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Integration

Part Fifteen

It was a strange sensation, to actually look down at one of the lizards. It was odd enough seeing Kira and most of the others as if he were taller than them, or looking at the largest species straight in the eyes - but at least Dylan had interacted with most of them in simulations at a similar size. It dampened the effect of seeing them for real.

But now here he was, with a lizard in front of him, cowed with fear over his enormity. He had the pleasure of 'meeting' a few of the lizards in the simulations too. They were still larger than him. He killed them all. Now, he dwarfed this one, and the male. He bet this machine could rip their limbs off like twigs. It should make him feel powerful.

Ossala had her head partway down and turned aside, with one bright orange eye looking at him. Her tongue was darting out of her snout and flicking at the air in a slow, repetitive rhythm. Dylan tilted his head. It looked like she had a slight frown at the edges of her mouth. He didn't even know the lizards could move their mouths like that. He leaned down to look a little closer.

The sissach's inner eyelid shut as he neared her, covering her eye with a slightly transparent membrane, and she inched away from him.

"Dylan," Kira said and pulled on his hand. "You're terrifying her."

He straightened back up. "So that's the game, huh?"

"What?" Kira asked.

"Trying to make me lose my shit. Trying to fuck it all up. Why does he have it out for me like this?" He didn't let her respond, and gestured toward the sissach. "You fucking heard him. He 'looks forward to the pilot retrieval exercises' or whatever the hell he said. He's gonna use a lizard to get me out and hope I just flip my goddamn lid."

Ossala bowed her head. "Private Ossala Chochos apologizes for any offense and hopes to do better for Private Maddock." A translator normally did an excellent job at conveying emotion. The voice the device decided to give her was soft, feminine, not at all like the hissing, rough sound he knew from rynar. The translated speech was quivering.

The other sissach spoke up shortly after the other. "Specialist Fastal Sossaca is proud to have been given the opportunity to assist the humans in integration!"

Dylan looked back at him. That one sounded obliviously pleased with the situation. He wasn't even in the infantry. What the hell was he even doing here? His tongue was moving much faster than the female's. He was excited. Dylan knew an eager lizard when he saw one.

It seemed to piss him off further. He whirled on the female sissach, being much closer. "Maybe you two could just fuck off? What's he going to do if you don't listen to him, really? You're not supposed to goddamn be here. I'm too 'fragile' you know. Might just snap and rip your goddamn heads off your shoulders."

Ossala shut her eyes completely and tucked her head down between her shoulders. "Dylan, stop." Kira placed a hand on his shoulder and shook it.

He turned on his guardian next, pushing her hand away. "Why? This is what he wants, right? Wants to see me crack? Fuck him if I'll let him see me shit myself crying!"

"So, what?!" she barked at him, stepping forward and grabbing the collar of his mech, yanking him down to her level. "You're going to take it out on a squadmate, terrify her? Is that what you want? I know you're better than that."

He grabbed her arm and yanked it off of his collar, shoving her away. "Then you know I'm gonna screw it all up."

"You won-"

"You don't know shit." He stepped toward her now, forcing her to back up, her ears wilting. "All the- the kind words. Affection and- and- it's not going to goddamn help here! You say you know me, then you know what's going to happen. Just fucking say it! I'm gonna screw it up."

Her ears were flat against her skull. He couldn't tell if she was afraid of him or hurt, but either way, it made him feel like he just kicked a puppy.

He was about to apologize when her ears suddenly went back up and her eyes narrowed on him, but she didn't approach him. "Private Maddock, brush yourself out and get back to the line."

"But-"

She snarled, fangs baring. "Move it, private."

He stiffened up. Most of the time it was easy to forget her rank with their kind of relationship. It was jarring, but oddly welcome. "Yes, sergeant."

He made his way back to the platoon. They were all watching. Was he a spectacle? How many of them expected him to lose his shit over some lizards?

"Wow," Cody said, standing next to Yirshan. The dragoness had her arms folded, watching him. She certainly thought he'd lose it, after that performance with her a couple days ago, Dylan was sure of it. "We're really finally meeting sissach?"

"Yeah." Dylan glanced back. Kira was speaking to both of the new arrivals. "Maduk waving his dick around again."

"Is that what Lieutenant Fletcher is putting up with inside of that mech?" Larish said, a soft knicker accompanying the equine's chuckle. "That poor man." He stepped closer, the neishor as tall as Dylan's mech, and nearly as bulky with his powered armor. He patted Dylan on the back, moving his whole machine. "Don't worry about the sissach. We'll keep them away from you."

Dylan looked him in the eyes, and was glad the mech showed no expression. He wanted to smash his stupid long snout in. They really did think he was going to lose his damn mind here.

He wasn't supposed to feel like a joke of a man in this machine, but here he was.

--

The hand-to-hand practice took on an uncomfortable awkwardness after the sissach arrived. Lieutenant Dolby was infuriated, Cody couldn't stop staring, and Dylan was broodingly quiet. Plus, half the platoon was now on edge over fear for Kira's charge. They were not being subtle about it. They kept a large buffer between him and the sissach, and this seemed to shut Dylan down further.

Thankfully, he didn't channel his anger into wildly attacking his sparring partners. Instead, he did the usual thing of channeling it into stupid decisions in his fighting. He wasn't doing too bad, Kira thought, as he took down another private, dragging the spotted ralai down with a bear hug around the smaller feline's midsection, both of them falling into the grass. But she expected cleaner takedowns from her student. Instead, he was resorting back to his bull-headed ways. It was only working so well for him because of the mech. Its sheer enormity and enhanced strength over smaller powered armor, with a dash of her training, was proving to be a potent combination. If only he could reign in the flailing he called fighting. It spoke a lot of humans that someone so small could be as boldly aggressive as an asishi.

Kira let out a bark for the fight to end, and Dylan released the ralai, the both of them rolling onto their backs. She pulled the ralai private up. He made a chuffing sound through his helmet. "Stars, that thing is strong." The lupari patted him on the shoulder, and he shuffled off.

Dylan was still laying there. The machine's plating was scuffed and dented already from the training, but was altogether still in perfect working order. Kira threw one paw over his other side, and sat down on the mech's stomach. She grabbed its collar, pulling its head closer to hers. "If you insist on dragging them down to the ground with you, you have to actually do something with it, Dylan. Not just hold onto them like they're an angry pup. Roll them onto their front and get control of the arms like I showed you."

"Sorry."

Kira canted her head when he didn't say anything else. He was so furious earlier and wouldn't stop shouting. So hurtful in the things he was saying. His tail was definitely twisted into a knot. He was still furious. Kira's ears twitched and she looked across the practice field at the sissach, training with Larish's squad. Dylan wasn't complacent right now, which kept him safe from succumbing to any fears. But anger was not what she wanted him to be using to guard against his fears.

He needed to be humbled. She knew exactly what would impress him, inspire him, awe him.

"You're fighting Yirshan next."

"I can take her."

She patted the cheek of the faceplate. "You have the teeth to fight her, but we'll see about beating her."

He didn't say anything back. Any other time, he'd be taking the chance to play a game of wits with her. Tease one another. He was definitely not well right now. Kira stood up off of him and shouted across the field. "Yirshan! You're up."

The call turned a few heads from their practices. One of the mechs had yet to spar with someone as large as the unit's arkatians or neishor. Hearing her name, the dragoness let out an eager roar, and put down a kiori trooper she was lifting by both of his arms in one hand. The young squirrel fell down onto his haunches, his massive tail standing straight up with alarm.

Dylan stood up as Yirshan approached, the arkatian stopping just in front of him, staring into its face. They were nearly the same size, with the mech being slightly taller than Yirshan, however the natural bulk of an arkatian with power armor on top made the dragoness stockier. The mech was supposed to be stronger, but with an arkatian, Kira wouldn't count on it.

The other sergeant grinned wide, showing off rows of teeth. "This is the first time I can say 'I'm going to rip your head off,' and not kill the person I say it to."

Dylan tilted his head, a habit Kira knew he picked up from her. "You don't want to damage UAF property, do you?" There it was, Kira noted, a bit of banter. His blood was already pumping.

Yirshan shrugged. "I hear the heads can be reattached."

"Oh. Then rip away."

Yirshan pulled her helmet's visor down, sealing it with a click and a hiss of pressurization. "I'll rip gently." She stepped closer, shoving him back as they bumped together.

Kira slipped in between them, her head about level with their chests, and pushed them apart with both hands. Arkatians tended to do that to intimidate with their bulk before a fight, but it looked ridiculous doing it to a mech. Her friend was doing exactly the right thing, though, and she didn't even need to ask. No treating her charge like a fragile pup. "Take your places, you two."

Both soldiers took several steps back. Yirshan spread her plated wings, nearly tripling her perceived size, and her tail pounded on the ground. Dylan stayed robotically still. The lack of small movements from the mech had to be the strangest part about them to Kira. The neural control system gave it natural movement, but the mechanical body lacked subtle movements at rest - breathing, moving eyes, shifting weight around. It really didn't look like a person in armor to her.

They were drawing attention from the rest of the platoon, with sparring matches stopping cold to watch. Yirshan flapped her wings, spurred on by the attention. Always the showman.

Kira shook her head with a half smirk. "You know this is just sparring, right Yir?"

The dragoness' tail pounded on the ground, a loud boom that tore up the ground beneath its armored plates. Kira could feel it in her paws. "He's not some helpless little alien now." Yirshan pounded her tail again, this time dragging it across the ground then whipping it back around to her other side. “He's in for the full experience."

Kira's tail wagged, but she stilled it before anyone noticed. This was good. This had to be good for Dylan. There was no reason to patronize him by still being as considerate as guardians were.

"Thanks, Yirshan," Dylan said. Kira's ears perked up and swiveled toward her charge, and her tail started wagging again.

The arkatian laughed. "Thanks for promising to throw you around? Lovely. Now let's do this already!" She spread her arms, fingers curled, baring the armored points of her claws.

Kira let out a sharp bark, the call to begin.

Yirshan erupted with a massive roar, storming towards Dylan. The human took one step back, his own arms spreading in a sudden fight or flight response - normal for someone's first arkatian match. Just before she collided into him, he jumped aside, only to be caught off balance by the dragoness's thick tail lurching out as she passed, wrapping around one of his legs and yanking his feet right out from under him.

Kira winced as the mech hurtled to the ground, dragged along a short distance on its back before the tail unraveled. The tail heaved up high, and Yirshan jerked her hips to throw it down hard. Dylan just barely managed to roll away in time. He scrambled to his feet, and whirled around to face Yirshan's next rush.

This time he jumped into the attack, both soldiers clashing into a clinch. The mech slid backwards, its heavy boots digging into the ground, tearing up ruts. Dylan failed to catch one of her arms, and Yirshan slammed her palm into the side of his head, rocking it back harshly to the side, but the machine was completely unfazed as he refused to break the hold. She closed her fingers, bringing her claws in. They dragged across the armor, scraping into it, as her hand went down to close around the machine's armored collar. She tried to pull on it, but Dylan used his own free arm to drive a fist into her side. It made a massive bang against the armor, visibly denting it inward.

The arkatian roared with surprise as she was struck it hit her with enough force to push her back, dragging him along by the collar. He drove his fit into her twice more.

Yirshan was still clinging to him, and used the momentum to pull again, this time yanking Dylan toward her and turning, tossing him away from her. Her tail grabbed for his legs again, but he managed to stagger out before it coiled around.

They spun to face each other. She was eyeing Dylan down in a wide stance as if she would charge again, but meeting her match in something as strong as, if not stronger than, an arkatian had her reassessing her approach from the typical rushing her kind was known for.

Dylan lunged toward her, starting his own charge, catching the dragoness by surprise. Nobody rushed an arkatian except another arkatian. She tried to meet him by leaning forward for another clinch, but the human went low and wrapped his arms around her waist. As she stumbled back, he used the momentum to lift her off the ground in a spectacular display of the machine's strength.

Yirshan roared and flared her wings in surprise, her tail thrashing through the air. She drove her palm into Dylan's back, and her claws trying to grab a hold of something, but the machine was showing no care for her strikes.

The human heaved her up over his shoulder, and he spun around to face Kira. Yirshan was bashing, squirming, and kicking uselessly, trying to escape the mechanically tight hold. Her tail had wrapped around his leg, but the position left her little leverage to pull. Dylan looked at his guardian as if he didn't didn't know what to do now that he had his opponent like this, and Kira didn't rightly know what he ought to do either. This was a far cry from the kind of fighting she'd been teaching him. She could only shrug, her eyes wide with disbelief. This machine lifted Yirshan like she was nothing.

Dylan made his own decision, and he suddenly started falling backwards. The descent drove Yirshan straight down onto the ground, headfirst. She made a devastating smash and crumpled as Dylan released her. Yirshan was in a heap, while the mech had its limbs spread, staring up at the sun, its pilot likely dealing with the shock catching up to him from all the violent movements.

There was a sudden cheering in the shocked crowd, drawing a bunch of eyes to Cody, who was pumping his fist in the air. "Oh my god he just suplexed a dragon! Yes! Yes! Best day of my life!"

"That's your guardian," Larish said, gesturing to the mess on the ground.

"I know! I'm so conflicted!"

Yirshan wasn't moving anymore, but Kira didn't call the fight. She knew it wasn't over. The armor would have had no problem stopping the arkatian's neck from breaking from the fall, which meant at any moment, her charge was in for a terrifying surprise.

Yirshan suddenly unfurled herself and rolled onto her stomach. She picked her head up and looked back at Dylan, a growl rising up in her throat. She was completely unfazed as an arkatian rage took over. Adrenal glands going into overdrive, sense of pain completely removed, enhanced strength, and a one track focus to massacre whatever set the rage off. Here came the end of the fight.

Dylan craned his head back to look at her, when she jumped to her knees and lurched around to lunge at him. The human rolled as she landed upon the spot he was just lying and scrambled backwards on his arms, kicking legs as she whirled around for another go.

She was roaring loud enough for Kira's ears to fold to protect themselves as she crawled after the mech. Her claws dug craters into the ground each time she missed his legs, sending huge clumps of turf behind her. She caught his leg and dragged him beneath her. He punched at her abdomen again, but all it did was make her body jump.

She pinned one of his arms under a knee, and grabbed the front of the machine's armored collar. The punching limb resorted to trying to push her off by her chest, but just one arm couldn't do it. Her other hand reached inside the collar and hooked her fingers under the mech's chin.

Kira placed her hands on her muzzle as Yirshan started to pull. The mech's head was yanked backwards and the dragoness roared again with the effort, putting all of her strength into it. There was a popping sound of breakaway connections, then suddenly a ripping cascade of them as the arkatian's armor enhanced strength overwhelmed the remaining ones entirely. The mech's head ripped clean off, the sudden release of tension throwing it from Yirshan's grip and rolling through the grass into the spectators.

Yirshan spread her wings and bellowed in triumph.

But the mech didn't stop moving. As soon as she felt it still squirming, she grabbed for his arm, intending to rip that off next, her other hand planted onto his chest.

He was just patting the ground in submission. Kira barked out,. "Sergeant Kultak, stop right there!"

She stopped cold, holding the mech's arm out, and staring down at its chest, daring Dylan to move some more. He remained stock still.

"I'm approaching behind you, sergeant,." Kira announced, her voice level and clear as she neared the arkatian. She moved around her friend, and squatted down in front of Yirshan. "Let him go. You've won."

She released him, then sat back onto her haunches, suddenly deflating, her wings folding back up. She pulled her helmet off and tossed it to the ground. Kira could feel the heat against her nose, as the arkatian showed her bare head. Her suit's climate controls had to be working overtime to cope with the ramped up body heat. She already looked tired as she hunched with the post-rage exhaustion washing over her as the adrenaline rapidly faded. She wrapped her arms around her abdomen, where the armor cracked. The pain was catching up to her.

Kira looked down at her her charge's headless mech. "Dylan, are you-"

He suddenly sat up, making Yirshan flinch. He reached for where his head used to be, his hand going through empty air. "Ooogh, I see out of my chest. Like I got arms attached to my head."

Kira blinked. He looked ridiculous. Yirshan started laughing, and groaned with pain. It spread into the crowd, and soon the whole platoon was having a laugh at their headless comrade.

Dylan wasn't laughing, though. "Fuck me I'm gonna hurl," he said, and the mech's arm suddenly froze above its decapitated neck. The deck dropped down, and Dylan stumbled out. Yirshan tiredly offered a hand, but Dylan dropped prone to the edge of the platform, and puked over the side with an awful retching. Yirshan's hand recoiled away.

The smell of the vomit made Kira's nose crinkle in disgust, but she still started sniffing as she looked over the mech's shoulder at her charge. The power armor covered a lot of his smell, especially now that he was vomiting. But even then, she thought she could pick up… happiness?

"I… I didn't-" Yirshan breathed in deeply, barely able to string her words together. "Didn't hurt you, did I?"

Dylan spat out the last of the foulness in his mouth, then sat up on his knees, looking up at Yirshan. "That was… that was goddamn amazing. We gotta do that again sometime. You're amazing. Like something straight out of a game, going apeshit like that."

The lupari didn't know what ape feces had to do with it, but it sounded good, apparently. Yirshan seemed to think the same, as she puffed up with pride. The platoon let out a few hoots and hollers.

Kira's tail launched into a wagging blur. She couldn't have been happier to see her charge's appreciation for having his head torn off.

--

Dylan sat upon Yirshan's chest plate while the arkatian was sprawled on her back, her wings spread across the grass. She was staring up at the sky, taking long and slow breaths. The medic on top of her was watching Larish and Tihiri reattach the head to his mech. The vulpine medic took a particular interest in seeing how it worked, apparently considering it a new part of her job. But without any training and no interest in facing ire from the higher-ups over the damaged mech, they were trying to figure out how the attachment system worked on their own.

This left Dylan to stay with the resting Yirshan, while Kira was showing Cody and some of the others some more hand-to-hand techniques that could take down a large opponent.

"I can't believe you actually ripped the head off," Dylan said when Larish cursed and the head fell off the mech again.

She didn't bother looking at him, just staring at the sky. "You didn't think I could do it?"

"I didn't think you would actually do it."

"But I told you I would."

"Well, yeah, but I thought that was just a threat."

The dragon's chest bounced as she laughed. "Arkatians don't make threats of violence. We make promises."

"Promise kept, I guess." Dylan wanted to laugh with her, but he just wasn't feeling the mirth. It was an exciting experience, and she was just so awesome, like something out of a video game with all that armor and a berserker rage. He'd probably have a fanboy moment over the whole experience any other time.

He was watching the others work with his mech when he realized Yirshan picked her head up and was staring at him. "What?"

"Are you still feeling angry?"

"No."

Her eyes narrowed.

He shrugged. "Yes."

"Why?"

He had to think on whether he wanted to tell her anything. He already snapped at his guardian and sounded like some screaming child. What good was complaining about it some more? He looked away, shaking his head. It might be good to hear what someone other than his guardian had to say.

He looked back at her. "Everyone thinks I'm going to lose it over the sissach, don't they?"

"Most of them, yes."

She didn't even miss a beat. That should hurt, but he appreciated the honesty. It made it easier to be angry. "What about you?"

"I think you'll manage, if you handle it right."

"I am handling it."

She rumbled, a hum. "How? By enraging yourself? Yelling at your sergeant?" She growled, mocking his frustration.

"What the hell else am I supposed to do?" He turned to face her fully. "It seems like I lose my shit whenever I'm… I don't know, calm. Relaxed? All I know for sure is I have to… to feel something. Something to focus on." He gestured towards his head. "If I'm pissed off my asshole of a mind won't have time to shit the bed."

"Blind anger is what you use to rip your enemy limb from limb. It's not what you use to keep your head on."

"That's great. But, what else am I supposed to do?" She was right though. He yelled at Kira, possibly even scared her with the way her ears folded, and said things that were just so unfair to her. He just felt more like shit than anything else.

"Why don't you ask Kira that? Sometimes I think she knows you better than you know you."

"I don't want to upset her."

"Then don't." She placed her hand down on her chest, next to him, and poked him with one armored, clawed finger. "Track run is up next. Do a few laps by yourself, clear your head. Then talk to her. See what she thinks about all of this. But if you yell at her again, I'll stamp on you." She smirked, showing rows of teeth. "Kidding. But really, yell at her like that in front of the platoon again, you and I are going to have a big problem. Don't stay furious."

He breathed in deep, a small rush of fear. There was a point there. Acting like an idiot could lead to his removal before he even had the chance to have another traumatic break.

"Stars damn it all!" Tihiri cried as the mech's head fell off yet again, drawing Dylan and Yirshan's attention. She pulled her hand out of the cockpit, her yutri flaring with light along her forearm. "I can connect to it through the open cockpit but I can't do anything with it." She rubbed the back of one of her ears, then looked back at the sergeant and the private on top of her. "Dylan! Are you good enough to get back into this thing? Maybe you could make the head reattach. We can't do much until our medical access updates."

"Yeah." The human waved at her. "Put me back in there." The dark furred falashai came over to collect the smaller medic, crouching down and placing her hand atop Yirshan's chest. He slid aboard and nodded to the dragon. "Thanks for the advice, Yir." The arkatian waved after him with two fingers as he was lifted away. She flumped back to the ground with a tired groan.

Tihiri placed Dylan onto his mech's panel, and the pilot settled down into his seat. The deck sealed shut, and his vision came through it via small wide angle cameras embedded into the chest. He was a bit more prepared for the unnerving sight of his arms above his eye level.

"Here's the head," Larish said, and pushed it into Dylan's hands.

The human spun it around so its faceplate was towards him. "Alas, poor Yorick."

"Yorick?" Larish asked.

"Nevermind." The human turned the head back around, and placed it onto his neck hole like it were a helmet. Dylan felt his hands make a few automated micro adjustments, aligning the clamps. Then there were a flew loud clacks, and the head clicked back into place. His vision flicked back up to head level in a blink of an eye, with Tihiri staring straight into his visor, her ears twitching.

"Huh. That's it?" she said, and reached out to push on his head.

"Yeah." Dylan pushed her hand away. "Non-traumatic decapitation is no biggie."

She blinked, one ear twitching again. "Non-traumatic decapitation." She smirked. "Funny. Can you move?"

Dylan stood up to his feet and rolled his head. "Everything seems in order."

The falashai looked passed him, at Yirshan. "Alright. Help the sergeant up, we're about to go to the track. Arkatians are liable to fall asleep after a rage and then good luck waking them." She patted the mech's midsection, on a small pouch, with an encircled star emblazoned on it, marking its medical purpose. "She's rested long enough. Stick her with one of the stimulants in that pouch. It should help her through the day's training."

"On it." He turned around and headed for the hapless giant, pulling a syrette from the little bag. All it seemed to hold were stimulants for arkatians. "Sergeant! Rise and shine. You're about to go for a run."

The dragoness groaned and folded her wings in on herself.

--

The rest of hand-to-hand training wasn't nearly as remarkable as Dylan's fight with Yirshan. Cody, much less of a blunt-toothed brawler than Kira's charge, was a decent training aid for the rest of the platoon to square-off against in brief bouts, but it was certainly less dramatic. It was not too unlike fighting an armored neishor for the smaller species. Difficult to knock down, hard hitting, and a more defensive fighting style. Comparing a human to a neishor was a thought that made Kira smile.

They moved onto a run after the hand to hand. Kira thought it was rather pointless, particularly after they already did it without the mechs earlier in the day, and more for padding out the day's rotation of orienting the battalion to the capabilities of the new soldiers. As it turned out, it really drove home a more subtle realization about the mechs. They never succumbed to exhaustion.

Dylan, Cody, and Russel did the entire thing as a group at a full sprint, never slowing down. Kira and the rest of her platoon watched them go, blowing past them to lap them for a second time.

The best the power armored troops could do was a steady run. Even with their armor fully active, a sprint would lead to a burn out by the end of the second lap. They'd manage more if the plating wasn't on, but the mechs were plated in the heaviest armor and weren't showing a single sign of exhaustion.

There was a powered armor obstacle training course in the center of the track that another platoon was currently competing through, and the mechs there were making it look like a pup's game, able to run through the course multiple times over without reprieve.

"To be fair!" Hatia shouted. "They're not actually running. That's not physical training! We should make them hop out and run properly." That earned a few laughs, a small size joke while no humans were around to hear it.

"Sergeant Mitchell already made them do that!" Someone called up from the rear.

"That little beacon they had was ridiculous."

"Don't you mean adorable?" Another round of laughter, this time Kira joining in with a soft giggle. It was cute, but it was also impressive. At least until Mitchell stopped doing anything like that before Maduk found out about it. Even so, the man made his point - humans would physically train like everyone else, they just had to do it on their own. And in a place that wasn't at paw level with everyone else.

The mechs came back around for another lap past the platoon, but it appeared they finally grew bored of it, as Cody, Dylan, and Russell broke off to rejoin their guardians.

Kira's tail did a few wags as her charge fell into step next to her. She had a sense he was avoiding her some after their spat earlier. It was good to see him voluntarily come up beside her. "How do you feel?" she asked him, looking up to the large machine.

"Weird as hell."

"Weird how?"

He glanced down at her. "I ran at full speed for so long, but I don't feel winded at all, my legs aren't sore, I'm not sweating my ass off. You're panting enough to run a wind turbine, but I feel fine. It's unnatural."

Kira's lolling, panting tongue licked the side of her muzzle. "You say that, but you 'goddamn love it.' Yes?"

"I guess."

The weak answer put a frown across the lupari's snout. This was something she knew he'd gush over normally. "Do you need to talk?"

He hesitated, glancing at her."Yeah. Please. I need your help."

A blunt, straightforward plea. That was more than enough for Kira to realize they needed a moment to themselves. She was hoping he'd talk to her about this latest mess. The lupari switched on her radio. "Dylan is feeling nauseous. Requesting some time to reorient him."

"Fine. Don't take too long. We're hitting the obstacles in ten." Lieutenant Kulshah said back.

"Yes, ma'am." She signed off the frequency, then grabbed the mech's arm, tugging her charge off the track and into the grass. "What is it, Dylan?" She turned to face him.

He looked down to his feet, searching for his words. She was more than happy to wait. She reached out to take his hand. It closed around hers.

"I'm so sorry for yelling at you," he finally said. "And saying you don't know me. You don't… know everything about me. We haven't really known each other for long. But, you, erm…" He looked back up to her face. "You still know me better than anyone I've ever met. It's fucking insane, that effect you have on me. It means a lot to me, and I don't want to lose it. Lose you, I mean."

Her head tilted. She didn't want to lose him either. She remembered when Duntay nearly had him transferred out. It would have been awful, so quickly the attachment between a guardian and charge formed. But she would have been able to move on. Now, though, she wasn't sure if she could handle if her charge was forcibly taken out of her life. She'd thought before on how to handle things if they were split up, but she was waiting on the right time to broach the subject. This seemed to be it.

"Dylan, you won't lose me," she said, soft and smiling.

"But Maduk is setting it all up to try to break me. He's going to make one of the sissach extract me during the pilot retrieval lessons. You saw how I reacted to Yirshan, and she wasn't even a sissach." He waved his arm. "Yeah, it worked out with her this morning. But she's still a friend, and the talk we had, all that confidence... I won't have that with a sissach." He sagged and shook his head. "And everyone here knows it."

Kira didn't know if he would be able to avoid any breaks with a sissach, she only knew that he could. He wasn't as doomed to failure as he thought he was. He was most vulnerable at his safest and calmest, she'd learned. Even fear may not break him, if his determination to challenge Trikil when he grabbed Cody meant anything. Fear likely wasn't the true factor here. It was when thoughts of his drifted into bad things, brought on by what he saw and heard. It was impossible to truly prevent this, but some steps could be taken to try to keep his thoughts from going dark.

"I don't know for certain if you'll cope when the time comes," she said, prompting him to look back up, nearly stricken by the words, she was sure. "But I do know you have it in you when you're in the right place. Is this why you were so mad earlier? You think if you're mad you won't lose yourself?"

He slowly nodded. "I was just about to tell you that, yeah. But I can't stay mad. I don't want to be some angry dick ruining this whole experience. I'm in a giant robot suit, how can I stay mad at anything? But if I don't, then what have I got to focus on?"

"Well. There is hope."

"I just told you why there's no hope."

She shook her head and stepped closer, putting a hand on his chest. "No, I mean you can focus on something hopeful."

"What, hope to keep being your charge? I don't know if that's really enough, Kira."

"I mean something hopeful in your life. Something to look forward to."

He stared at her. "That kind of hope is dead. I mean, all that's left is my brother, but what if that's a dead end too? What if he's dead?"

"So you find a new hope." She tilted her head, now nearly pressed to his chest as she looked up at him. "You still must find out if your brother is out there. But if there is truly nothing left, would you want to meet my family?"

He mirrored her head tilt. "What are you getting at?"

"I mean, would you want to meet my family, in person. They'd be thrilled to see you. Have you, even, if you'd be willing to stay."

"What do you mean stay?"

She smiled and took his hands in hers. "Just what it means. Stay. When we go on leave or are given dwell time, I'd like you to stay if you can. And when you leave the UAF, or, stars forbid, are removed, stay with us then too."

He was staring at her, silent. He shifted from foot to foot, and pulled his hands out of hers. Kira sorely wished she could see his real self right now, sniff out whatever he was feeling. She wasn't too certain how he'd really take this.

"You're saying live with you," he muttered.

"Yes. Come home with me."

The mech was completely still, gazing down at her.

"Dylan?"

"I think my heart just stopped for a second there, I've been kicked out of the uplink." The mech's chest suddenly opened with a clang, and the deck swung down. Dylan strode out, without his helmet. This was enough for her to smell hints of the same sadness she knew from him, but there were signs of a bit of that happy feeling he had when she was alone and close with him. It was a bittersweet scent if she ever knew one.

Kira reached out for him, her palm leveling with the platform. "Are you okay?" He nodded and raised his arms slightly, an invitation to grab him instead. Kira was hesitant for a moment, she was still wearing her gauntlets. He trusted her to lift him with powered gloves, so she trusted that confidence, and delicately closed her armored fingers around him. She lifted him off the deck and brought him up to eye-level. She took a quick peek around for anyone watching, then carefully nosed at his face, followed up with a tiny lick with the end of her tongue. She tasted salt.

"D-damn." He said, one hand rubbing at her nose. "My sergeant asking me to go home with her. Naughty."

Kira rolled her eyes and gave him a hard puff of air through her nostrils and started to grin. There was that quipping she was fond of. "I suppose that's a no, then." She started to lower him back down.

"Wait!" She paused halfway and their eyes met, his a little red. He shouted, sounding desperate, as if he believed she really was taking the offer back. "It was a joke. Is, um, is that okay?" He rubbed the side of his face where she licked, the armor gauntlets spreading the wetness around rather than wiping it up. "Going home with an NCO? Isn't that fraternization? I don't want to, er, get in the way or anything. Would your family even tolerate that?"

Kira's head slowly tilted as he asked the questions, and her brow furrowed incredulously. "Fraternization?" She'd heard about fraternization from the other humans before, apparently it was much more strict in the human militaries. They weren't a particularly physical species, at least with one another outside of those they loved. "You're worried about fraternization when I lick you every day? Giving you a place to be is less fraternizing than that." She snickered. "And get in the way? You fit in my hand! You're the least 'in the way' person there could ever be. You'd be more than 'tolerated.' I want you to imagine a pack of lupari that have a human in their midst."

His mouth dropped open. "Uuuh…"

"Exactly."

"But they're not trained for interacting with humans. Your home wouldn't have any way to accommodate a human. Wherever you live wouldn't have places for humans. I mean… I'd be like a pet?"

Kira wrfed indignantly. "Pet? Stars, no. We'd have to figure something out before then, and I'll call my father to make arrangements." After training, of course. Until then, they weren't permitted to discuss it over electronic communications. Kira's family didn't even know she was a guardian. As far as they knew, all was normal for her. She knew they'd lose their minds with excitement and want to hear all about it when they found out.

He ran his hand through his hair, and used the other to pull her thumb over his legs. "You think it would work?"

"We'll find a way. I'm not going to allow you to go off without anyone and lose yourself." Her ears folded. "For you, and me. All truth be told, imagining going our separate ways is making my fur bristle, even if it is temporary. Stars help me if you were forced to return to Earth with nobody there for you."

He leaned out of her hand, draping his arms over her thumb. "I'm not sure if it's the gut punch of your offer or not, but I feel kinda sick thinking about it, too." He sighed and hung his forehead onto her thumb. "Thank you, Kira," he murmured.

"Of course."

There were a few moments of silence. She saw their platoon coming around in the latest lap. She moved to put her charge back into his mech, before he spoke up and stopped her. "I was thinking earlier how I've made our friendship a bit… one sided? It seems like all we ever talk about is me and my… you know."

She gave him a half smile, and placed him back onto his machine's deck. "It was more important for you to talk and have someone focus all on you." It wasn't disappointing to her, any lupari would have come to realize what was important in helping him. But it would be nice to indulge him with things about herself.

The mech closed up as he headed back in and reconnected it. It rolled its shoulders and looked at her. "The lessons on lupari said many families live tightly together. How big is your, um, family household?"

She grinned at him. This was where her and his experience with family differed a lot. "Twelve when my mother and I are off deployment."

"Holy shit."

"Mhm." She pulled on his arm, walking him back to the track to meet the platoon. "My parents, my little brother and sister, my aunt and uncle with my two cousins, one with her mate, and my grandparents. Most family homes don't go past twelve to avoid overcrowding."

"Twelve isn't overcrowded?"

"I think it's cozy."

"Damn. I don't know how you can handle that."

She wanted to say she couldn't believe he could handle living with only two family members, but quickly decided that was in poor taste. "I suppose you're going to find out how in a few quarters."

"Is it too late to reconsider? Thirteen might just be overcrowded, you know."

She grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He was afraid of being unwanted. She wouldn't let him anxiously back out of the plan that easily. "You're more like, hrm… fifteenth of a lupari if we're being very, very generous. It still rounds down to twelve, so it should be okay."

Kira's tail wagged when he started laughing. Then, he opened his arms and pulled her into a hug, lifting her up and sending her tail into a much quicker fit. She slipped one arm around his neck, and put one hand against his chest, tightening the embrace. Their platoon passed them by, earning a bunch of curious looks and a shout from their lieutenant. He didn't seem nauseous at all.

--

There were still a few minutes before they'd be moving onto the next leg of the mech orientation with the obstacle grounds, leaving Dylan a little time to try to fix what he broke earlier. He jogged ahead, towards Cody and Fastal, the male sissach. He glanced back at his guardian, but she didn't follow him. She had a small, approving smile, giving him a swell of confidence even as the others looked like they wanted to go after him and pull him back. They were not smiling at all. He ignored all of them, and fell into step on the other side of the male sissach. He looked sorely out of place in a heavy infantry platoon, as he was only wearing the standard uniform. Of course, he only came from some logistics unit. It was absurd Maduk could even temporarily transfer the sissach in the first place.

"Heeeey, Spade!" Cody looked over the top of the shorter alien's head. He sounded excited, but the blank face of the machine showed none of that. It was odd seeing his friend worked up, but without his stupid, big grin. "Here he is! The shovel guy."

Fastal looked up to the mech on his other side and hissed softly, his tongue dancing in the air in a drawn out gesture. "Specialist Fastal Sossaca wishes to have been there to see it! Human vengeance upon the lizards, even in simulation, must be excellent to behold."

Dylan stared down at him, then back up to Cody. "Lizards?"

The corporal shrugged. "He kinda picked it up from me."

"But he's a…" he trailed off, and Cody shrugged a second time.

Fastal looked forward, his head turning up, and even his tail rising in what looked like indignation. "Specialist Fastal Sossaca understands sissach are related to the filthy lizard rynar, but sissach are not lizards. Sissach are lizard only by physiology. Not barbarism."

"Uuuh, right." Dylan felt an urge to argue with him on that and a mild pang of shame. That was better than the fear he was worried about, at least. "Yeah, it felt pretty good to wail on that lizard. Therapeutic, I guess."

"Specialist Fastal Sossaca understands that Private Dylan Maddock needed such to find relief, and understands the uncertainty around sissach."

"God damn, do you always talk in third person?" It was a stupid question, he realized. It had come up during some education about the sissach and rynar, but hearing it in person was something else.

Fastal glanced at him. He almost seemed agitated with the way his eyes closed, but there was no other movement of his face, so he wasn't too sure. "...Yes."

Cody laughed and patted the sissach on the back. "You're the third one to ask that. Check your translator's settings and you can set it to interpret into first person."

"Nah, that's alright," Dylan said. "I think it's pretty cool. Exotic."

Fastal's chin turned up again, but not the tail this time. Pride? "Specialist Fastal Sossaca appreciates what Private Dylan Maddock said."

"Yeah, no problem." Dylan said. He wasn't sure how long that'd last though. This whole full name and title thing might get ridiculous. "Hey Cody, you spoken to the female one yet?"

"Yeah. Ossala. Only a little so far. She's pretty friendly too, but you might have scared her some earlier."

"Right," Dylan said, nodding. "Hey, uh, Fastal. I'm sorry about yelling at you before."

The sissach's mouth opened partly and his eye ridges shifted upward. That was surprise if he ever knew it. "Specialist Fastal Sossaca accepts the apology and appreciates greatly that it was offered."

"Wow," Cody said. "What did Kira say to you to bring this on?"

She made him feel safe was what. Safe with the comfort in knowing even if this all did go south and he was removed from the program, or outright discharged from the UAF, there was still something to look forward to. It was surprising how much that could make fear lose its hold, but he couldn't tell Cody that.

"She told me that if I don-" He stopped. He was about to make a dumb quip, but it was difficult to make light of something that meant so much to him. "She told me what I needed to hear. I'm gonna go talk to Ossala."

"Good luck," Cody said.

Dylan saw the female sissach at the front of the platoon, not talking to anyone. She, at least, was wearing powered armor. Considering she was only temporarily transferred out of the battalion for integration, it made sense that it was provided to her. He left Cody and Fastal and made his way up the line toward her.

She apparently heard the heavy thumping of his footsteps, as she looked back as he approached. She hissed in alarm. "Woah! I just wanna talk. It's alright."

She looked at him with one eye, her tongue tasting at the air in rapid flicks, but she didn't say anything.

"I'm so sorry for frightening you earlier. That was wrong of me."

Her tongue paused its movements, then finally spoke. "Are Private Dylan Maddock and Civilian Maduk related?"

"What? No. What kind of question is that?"

She blinked, apparently nonplussed by the confusion, and her tongue started darting again. "Ossala Chochos was uncertain if Maduk and Maddock are the same broodline. The names are similar."

"Related to that asshole? Nope. Maduk is just a shortening of his first name. The full thing is a tongue twister."

The sissach's tongue suddenly stopped darting, and her eyes narrowed down her snout. Dylan stared at her until she pulled it back in, then rubbed the back of his head. That was oddly adorable. "Ossala Chochos understands. Sissach call difficult names eyerollers."

"Because dumb names make your eyes roll?"

"Because Sissach eyes roll when confused." Her eyes focused on his, then both started rolling around, independent of each other in opposite directions.

"Oh my god," Dylan said, incredulous, and laughed again. Her eyes settled back onto him, the right one doing another flip, and she started laughing with him. She held her snout as a few breathy hissess came out of her, and the edges of her mouth even turned up in what little bit of a smile her lizardly face could manage. "You're messing with me, aren't you?"

"Ossala Chochos only jokes, yes. Private Ossala Chochos has heard Private Maddock enjoys 'being messed with.'"

"Did Kira tell you that?"

The sissach bobbed her head several times. "Sergeant Kirrache Rottjir spoke to sissach about how to amuse Private Dylan Maddock with hope to become a friend."

Dylan didn't say anything. Friend with a lizard. She was certainly more pleasant than a Rynar. She even giggled at him. Hiss-giggled. He had to remember she wasn't a true lizard. Lizards as he knew them were giant monsters. In this machine, she just looked like a normal person. A short person, even.

He could see the growing problem with that thought. What would nerves and instinct do to him when he'd have to face a sissach the same way he faced the rynar - small and helpless before them?

Maybe that didn't truly matter. If he screwed it all up, it wasn't the end for him. Kira would make sure of that.

Shortly after the exchange, the platoon was called to move inward from the track and onto the obstacle grounds. From what Dylan heard, the obstacles were a hallmark of heavy infantry training. They were where new recruits would learn the capabilities of their powered armor. He definitely understood that, after his own experience testing his armor. It was like experiencing a whole new body. Faster, stronger, tougher. It needed a true run through its paces.

As such, the grounds were not meant for a regular person. A massive climbing tower dominated it in the middle, around ten stories high. Handholds were spaced across its face, far apart, preventing an easy climb. Around the tower were various walls. Some were tall with handholds. Others were shorter with nothing to grab onto, intending for a recruit to practice high jumps in their armor. Yet more had metal paneling, closed doorways a recruit would have to breach with just their armor. There were two large pits at the opposite end of the ground. The first was a mud hole, and the other was a large pool of water at the opposite end of the ground, for immersion training. The armor, and by extension the mechs, did not float, leaving a recruit to cope with sinking and their suit's limited oxygen.

Lieutenants Kulsah and Dolby stepped out in front of the platoon. The golden dragoness had her helmet visor up, and a large grin across her snout. Lieutenant Dolby regarded the grounds for a few moments, then turned to face everyone else. "I've come to understand that all of the nonhumans have already traversed these obstacles plenty of times before. Today has been like it's basic training all over again. 'Armor Day,' Lieutenant Kulsah called it. The day of adapting to all the natures of powered armor. It's a wonderful day. I see why it's so loved, and it's been great having you here while we humans had our own armor day."

He paused and looked over the platoon. "But," he continued. "You're not here for moral support. This is actually 'mech day.' You're here to help test the mechs. You are going to be traversing these obstacles with your armor at low power."

There was a small eruption of disbelieving cries. The human held up his hands. "I know, I know! Impossible. But that's what the mechs are for. Think of yourselves as a bunch of useless dead weight for us to haul around. Truly, we'll be doing all the hard work."

Dylan's chin went up, feeling suddenly much more eager for this. The run was already a great moment to show off some of what humans were capable of with the right equipment. This would be even better. "Are we going to be doing the course before carrying someone else?" he asked.

"What's the fun in that? You're going to figure out how to traverse this while simultaneously finding out how to pull a partner along."

"Is that possible?" Cody asked.

"No idea, lad. But we're going to find out."

Lieutenant Kulsah stepped forward. "Guardian and charge pairs will be running the course like this first. Step up to the line, we'll be timing this."

"Ma'am," Dylan said. "Could I try to run the course with Private Chochos if she'll have me?"

The female sissach hissed. Dylan wasn't sure if it was just surprise or annoyance, but she quickly answered that for him. "Private Ossala Chochos is willing to run the course with Private Dylan Maddock."

"Really," Kulsah said, crossing her arms. "Why do you want to do this, Maddock?"

"I would like to demonstrate my willingness to work with a sissach, ma'am."

Cody stepped forward. "If he's doing that, then I would like to attempt the course with Specialist Sossaca too, ma'am."

"Specialist Fastal Sossaca reminds Corporal Cody Shaw that this one does not have powered armor."

"Oh, yeah." Cody stepped back, glancing down with embarrassment.

"Yes, the armor is a requirement," The golden arkatian said. "Otherwise there is a high risk of death." She turned back to Dylan. "I'd like to see that."

Dylan and Ossala stepped out of the platoon and Joined the two lieutenants, along with Cody and Yirshan, at the start of the course. Just before them was a bare faced wall. It'd be too tall for Ossala, but the two arkatians could likely scrabble over the top even with their armor powered low. He wondered how many other advantages the other two pairs may have on the course just by having arkatian guardians. After having his head ripped off, he wasn't going to be questioning draconic physical prowess any time soon.

"Private Chochos appreciates the chance to do this for the first time with Private Maddock," the sissach said.

"What, we're on a last name basis now?"

"Yes."

"Is that good?"

"Yes." She didn't bother to explain it, so Dylan took her word for it.

"Everyone powered down?" Dolby asked.

The two arkatians seemed unaffected, but Ossala suddenly sagged a little and hissed, as she readjusted herself, rolling her shoulders. "Private Ossala Chochos is ready."

"Bloody go, then!" The lieutenant's mech took off, everyone else jumping to follow. The first obstacle was a high wall. It was made of smooth concrete, or something like it, and was scuffed and scraped from the scrabbling of years of recruits.

The rest of them leapt into a run after Dolby, the long strides of the mechs and the arkatians reaching the wall quicker than the smaller sissach. They leapt up the wall, the barrier, as expected, too short for the arkatians to struggle with. Dylan knew Ossala wouldn't make it, and turned with his back to the wall, crouching down and bringing his hands together for a foothold for his partner.

The sissach planted her boot into his hands and grabbed his shoulders. He lifted upward, launching her high enough to catch the lip of the wall. Then, he turned around and pushed on her backside as she struggled to pull the rest of the way over, sending her right over the other side and to the ground with a heavy crash. "Sorry!" he shouted as he grabbed the ledge and threw himself over the wall with an easy vault.

"Private Chochos forgives," she said from the ground, on her back. She held a hand up for him.

Dylan pulled her back up to her feet, and pushed her onward. The next wall was just barely too high for the arkatians to jump, and their charges' mechs were doing the same hand vault he was doing. Wanting to save some time, Dylan this time decided to come up behind the smaller sissach and bodily lift her up by her legs. "Hold on!" he said. She hissed in surprise, but managed to keep herself steady as he lifted her up over his head. She grabbed the top, and pulled herself over while he pushed up by her legs. This time she managed to throw her legs over and drop down the other side more gracefully.

Dylan had to jump to grab the top, then smoothly vaulted the entire machine up and over just as before. It was just like the powered armor testing he and the other humans went through before. Smooth and easy, the perfect and inexhaustible physical form. He hoped it'd be enough to ascend that tower with Ossala.

The other two pairs were already dropping down from the final wall by the time Ossala and Dylan reached it. It was well over twice his height now. The others with their combined size must have had little trouble. It wouldn't work again, but Dylan did the same thing, lifting the sissach up by the back of her legs, raising her up as high as he could manage.

Ossala scratched at the surface, as if she could claw her way up. "Private Chochos cannot reach!"

"I'm gonna throw you up!"

He bent his knees, lowered his arms, and had the sudden thought that he'd look stupid as hell if he threw her up and she fell right back down on top of him. But he went through with it anyway, pushing her up as hard as he could, and jumped.

It was graceless, the throw up and the jump were badly timed, but it was just enough for her hands to catch the top, leaving her to hang there, her boots scraping at the wall. "Hsss, Private Chochos finds the armor too heavy!"

"I'll be right up to pull you over," Dylan said as he backed away from the wall, sizing it up. He'd probably have to scrabble some, too. He crouched, braced, and leapt.

He jumped higher than he expected, and he grabbed too strongly at the top of the wall, as he ended up launching the mech completely over the top, overshooting his intent to balance on the edge. "Fuck me!" he cried as he fell over the other side, unable to stop himself. There was so much strength in these things, so much more agility than he ever could have believed, but controlling what was essentially an ultra-heavy weight body form would take some getting used to.

He also just wasn't exactly the most physically trained soldier around. That's the excuse he told himself when he ended up hanging down the opposite side of the wall by both of his hands. Just a guardsman. He was doing pretty well for a guardsman, surely.

He pulled himself back up to lean over the wall, then reached down with one hand and grabbed Ossala by her back, helping pull herself the rest of the way up and over. He foolishly tried to hold onto her so she wouldn't crash down again, but it ended up just sending them both hurtling to the ground, the sissach head first.

They both hit the ground next to one another. The fall had Dylan feeling nauseous again, like his stomach fell out from under him, but the connection didn't sever. Maybe he was getting used to having his shit kicked in. "Dammit, sorry about that…" he muttered.

Ossala started hissing again, breathy - a laugh. He turned to look at her, and she suddenly patted his arm. "Private Chochos finds Private Maddock's efforts admirable, but suspects there is no way to achieve the best time now."

Dylan sat up and saw the others weren't even in sight anymore, having crossed through the forced entry panels. "Goddamn dragons, man. Did they even turn their armor down?"

"Private Chochos suggests to not be concerned over the time and enjoy the machine," she said as she stood to her feet.

There was a bark that Dylan instantly recognized as from his guardian. "Move your furless tails!" Both privates looked aside at the rest of the platoon, moving along the edge of the course to watch the mechs move through with the low powered armor. Kira was looking at them, definitely cross with her ears down. Then she shouted in English. "Move your ASS!"

Dylan jumped back to his feet, and pushed onward to the breeching panel. It was just one of a few metal doorways, sealed closed. He could climb over it, but that would defeat the point of it. He slipped his fingers in between the split down the middle, with both hands, and tugged them apart. The doors budged and pushed back, trying to close on him. But the mech resisted it easily, and he pried them completely apart. He slipped in between them to put his body up against one while pushing with both arms against the other, opening it completely. "Ladies first."

Ossala ducked under his arms and through the door. "Private Chochos believes tinies first, but that is not manageable at the moment."

"Tinies, huh." The door slammed closed with a bang after Dylan moved out of it. The next obstacle was another doorway, this one looking like it slides upward instead. He squatted down, reaching under it. "I thought I scared the hell out of you, and now you're talking smack." He pulled up, raising the door high enough for the sissach to duck under. Metal groaned as it tried to push back down.

Ossala moved through, brushing against Dylan's side. "Private Chochos was intimidated, yes."

"Okay… well, I'm relieved it didn't bring you down." He let the door go after he crossed the threshold, letting it slam back to the ground with a loud boom. The final obstacle before the tower spread out before them, a broad, mud lined pit with a platform in the middle. It looked like he'd need a running jump, but he doubted he'd be crossing it with Ossala on his back. Beyond the pit, the other two mechs and their arkatian guardians were already halfway up the wall, with Russel and Fahne nearly at the top. They didn't get to see how the other pairs crossed this one.

"Private Chochos has a duty to Private Maddock to show that sissach are not like rynar. Allies before self." She dropped down into the pit, deciding even trying to jump wasn't worth it. She sunk down to her knees with a loud squelch, and started to plow her way through, grunting with the effort of moving that much weighted armor through it all.

Dylan took several steps back, preparing for his leap. "And just like that, you're not afraid?" He sprinted to the edge and jumped, sending himself hurtling across what looked like a 15 foot gap to him, and landed on the middle platform. He staggered to a stop, halting his momentum before he fell down the other side.

"Hsss, yes." She grunted as the moved through the mud, lifting her legs high with each step.

Dylan took the next leap. The platform gave him less space to get a run up, but the machine was more than capable enough as it jumped across the gap. He was a little less capable, though, as he was hit with another wave of nausea, and bent down, gripping his knees. "Eugh… it's really that easy?"

"Private Chochos, hrsss... hates the mud." She pulled on one leg to lift it out of a particularly sticky spot. "Private Maddock is choosing not to be afraid of Private Chochos, yes? The self will do what it hopes for most. Private Chochos hopes to befriend the human. There is no place for fear."

Dylan reached down into the pit as she came to the end. She stretched to grab it, and he started to heave her up with the one arm. "Friends, huh." He pulled her the whole way up, and to her feet. The mud was caked all over her legs and groin. "I guess you're doing pretty good. I didn't think your kind would be, uh, like this."

The tower loomed high above just before them now. In the mech, it had to look around ten stories high, which meant it was one hell of a skyscraper at his true size. Just like everything nonhumans made seemed to be.

"What did Private Maddock expect a sissach to be like?"

That was a fantastic question that he couldn't answer immediately. His only experience with her species was as enemies, monsters, embodiments of evil, if he were to go so far. But the sissach weren't rynar, or else they wouldn't be here. It was still odd to imagine such lizards to have much heart about them. "I'm not sure really. Cold, I guess?"

"Private Chochos is cold-blooded, if that is of any assurance."

"Oh my god," Dylan muttered, shaking his head. He remembered learning how sissach and rynar would take on traits of their leaders. But if Ossala already inherited Kira's teasing banter, then that happened a whole lot quicker than he expected. Perhaps she was just like this when comfortable. Who knew a lizard could have good humor? "Think we could get up this with you on my back?"

They both looked up the span of the tower. It wasn't unlike one of those rock wall climbs Dylan had seen before, but with how far apart some of the holds were, it would take some serious stretching, maybe even some leaps.

"Private Chochos saw that the arkatians were using the machines to help pull them up. But Private Chochos feels sissach may be small and light enough to hold onto Private Maddock if Private Maddock believes the machine is strong enough to climb."

Dylan wasn't sure if it could, but damn did he want to try it out. "Get on." He bent down, and the sissach wrapped her arms over his shoulders and around his front, holding on tight as he stood up and grabbed the first handhold, pulling himself up. It definitely felt more sluggish, but nothing unmanageable. It wasn't strenuous, as there was no real stress on his muscles - just the slow, unstoppable movement of a powerful machine under load. He could do this.

"Ossala," Dylan said. "What do you think about the sissach being kept from us humans?"

Her snout rested on his shoulder as she clung to him. He could faintly see the faceplate in his periphery. "Private Chochos understands the need. The filthy rynar have always made it difficult for sissach in the eyes of others. Attempting to annex another species has been the worst event. Private Chochos expected the leaders to maintain distance between humans and sissach."

The handholds quickly started to grow more distant from one another, forcing Dylan to raise himself up on a single hold to stretch for the next. "I guess so. I think the only reason I can handle you right now is I got this big damn robot between me and you."

Ossala was silent for a few long moments. He glanced sidelong at her, and saw one of her eyes through her visor, focused on him. "Private Chochos hopes to show the human that sissach wish only the best for allies. Private Chochos believes that a human could not be safer than with a loyal sissach."

Tell that to his fucked up head, Dylan thought. But there was no point in announcing that negativity to her when she was trying her best. "Thanks. Hope we make it through that pilot retrieval alright."

"Private Chochos does not want to frighten Private Maddock."

"I know you don't." Again, tell that to his messed up head. Maybe he could think of puppies. Giant, lupari puppies. That look like Kira. White, fluffy wolf puppies. How old were her siblings, he wondered. "We'll see how it goes." The holds were now so far apart, he couldn't reach them anymore with stretching. He was already so close to the top.

Ossala knew what was coming, and hunkered her head down. Dylan wasn't sure he could do this even without Ossala weighing him down. Knowing he was in a giant robot that could take the fall was of some comfort, regardless if it made him puke his guts out. It was all the confidence boost he needed.

Dylan held onto a single handhold with both hands and lowered himself downward, stretching his arms out, then put all of the machine's strength into pulling it and Ossala upward as quickly as it could. It went up slower than he hoped, but it was enough to launch them upward a small distance. His hands scratched at the wall as he tried to reach for the distant hold, but he came too short. "Shit, shit, shit!" he cried as he fell back down, hands now desperately clawing all over the wall for something. One caught the hold he just jumped from, while the rest of him continue falling until he stopped with a violent lurch. Ossala cried out as she was dislodged from her position, and slipped down the body of the mech. She latched onto one of his legs, her weight trying to tug the machine from its one handed hold, but it held firm, leaving them both dangling helplessly.

He used his free hand to grab onto her arm to relieve some of the stress from her having to hold all of her weight herself. "Jesus, shit I can't believe this thing is holding on."

Ossala looked down, hissed, and hugged her head tightly against Dylan's leg. "Private Chochos is impressed, armor would not manage that. But Private Chochos suspects the machine will not be able to carry Private Maddock and Private Chochos up together."

Dylan looked back up to the handhold he wanted. It was only a short ways below the top of the tower, it'd be easy to crest over if he could reach it. Perhaps even easy enough for Ossala despite the underpowered armor. "If I got you up to that last hold, do you think you could pull yourself up?"

She pulled her head from his leg to look it over. "Hrss… Private Chochos thinks it would be possible."

"I'm going to throw you up."

She squeezed herself like a vice to his leg, head burying into his armored thigh once more. "Private Chochos does not think that is a good idea!"

"Come on, you'll be fine if you fall, right?"

"...yes. It would not be comfortable if not landing on feet, however."

"So no big danger. Do you trust me?"

"Hrrss… no big danger. Private Chochos will trust."

Dylan pulled her off of his leg so that they were attached just by their interlocked hands and forearms. "I'm going to swing you up. Try to grab onto the handhold when I let you go."

"Private Chochos does not think this will work!"

Dylan started to rock them both, gaining momentum like a pendulum. The incredible strength of the mech's grip was keeping him firmly locked onto the single hold, but he felt some movement. It might not keep its grip as momentum grew. "I thought you trust me?"

"Private Chochos trusts Private Maddock to do the best Private Maddock can. Private Chochos does not trust Private Maddock to succeed!"

"Can't argue with that." He doubted this would work, either. He might have the body for it, but that didn't mean he'd have the experience to pull off wild moves fitting for a video game. But doing crazy shit with a giant robot trumped smart decisions. He managed to work their swinging up into long, broad movements. If he didn't time this right, he'd simply end up throwing the sissach sideways. The armor should take it, but he'd look like quite the idiot. He had to time it on the upswing. Just right. Hopefully there'd be enough to launch her up, but it felt so slow. So slow, and heavy.

So heavy, that he felt his hand start to slip.

"Ah, fuck," he muttered, slowing his swing as he tried to reassert his grip, but it was too far gone. On the swing back down, his own weight and Ossala's pulled him down, and his grip completely slipped.

Both privates launched partially sideways, sending them along the wall a short distance before angling straight down toward the ground. Ossala let go of Dylan, a hiss turning into a stark cry as they hurtled. Dylan choked on his own scream, his whole body tensing up as he fell into a spin, the confidence draining from him as he came to the realization that he was heading straight for the ground head first. It felt ten stories up, but gravity made itself known on such a massive form, making it feel as if he were falling slowly - plenty of time for the more primal brain to digest its situation.

It almost made him feel impatient, just before he hit the ground with a violent, booming crash that cratered into the ground, instantly severring him from the connection. The pilot's capsule rocked violently as it absorbed the impact, forcing him deeply into the seat. It rebounded back in its limited space, his harness keeping him from flying out of it, but it left him to be shaken like he was in a rattle. It was so much worse than when Kira kicked his ass.

He pulled his visor up as a rush of bile spilled into his mouth. He slammed the hatch release on the side of his seat and rolled over to stand on the backrest - the mech had landed fully on its back, it seemed. He wobbled, the severed connection nausea taking its toll on more than just his stomach. He jumped up as the chest opened, grabbing a hold of the edge and pulling himself up and out. He thought he could hurl his guts out over the side of the chest, but his unsteady feet failed him and he slipped down the steep angle of the torso side. He landed on his boots, and fell down to his knees and hands, spilling bile out onto the torn up ground.

"Is Private Maddock intact?"

Dylan's head shot up as a massive form moved next to his mech, the armored sissach rolling over to face him on her stomach. He could see her red eyes through her visor. They widened as she realized she was looking at his true self. His own eyes widened as it hit him that a lizard was only an arm's reach away. He choked as more bile came up, but he didn't think it was just from the broken connection now. He pushed himself backwards, boots kicking in the dirt until his back hit the side of his mech. A thought flashed through his mind of having his head ripped off in reality this time.

Ossala dropped down to the ground and she averted her eyes from Dylan. "Does Private Maddock trust Private Chochos?"

Dylan spat, getting the fresh vomit out of his mouth, and gagged from the disgusting taste. "Uuh, no big danger, right?"

"No big danger. No danger at all." She kept herself prone as she returned her attention to him, her hand slowly going to her visor and pulling it up. Dylan's hands balled into fists as her lizard's face was fully exposed. He had to control himself. Think of something else. Distract himself. How about those puppies?

A different distraction came as her eyes started doing the ridiculous googly spinning, and she shook her head, making a chittering noise. He felt like he was being patronized like a child, and it made him crack up.

"Ah, fuck off will you. Private Maddock is… mostly intact," Dylan said, and wiped his face with the back of his gauntlet. "Sorry about dropping us."

Her eyes returned to normal, focusing in on him. It was unsettling having them on him, but at least he felt more annoyed over being teased like a kid than worried over being directly in front of a lizard. "Private Chochos admits Private Maddock carried the pair higher than Private Chochos expected. Private Chochos apologizes for not being as physically capable as the arkatians."

Dylan spit, trying to clear out the foul taste in his mouth. "That's pretty funny to say to a human."

Ossala sat up onto her knees. Dylan felt his stomach sinking, but managed to keep his face straight. "Private Chochos does not see the humor."

"You get that I'm this little thing here and not actually this big robot, right?"

She leaned toward him, but didn't overshadow him, and gave him a closer look. His heart started to race, and his hands balled into fists again. He resisted the urge to yell at her to shove off. "Private Chochos does not understand. Private Maddock has the physical capability to operate mechs. Private Chochos has neither the physical capability for operating mechs or traversing obstacles."

"The grass is greener. Whatever, what about you? Are you intact?"

"Private Chochos is sore, but also mostly intact." She rubbed the edge of her snout through her open visor. "Would Private Maddock like a lift back up onto the mech?"

Dylan shakily stood to his feet, and turned to his machine. It should be fairly easy climb or jump back up. "No, I got-" He paused, and glanced back at her. This could be his shot to quietly see how he'd feel being picked up by a Sissach before Maduk forced the matter with the pilot retrieval. Or he could completely lose his damn mind and Maduk would hear about it anyway. He could never be sure in his own head anymore. "Actually, yeah, uh, if you don't mind. Just put your hand down and let me climb on. No grabbing." It occurred to him that the pilot retrieval definitely would involve grabbing, but he couldn't muster himself to ask her to grab him instead. That was pushing it.

Ossala eyed him for a long moment. Dylan wondered if she could smell his uncertainty like Kira would. The way her tongue was moving, she must smell something. Hopefully it was just vomit. "Private Chochos will do this." The sissach very slowly lowered her armored hand down to the ground just before Dylan. Slow, but it still had Dylan feeling cold with dread.

Puppies. Lupari puppies. He had to keep his thoughts from wandering. He had to keep them somewhere warm.

It was better to go through this quickly. Don't think. Dylan climbed into Ossala's hand, but his blood ran cold and he didn't sit down. It was too short of a lift to bother settling down, but it also would have kept him from being able to easily jump off. He didn't even look at her as she started to move him. He felt he was shaking in his boots.

Puppies. Think of the puppies. Little, Kira-looking puppies. Surely puppies could keep the demons at bay.

She lifted him up, all of a second of movement, and he jumped off before she even touched down. He dropped into the opening, his boots slamming into the back wall of the cockpit, then climbed into the seat. As soon as the hatch closed, he put his hands to his face, groaning. Instinct had more control than he ever could have thought. Aching fear of a nonhuman ran deep. What would any of this have been like if he kept ahold of this fear when he was paired up with Kira? It seemed so easy to push the fear aside then. Kira wasn't a lizard. But Ossala wasn't a lizard either. She wasn't what tried to haunt his memories and nightmares. He knew this, but knowing it was completely worthless.

He wasn't going to make it through the retrieval. As soon as she reached for him, wrapped her fingers around him, he'd lose it. Maduk would win.

But that was okay. It wouldn't be the end for him. There was still a future even if he was sent home packing. Kira would make sure of it.

It was a comfortable thought, enough to swallow his anxieties and reconnect to the mech.

Dylan sat up, massive clumps of turf falling off of the machine, then pushed himself to his feet. "Thanks. Let's try this again."

A sharp wrf to his right drew both privates' attention - Kira had approached them. Her teeth were baring slightly, and her ears slightly bent with annoyance. She must not have been close enough to pick out Dylan's anxious scent, thankfully. "Stars dammit, just go around. The others are already done, you're holding up everyone else from starting." She gave Dylan a curt nod and a wink. She must have seen him take Ossala's hand up. He felt a pang of shame over how badly he did, but she didn't need to know that.

"Yes, sergeant!" both privates answered, and Dylan pulled Ossala to her feet.

She pushed them onward, around the tower and to the final stretch of the course - the unconventional obstacles. First up was a massive pit of mud. Unlike the one Dylan jumped before, this one had an embankment going into and out of it.

"This one is deeper than before and Private Chochos likely will be unable to move at the deepest point. Private Chochos suggests riding on Private Maddock's back again."

He squatted down. "Then hop aboard, your highness."

The sissach hopped up, and Dylan caught her legs, pulling her up into a piggyback. "Private Chochos wishes for the chauffeur to refer to Private Chochos as 'Exalted One.'"

"Of course, Exalted One."

Dylan waded into the mud, the embankment rapidly descending until murky water rose to just below his chest, while a thick muck of earth hugged around his waist. Cutting through it with the mech's legs was a slow, tedious process, but as with everything the mech seemed to do, unstoppable.

"This stuff seems deep enough to swallow the shorter races, god damn," Dylan muttered, grunting with the effort - the first time he really felt like the machine was putting a strain on him.

"Private Chochos was completely submerged once. The mud is shallow today."

"Shallow. Fuck, I didn't even know mud could be this deep." Apparently, several hundred tons could sink a lot. He had to be ripping up massive chunks of ground to pull his legs out of the holes he was making.

"This mud bog is artificially enhanced, but Private Chochos imagines nonhumans sink into mud much farther than the light humans."

The pit was mercifully narrow, at least. The opposite bank quickly started to rise, and Dylan came out of it pushing a mountain of muck with his legs that quickly started to fall apart as he went up the slope. "Eugh, crazy. Sinking into this shit is an understatement. Like a goddamn peat bog."

They came to the final obstacle, a large pool of water in a concrete space. It looked filthy, completely murky and stagnant. On either side of it were small cranes or winches, with operators, or perhaps rescue divers, idly watching, looking toward Dylan and Ossala.

Ossala dropped down from Dylan's back. "Midway through is a small tunnel to crawl through. Private Chochos should be able to accomplish this one unassisted."

"Right, let's do this then." Dylan wished the water was cleaner, but walking underwater sounded too exciting to hang up on that. He hopped over the edge of the pool, breaking through the water and sending up an enormous, splashing wave. He couldn't admire it, though, as he sank straight downward. A depth reading came up on his HUD, along with pressure around the cockpit. Headlights also flicked on, illuminating the void outside for all of less than an arm's length, the cloudy water reflecting most of it right back at him.

His feet finally touched ground with a dull, echoing thoom. The depth gauge stopped at 14.4 valen at the cockpit, or 582 feet according to the number next to it. A whale could happily fit in this lake of a pool. Ossala landed just next to him. He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a push.

"Lead the way, Exalted One." She seemed excited to finally be able to do something on her own, and silently started walking, her form vanishing into the cloudy water. Only her tail was visible as Dylan started to follow.

He felt like he was in one of those old dive suits as he moved, slow and ponderous in his movements. The sound of his boots was disconcertingly loud as they stomped on the concrete floor. He could move plenty faster if he wanted to, but he couldn't see where he was going. Crashing into the tunnel wall would not be so ideal. It really put a damper on the excitement of the whole thing. A whole ship could be wrecked down here, and that'd be awesome, but this was just a dirty pool.

Soon enough, he and Ossala came to a solid wall, with a small passage below it. The tunnel. Ossala turned to face him. "The passage will be tight for the machine. Private Chochos recommends Private Maddock leads here, so Private Chochos may try to push if Private Maddock becomes trapped."

"Trapped?" Dylan squatted down to shine his light into the tunnel. It looked just barely big enough for his shoulders to clear it. "How the hell do arkatians get through this with wings?"

"Particularly large arkatians have been known to become jammed in, and need to be winched out," Ossala explained. "But, the idea is one will fit through many small places if desperate enough."

"Desperate, yeah. Alright. Speaking of that, how are you doing on air?"

"Private Chochos has approximately seven minutes left."

"Seven? What the fuck?" How many recruits suffocated down here? Those recovery teams must be damn good. "I got three hours." Dylan had a whole three hours in this thing. Put together a platoon of mechs and they could cross a lake undetected. What a badass thought. It's a shame a dirty tunnel wasn't so badass. "You should lead, I'll push if you get stuck."

"Private Chochos won't become stuck. Private Chochos is not large like the machine. Tinies first." She waved to the tunnel, beckoning him to proceed.

"Peak goddamn irony. Alright, let's do this." Dylan dropped down into prone just in front of the tunnel, and crawled his way in. It was still large enough for a cramped high crawl, but it inspired some frightening thoughts of getting trapped. He felt his shoulders and hips banging against the walls, likely leaving marks to join the many gashes and ruts already all along the walls of the passage. Chunks of debris littered the ground and gashes were gouged into the walls, giving Dylan an idea of an arkatian, trapped, and entering into one of their rages, clawing their way out.

Thankfully, Dylan didn't seem to be having any trouble like that, as he crawled over the broken pieces. His movements were making loud bangs and thooms in the passage. He couldn't hear what was inside the mech, his real body incapacitated as it was, but he imagined it had to be like a submarine dealing with depth charges with ominous booms and shakes rocking the entire compartment.

"Doing alright back there?" he asked without looking back.

"Private Chochos, hrsss… is finding this more difficult than expected. Exhausting with the armor inactive. Private Chochos will persevere."

Mercifully, the tunnel wasn't so long. The darkness opened up as Dylan's headlight shined out of the end. He opened his arms to grab the edges of the opening and pushed himself out, then dropped to his knees and reached in to drag Ossala out the rest of the way. He helped her to her feet, and pushed her onward. The end of the pool was only a short distance away, and they quickly found one of the ladders leading out.

"You gonna persevere up this too?"

"Yes." She grabbed ahold, and started her climb. Dylan followed after her, half expecting her to have trouble with the climb after leaving the water, but she kept on going after breaking the surface. Water poured off of her armor and onto Dylan's head as he came out after her, blurring his vision for a few brief moments as the heavy cascades fell away from the hydrophobic visor.

Ossala climbed off the top of the ladder and to her feet, groaning as she adapted to being heavy again. Dylan gave her a nudge on the shoulder. "Nice work."

"I don't know about that." Lieutenant Kulsah said, approaching them. "I saw you two didn't make it over the tower."

Dylan nodded. "I dropped us when we were almost to the top, but we were ordered to go around. I'd like to try it again with your permission, ma'am."

"I did say third place runs again. This time you have to deal with the others running the course."

Ossala stood straight. "Private Chochos will persevere!" Then, she turned to head back down the course. Dylan bit back the urge to protest over her being too small to make it over the tower with him, suddenly finding it a stupid thing to protest over. Figuring out how to make small work was the whole point of bringing humans here. He followed after her, not knowing how he'd carry her over the tower, but ready to try. He'd just have to forgo any lifts up if he managed to fall off his mech again in a puking fit.

--

Kira ran the course a couple of times herself. She didn't interfere with her charge and Ossala, even as they struggled to crest the wall. They managed it on their second attempt after Ossala climbed up on top of Dylan's shoulders, even as other soldiers scaled the wall around them. She was proud of the human for doing so well with Ossala, even letting her lift him up, but didn't let it show. She knew he could do it, but if she allowed herself to show much excitement over it the rest of the platoon might think she didn't have confidence in him.

Each soldier finished a run at low power with a mech companion. Kira ended up matched with Russell rather than her own charge, and he was easily the quickest, practically dragging her by her scruff the entire way if not carrying her like a pup. The mechs had an impressive amount of strength compared to standard powered armor. Yirshan tried to pull someone through the course the same way. She might have made it if it wasn't so miserably exhausting even with armor at full power.

Kira didn't interact with Dylan all the way up until it was time to move on to show the humans how to operate a plasma rifle. Master Sergeant Mitchell was waiting at the racks behind the firing line. The human was far from experienced with the weaponry, however, and Kira took an overseeing position behind him. There was no sense in retraining the nonhumans, so Dylan, Cody, and Russell waited for the rest of the platoon to grab their rifles and repeaters and set up on the line for practice.

Mitchell grabbed one of the few rifles left after the last nonhuman took their own. "Big day. You three finally get to use a space gun." He held it up long ways for them to see. It was painted dark, with an electromagnetic accelerator shrouding its barrel. No optics were mounted, leaving it with just its flip up sight posts. Its telescoping stock was closed, tucked against the back of the power-fuel cell behind the grip. "This is an R43 battle rifle. It's not too different from what you're used to with our own service rifles." He pulled the stock open and turned it over for them to see the other side of the weapon. "It's like a bullpup, magazine behind the grip. Right here where the mag well would be is the cell chamber. It's empty right now. Button right above the trigger housing is to eject the cell for the next one." He took a featureless, orange dummy cell from a pouch at his mech's side. "Stick it like a normal magazine." He pushed it into the chamber, seating it with a click. "Normally it'll hiss when it fixes into the plasma extractor above it. Once that's done, that's it. You're ready to shoot. The fire control is a little different." He took his hand off the grip to grab a slider just above it. "This thing when it's pulled back and up is when it's on safe. Pull it down and you're in single shot. Push it forward, and now you're in full auto. Use that, you'll overheat the accelerator, this thing," he patted the barrel shroud, "in no time. Finally, move it all the way forward, and you'll get a charged shot, like a grenade. The cell will last you two hundred normal shots, a charged shot will consume around twenty. You'll have a readout of how many of whatever mode you have left right behind the rear sight post. He tapped the tiny display with a finger. "Questions? Ask me if it's in a 40 watt range, I'll stomp your guts out through your ass."

Dylan and Cody shared a look, while Russell seemed impassive. '40 watt range.' It was far too little energy for something like this. It must be some sort of joke she wasn't getting, Kira thought.

"Alright," Mitchell continued. "Heads up, there's going to be recoil so I don't want to see any stupid shit. Shoot just like you learned in basic. Muzzle down range at all times, don't fucking flag the line or I'll shove it up your mechanical ass." He turned to Kira, and handed her the rifle. "Sergeant Rottjir, they're yours."

He headed off to supervise the rest of the platoon. The rifle was large in her hands, with the R43s intended more for the arkatians and neishor, but it was workable while she was wearing armor. "Grab your rifles and two cells, and take your places on the end of the line."

She watched them each as they took their weapons. Russell and Cody were quick about it, but Dylan picked his up more carefully, even reverently, as he cradled it to his arms. It was pointed partly into the sky as he gawked over it. It was adorable. It wasn't a reaction she'd seen in many recruits, but for anyone but a human a plasma rifle wasn't fantasy. It was also ridiculous, because he turned to head down to the line without even picking up his cells.

"Maddock," Kira barked after him. "Collect your stars damned cells."

"Uh, yes ma'am."

Kira followed him, snatching up two cores from one of the bins and slipping them into a pair of hardened pouches on her armor. She and the humans came to the end of the firing line, where they found Ossala apparently waiting for them. She was holding an R44, the marksman's version of the R4X series. Dylan jogged ahead of the others, and took up his place next to her with a quick greeting to one another. If Kira didn't need to be his sergeant right now, she'd be far too satisfied with this development. Instead, she kept her face passive and her tail still as she stood on his other side, Cody and Russell to her right.

"Insert your cores." Leading them, she loaded hers in first, feeding it into its chamber through the bottom. It clicked and hissed as Mitchell said, and '200' appeared on the weapon's display. The three humans did the same, and even Ossala followed along. "Numbers up?" she asked, and received a few murmured affirmatives. "Set your weapons to single shot, aim, and fire. Just like your training."

Kira didn't really know what shooting a human gun was like. Other than being horrifically loud like that ripping rotary gun was reported to be. But the concept was just the same. She raised her weapon, peered down the scope, and let it go.

The rifle made a whine and a metallic chunk as the accelerator launched a compressed bolt of blue erestal plasma. It kicked gently into her shoulder, and she followed up with several more shots in rapid succession, nailing her distant target and perforating the molded plastic.

The humans eagerly followed up her shots, joining the rest of the line in flooding the range with streaking blue bolts.

"Man, it's like a blaster!" Cody shouted, pausing his fire for just a moment. "Pew, pew!"

"Pew pew, right," Dylan said. "The pew pews goddamn ripped tanks to shreds. We've got laser cannons."

"Correction," Ossala said, her own rifle making a distinctly louder chunk with each shot. "The weapons are plasma. Lasers as potent as these are science-fiction."

Dylan scoffed. "I'm gonna have to get used to this new standard on sci-fi while I'm in my giant robot shooting plasma guns and talking to giant aliens through a crazy little translator."

He was sarcastic, but Kira knew he was having the time of his life. 'Plasma guns' just completed his boyish fantasies. She still kept herself all business, however. "If we're being technical, these aren't plasma either," she said. "It's erestalum. Which is like a sort of plasma. It's semi-solid in flight but dissipates on impact like plasma."

"I damn knew it kinda splattered when it hit shit!" Dylan said, laying into his shooting as if trying to spot that splattering on the embankment. It didn't do it on dirt, however. "So, what, there's liquid inside erestal crystals? I had no idea."

"No," Kira said, pausing her shooting to check on each one of them, making sure they were firing at a respectable rate. "It's semi-solid. The erestalum is like extracted energy given form."

Russell paused his own shooting to pull his spare core from its pouch, giving it a closer look, staring at it close enough to illuminate the mech's faceplate. "It's nothing like we have on Earth. What did we cock up to end up with a squib star?"

Kira's ears tried to fold in their armored housing. Arguably the root of all of humanity's stellar troubles came from having a 'defective' star, unable to form or charge erestal crystals. Even the rare fissile materials it lead to instead ultimately attracted giant alien invaders.

"Private Chochos finds it inspiring that the humans persevere despite the 'squib' star." The sissach crouched to one knee, and fired in a steady rhythm, her rifle making a long, soft whine after each shot. "Perseverance when all seems futile - there is little more that can earn sissach respect."

Russell hummed. "Bloody shame the lizards didn't think that."

Ossala hissed. "The filthy rynar do not hold respect for any. Sissach rose out of the primitive mind. Sissach persevered. Sissach will tear apart any that wish to deny others from perseverance."

That little tirade earned a few looks between the humans. Ossala was truly going all out to try to paint a positive picture, but it wasn't an act either. Kira never met a sissach that didn't loathe the rynar. She couldn't tell how much it was working with Russell, but that was far from her concern.

"So perseverance is a big thing for sissach." Dylan lowered his weapon to his side and turned to face her. "What have you persevered through?"

She lowered her own weapon, looking up at him from her crouch. "Private Maddock is asking for Private Chochos' proudest struggles?" She stood up and faced him. "Private Chochos does not intend to boast. Perseverance must be acknowledged and spread by others."

"God damn," Dylan muttered. "Just tell me about yourself. Where'd you learn to shoot to be a squad marksman?"

Kira growled softly. "Talk and shoot."

Both privates turned back to their targets and resumed firing from standing. "Private Chochos was hatched and reared on Lashkoika, a still developing miner's colony. Private Chochos' parents are in the colonial garrison and taught Private Chochos how to shoot. All of the Chochos broodline learn to use a weapon for future military service. Private Chochos then learned to hunt to hone the rifleman's skill."

"So you're from a military family then."

"Private Chochos' particular familial brood is a part of the Chochos Broodline, which is a broodline dedicated to military service."

In Kira's experience, sissach weren't particularly good at explaining this, as they didn't distinguish much from the familial brood and the broodline. It still just sounded like a military family. "Sissach broodlines are a little like a clan," Kira said, speaking through her shots. "Except they're spread out across the galaxy as family units. Almost all sissach in fighting roles in the military are Chochos. The ones that aren't are trying to become a part of the Chochos broodline."

"No shit?" Dylan muttered, glancing between both of them. "So a bunch of galactic warrior li-" He paused. The translator wouldn't have let Ossala in on the unfinished word, but Kira's english clued her in. Lizard was an unfortunate word to have become derisive, since it was technically an accurate descriptor, just as lupari were canine. "... galactic warriors. Yeah." He refocused onto firing rapidly, missing his target several times. "You ever wanted to be anything else?"

Ossala lowered her weapon, head turning up as she thought about it. "Private Chochos enjoys cooking. Private Chochos looks forward to cooking field rations for the platoon."

Kira wretched. "Ugh, just don't oversweeten it. Please."

"Sissach like sweet things?" Dylan asked.

Kira smirked under her visor. "You should see a sissach with candy."

Her charge looked back down to Ossala. "Is that true?"

The sissach shrugged. "Private Chochos thinks non-sissach have unrefined tastes."

"Damn. That's kinda adorable."

Ossala hissed and dropped down to her knee, peering down her scope and peppering her target. "Says the tiny one."

Dylan scoffed. "Yeah. So I guess I know adorable, huh?"

Kira nearly choked on her laugh. She forced it down to keep her sergeant persona going. "Quit the tailtugging and focus on your damned targets."

After that, Kira didn't have much distraction from them. The three humans performed as expected, which thankfully was to say not like recruits that never even held a weapon before. Russell was certainly a better shot than she was, even considering the perfect stability of the mechs, as he demonstrated with striking different targets in quick succession. She'd like to see him go through one of the shoot houses, but that was for another day. Ossala was a great shot, proving herself with the longest distant targets. Dylan was best described as 'adequate.' He'd improve.

By the time they finished their second cores and before Kira ordered them to grab some more, they had to move on. They switched with first platoon, and now it was the nonhumans' turns to be introduced to a new weapon.

Three unfamiliar mechs were waiting for them, of the older, bulkier models like Mitchell's. They watched Kira's platoon approaching, two of them holding compact guns with belts extending from the rears of the weapons around their backs. The rifles had heat shrouding like the R4X series, but the rest of the gun was unknown to her, with a large opening coming out the bottom. Small canisters were scattered all over the ground around them, and they made a metallic clanking as the platoon walked over them, kicking some and crushing others.

The one unarmed mech stepped forward of the others. "Good day. I am Captain Du Plessis. We are here today to demonstrate kinetic armaments using prototype designs that we hope to equip mechs with one day. I do not think we should be demonstrating these to every UAF soldier that comes this way, but here we are."

That was rather passive aggressive, Kira thought. Which meant it was probably Maduk pulling more strings, but she couldn't see why he'd want a weapons demonstration.

Du Pleiss gestured to the other two mechs. "These weapons are known as GAU-8 Avengers. Before the invasion, they were mounted on ground-attack craft. Using heat dispersion technology from the UAF, and the carrying capacity of combat mechs, we've configured them into a submachine gun type frame, fed from high capacity back mounted storage through a belt. How many of you are familiar with how human weapons function?"

The whole platoon's arms went up, including Kira's. Explosively propelled weapons were not unheard of. Most every species had them in their past at some point. It was just that erestal based energy weapons replaced them before most figured out how to do anything more complicated than explosive powder and projectile wedged down a pipe. There were some developments for more advanced weapons, but nothing ever came close to replacing erestal. This left explosive kinetics to the realm of fantasy and sci-fi. Until now, where humans proved mass production and adoption of effective kinetics were a highly feasible option.

And, of course, the whole platoon watched the Matrix. It had lots of guns. Naturally, they were movie experts on human guns now.

"What you know is wrong. At nonhuman scale, the recoil on these are going to be far more than what you've seen, and far louder. Apologies in advance for the noise. Scattered at your feet are spent casings that held the propellant charges, which were detonated to fire the projectile."

He pulled one of the cartridges out of a pouch on his side, and approached the platoon, walking in front of them to show it off, pinched between his finger and thumb. It looked a good bit smaller than the cartridges Kira saw in the Matrix, but in her hands compared to a mech she guessed it might be on par with the pistol cartridges they used in that movie. How much damage could that genuinely do? "Normally, nearly four thousand of these are fired from the weapon every minute. But this is far too excessive for a personal weapon, so it has a variable rate of fire depending on how much power is supplied, up to its maximum."

He pocketed the cartridge, and turned to one of his subordinates. "Lieutenant Meyers on the left here has a more conventional version of the weapon. It's powered by a non-erestal based electrical system built into the weapon, which is why it looks larger. Lieutenant Lambert has one using an erestal core. It has a much longer operational life, but human technology was not built to account for the disruptive nature of erestal, and the weapon is prone to malfunction."

Du Plessis returned his attention to the platoon. "Now that is enough technical matters. We will demonstrate, then permit you to fire several bursts from either weapon with their rates of fire minimized. Meyers, please showcase the maximum rate of fire."

The platoon bunched up around the mech as it took its position on the firing line, trying to see it in action. Kira was near the front, and Dylan was just behind her, looking over her head. Meyers spread his legs, one foot far forward and brought the gun to his shoulder, leaning heavily into it. The gun erupted with a ripping burst, forcing almost all of them back in surprise over the noise. Dylan placed his hands on her ears, covering her hands, the human apparently not at all put off by the sound.

Bullets pelted the targets in a sweeping motion, striking the backstop and kicking up plumes of dust and dirt that billowed out onto the field. Some of the bullets seemed to be glowing, letting them see where every other shot was headed, but for the most part it looked like an invisible stream of deadly firepower. If none of the projectiles were glowing, it'd be nearly impossible to quickly tell where they were coming from. It was an intimidating thought.

The mech shifted as the recoil pushed it back, the forward leg moving in a backstep. The human lowered the weapon, letting it recoil more into his torso. A cascade of bullets was spilling out the bottom of the gun, piling around his feet, just like the rotary gun in the Matrix. Flames were sparking out of the ejection port, while a much larger explosive plume was coming out of the barrels, creating dark, sooty clouds in front of the mech.

The burst went on for nearly ten seconds before the shooter let up, and the gun came to an abrupt stop, the mech stumbling forward a step with the sudden end of recoil. The nonhumans were given a moment to gather their senses, some of them muttering with annoyance over the noise. Their helmets were made to dampen loud noises, but even then that was extreme, like being right next to an explosion. The smoke from the weapon drifted Kira's way, and her nose crinkled with disgust. She growled and closed her visor.

"As you can see," Du Plessis said while Meyers went back to standing with the other officer. "The recoil is too much even for a mech. It's also woefully unnecessary to fire that fast. Future mechs may be built with it integrated into their platform. Without a proper grip, the weapon can fly out of your hands. And without a strong push back against the recoil, it can misdirect your aim toward shooting something you don't want." He scanned over the whole group. "The restrained rate of fire is more manageable even without power armor for most people about the size of a lupari and larger, but you'll still need to brace heavily." His attention drifted to Kira, the both of them locking eyes. "May as well start with a lupari, then. Sergeant, take your place on the line." He looked back over his shoulder at the second lieutenant and nodded. "Lambert."

"Question, sir," Kira said as she moved to the line.

"Yes?" The captain started helping Lambert remove the ammunition backpack.

"What's the point of this demonstration?"

Du Plessis snorted. "I asked the same thing. I'm told it's a part of the day's process of showing human strength. Show off one of our weapons, I suppose." He placed the backpack onto the ground, and Lambert handed Kira the GAU-8. "Your division didn't go to Earth. Someone is worried you won't take humans seriously."

Kira scowled under her visor. This all but confirmed her suspicions of Maduk. She had no idea what really drove that human. She thought her platoon took the humans perfectly seriously. What was the whole point of the simulations and showing off the mechs, otherwise? Showing off a gun they wouldn't even be using was just baring teeth.

She looked the gun over. It was a compact weapon with a heavy emplaced weapon's feeding system, a bizarre combination. It was still fairly similar to a normal rifle, complete with an erestal core in the stock. This could at least be exciting to use.

Lambert touched a switch on the weapon. "Starting with semi-auto," he said. "You're gonna feel nothing with one bullet. Shoot."

Kira readied herself, bringing the gun to her shoulder, and plinked off a quick shot. It had a notable more lurch to it than a plasma rifle. And it was annoyingly loud. And smoky. She rattled off a few more quick shots. Lambert stopped her and hit the switch again, then stood behind her. He put a hand on her shoulder, and another braced her right arm. "Full auto. One second burst."

She squeezed the trigger, and it kicked against her shoulder as it sent a burst down range. It was notably slower than the other Avenger, sounding more like ripping cloth rather than an arkatian's roar. She was ready for the recoil, and kept herself from being pushed into the human sergeant.

"Three more, then you're done." Lambert said.

Just three? She was just starting to enjoy it too, awful scents and noise aside. But with the amount of cartridges that poured out around her feet, she could understand why. The next two bursts went smoothly, but then the last one didn't even fire at all, only the click of the trigger.

"Fuckin' piece of shit," Lambert muttered, and took the gun from her.

Du Plessis sighed. "That's the electrical system just not working. Step away sergeant."

Meyres took a power cell from a nearby crate, and passed it to Lambert. The sergeant replaced the core, took an experimental shot downrange, then beckoned a couple more soldiers. "Next."

Kira stood next to Dylan, as the other soldiers started taking their turns with the GAU-8s. "What'd you think?" Dylan asked.

"It's not very pleasant to shoot," she admitted.

"It is pretty, uh, feisty. That thing's meant for killing tanks, and you used it like a little SMG. Pretty badass."

It was strange to think she was using an anti-tank weapon like that. It was odd to even consider it an anti-tank weapon in the first place. Shooting the targets didn't show it's damage potential against a nonhuman, either. Altogether, this whole demonstration felt pointless beyond the initial awe of seeing it firing. It wasn't proving anything like this. Humans showed their potential in far more ways than showing off a gun. It was as if this was put together by someone making a weak attempt to intimidate nonhumans rather than endear them to humans.

Kira watched her platoon go through their bursts. The mechs had their chance to shoot as well, but they weren't permitted to fire them at full rate of fire. Dylan and Cody definitely enjoyed it. Russell seemed indifferent, and the nonhumans were a mixed bag depending on if the gun actually managed to keep its electrical firing system going without a cell swap.

Fastal, without any power armor training let alone significant weapons training, wasn't permitted to use the Avenger. The sissach appeared to be steadily growing displeased with the day, and Kira could hardly blame him. She wouldn't be surprised if he was starting to realize he was placed here to make a mess of things rather than anything genuinely useful.

Ossala, however, was given the chance to shoot the Avenger. While Lambert situated her, Du Plessis crossed his arms and muttered, "These guns were pretty good at cutting down the lizards."

The jab at her species was blatantly obvious to Kira, but Ossala took it in stride. "Private Chochos regrets not having been there to see the lizards die." Du Plessis had nothing to say to that.

Dylan did, however. "Do sissach really hate rynar that much? She's not fucking around?"

Kira nodded, watching Ossala take her shots. "Sissach and rynar will tear one another to pieces at the flick of a whisker. Sissach are usually held in reserve, like with Earth, when fighting rynar. It makes taking prisoners tricky."

"Sissach kill lizard prisoners?"

"It depends on their commanding officer's temperament, but yes. Sissach freely admit this, and their government was the ones that proposed holding them back." The truth was, sissach, like rynar, reacted violently to threats. Firm discipline and a competent commander usually kept them from resorting to baser instincts against pirates and slavers, but the rynar to the sissach were the greatest threat to civilization and blites on sissach reputation. Even their species' disposition for following leadership was strained when faced with that.

"Huh. And she seems so friendly."

Kira tore her attention away from Ossala and squeezed his hand. "She is. She'll just sooner tear a rynar's throat out with her teeth than shoot them."

Ossala finished her rounds without a malfunction, and proudly walked up to Dylan and Kira. "Private Chochos thinks the GAU-8 Avenger is an impressive weapon with an excellent name." She looked up at Dylan. "Ossala can see why Dylan enjoyed shooting it!"

Kira brought her hand up to the end of her snout, as if covering her mouth, and Dylan stared blankly down at her. "First names?" he tentatively asked.

She puffed her chest with pride. "Ossala is endeared to Dylan's attempts to make friends and will now reciprocate with birth names."

"Wow, okay. Huh. Thank you." He looked to Kira. She shrugged. It was unusual for a sissach to reach a first name basis so quickly, but it wasn't too surprising to her. Bonding to a human seemed almost completely natural to plenty of people. Kira wondered what went through Ossala's mind when she first picked Dylan up on the course. She'd make an excellent guardian if she could be attached to a potential charge this quickly.

"Stars cursed thing!" A ralai private snarled and struck the side of the Avenger. "I didn't even get to shoot it!" He shook it as Lambert moved to take it from him, then gave it another twack, this time on its power core.

"Don't hit the fuckin' gun, goddamn cat," Lambert snapped and grabbed the gun from the feline, but before he could deactivate it, it suddenly whirled to life. The gun belched fire and flung itself out of the mech's arms. It sent its rounds downrange before it caught on its ammunition belt, flinging it around in an arc toward second platoon.

--

Dylan grabbed Kira and shoved her behind him, and was just doing the same with Ossala when the gun made it around to pelt his unit. He felt sharp impacts hammering into his mech's front, while he moved her behind him. He went to run for the gun when it hit the ground, rolling around in its own recoil, but Lambert was closer and threw himself on top of it. He wrapped his arms around it and pulled it tightly against himself, silencing its fire with a resounding crunch of compacting Avenger.

With the threat gone, Dylan spun around to check on his platoon. Most of them had dropped to the ground away from the gun. "Is anyone hit?!" he shouted.

There was a loud snarl from an asishi. The hyena rolled over onto his back, holding his arm. "Over here!"

"I have him!" Tihiri said and crawled over to him. "Check for others."

There were no other cries for help, just soldiers warily pushing up off the ground, checking their armor for any impacts. Only one wasn't moving. Medical data flashed onto his HUD when he focused on her. Heart rate up, blood pressure tanking. Rapid blood loss.

Ossala was face down on the ground, one arm under her and the other sprawled limply next to her. Dylan ran toward her and slid to his knees next to her. An impact readout appeared, showing him several harmless strikes on her chest and thigh, but critical damage was registering under her armpit and at her collar, just above the chest plate. He leaned over, placing a hand over her shoulder and bending down to try to see her face. Her head was turned partly toward him, letting him see one of her eyes through her closed visor. It focused on him, but she didn't say anything.

His helmet light flicked on, forcing her eye closed, but letting him see the glimmer of blood trickling out around her collar. "I got one!" He placed one hand on her hip, the other on her shoulder, and carefully rolled her over, giving him a better look at her front. The arm pinned beneath her was the one hit, but no blood was coming out from her armpit. There was only minimal blood escaping from the base of her neck. A quick check showed an exit wound next to where a human's collarbone would be, but the undermesh of the armor was mostly trapping the bleeding. "Neck wound! Get the fuck over here, how the shit do I get the armor off?"

Tihiri left the asishi and ran for Dylan, the others making way for her. "Onto her front," she demanded, and rolled Ossala over again. The armor abruptly opened from behind like Dylan's own power armor did. They had to pull her arms and legs out of the limbs, then together they heaved the sissach out and onto the grass.

Rolling her onto her back showed the front of her uniform soaked with blood, with more flowing down from her armpit and down her side. The neck was an arterial bleed if he ever saw one. The arm may not be. Tihiri set to work on the neck wound, while Dylan took on the armpit. "What am I looking for? Anything like hemostat?" he said as he opened his satchel, and pulled out the first thing that looked like gauze, ripped it open, and shoved it under Ossala's arm, pressing tightly.

"Green auto-injector, clotting agent."

Dylan dug the injector out with one hand, popped the cap, and pushed it under the gauze, keeping the pressure on while the device hissed and dumped its contents. He tossed it away when it was finished, then used both hands to keep the pressure on. Tihiri was in the process of using one of the injectors too, but it didn't seem to be working as she threw it aside with a curse and pressed her hands down tightly against Ossala's neck. "Stars, dammit, is the ambulance almost here?"

"They're coming," Kira said and dropped to her knees next to Dylan to take over the armpit pressure.

Dylan moved over to the the other side of Ossala's head. "What the fuck, the quick clot didn't work," he snapped and put down a new pad of guaze, pushing Tihiri's blood drenched one aside.

"Too far down, we can't slow it quick enough to clot. Stars, I think it's her subclavian. Push!" Dylan pushed down hard onto the sissach, forcing a pained, keening hiss from her. Dylan was afraid he'd crush the poor thing. The gauze was still soaking up blood far too quickly. Pressure was doing nowhere near enough. Crushing her to get to the artery almost seemed like the right idea if that wouldn't kill her outright. "It's still too fast. Any other options?"

"Wait for the ambulance," Tihiri said as she set the IV up, pushing it between Ossala's scales. Dylan didn't know what the fluid was, or how Tihiri could even identify a vein, but he sorely doubted it was enough.

"She's going to fucking die any minute!"

"What then?"

Dylan kept one hand on the gauze and fished around in his satchel. Was there anything? There had to be something! These were aliens for God's sake. They were supposed to have everything. He ripped out heaps of burn treatment material, airway blockage tools, bandages, gauze, tourniquets. He held up one of the tourniquets. "Maybe we could tie it off."

Tihiri scowled. "That's not going to help here."

Ossala keened, and her head tilted back to look up at him. The mostly blank lizardly expression was strange for the severity of the situation, but it brought out the subtle cues. The slight frown on her snout, the eyes bulging, and even glistening. Lizards could cry? "Ossssala thanks Dylan for allowing O-Ossssala to- hrrssss… represent Sisssach before death."

That was what she wanted her parting words to be? To thank him for not telling her to piss off today? For giving her the chance to make sissach look good? Not a cry for help, a simple goodbye, or a call for mother, just a 'thanks for not being a dick today.' Lizards were fucking weird.

He refused to accept that for a fare thee well. "Fuck off, you're not gonna die." Dylan dropped the tourniquet. "Take over pressure."

Tihiri took Dylan's place. "What are you doing?"

Dylan sat up straight, and extended his palm just in front of the mech's stomach. "Getting some tools."

He disconnected from the machine and jumped out of the seat, going for the aid cabinet. He threw out a bunch of items until he found a tourniquet, then looked around the cockpit. He spotted the survival kit and ripped it off the wall to dig a large knife out of it. Then he pulled open a few empty storage compartments until he found a maintenance set, complete with brand name tools from Earth. He took the largest pair of pliers it had.

Tools in hand, he kicked the opening latch on the side of the pilot's seat, and the deck dropped down for him, revealing most of the platoon watching. They better not block the ambulance, he thought.

And that was all he thought as he ran to the edge of the deck and jumped, falling down onto the mech's hand with a heavy thud from the weight of his armor, then continued on with a long jump towards Ossala. On his arcing descent, he met eyes with Kira. Hers were wide with surprise, concern, fear.

Dylan landed on Ossala's chest, his impact weight even with his armor barely getting even a grunt out of her. "Hit her with painkiller if you think she can take it," he said as he moved up her torso, his boots squelching on the bloodied clothing.

"The IV has that covered," Tihiri said.

Impressive fluid, but surely not enough for this. "Some of you hold her down anyway. This is going to hurt like hell. I'm going to try to tie the artery off." Dylan dropped to his knees onto Ossala's clavicle, just next to the exit wound. The 30mm round had punched a large hole on its way out, but appeared to have just barely missed the clavicle entirely, simply passing beneath it to knick the artery. The wound was squirting with her heartbeat, a gush of blood pumping out every interval, flowing all around him. This was going to be one hell of a time finding the artery. He pulled the knife from its sheath.

"Have you ever done surgery?" Tihiri asked while several others held down Ossala's limbs. The sissach was hissing, breathing quickly, her chest moving Dylan up and down.

He pushed the knife into the wound. The sissach's chest shot up with a deep breath of air, but she didn't make a noise. "Sure. People shoot each other a lot when the world's ending." He pushed it into the hilt, angling it into the channel of the wound, leading under her clavicle. He leaned over, wrapping both hands on the handle, and put his armor's strength into it, dragging the blade, cutting the scales apart and giving him enough space to work. Ossala took it well, only hardly even moving.

Blood gushed out, splattering onto his face. He should have worn his helmet. Keeping his lips sealed, he pulled the knife out, prompting out a heavier gush. Then, he pushed his arm inside, his forearm sliding under the clavicle bone. Now Ossala screamed, her chest lifting up and thrashing. Dylan was forced to pull his arm out, the armored limb coated in blood. "Hold her down goddammit, someone hold her chest!"

A huge hand plopped down next to him, forcing Ossala down flat. Dylan glanced up to see Larish looking down at him, the big horse's eyes wide with panic. These poor bastards probably never realized a giant could bleed this much from a tiny little bullet.

Dylan shoved his arm back inside, sinking down to his elbow. Muscles contracted around his arm, maybe enough to crush it if it weren't in armor. He ignored the screaming and attempts at thrashing, just focusing on feeling her innards, searching for the source of rushing blood with what little sensitivity the armor granted him.

He thought he found it. Slick, difficult to pull, but he could close his fingers around it.

The pumping blood slowed, but he couldn't squeeze it off entirely like this. "Found it," he said, then used his other hand to grab his pliers. He pushed it into the wound alongside the first arm, spreading the wound open wider, and spreading his knees for extra stability while he dove in deep bending over and nearly pushing his face to her chest.

Tracing along his other arm, he guided the pliers to the artery. He pinched around with it, tugging several times to feel if he got it. He felt some resistance, then squeezed the pliers tight, along with his other hand. "God, I'm so fucking sorry Ossala," he said, then pulled.

The sissach screamed, a roar to him at this size. It almost made him stop "Pull it!" she cried. "Pull it! Ossala doesn't want to die!"

He obliged, stretching the artery out around the clavicle, and pulling it out of the wound opening. Dylan fell onto his backside, mouth dropping open with surprise that he actually got the thing, and that it was the size of a snake.

Before he could start thinking on how he'd tie it with his hands full, a pair of enormous tweezers lowered in front of him, and closed around it. He looked up to see Tihiri, just as shocked as he was, her fangs showing from her open mouth surprise, holding the tweezers. Dylan dropped the pliers for his tourniquet, and hastily wrapped it tightly around the artery, just under the tip of the tweezers. "Holy fuck, that's it. We got it. Keep holding the tweezers there, don't let it go back in."

Dylan slid away from the wound, and slumped onto his backside, his arms sagging. He did it! He couldn't believe he did it. He couldn't believe that worked so smoothly.

Nobody was cheering, but they all looked so relieved. Or shocked. Surprised? He didn't give a shit. Ossala wasn't out of the woods yet, it wasn't any time to celebrate. She just had time now. He hoped it was enough.

--

The ambulances arrived shortly after Dylan's feat, and the human ended up going with Ossala, leaving Kira to help the platoon out of the shock of the whole ordeal. What little was left of the training itinerary for the day was called off for concerns of tampering, and the whole battalion was sent back to the barracks. The human weapons nor the sissach were never supposed to be there, and now the disaster had finally spurred someone to bite back at Maduk.

Military police gathered statements, and asked a lot of pointed questions about Maduk and his meddling. She didn't know who they'd be reporting to, but she doubted the human would be keeping his position for much longer. Kira wished she knew where he was so she could see his reaction to the horrific mess he caused.

An hour after the accident, Kira was called to collect Dylan, as his mech was left behind on the range. She headed off to the hospital alone, and was directed to a transfer room separating the human hospital work area from the nonhuman. Dylan was waiting, leaning against the railing, head hanging. He was out of his armor and cleaned of the blood. He didn't seem to notice her arriving. Or more likely, he was lost in his own head.

"Dylan?" she softly said, stopping in front of him, level with her abdomen.

He looked up at her, and pushed off the railing. "Hey."

"Is Ossala going to be okay?"

He slowly nodded. "Yeah. They told me I saved her life. The other one too, uhm, Malsta. Clean through and through, no major bleeding. "

Kira carefully brought her hand over the railing and gently brushed his back. It was a tremendous relief after seeing all that blood. She had braced herself for the worst. "The big hero. How do you feel?"

He gestured for her to come down to his level. "I don't know. Kinda weird." Kira placed her hand against the wall behind him as she leaned down, her snout resting lightly on the railing. He rubbed her between her nostrils, making her snuffle. "I saved a giant's life. It's… I've patched a lot of people up before. Cut a lot open too." He paused, mulling over what he wanted to say.

Kira gave him a short, reassuring lick with the tip of her tongue on his chest. There was so much yet to learn about him. A militia medic forced into learning surgery. It was as impressive as it was tragic.

Dylan scratched the side of her snout, rubbing into the whiskers. "I think about people I've helped, or… tried to help, a lot. But I never felt so… Vindicated? Maybe? My tiny ass saved a giant while the other giants couldn't do anything to help. Maybe proud."

She tilted her muzzle into his hand. "Vindicated seems right. You showed there's a lot of worth in being just your little self. All the mechs showing off today, but it was someone just being small that made the day."

"Well, there was a badass suit of armor involved."

"A tiny suit of bad donkey armor."

He didn't jump at her twist of the word. "Fair point." He rested his head against her muzzle. "I think that's it. You're right. As always. I just wish I could feel 'vindicated' without people getting shot. And besides, it was just… shitty, awful luck. Of all the places for her to take a bullet, she takes it there, cut that artery. Nearly anywhere else, and I wouldn't have had to get out like that."

Her hand on the wall came down and cupped around his back. "A ralai would call that fate."

He scoffed as she lifted him away from the catwalk. "What a shit destiny Ossala got to almost bleed out so I can look useful."

She pushed her nose into his chest, smooshing him lightly into her hands. "Just shut your snout and accept you did incredibly. You didn't even feel a strand of fear from having to do this for a sissach, did you?" No time to be afraid when someone's dying it seemed.

He grunted against her overwhelming nosing, and pushed on it uselessly with both hands. "Just doing what I was trained to do." She gave him some reprieve, pulling her nose back a couple feet. He rubbed her just above her upper lip. "So… what's happening now that a couple people ended up shot?"

"Training was cancelled, and our platoon was interviewed by some military police."

"What'd they ask?"

"They asked about you, for one." She tilted her head as he rubbed her, her tongue tip giving his hands an appreciative lick. "They wondered if you shot the sissach, due to your history. We told them of course not, explained it was an accident. The helmet footage confirmed everything too. Then they asked if we thought Lamberts was responsible for it, or the other humans. The only human we suspected for it was Maduk. I think they're looking for him now." Kira lowered her charge down to her stomach, ready to head out. "Dolby and Mitchell had pressed to have Maduk removed, but were told there was nothing to do without an irrefutable cause for removal. They think this is it. Maduk is done for."

Dylan leaned back into her stomach, slumping slightly, relaxing. "Someone got shot because some asshole dicked with the training. I'm not surprised they're finally going to do something about it. Should have dealt with him before this, though. Nobody would have gotten hurt."

"I know. But what's past is past." Kira brushed him with her thumb and turned to leave. "The MPs are going to want to talk to you."

"Shit, shoulda worn my helmet to record, too. Didn't think about that."

"You'll do fine." She padded through the door and into the hall. "Everyone el-"

"Wait! Wait!" Kira paused midstep, ears twitching, and leaned backwards to look inside the room she just left. Another human was on the catwalk, waving at her with both arms.

"Speak of a scent, there he is," she muttered. It was Maduk. Kira turned back around, returning to the catwalk. With Dylan still against her stomach, he was nearly perfectly level with the other human. Dylan didn't appear to have anything to say to him. Indeed, he smelled like quietly boiling fury.

Maduk backed away from Kira, nearly pushing himself against the wall. "H-hello. I need help."

Kira's head tilted curiously. "Help?"

"Lieutenant Fletcher brought me here to, ah, 'show me what I've done.' And then he left me here. None of the other pilots will take me out of here."

Kira's eyes narrowed. "And where are you going?"

He tugged on his collar. "My office at the administrative complex."

"Asshole," Dylan growled and stood to his feet. "You got a call to turn yourself in or something? Huh? Gonna shred some evidence? You fucked up."

Maduk raised his hands. "No! No. I know I have ruined myself. There is no sense in hiding from it."

"And where do you get off asking us for a ride?" Dylan patted Kira's stomach several times, signalling he wanted off. She brought him against the railing, and he hopped over. "All the crap you pulled." He pushed Maduk backwards and into the wall, pinning him there with his forearm. "Trying to get me to look like a nutjob. Why?"

Maduk didn't appear as intimidated by his fellow man as he was from a nonhuman. He grabbed Dylan's arm and tried to shove him back, but the soldier retaliated by shoving his forearm up and against Maduk's neck. "You want some crazy? I can give you something crazy." Kira saw his fist cock back for a jab into the side of Maduk's stomach, but thankfully, he stopped himself. If he didn't, she wouldn't have let her charge go so far. "Talk, asshole! I wanna know."

The other human held up his hands, his face scrunching up with the pressure on his neck. Dylan backed off, letting Maduk go.

"Believe it or not," Maduk said, rubbing his throat. "I have meant everything I have said. Humans shouldn't depend on the aliens like this."

Dylan threw his hands up. "Christ, I'm sorry for letting a friend help me get better. You really got a problem with that?"

"Of course not. But what you have is not help, it is dependence."

Kira's ears wilted, and Dylan's fist clenched. Neither one of them could retort to that. The guardian and charge pairings were based around dependence.

Maduk appeared to see they weren't going to challenge that, and kept going. "Do not put the giants on a high pedestal. You open yourself to being taken advantage of. I did not want to hurt you, but it is better to save you from more hurt later."

Dylan stepped up again, looking like he was going to shove him into the wall once more. "What? What hurt? She saved me from alotta hurt. What's she going to do?"

Maduk held his hands up again. "I do not know."

"Fucking right you don't. You think they're all going to try to take advantage of us poor little humans? Yeah?"

"They have done it before."

Kira felt her lip curling up with a snarl, but she hid it before Maduk saw. She wasn't angry at him. He was implying something that already was setting her fur on end. "What happened?" she asked him. Maduk looked up at her as if he was surprised she was still there, listening to him. He always smelled afraid of nonhumans. Where did that fear come from?

After a few long moments of hesitation, he finally spoke. "Once the rynar captured a region, they left us to ourselves so long as we didn't interfere with them. I believe whatever rynar commander was in charge of occupying Nigeria and other places knew to have a careful hand if they wanted peace. The UAF soldiers, they were not so mindful."

Kira's tail was starting to droop. She knew where this was going. It seemed Dylan did too, as he silently listened.

"Perhaps they thought they were heroes and that gave them a 'pass.' Devouring cattle, harassing the villages, wreaking havoc, all until militias finally fought back. I do not believe I need to go much further than that." Maduk raised one hand. "The UTO made amends, I do not begrudge them. One of those amends was my job here. And I have ruined it."

"Okay," Dylan said. "So they made amends. What the hell have you been doing then?"

Maduk shook his head. "Guardians and charges are just an acceptance of the weakness that the giants can take advantage of. I resent it. There's a better way. We have the mechs."

"Basically trying to sabotage it then. Got it." Dylan crossed his arms, leaning back onto the railing. "Why have you been trying to screw me, then?"

"As I said, I do not think you should be dependent on your guardian."

"Okay." Dylan nodded. "So you're just a dick that can't understand having friends. What was with the sissach?

"They should not have kept the sissach away. Humans can handle them. We're not weak. Was I wrong?"

Dylan shrugged. "Guess I'll give you that one, but you were the one that pushed for using those guns, right? Why?"

"They were powerful weapons. It helps us to show what we're capable of. They could earn us more respect. I thought it would be good for all of your… comrades, to see this. Both the lesser alien modified one, and the all human power weapon."

Kira's charge unfolded his arms and stepped up to Maduk once more. This time the other human didn't back away. "Right, so you really were just waving your dick around. I guess you kinda got what you wanted. Sure as hell helped me show what we're capable of. Wasn't worth it." Dylan moved closer, almost nose to nose with the other man. "When she wakes up, you're gonna be apologizing to Ossala for almost killing her, right? Try to earn her forgiveness in any way, yeah? I'll find out if you don't."

That was a threat if Kira ever heard one. And one she knew her charge could never follow up on, and she could tell Maduk didn't believe it. Despite this, the other human nodded. "I plan to, yes. I will not be apologizing to you, however. I will not apologize for what was right."

"Yeah." Dylan backed off. "I don't want it. For what it's worth, I kinda get it. But you gotta let that go. Where I was from, rynar were the evil and UAF the heroes. There's a lot of good giants. Like with all people." Dylan waved for Kira to pick him up. "Good luck with wherever you end up next. But you're not getting a lift out of here. Get fucked."

Kira bowed her head and collected her charge, lifting him up with her fingers closing around him. "I am so sorry for what happened in your homeland. I understand why you are the way you are, and I can sympathize. I hope one day my kind can change your views of us." Her head came back up, and she settled Dylan to her stomach, opening her palm for him to sit. "But yes. For now…" She smirked, and switched to English. "Get fucked."

Kira gave the hapless human a wave, leaving him to his own devices. He didn't say anything after her as she strode out into the hall, then out the doors into the waning light of the day.

Both she and her charge were quiet, still mulling over what they'd heard from the man that had given them so much trouble. It was no good to linger on it, though. It was time for a distraction.

"I have a question," Kira said.

"Yeah?"

Kira smiled to herself. "When you hate someone, why do you tell them to go have sex?"

Dylan groaned, and the wolfess' smile grew to a toothy grin as his tiny elbow harmlessly struck her stomach.

Finally, her friend was safe.

--

Epilogue

Ryan S. Maddock

Missing, Presumed Dead

Dylan stared at the entry, as he'd done nearly each day for the past three months. He had long since uploaded a photo of his brother and details on where he'd last seen him to the database. It was a painful reminder that there was no one else left to do it. No family, no friends that might know what had happened to him. Just Dylan. And it was fruitless. He'd been missing, presumed dead, for a long time now. Just like countless more, all across the world. Soldiers and civilians, the missing spanned into the millions. A half year after the war had ended, the missing registry was a hope that had long since faded for countless loved ones. He came to terms with that months ago.

Hope had to be found anew. Dylan dismissed his yutri's projection and leaned back against his guardian, one hand pulling on her thumb to settle it onto his lap. Her free hand, cupped against her carrying hand, moved up and her other thumb slid atop the first. Fingers from both hands curled and gently stroked his side with her pads, her claws lightly brushing his uniform. He was wrapped up in a lot of digits, her thumbs alone too heavy for him to move, but he couldn't fault Kira for the extra protectiveness today. Arriving on a hub world like Ansir as a human drew a lot of attention from curious civilians. Kira ended up holding him with both hands, against her chest, for added security. He loved it. But he still had to give her crap for it now that they were on their own in a skycar.

"You know we're alone now, right?" Dylan said, brushing the fur of one of her thumbs. "You're like a frightened puppy. I'm the one about to walk into a den of wolves, you know."

There was a snuffle just above him, and Kira's broad nose rubbed at the top of his head. "More like carried in and thrown to them." The big black pad smothered the side of his head with a nosing kiss before sliding up to lap him lightly with her tongue tip. Then she nuzzled him to dry the dampness off. "I'm just starting to really like holding you like this."

"It is pretty nice." In easy nosing distance, with her comfortable hartbeat so close, it was a great spot. The added element of her bosom around him was exciting too, but he wouldn't tell her that. It was nice being able to break from standard regs for guardians and charges.

Her snout lifted away from him to look out at the window of Loranir, her home city, passing by. He reached up to rub the underside of her chin, another bonus of the chest carry. She hummed happily from his scratching. "We're almost there. Are you ready for this?"

"Bet your tail I am." He wasn't truly so confident - he was anxious as hell to meet so many giants he'd be spending a lot of close time with. He knew Kira knew that, she could pick out his anxiety from across a room, but he wasn't afraid. That was the important difference.

"They're going to be so excited to meet you." His guardian moved him a little higher, tucking him to her neck fur, and giving him a higher vantage to see out to the city. "Did you hear anything about when you might be leased a mech?"

"No. But I did get assurance that Loranir EMS will let me bring their mech home for the sake of going to and from work." He watched the city with her. It wasn't as large as the ones he'd seen on the extranet. Loranir's tallest towers were well behind them, as they already headed into the suburbs.

The skycar began to descend to ground level, starting to move through the streets via conventional hover travel. Kira wrfed, pleased. "Good. They seem so eager to have you."

Dylan shrugged. "Guess I'm that good, huh." Once the story of the human medic that saved a sissach in such a dramatic way broke in the news, it all but guaranteed him a future with civilian emergency medical services between his deployments. Especially now that he'd received the full span of military medical training. He still had no actual combat experience in the UAF. His deployment in system peacekeeping was remarkably uneventful, but he was more than content with peacetime.

"Hopefully they'll let you use it for more than just work. If not, we'll figure it out."

"Yeah. I should have asked them about that." Being separated from his Goliath was going to take some adapting. But that was the nature of the beast. Goliaths weren't to be taken into civilian life, and actual civilian mechs were in short supply. They were mostly used for either noncombat roles in the military, or for incentives for human civilians to leave Earth to find work in greater UTO space as an integration measure. A human soldier with his guardian had very little priority for being issued one.

The car turned down a few streets, traveling through a neighborhood with large homes spread comfortably far apart. This was it. He'd spoken to them all already over extranet calls. The Rottjir family was eager to see him. Lupari were highly socially excitable like that. At least he had his guardian to help him through that sort of onslaught.

They came to a stop in front of a large, three story home made of stone and dark wood and a low angled, faded green rooftop. Garden beds were up against it, with trees in the grass outside with their own gardens beneath them. It was nicely tended, if more rustic looking than he ever expected from aliens before he left Earth. He saw some figures in a sunroom moving, pointing to the car stopping in front of the residence.

Kira lowered Dylan down to her abdomen with one hand and stepped out of the car. She grabbed her duffel bag resting in the other seat and slung it over her shoulder. She brought her hand back down to her charge, cupping him with both as she returned him to her chest. He could feel her heart pounding against him - this was a big moment for her too. It was comforting to know she shared in his anxiety.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"Ready." Dylan stood to his feet, and Kira's supporting hand shifted to cover much of his front, protecting him from falling forward and letting him hold onto one of her fingers. He was about to meet the parents - he had to stand and look dignified.

Kira walked down the pathway, between two huge, blue flower blossomed trees and up the steps to the front door. Dylan saw the handle turn, and it swung open. His chest puffed out. Look big! Look confident! Kira could smell false confidence a room away, but these lupari didn't know what human false confidence smelled like yet. Surely, a perfect ruse.

The door was opened by a dark furred lupari, a young male, covered in deep purple dyes. Kira's little brother, Lorain. Only a few years younger, but still in secondary school and not at all a pup. He didn't look anything like Kira, but they were true siblings. His golden eyes lit up and focused on Dylan, then darted up to his big sister's face. "Kira, Dylan! Welcome home!" He moved as if he was about to hug his sibling, but stopped himself. Dylan knew Kira had warned all of her family to refrain from the usual physically intensive greetings when she had her charge.

"Hey, little brother," Kira said.

"Hi, Lorain," Dylan said, earning the dark wolf's attention again as he backed away from the door. Right into the rest of the family. He waved enthusiastically at him, then the rest of them did, along with an outpouring of greetings.

Dylan's bravado deflated as he looked at them all. It was replaced with the warmth of a kind welcome that left one feeling shy of all the attention, but happy to have it. They all stood in a tight group in the foyer, peeking over shoulders, between bodies, keeping a respectable distance as Kira had asked. All of their tails were going, like outlets for the pent up lupari need for a physical hello over just a greeting and a wave. They'd all get their chance.

Once the welcome died down, Kira's mother, Iriasa stepped ahead of the rest of them. She was darkly colored like Lorain, but she didn't have any dyes. "Kira," she said, approaching and leaning in to nuzzle with her daughter. "Congratulations on the promotion, Lieutenant. I'm so proud, laisir." Whatever that word was, it didn't translate. She shifted her attention down to Dylan, golden eyes just like her son. For a moment, Dylan felt like he had to snap to attention - she commanded an entire battlecruiser, after all, along with being the matriarch of the family. But her soft smile defused any edge her eyes may have held. "Welcome to our home, Dylan."

Dylan bowed his head slightly. "Thank you, ma'am."

Iriasa leaned down, her nose coming close to Dylan, with her nostrils flaring as she sniffed him. He gathered up his confidence, and reached out to touch between her nostrils as he had done with Kira so many times. She responded with pushing toward him, nosing his chest just as Kira would. "You are more than welcome, little one," she muttered, just soft enough for him and Kira alone to hear.

Once the matriarch finished her greeting, along came the rest of the family, coming at Dylan in the most excited orderly line he'd ever seen. Lorain, took a deep sniff, and licked the human when his nose was touched. Kira's father, the white wolf Kirrisen came next with a nuzzling. Then Kira's gray furred little sister, Sianea with a much deeper nuzzling that knocked Dylan down. Aunt Paeana with a lick. Uncle Danir with another lick. Cousin Sisherna couldn't hold back her several licks. Cousin Karstad gave a soft nuzzling. Sisherna's mate, Mirsten with another light nuzzling. Then finally came Kira's grandparents from her father's side, both approaching together. Grandmother Arisia was gray furred, with much of her muzzle white with age. The grandfather, Lonimi was white, doing well to hide his age. Dylan had to give them both a rub on the nose at the same time, before they lightly pinned him between their snouts for a gentle nuzzling.

"There's something nice waiting for you in your room," Lonimi whispered, as if his mate wouldn't hear.

"Shshsh, Loni!" Arisia hissed at him, and nipped at his snout. She smiled at Dylan, her head tilting just as Kira's always did. "Awhf, you're so cute."

Dylan didn't know if that was a distraction from the 'something nice,' but it worked rather well. He rubbed the back of his head, blushing. "Uh, you too." The elderly lupari cooed, and pulled away from her Dylan and her granddaughter, finally giving the human some space to breathe after all those muzzles. He leaned back into Kira's chest, sliding down it to a sit. "Thank you for the kind greetings, everyone."

"Of course," Kirrisen said as he took his place next to his mate. "So happy to finally have you here. I made sure all the appropriate modifications to Kira's room have been finished for you. Dinner won't be ready for three hours though, and it smells like Kira badly wants to take you up. So why don't you two settle in for now?"

The rest of the family groaned with complaint, but Dylan was eager to take that up. He needed to better prepare himself for an even stronger lupari onslaught. And what better way than to prepare himself than with a Kira onslaught? He looked up at his guardian, and she met him with a wink. He knew that look. "Alright, thank you, sir."

"Excellent! I can't wait to show you the human dishes I've been practicing. Working small is exciting."

Kira gave her parents both an appreciative nuzzle as she passed them, and headed up the stairs, then up the next flight to the top floor. She headed down a hall, and into the last door on the left, walking into the most Kira personalized space he'd ever seen.

"Welcome to my room," she said, and kicked the door shut behind her. She dropped her bag, then clasped Dylan in both hands, letting her safely hold him up and out in front of her for him to look around. Her bed was nestled in one corner next to a window, inside of its own alcove. A shelf was across from it, holding various figurines that looked to Dylan like action figures or models posed in various fighting stances. Next to the shelf was a desk with a chair. Built into one of the walls was a large aquarium. A small school of fish inside had bunched up together and were looking out at Kira, as if they recognized her. Finally, at the foot of the bed, built into the wall of its alcove, was Dylan's space, complete with a catwalk, a mech dock, and what was obviously a mech under a sheet, in that dock.

"Holy… Is that really a mech under there?"

"Huh." Kira closed one hand around Dylan and walked over to pull the sheet off the figure, to reveal one of the CM-1s, the tordenchi sized civilian mechs.

"Oh, dammit…" Dylan muttered, and slumped in Kira's hand, chin on her finger as he stared at it. "Did you know?"

"Stars, not at all. They didn't tell me a thing. I wonder if it's one of the neural models."

"God, I hope not. A normal one will be tough enough to pay them back for. They're too kind."

Kira huffed indignantly and turned him around to face her, her eyes narrowed. "Gifts like this are important when adopting someone into a family."

"Adopt?"

"That's how it goes for the lone ones. What did you think was happening? That you'd be paying rent?"

"Well, I mean… dammit…" Dylan didn't realize the full scope of it, but lupari 'adopting' members of a destroyed family sounded so incredibly like something they would do. "Like a lone wolf being inducted into the pack, huh?"

"Sure, if you're a very tiny wolf without any fur." Kira went to her bed and placed Dylan down onto it, then started folding up the sheet that was covering the mech. "Or a tail. Or a muzzle."

"Or radar dish ears. Or mind reading nose. Or the temperament of a permanent puppy."

Kira placed the sheet onto her desk, then loomed over Dylan, hands on her hips as she gazed down on him. "Temperament of a puppy, hm? I'll show you puppy behavior." The lupari started to undo the buttons and straps on her uniform.

"Yeah? Try me."

She grinned and draped the top of her uniform onto the back of her desk chair, leaving her with her sleeveless top. "I don't know if you can handle it." She started tugging on her pants, prompting Dylan to choke on any retort he was thinking about delivering. He'd seen her undress before bed plenty of times, but that was a barracks. This was private.

He averted his eyes, letting her do her thing. She was just making herself comfortable in her own room, escaping the uniform. It started to dawn on him everything that would come with living in a room with Kira. She was genuinely fine with that? He glanced at her when she finished with her pants, draping them over the chair as well. She was wearing blue panties, not at all military issue, that left her thighs fully exposed. His guardian definitely had the thighs that befitted someone of her skills in a leg focused martial art.

She smiled at him, but it was a soft, reassuring look, her teeth hidden. "Dylan, that's not what I meant."

"What?"

Kira reached down to grab him up, then slid onto the bed, laying down onto her stomach, and placing him onto the pillow. "We're going to have to talk about this attraction one day."

"... what?"

She slid her muzzle onto his lap, over his legs with her nose bapping his chest. "You know what I mean. But we'll talk about that some other time."

"Okay." There was absolutely no point in denying it. There really was no hiding something like that from a lupari. "Then what did you mean?" He placed his hands on the side of her muzzle, and started brushing through her whiskers.

"I meant it with something I'm not sure you can handle." She sighed, and licked his abdomen. He should have slipped out of his uniform too. "Before I met you, I imagined playing… games."

His eyes narrowed. "You're talking like those 'predator and prey' type games, aren't you?"

Her ear flicked the affirmative. "Something like that."

Dylan sighed and leaned down to kiss the top of her nose. He'd never done that before. Her eyes widened up, and Dylan saw the insides of her ears start to flush. "I don't know if I can handle that either. We'll talk about that some other time, too."

"I'm a puppy for now, then." Her muzzled lifted up, and she delicately licked his face, a resounding kiss back if he ever saw one, but lupari licks were rarely something to read into. If only he could read her like she could read him.

"My big, skyscraper sized puppy," he agreed, pulling her muzzle close, letting her lick him several times more. His face was glistening from her tongue. He definitely should have taken off his uniform by now. "Thank you so much, Kira. For everything."

His guardian's hands went around him, pulling him against her nose, then downward to her dense neck fur to hug him into it. It was perfectly soft as always, and safe. He could faintly hear the thump of her heart through it.

"Thank you for letting me into your heart. Welcome home, Dylan."