“Just do it. Kyrie’s right—there isn’t time to make a real stand here, but there is time to get out. We’ll regroup and make a proper stand elsewhere. Go on! Don’t just stand there, woman! Get all of the kids on ships for God’s sake!” Gaelia pulled back the bolt to load a charge into her Nekrol firearm. She looked at me. “Let’s go, Kyrie.”

“You should go with your people,” I said.

“I’m going to buy my people some time,” she said, and then she ran off before I could try to convince her to save herself. So I chased after her. It wasn’t easy keeping up with her; she’d mastered that terrain. She knew every twist and turn of those woods—and she could jump ancient logs with ease, jumps that NBA stars wouldn’t even consider attempting. I did my best to keep up, grunting and huffing as I navigated around those ancient trees.

I could barely make out Kuzu’s mech in the distance.

“How far back are you, Kyrie?” Vega asked in my earpiece.

“A minute,” I said, nearly tripping over a rugged root.

“Make it thirty seconds. I can see the clearing and there’s already a unit at the bomb, starting the arming sequence.”

“Shit,” I groaned. And now I could see the light from the clearing, peering through the forest. My girls were fanning around, slowing down as they came within earshot of the enemy.

“I’ve got a clear shot on Bomberman,” Trix whispered. “Goddamn, that bazooka on his back is nice. Definitely S-Series. It would be a shame to blow it up.”

“Don’t take the shot,” I said. “You’ll end up setting off the bomb. Do you see the others?”

“No. They must be in position.”

“Don’t get any closer,” I said. Now, I could see Trix. She was crouched behind a jagged rock, looking down into a small valley.

“Hurry up, Kyr,” she said. “He’s pressing buttons on that thing.”

“I’m going to creep around,” Vega whispered.

Gaelia dove into cover at the ridge before the valley. “What the hell are we waiting for?” she asked.

“Kyrie,” said Trix.

“I’m almost there!” Finally, I stumbled down next to Trix. I needed a minute to catch my breath, but I didn’t have a minute. I had to act quickly, so I propped my rifle onto her rock cover and I put the target in my sights. He was indeed arming that sphere, which was mounted on top of a huge drill.

“Take him out, Kyrie,” Trix said. My sights were swaying; I needed to catch my breath so I could keep my optics still, but I didn’t have time to settle.

“Should I really shoot before we have any idea where the other guys are?” It seemed like it was happening so fast. One minute ago, I was talking to Gaelia at the cottage. Now, I was about to kick off a firefight with opponents ten times my level.

“Shoot, Kyrie!” Vega snapped.

So I squeezed the trigger, sights centered on the target’s heart. The shot was loud, even though I was using my Joblex Quiet Marksman S-2. It echoed through the woods as Jyo, Kairo’s demolitionist, yelled and fell to the ground.

“Got him,” I whispered, cocking another round into the chamber.

And then, Jyo stood up, looking strangely… fine. Smoke was billowing out from his chest, but his body seemed to be otherwise unharmed. He pulled his rocket launcher off of his back and turned to me. His gaze met mine from one-hundred yards away. I probably should have used the time to fire again, but his resilience left me in a state of shock. How did he survive a sniper blast to the chest? What kind of magical armor was he wearing? If a sniper shot couldn’t take him down, what the hell could?

He fired, aiming directly at me. His RPG wasn’t like what I was used to seeing from Trix. He didn’t have to lob his shot, and his projectile reached me in a matter of milliseconds, giving me almost no time to react. It was like a meteor, red and fiery, growing bigger and bigger in my vision as I fell down to my ass. The grenade hit our rocky cover and engulfed the whole area with flames and shrapnel.

Trix screamed, curling into a ball and covering her face. I used my forearm to block the heat from my eyes. The rock absorbed most of that blast—but the flames left my skin tingling with pain.

“He’s going back to the bomb!” Gaelia shouted. Then she stood up and fired rapidly, giving away her position to the invisible enemies in the forest. She got about six shots in before a dull sniper blast tore a thick branch clean off of the tree right behind her, making her wince. My God, the caliber of that rifle must have been like an anti-tank shell!

“Get down, Gaelia!” I shouted.

Trix was crawling away from our rock cover, anticipating another blast. I decided to crawl in the other direction, so we wouldn’t be sitting ducks together. “Gaelia, get down!” I said.

She managed to land a couple of hits from that far distance, which was surprising, but Jyo was some sort of super-Lagolian tank. He could take shot after shot as if we were peppering him with shots from a BB-gun. I stood up to take another shot, but one of their infantry units was ready for me, unloading on my position, forcing me back into cover.

“I’ve got you, Kyrie,” Kuzu said, roaring over my head and landing on the edge of that ridge. She started spraying the adjacent forest. None of us knew where their units were, aside from Jyo, arming the bomb. But we had to engage if we wanted to have any chance of stopping them from arming that bomb.

They returned fire on Kuzu. Bullets pinged off of her hull, making her mech stutter and stumble. “C’mon, Kyrie! Now’s your chance!” she said with strain in her voice. I stood up and lined up my shot. I knew a chest shot was pointless, so I had to aim for the head. It was a stupid shot to attempt, with that pulse bomb right behind him. A miss could penetrate the bomb and set it off. Even if I hit, the bullet could tear through his skull and penetrate the bomb anyway.

So I had another idea, aiming down at his foot. I didn’t have to kill him, I just had to stop him. Even if I could just buy some more time while the survivors got onto their ships and escaped…

I squeezed the trigger.

Bang!

He screamed out loud as blood sprayed up from the toe of his shoe. He fell down and grabbed at his foot.

“Better than nothing,” Trix said. Then she fired an RPG at the woods: a blind shot, but enough to take some of the pressure off of Kuzu, who was now engaging her thrusters so she could get back into cover while her shields recovered from the two dozen rounds that she endured while protecting me.

I took another shot on Jyo, a blast to the thigh where his armor was lighter. I saw another plume of blood and heard another scream. For a moment, I felt guilty torturing him with the non-lethal shots. Then I remembered what he’d done, along with Queen Syabus and Commander Kairo. These men deserved all the pain we could dish out.

Now they were firing on me again, from about two-hundred and fifty yards, with infantry rifles. I tried to duck down before taking too much heat, but they were sharper than the Nekrol warriors I was used to fighting. A sharp pain ripped through my right bicep. “Fuck!” I yelled, grabbing my arm to stop the immediate bleeding.

“You okay, Kyr?” Trix asked.

“I think it went in and out,” I said. “Ah, fuck, but it hurts!”

“Keep the pressure on,” whispered Vega. “I’ve got eyes on Rak. He’s trying to sneak around.”

Trix fired another explosive projectile into the woods, creating a loud, fiery boom. “Jyo is trying to climb back up to the bomb’s panel, Kyrie,” she warned.

I had to pull myself to my feet, eating the pain that was surging down my arm. I knew I was risking a shot to the face but we’d come too far to let them activate that bomb now. I did my best to put Jyo in my sights. He was clutching the panel of the bomb, putting in the final few digits. I tried to put a shot through the back of his head, but instead I put one through the back of his neck.

His blood painted the metallic sphere and he slumped to the ground.

“That’s one down,” I said before falling back to the ground.

The battle raged on. Now, Gaelia was moving up, getting closer to the bomb to cover it, buying more time for her people while they escaped the area. “Their reinforcements should be showing up any minute,” said Kuzu. “My shields are back up. You okay, Kyrie? Let’s try to move in on them.”

“They’re trying to flank you,” Vega whispered. “Two units coming around the west side of the clearing. No idea where the other two are.”

“C’mon, Kyrie. Let’s intercept them,” Kuzu said, and then she roared by me, circling around the clearing to stop the approaching enemies. I ran to keep up, holding my arm, which was now soaked with blood. I hated the feeling of the blood trapped in the sleeve of my shirt, sloshing around and then pouring out whenever I straightened my arm downward.

Kuzu was pulling away from me. With every passing second, I felt more and more alone in that forest. The occasional blast of infantry fire made me jump, but it wasn’t being directed at me—probably just covering fire while the enemy shuffled their position.

I was starting to feel optimistic. We were up a unit and they no longer had a unit on the bomb. We just had to keep buying time. “Trix,” I said. “Don’t make any moves yet—but do you think you could figure out how to disable the pulse bomb so it can’t be armed?”

“Easy,” she said. “I would just need thirty seconds at the panel. I can have the arming serum removed completely by ejecting the—shit!” The gunfire was loud, crashing down on her. “Hold that thought. Infantry at my position! If anyone’s nearby for backup, I wouldn’t turn it down.”

But we were all far away. I was the closest one to her, but even I was a full minute of sprinting away from her position. I paused and looked back. I could see the flashing muzzle. Zooming in, I could see only trees, so I switched to thermal and was able to make out the slight orange glimmer of a living body, approaching on Trix.

I could have helped, but they timed out their flank perfectly. The tree bark next to my face exploded into tiny pieces, making me shriek, spinning around to see the bearded Rak, armed with a dense shotgun. He pumped and shot again. I felt the pain in my right leg and knew that I took a hit—but it wasn’t enough to take me down.

I fired back at him, missing, but forcing him into cover. I cocked my gun and fired another shot at the tree he was hiding behind, knowing that my rifle could penetrate weaker trees at a close-enough distance. I cocked another shot and blasted again, chipping the tree and skimming his shoulder, eliciting a deep yell.

He reacted by spinning out of cover and firing on me, peppering me with tree bark again, but missing his shot. I managed to pop off a good shot before spinning into cover: a shot to the stomach that was absorbed by his high-level armor plating.

“You’re a traitor!” he roared. Then he shot again, chipping away at that tree with another shell. He pumped and shot once more. “My people should have never trusted your primitive race!”

“Who are you calling a traitor, asshole!?” I yelled. His next blast made me jump again, feeling like a war drum against my back as his blasts dug deeper and deeper into that tree. “You killed your own people!”

“I fulfilled my duties as a sergeant major of the imperial army! It’s not my position to question the queen and it’s definitely not yours, human!” He blasted again. I could feel each shot getting closer and closer to my spine. I had to stop him, so I spun around and shot again: a shot to the chest from thirty yards. I watched his chest dent; he stumbled back, out of air—but it still wasn’t enough to break his armor. I was going to need to land a shot on his head, though there was a good chance that his helmet was just as strong.

He was pumping his shotgun, so I knew I only had time to duck for cover—not enough time to get another shot off.

“You might kill me, Rak, but you aren’t going to get away with this,” I said.

“Bite your tongue,” he growled, firing again. I felt a ball of metal piercing my rib, making me squirm with pain.

I fell to my knees. Rak was close now, coming around the corner. He was pushing shells into his barrel magazine. He would have killed me had Vega not come to my rescue, slicing down through his arm, severing his limb with a clean cut. He screamed, still clutching his shotgun with his remaining hand. He pulled it up and fired at Vega’s chest, pushing her back. She let out a scream of her own before hitting the ground.

“Vega!” I yelled.

Rak turned to me and fired, but his aim was shit now that he didn’t have a hand to stabilize his weapon. He missed, but I didn’t: a shot to the face, cracking his visor and penetrating his jaw. He fell back, but he wasn’t dead, so I rushed him and put a point-blank shot through his forehead: a messy job, but I needed the security before I could let my guard down to check on Vega.

“Vega, get up!” I said. She was squirming with pain. There were wounds on her thighs and arms. I gently pulled up her battle dress to check her chest, seeing the huge purple bruise that almost certainly accompanied a number of broken ribs and maybe a collapsed lung. “Can you breathe?”

She strained to nod her head. “I’m okay, Kyrie. I—I can’t move. You need to stop them before they arm that bomb.”

“Just don’t die on me. I’ll come right back for you.” I wanted to stay with her, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to stop them from arming that bomb.

“Still no reinforcements,” said Kuzu. “Not sure how that’s possible, but I’m not about to complain about it.”

“There are three of them left,” I said. “Kairo’s here somewhere, and another infantry, and a sniper. So don’t let your guard down. I’m guessing the sniper is keeping eyes on the bomb.”

Now I could see Kuzu, on her way to intercept the flank. She was stopped, looking left and right in a particularly dense section of forest. “No movement here,” she whispered.

“They stopped shooting at me,” said Trix. “It’s quiet over here. Not sure what’s going on. Wait!”

I crept up to the edge of the clearing and looked across to where Trix was positioned. I couldn’t see her, or anyone. I switched my scope to thermal. That thermal view wasn’t terribly useful in the daytime—especially on a warm day like that one. Everything was glowing yellow. There was lots of orange and specs of red. It was hard to distinguish a patch of sunny grass from a living body—but I was almost sure I could see something creeping up: maybe a patch of sun in a slowly moving cloud, or maybe a deadly imperial Lagolian.

“Trix, what’s your position?” I whispered.

“I’m sitting between a tree and a rock.”

“You aren’t moving though, are you?”

“No.”

“Stand by—taking a shot on a possible target.” I took the shot, ripping a bullet through the moving bogie.

“I heard a scream!” Trix whispered with excitement. “I think you go him, Kyr!”

“Anyone know where Gaelia is?” I asked. She didn’t have a mic, so we couldn’t communicate with her. I knew I didn’t shoot her because the bogie wasn’t anywhere near where I’d seen her last, and it was moving in our direction. But where was she now?

A sudden burst of fire captured my attention to my right. I swung around to see incendiary gunfire raining down on Kuzu’s mech, making her stumble back. That heavy fire quickly broke through her shields and started to penetrate her hull. Kuzu screamed as I located the shooter.

There was Commander Kairo, plated with armor and holding a rifle that was about the same size as my torso. It was louder than an anti-aircraft turret, leaving small flames on every piece of tree that it hit.

“My mech’s down!” Kuzu cried.

I took a shot, hitting Kairo’s heart, but hardly making him flinch. He kept shooting at Kuzu, so I took another shot, this time to the gut, but he only stumbled slightly. Finally, he turned to me with a grimace on his face. He dropped a mag out from his heavy gun and punched a new one in place as he turned his muzzle on me.

Kuzu ejected herself, flew into the air and then rolled on the forest floor before dashing into cover, almost entirely exposed, now with no weapon except for her sidearm. I was just happy that she was alive. “Retreat, Kuzu. You’ve done enough, now get yourself to safety,” I said.

“I’m not leaving you guys!” she said.

“You have to. Don’t worry about us,” I said.

Then Kairo fired on me, pushing me into cover as his fire-bullets roasted my surroundings. Sparks singed the skin on my hands and face.

Kuzu tried to redirect him, standing and firing with her pistol. She was a decent shot, hitting him a few times, but the pistol shots did nothing, just pinging off of his head-to-toe armor. It almost looked like he was laughing as I pounded another shot into his chest.

At the very least, we forced him into cover while he reloaded his weapon.

“He’s too strong,” I said. “This is hopeless.”

“I’m rotating to your position. Let’s see how he does with an RPG at his feet,” Trix said.

“Be careful,” I said, now with a cartridge in my chamber and my scope on his cover. I was ready for him—ready to pound him with another apparently harmless shot.

Then, there was suddenly a voice in my ear. “You’re all under arrest for treason,” his deep, thundering voice said. I knew the voice: it belonged to Commander Kairo. “Submit now and face the proper consequences of your actions.” Somehow, he’d tapped into our comms channel. I suppose it probably wasn’t too difficult to do—just a matter of scanning the various frequencies and changing his own comms system over to ours.

“You need to leave these people alone,” I said. “You don’t get to decide who lives and who dies.”

He ignored me. “I’ll say it once more before resuming force: submit now and face the proper consequences of your actions.”

“Fuck your mother,” said Trix.

“You’re a monster, Kairo!” Kuzu cried.

“Tell that to the next thousand generations that will live in complete prosperity thanks to Queen Syabus and her loyal subjects, myself included,” he said with a grin in his voice.

“You think rather highly of yourself,” I said, still waiting for him to come out of cover. I needed to land a headshot. It was obvious that I wasn’t going to crack the armor on his chest.

“I’ve led over seven hundred successful military missions. I’ve neutralized resistance leaders ten-times your level. If you think you have any chance, I feel bad for your complete lack of sensibility.”

He turned around suddenly, guns blazing faster than I could react.

I took a shot, hitting his shoulder, but I hardly made him flinch. Kuzu fired off a dozen shots, hitting more than half, but Kairo didn’t even bother to look at her. She may as well have been shooting a Nerf gun. He laughed while he shot, forcing me down into cover, roasting my skin with rogue sparks. “Goddamnit!”

“You have no chance. Submit to the queen and face the proper consequences of your actions.”

Kuzu reloaded and started unloading a new mag, now starting to annoy Kairo. He turned to her, flipped a switch under the barrel of his gun, and then blasted a high-velocity tin can in her direction, which turned out to be a hefty explosive device. She screamed as her position was engulfed in fire.

“Kuzu!” I yelled.

I put another dent into his chest, making him wobble. It seemed like a bit of a victory just knocking him off of his balance, but he was quick to return fire, unloading as he stepped towards me. I was running out of ways to hide, now with the trees around me on fire.

“The only reason you aren’t dead right now is because I’ve chosen not to kill you,” said Commander Kairo. “I would prefer the queen decide your fate. Now submit yourself, or you’ll give me no choice.”

“Fuck you and fuck your queen,” I said.

“You tell him, Kyrie!” yelled Trix.

The fiery ball of Trix’s RPG hurled through the air and struck Kairo in the side: a blast that would have killed any Nekrol warrior. But the flames of the blast seemed to bubble around him, not touching his body at all. He turned quickly, got into a lowered battle stance, and fired from the hip at Trix, who tried to get into cover—but she was gunned down to the ground. I took a shot at his back, but a blue glow stopped my shot from hitting his armor.

“What the hell’s going on!?” I yelled.

He laughed.

“He’s got flank armor, Kyrie,” Kuzu said. It was nice to hear her voice. I looked over and saw her crawling into cover. The blast from the grenade didn’t do her in—thank God.

Suddenly, a second shooter started unloading on us with high-velocity hornet fire. Those bullets sprayed through the woods, making me drop to the ground, behind cover, close to flames that were still burning from the last round of incendiary ammunition.

“Give up, human! Spare yourself. Lifetime ejection can be a spiritual revelation, so I’ve heard.”

“I’d sooner die than let you kill innocent people.”

“They are far from innocent,” Kairo laughed. “They spent the past fifteen years hunting down imperial officers. And before that, they spent hundreds of years holding Lago back from becoming a truly prosperous civilization. They created wars, famines, and even natural disasters with their careless consumption. Don’t lecture me about my own race, human. It’s time to mind your own business. Your breeding mates will be spared. The queen is fair and will understand that they’ve acted in your harmful influence. Take responsibility and be a martyr for the sake of your women, human.”

“Don’t listen to him, Kyrie,” said Kuzu. “He’s just an asshole—and a liar.”

“Trix, do you read me?” I said.

Trix didn’t reply. Her body was still on the ground, not moving. She’d survived being gunned down before, but now it wasn’t looking so good. Now, Britzi wasn’t around to save her, and there wasn’t a hospital that would take her in, seeing as she was technically a defector. “Trix!” I said. “Don’t die on us!”

“You’ve caused enough destruction, human. Submit.”

“No,” I said. I stood up and fired another shot. I missed my target, but it was probably for the best. My bullet got his hand, making him drop his gun, yelping in pain. I would have taken more shots, but his friend started firing on me, now just sixty yards away. I rolled into cover, and then Kuzu rushed in, firing with each step, denting Kairo’s armor until she was close enough for a surprisingly swift drop kick, taking him to the ground.

“Get off of me, pest!” he growled.

She pounded his head with her gloved hand, cracking his visor. I couldn’t believe how much force her petite figure was putting into each blow. But the force of his foot was harder, launching her into the air and sending her five feet back, fracturing her ribs.

Gunfire roared loud in the woods, but it was friendly, from the rifle of a Nekrol infantry gun, pummeling down on the infantry approaching behind Kairo. Gaelia stepped out from the woods, performing a breakneck reload before unloading another magazine, frying the enemy from the inside with those burning hot green charges. Kairo spun around, pulling a pistol from a side holster. He took an impressive shot at Gaelia, taking her to the ground. Then he turned and aimed at Kuzu. She was on her back, gun between her knees.

She fired first: chest shots and a pair of shots to the face. Kairo returned fire as he fell back. I tried to get a shot in before it was too late—before Kairo managed to land the kill shot…

But I was too late. Kairo’s powerful pistol finished the job, ending Kuzu’s life with a blow to the center of her chest. Commander Kairo didn’t live much longer than Kuzu—maybe three seconds before the life fluttered from his body and he went limp on the ground, visor splattered with blood from the inside.

“No!” I screamed.

Gaelia ran to Kuzu. “Stay in cover, human!” she shouted. “Their sniper is still active!” She dove down to Kuzu and tried to find her pulse. “No, no, no!”

I wanted to run to them, but I knew Gaelia was right: there was one unit still out there, probably watching us and waiting to make a perfect kill shot. I couldn’t give him the opportunity to take us out; we’d lost too much to lose. I couldn’t let my friends die for nothing.

I switched to thermal mode and slowly scanned the forest. “Tell me she’s got a pulse,” I called out, trying to stay focused on my duty.

“There’s nothing,” Gaelia said. “She’s not breathing. She’s—She’s dead.”

“No. She can’t be dead.”

“I’m sorry, Kyrie. She’s dead.”

I saw Gaelia standing up in the corner of my eye, giving up on Kuzu.

“No! You have to help her!” I said, fighting back the urge to cry.

“There’s nothing I can do, Kyrie! She’s dead!”

Then the shot rang out—bang! Gaelia screamed and her body twisted from the force of the blow. She fell to the ground. My heart did the same.

We were simply outmatched. Kairo’s men were more than I was expecting. Now, my vision was blurred from tears that were forcing their way out. I couldn’t let myself cry; I had to remain strong. I had to persevere.

“Son of a bitch!” I heard Gaelia yell from the ground. It was relieving to hear her voice, though I could see that she was putting pressure on her side, trying to slow the bleeding of a potentially fatal wound.

The next shot would take her life, so I had to find the enemy and I had to fire first. I pressed my gaze to my scope and I scanned, floating over patches of yellow, orange, and red. It was a blurry mess, but thermal was my only option—without thermal, I was just looking at rustling leaves, and I knew the sniper was clad in a ghillie suit: an outfit made of fabricated leaves that matched the environment.

I had my scope set to full zoom. I needed a miracle. I needed to focus. I knew that the sniper just needed to take one more shot and our mission was officially failed.

Then I saw it: a red fluttering, smaller than a fist. I paused on it, watched it for three seconds, and then I determined that it was a heart, beating in the chest of an enemy. I didn’t waste a second more.

Bang!

I looked up from my gun to see a figure at one-hundred yards, stumbling forward from the foliage, clutching at a rifle, grasping at his chest.

I took another shot: a bullet between the eyes on his leaf-clad face. I watched the blood spray out from the back of his head.

I dropped my rifle and ran to Kuzu. Now, her skin was pale. Her lips were parted and the color had seemingly drained from her eyes. Gaelia was right: she was dead.

“Kyrie?” a pained voice asked in my ear. I knew it belonged to Vega.

“Kuzu is dead,” I said.

“I’m going to need a doctor fast, or I’m going to be dead too,” said another voice: the voice of Trix. It pained me to leave Kuzu there, but I was the only active unit on our roster, and there were three girls who needed medical assistance. I rushed down the field to Trix. Her chest and arms were peppered with bleeding holes. She looked into my eyes, blinked a few times, and then she asked, “Am I dying? Be honest with me. I can’t move my legs.”

“I—I don’t know. Just hang in there and… I don’t know. You just have to hang in there.”

My head was spinning. I looked over to see Gaelia, trying to pull herself up, unable to get beyond her hands and knees.

“I can hardly breathe,” Vega gasped in my ear.

What could I do? There were no doctors on their way to save us. Even my arm wound was getting bad: still bleeding with sizeable gushes, making me feel more and more faint by the minute. I wouldn’t last forever without medical treatment.

“I’m not a doctor!” I said. “I—I don’t know what to do!” I pulled off my shirt and pressed it against Trix’s chest, smothering the worst of her wounds, putting pressure to stop the bleeding. “You just need to hang on.” I looked back at Kuzu’s body. I could feel the devil’s fist clenching at my heart.

Kuzu didn’t deserve to die. She was as pure as mountain snow. “This isn’t happening,” I said, closing my eyes tight, feeling tears escaping.

“Their reinforcements are here,” Vega said, and then I looked up to see three disc-shaped crafts coming from the distance. “You need to get out of here, Kyrie. Save yourself.”

“No,” I said.

“You can’t fight them all. You’ll die.” She coughed.

“I don’t care—then I’ll die,” I said.

One craft was coming down across the clearing, one hundred yards away. I stood up and cocked a cartridge into the chamber of my rifle. I was ready to face death, ready to join Kuzu.

Now, Gaelia was scrambling to grab her rifle from the ground. She was in too much pain to reach it, falling forward and groaning before trying again. She was ready to fight to the death too.

The craft’s hatch opened and three Lagolian girls jumped down. I raised my rifle to start the firefight, and then I noticed that they weren’t armed. They were medics, clad in white, rushing towards us with medical instruments and a pair of long stretchers. “Don’t shoot!” one of them yelled, covering her face, anticipating a nasty shot.

I lowered my rifle. At first, I assumed they were going to Kairo and his men, then I was shocked to see one crew heading straight for Kuzu and another for Trix. “We need the defib!” the girl shouted, and seconds later, they were shocking Kuzu’s heart.

Then I saw Britzi with them. She nudged her way in and pressed her hands down on Kuzu’s chest. A flare of hope filled my chest. Maybe there was a chance. Maybe Kuzu wasn’t going to stay dead.

The other crew already had Trix on a stretcher. They were rushing her back to the ship. I went to chase after her, and then two white-clad medics grabbed me. “We need to stop the bleeding on your arm!” they said to me.

“Don’t take her back to Lunar Alpha!” I said. “She can’t go back there! They’ll kill her. Stop!”

“Lunar Alpha is gone!” the medic said to me, and then I paused.

“What do you mean, gone?” I said. Then my arm suddenly burned and I saw that they were pouring a clear liquid on my wound. I screamed out in pain—and it truly was a frighteningly intense pain.

“The queen took the ship and left,” said another medic. “Where’s Vega?”

The medics from Lunar Alpha weren’t paying Kairo and his men any attention. No one tried to resuscitate Commander Kairo. Nobody rushed to see if Jyo could be saved. Nobody bothered to even check on the downed sniper across the valley. They were enemies, and they were being treated accordingly.

The next two ships were filled with troops: mostly young female infantry units, rushing in to ensure Kairo and his men were neutralized. They swarmed the pulse bomb and quickly disarmed it, releasing the arming mechanism completely and carefully carrying it away from the deadly sphere.

Now, the girls were rushing me onto the craft. “Is Kuzu going to be okay?” I asked, looking back at her. Then Britzi opened her eyes and looked up at me. She had a forlorn look in her eyes before she shook her head slowly. “She’s okay, right?” I asked, getting choked up.

“She’s gone, Kyrie,” Britzi said softly.

“No,” I said. “You’re not trying hard enough. Try harder. Use the defibrillator again. She can’t be dead!”

“We need to get the ship back to Patatora, Kyrie,” said one of the medic girls. “Please, get on so we can get Trix into proper care.”

Now, they were loading Vega onto the craft. They had her on a respirator.

“This can’t be happening,” I said.

“We’ll get Kuzu onto the next ship,” Britzi called out to me. “I’m sorry, Kyrie.”

It took three of them to get me onto that ship—and the only reason I didn’t put up more of a fight was because I knew Trix wouldn’t remain stable for long if we didn’t get to Patatora quickly. It killed me to leave Kuzu… but I had to accept reality: Kuzu was dead.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Lunar Alpha really was gone. The Lagolians in Patatora were in a panic. Many were enraged and many were reduced to inconsolable tears.

They had a makeshift infirmary set up in one of the newer buildings. Their resources were limited to the medical equipment that was kept on the job sites and the medical crafts that rescued us at Gorro Lake, since all of the real gear was on Lunar Alpha, which was now nowhere to be seen.

They did the best with what they had, but they simply weren’t able to bring Kuzu back. She was declared dead and her body was covered with a sheet before they brought her to another room. They fought to stabilize Trix. They needed to do emergency surgery but they didn’t have the necessary tools.

Though the shortage of supplies was short-lived. Gaelia called for her people, and thirty minutes after we arrived at Patatora, Gaelia’s survivors showed up with their ships. They gave the Lagolians of Patatora a good scare when they appeared on the horizon with their Nekrol crafts. The Lagolian medics backed away when the scrappy survivors rushed in with their old equipment, ready to help.

Vega was stable: six broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a number of cuts on her arms and legs, requiring stitches, but nothing too serious.

Trix went under the knife. They worked to repair organs. She even suffered a gash to the wall of her heart, which they carefully fused shut before the internal bleeding overwhelmed and killed her. Trix was a frighteningly tough girl and was deemed stable within two hours.

They worked on my arm for a good hour. They told me that the shot I took cracked my bone and tore through my muscle. “It will be a few weeks before you can use it properly again,” the doctor said to me. “And it may never be quite like it used to be.”

Eris burst into the room and came at me like a steaming train. She threw her arms around me and squeezed the life out of me before nestling her tear-covered face into my chest. She squeezed my arm pretty good, making me shriek in pain. “Easy, Eris! Easy!”

It was nice to see her. I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. “I thought you were gone,” I said.

She wept for a few minutes before looking into my eyes. Her eyes were red. “I got the feed onto all of the ship’s screens. Everyone saw the firefight. They heard everything Commander Kairo said when he tuned into your comms channel,” she said. “There was a riot on the ship, then the queen took control of the ship. She ordered the police to arrest every rioter. Most Lagolians left the ship before it took off.”

“Where did it go?” I asked.

She shook her head. “We don’t know. She went through the portal, to Djarko, maybe further. Everything was on that ship. Kyrie—our kids are on the ship.” She started crying again, falling into me and sobbing against my chest. “All the kids are on that ship, and it’s gone!”

“We’ll get them back,” I said. My heart fluttered with increasing hopelessness.

“How?”

“I don’t know how—but we’ll figure it out. We’ll find Queen Syabus and we’ll take back Lunar Alpha. And we’ll make the queen pay for everything—for Kuzu, and for everyone who died here on Lago. She’s not going to get away with this.”

Eris hugged me again. “I hope you’re right—but I just don’t know how it’s going to be possible.”

“We’ll figure it out.”

I wasn’t prepared to give up. I wasn’t going to let Queen Syabus get away with my children. I wasn’t going to let her start some sort of breakaway civilization, only to return in a few generations to try and wipe out the Lagolians who stood against her.

The next few days were somber ones. After that day of weeping and torment, Lago became quiet. The rebuilding of Patatora slowed down dramatically, since most of the building tools and supplies were on Lunar Alpha, and we still weren’t able to figure out where Lunar Alpha had gone. Crews were sent to the Lagolian-controlled star systems to complete scans, but resources were limited. Between the Lagolians left behind and Gaelia’s survivors, there were only a dozen ships, and scanning a dozen planets with only a dozen ships would take years. I kept telling Eris, “We’ll find them,” but I wasn’t sure I believed it myself.

I did my best to remain hopeful, for the sake of the Lagolians and for the sake of the kidnapped children. There were many mothers in Patatora who were now suffering, their kids gone, being held captive by an evil queen, somewhere dozens or hundreds of light-years away.

By the end of the week, both Vega and Trix were able to stand again. The doctors told Trix it would be a few more weeks before she could walk, but she was already starting to feel like herself, making inappropriate jokes and sneaking out of the infirmary at night, using a wheelchair, so she could meet up with me, and sometimes with her other friends too, drinking and smoking despite her doctors’ orders. There was something endearing about it… though I can’t say I approved. I didn’t turn her down when she insisted on giving me a wheelchair-bound blowjob.

Kuzu’s funeral was hard for everyone. It was hard to hear any of the speakers over all the crying. But there was a moment when the crying stopped—just for a moment—and it dawned on me that Kuzu had ticked the one item off of her bucket list before dying: she got to fight for Lago, for her people, on Lago soil. She’d told me herself after the Nekrol retreated: she would prefer to die fighting for her people than not fighting at all. Well, that’s what she got.

And now, she was a hero. After Vega’s touching speech, a statue was unveiled: a thirty-foot tall bronze carving of Kuzu using her fist to pummel an incapacitated Commander Kairo, practically twice her size. Lagolians cheered at the sight of the statue. Most had watched that scene unfold on Lunar Alpha’s screens, and now that moment had been immortalized in bronze.

Kuzu would be remembered for a long, long time.

And seeing that statue, remembering her desire to fight to the bitter end no matter what the odds, made me even more determined to find Queen Syabus and end her. I had to do it for my children, for Eris, for Vega, for Trix, and especially for Kuzu.

I was going to fight to the bitter end, no matter what the odds, to find and kill that level-sixty monster who called herself the queen of the Lagolians.

TO BE CONTINUED…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MAGNUS REID

Magnus was born in Iceland. His parents passed at a young age, in a boating accident near Greenland, so Magnus lived alone between the ages of nine and sixteen in a cottage on the edge of a mountain. Beyond tending to the sheep and cultivating juniper, Magnus had little to do, so he consumed literature. He taught himself several languages as he read everything from Tolstoy to Nora Roberts. Now, he primarily writes in English.

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Table of Contents

- A SCIENCE FICTION GAMELIT LITRPG NOVEL
- MAGNUS REID’S NEWSLETTER
- COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII
- CHAPTER VIII
- CHAPTER IX
- CHAPTER X
- CHAPTER XI
- CHAPTER XII
- CHAPTER XIII
- CHAPTER XIV
- CHAPTER XV
- CHAPTER XVI
- CHAPTER XVII
- CHAPTER XVIII
- CHAPTER XIX
- CHAPTER XX
- CHAPTER XXI
- CHAPTER XXII
- CHAPTER XXIII
- CHAPTER XXIV
- CHAPTER XXV
- CHAPTER XXVI
- CHAPTER XXVII
- CHAPTER XXVIII
- TO BE CONTINUED…