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"Can we trust it?"

"Sir?"

"The biodroid, lieutenant. Can we trust it?"

"Yes, Captain. Mackerel is one of our best hackers."

"That's not what I asked, lieutenant. And who the hell named the pride of our weapon's division Mackerel?

"Well... um... he did, sir. They're his favourite dish. He can't get enough of them."

"Fantastic. Our new, cutting edge, bio-engineered cybernetic weapon has a fixation with his goddamn dinner and we have to rely on him to turn the tide of this war?"

"Yes, sir"

"Lieutenant?"

"Sir?"

"I need to lay down, the bridge is yours."

The commander turned from the view screen that dominated the wall before him, his fingers running through his hair as he made his way off of the bridge of his ship. The crew continued their work, pointedly ignoring the scorn their superior had heaped on the plan that had only just begun to unfold. The lieutenant, a youthful squirrel with a pert smile that never seemed to leave his lips, turned to watch the screen. A small shuttle was crawling slowly from sight, vanishing amongst the bleak dimness that stretched across the star-studded viewscape. It would be several hours before it reached the target, until then they would have to wait and hope.

Mackerel sat behind the controls of his shuttle and fiddled with the panel that had been projected into the air before his eyes. Deft fingers scrolled through menus, highlighted co-ordinates and manipulated the controls of the ship with un-natural ease. He sat back only once the route had been locked into the computer, and even then he kept his eyes on the rolling status updates that crowded one another on the screen. The otter was short, perhaps 5'6", but he was stocky like many of his species. His brown pelt was marred only by a jagged streak of white fur that curled from beneath his right eye to run up his forehead before vanishing over the crown of his skull; they had called it an abnormality in his initial processing and had been close to aborting his development because of it. He had shown them though, he had surpassed their wildest expectations and had put to shame all those who had questioned his viability.

"Mackerel." A voice crackled to life on the otter's comms. Mackerel immediately recognized it as the Lieutenant, and for the briefest of seconds the 'droid considered ignoring it. Something inside him demanded he answer, however; no doubt they had seen to that during his creation.

"Sir?"

"We'll be moving out of communications range immediately following this message. You have twelve hours to infiltrate the target, retrieve their A.I and return to these co-ordinates. Failure to appear will amount to a mission failure and you will be terminated remotely. Failure to achieve your objective will also result in remote termination." There was a pause, "Don't make us do it, Mac. Finish the mission and get your ass back here."

"Sir." The blunt answer drew a moment of static-filled silence from the comms' speakers before the lieutenant's spoke once more.

"Good luck, Mac. We're jumping out. Remember, take her, don't break her." The static cut out as the lieutenant killed the connection. The ship would be jumping out shortly, though Mackerel was already well out of view of it; he was alone now.

Lifting a paw the otter stroked over a thin plastic casing that bubbled out slightly from his skull behind his ear. Beneath the plastic rested a circular disk ringed by small blue lights. Even as Mackerel touched it, the disk began to spin, blue lights melding together as it sped up briefly before revving down once more. The mission specifics flooded his mind as the disk spun, fed directly into his organic brain by the artificial supplement that had been installed. He had no intention of making a mess of his first outing, and though he had little regard for any of his superiors, save perhaps the lieutenant, the otter knew he had no choice but to obey.

The hours passed slowly. Intelligence had said it would be a four hour trip to the target, a four hour trip back; Mackerel had a window of only four hours to access the ship, locate the A.I and exfiltrate. He sat back and seemed to simply enjoy the view for now, however. His thoughts raced, calculating plans quickly and dismissing them just as readily. This would be a game of odds and he wanted to ensure he had the upper hand. The small shuttle was cramped, but that would be his greatest advantage; they would never take such a small ship as a serious threat even if they were to pick it up on their sensors. If they did, the otter had options. The 'droid remained expressionless, unblinking and resolute as he played out scenarios in his mind. By the time visual contact was established with the target, the otter knew what he had to do to win and had steeled himself to do it.

The thrusters hummed as Mackerel began to accelerate, throwing out a trail of energy that would be hard to miss on the monolithic ship's sensor sweeps. The craft was enormous, steel grey from bow to stern, as though shaped from a single great block of metal. The otter could see the dimples in the hull which housed the cannons and the large crevice that led to the docking bay; that would be his target. Locking in his course the otter rose even as the first muted demands for identification began to spring from his comms. The shuttle was a liability, if he relied on it for his return trip he would only be disappointed when it was taken by the enemy; no, it would serve its purpose right here and right now. The otter set to work quickly, he only had a minute or two before the demands for identification became something worse and he couldn't afford to be slow. Tearing away panels from the inner-hull, the biodroid began ripping the insulation from the interior of the walls. Large sheets of silver coloured material, like rolls of aluminum foil, would provide him with the protection he'd need for his plan. Like a child readying themselves for Halloween as a mummy, the otter began to wrap the material around himself, creating a less than airtight seal against his smooth fur and taut muscles; it would have to do.

"This is your final warning, identify yourself or be fired upon!"

_ _ That was his cue.

"Ship, turn one hundred eighty degrees. Continue present course in reverse. Now." His order was calm, collected. The ship obliged him. He could feel his centre of gravity shift as the ship turned suddenly, rear facing the capital ship and the otter standing near the rear door, shimmering in his silver mummy costume. The otter readied himself but didn't have to wait long.

"Incoming fire. Brace for--" The detached voice of the shuttle's computer system told the otter what he'd wanted to hear, though he cut it off in mid-warning.

"Blow exterior hatch."

"Confi--"

_ "_NOW."

The otter closed his eyes tightly as the bolts which held the shuttle's exit closed blew out into space, the door itself following in a tumbling dance that the otter quickly mimicked. The air was ripped from the cabin of the shuttle and the otter found himself propelled violently out into the silent death that space offered; only the insulation protected him from the deadly chill of the void. Mackerel had barely left the shuttle before it was destroyed, crumbling under the massive cannons of the cruiser. When it exploded, it provided the otter with the push he needed to send him hurtling towards the cruiser, the concussive blast acting as a slingshot that had the biodroid rocketing like a meteor straight at the docking bay. Hours passed, or was it seconds? The otter was focused on exhaling slowly to keep the pressure from tearing him apart and time became a commodity he couldn't be bothered to account for. It was only when he felt the rush of oxygen against his face that he knew he'd breached the threshold of the docking bay. The otter crashed to the ground, gasping and wheezing for breath while shivering violently despite the precautions he'd taken. His organics were screaming with displeasure at their exposure to the frigid climate of space, but his synthetics compensated immediately. Behind him he could hear the sound of metal impacting against metal as the remnants of his shuttle collided with the outer hull of the ship, a few pieces of scrap scraping across the flight deck around him; with any luck they'd assume he'd died in the blast, there was no way they'd have picked him out amongst all the debris though they'd no doubt come down soon to ensure no damage had resulted to their ship.

Still shivering, the otter rose to his feet slowly, pulling the insulation from his body and hissing slightly at the minor frostbite he could feel already beginning to grip his fingers. Flexing the muscles as if making sure they still functioned, the biodroid began to move; he'd made it, he was on the ship.

The fluorescent lit hallway that led from the docking bay offered little in the way of cover for the otter, but staying simply wasn't an option. Mackerel moved quickly, a paw trailing along the smooth-panelled wall as if searching for something as he moved. No expression graced his features, dour resting face turned towards the end of the hallway, alert for the first hint of the ship's crew arriving. He stopped only when he felt the slight rise of a panel. The lines of it were blended masterfully with the long white surface of the wall, but the otter knew it was there. Pushing it open it took only a second for the hacker to tap into the mess of now exposed wires and even as the sound of approaching footsteps perked his ears, the lights cut out. Inky blackness swallowed Mackerel along with the rest of the corridor, even the emergency lights cut by the skilled 'droid.

"The hell..." Mackerel heard the voice mutter from somewhere ahead of him in the darkness. The blue lights that had marked the otter's external drive were dim now as the 'droid's eyes narrowed. While he couldn't see any better than the crew member, the otter had the benefit of an internal processor that quickly localized the surprised male's location. Slipping forward, it was a simple matter for Mackerel to subdue his foe by planting his foot square into the other male's gut before bringing his elbow down on the poor boy's skull. The grunt from the first blow melted into a low sigh as the second sent the crew member down to the floor in a heap; Mackerel himself fell still as well, holding his breath as he waited for the tell-tale sign of any partner the downed soldier may have had. Once he was certain his victim had come alone, it took him only seconds to have the lights back on again.

The boy at his feet looked to be slightly older than the otter, the hyena in his mid-twenties at most. The unconscious male's uniform consisted of a simple pair of white shorts, tight and high on the soldier's thighs with a blue stripe running up either leg. A matching white top, v-cut with a patch displaying his military insignia covered a thin chest and belly; it wouldn't do any good as a disguise for Mackerel and though there was no-one there to see it, the otter couldn't hide his displeasure at the ill-luck. There was no time to hide the body, though stealth was a temporary measure; once he'd found the A.I's core, they would realize he was there anyway.

Mackerel hurried, ducking down hallways and avoiding as much attention as he could. There were times the otter found himself cornered by unwary guards, unaware that they were so close to exposing an intruder and instead focused on getting through their shifts. It was at these times that the otter had to expose himself. A rabbit boy, paired with a shorter lapine female, had stopped to chat in front of the shadowy alcove Mackerel had hoped to hide in while the pair passed. The otter had moved quickly, booting the male's back from behind and sending him stumbling into his partner before the 'droid descended on the surprised pair and dispatched both with a series of solid strikes to the back of the neck and throat. The girl had begun to let out a shriek when the otter had knocked the wind from her and sent her to her knees. She had raised her arms as if to plead, but the hacker was merciless and she soon collapsed to lay sprawled across her male counterpart.

A fox was left laying unconscious in a doorway, a doe left hanging over the railing of a catwalk, a lion slumped against a wall; the otter left his mark wherever he went. He was close now though, and none of the decorations he'd left in his wake had been discovered yet. As Mackerel stepped into the room he had been working his way towards he was momentarily awed by the size of it. Dozens of large tanks lined all four of the walls, cables as thick as his waist snaking along the floor towards the centre of the room. There was little lighting in the room, more of a storage bay and unintended for long periods of activity. This was where his target had been pinpointed however, and as Mackerel looked around it was hard to miss it.

In the centre of the room lay the meeting point of all those cables, a vat nearly twice as large as the others acting as a focal point for whatever those cables were transmitting. The vat was filled with a clear fluid that bubbled and roiled occasionally as vents opened and closed to ensure temperature stability within the container. In the middle of the container, however, floated something else, something that stunned even the stoic otter; a woman. Her long red hair fanned out around the cheetah's head like a halo as she hung limply in the mysterious fluid, naked save for a mask that fed oxygen to her. The otter could only stare as the door closed behind him.

Once his surprise had ebbed the otter began to move purposefully once more. Time was ticking and by his count he had only an hour and a half to acquire the A.I's core program and find a means off of the ship. As he moved across the treacherous surface of the cable-strewn floor, the otter began to strip. Mackerel left his clothes in heaps as he moved, jacket, undershirt and knee-length black lycra shorts pulled away easily to leave Mackerel nude and unfazed despite the vulnerable position he was now in. The blue disk lodged in his skull spun briefly as a look of curiosity spread across his features. So this was how they did it, rather then integrate artificial components into a biological core, they had done the opposite; she was a biological being integrated into an artificial network and at its very centre was her brain. As Mackerel stared in blossoming awe at the implications of such a relationship, he remembered himself and began to move once more.

The cables made it easy for the stocky male to make his way up to the lip of the vat, the fluid inside sloshing against the edges as he stared down into its pale blue depths. The liquid gave off no odour and while he refrained from tasting it, the otter imagined it would offer little in the way of flavour as well. He knew immediately, however, that it was not water. He had choice but to enter it though and after several seconds of consideration he did just that. The fluid washed over him like liquid air, invisible to all but his sense of touch. Strange thoughts drifted in the cloying depths of the vat, like ghosts whispering in Mackerel's ear. He could feel an electrical charge running through the fluid but it was the voices that held his attention. All of the processes that went into controlling a vessel of this size crowded into the male's brain, filling it with half-felt feelings, the whisperings of distant orders; the fluid was more than a simple preservative for the cheetah's body, it was the transducer that allowed the female to maintain her control of the ship. A hundred protocols rushed through the water, caught in the biomechanical implants of both otter and cheetah, then converted back into an electrical signal that the ship's electronics could understand. Mackerel's earlier awe returned, tainted now by a sense of distraught envy; no wonder they were winning the war.

The otter's job had not changed, however, only the implications of his success had been altered by the realization of how this simple cheetah's programming could change the war. As he swam to meet the floating body of his target, the otter got a good look at her for the first time. Her red hair still waved in the lapping fluid, spreading out like tentacles from the body of some great beast; here, however, the beast was not something to fear but rather admire. Her body was slight, chest and hips bare leaving nothing to the otter's imagination. Even as he looked her over he could feel his cock hardening; they had left him with the ability to do that, at least. His paws slid over her body, the wet fur soft to the touch as both male and female hung suspended together. How easy would it be to simply unhook her? To wake her up and take her away, to release her from this life as a means to an end? They would hunt him, both sides would; they could even try to remotely terminate him, though he had already figured out what fail-safes they had programmed into his brain to allow that and disabled them. They would be free.

It was during these fleeting thoughts that Mackerel slid his cock up into the cheetah's waiting body. The warmth of it was immediate, pressing down against the sensitive flesh of his shaft as he begin to rut slowly, looking for the interlink that would allow him access to her code. The cheetah's body squirmed against him, her lips parting beneath the bubble of her airmask in a pleasure hitherto unknown in her vegetative life. As Mackerel's eyes closed, he could feel the connection form and immediately lost himself in a numbing blackness.

"What do you want?" The simple words woke Mackerel. He lay on the ground, pixelated grass tickling at his body as an off-blue sky hovered endlessly above him. Nothing looked quite right, as though it had been painted by a child who had never seen a field first hand. Flowers, blocky and unresponsive to the breeze Mackerel could feel, littered the bright green landscape in colours the otter had never witnessed before.

"I've come to take you back" he answered at last.

"Back where?"

"Home. Safety. Away. Take your pick, it doesn't matter to me." The otter sat up, pushing himself to his feet after a moment of dizziness that nearly sent him toppling once more.

A dozen feet away stood the cheetah. She was still nude, though her body was crisscrossed by intersecting lines and swirls of fluorescent blue. The blue shades that ebbed and flowed within those lines were mesmerizing to a degree and the otter at last tore his eyes away only to find the same lines covering his own body.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"Home. Safety. Away. Take your pick, it doesn't matter to me" she responded, her teasing tone hidden beneath the otter's own words. "You're trespassing you know, they'll come for you soon."

"I know." The otter wasted no time. Even as he answered he charged across the field towards the smugly serene cheetah. As he approached, however, the ground began to crack. Long tendrils smashed through the green façade of grass, each of the long snake-like vines red and pulsing like the blue lines that covered both otter and cheetah.

"This is my place, trespasser. You'll have to do better than that if you want to take me away." The vines struck at Mackerel, whipping across his skin even as he rolled to avoid the brunt of their assault. Each touch was like a hot brand being pressed against his skin, long flares of blistering pain wracking his body; the otter screamed. Even as he stumbled backwards the cheetah floated towards him, hovering above the ground as she canted her head. "I didn't have you pegged as a screamer."

Mackerel gasped for breath. Wherever the thin rope-like weapons had touched now pulsed red instead of blue and the otter quickly realized what had happened. He was in her core, which meant he was as susceptible to absorption as she was. He should have realized this might happen.

"Let me take you into myself, let me feed on your core and together we'll be satisfied" she continued before letting an uncharacteristic giggle escape her, "It'll be fun, I promise!" She was insane; the otter saw no other way to describe the creature that stood before him. Feminine in appearance, remorseless in spirit, yet childlike in a way, Mackerel found himself reeling at the possibilities of what might happen to him here. His only chance was to fight, and that was something he did well.

Mackerel charged once again, though this time he was ready for the red appendages as they flicked and snapped at his vulnerable body. He ducked and weaved, rolling and springing to avoid their vicious strikes. With each successful dodge, he was closer to her, and she saw it, he could see it in her eyes. As soon as he was close enough, he lunged at the suddenly frantic girl. His fists connected square with her belly and sent her sprawling to the grass with a pathetic sounding mewl of surprise. Where he had struck her, the blue gave way to red, much like his own body. It spread through the spider-webs of fluorescent colour until a patch roughly the size of a dinner plate had been infected with his data.

She rose to her feet in a flash as the tendrils behind the otter dove back into the ground, the concentration needed to maintain them in this virtual world lost with Mackerel's blow. The smug look on her face was gone, consternation clear before anger replaced it. She struck quickly, fists and feet flying as she sought to put the otter down. She was faster than he was, the male forced to fall back several steps as he tried to block the hits but even by blocking, she was taking over. His arms were red by the time her attack subsided. Still, they were his, and as she fell back to gather her balance for another series of strikes, he threw himself at her with his fist coming down square on the top of her skull. She shrieked as she crumpled beneath the hefty otter's attack, the red veins spreading to cover her head and face, making the look of fury on it all the more hideous.

"You're cute when you're mad, you know." Mackerel huffed out as he fell back to ready himself for another exchange. The cheetah gathered herself as well, the fury on her features melting away until only exasperation remained.

"Oh hush."

When she came at him this time the otter found her attacks weaker, but more focused, as though she were probing his defences. Her fists pounded against his arms, one or two sneaking by to wallop his muzzle and neck with heat-inducing pain. It wasn't until one of her legs kicked out to smash into his knee that the otter dropped, though. He fell to his knees with a surprised gasp, looking up immediately to see her bearing down on him. Falling to his back, the otter blocked the downward punch that looked to crack his skull, only to find pain lancing through his chest. The girl's hair, still blood red, seemed different up close somehow, and now he knew. The shading of it came from the small strands of data interwoven with the manifestation of the girl's hair and that data now pierced Mackerel's chest like a spear. Thin strands ran between the two, shimmering spiderwebs of code that were transferring more of her control into his body; the otter screamed again. He lay on his back, helpless as more of his blue shielding turned red with each passing breath.

"Such a good boy" she teased again.

The otter's breath heaved and caught in his chest, he'd failed! He could feel his external drive revving and spinning behind his ear, as though it were being accessed somehow; was it her? No. The otter's hands were glowing now, much like the girl's hair, but why was he so hard? Mackerel's cock was aching with the need to release, as though all the data being pumped into his CPU was looking for an outlet to release the pressure. It came in the form of thin gossamer threads poking from his fingertips. His own data was being forced from his body, but perhaps...

The otter steeled himself and focused, drawing those thin strands into a fine mesh of pointed strings. When he brought them up and slashed across the threads that connected him to the cheetah, hers snapped immediately; this time, it was her turn to scream. The otter's other hand, likewise bolstered by the monofilamental datastrings, came up and slashed across the cheetah at her armpit. The damage was immediate, red exploding through her upper body as the arm itself shattered away from the cheetah, the dismembered limb immediately breaking down into a base pixel state and scattering throughout the grass.

She shrieked and fell back as the otter rose, his body nearly broken by her prolonged assault on his very being, but still held together by a number of exposed data strands now. When he attacked this time she had little defence to stop him, his relentless assault smearing the girl with red infections. She retaliated weakly, and even managed to procure a hit or two against the now enraged otter, though it was too little too late to stop the male.

It wasn't until they were both gasping on their knees that the final exchange ended. Mackerel was a sea of red, as was the cheetah, both at the edge of their endurance but neither willing to give up. Only their genitals remained their own, the otter's cock throbbed in its sheath of glowing blue veins, and the girl's pussy the same. As Mackerel rose shakily to his feet he stumbled towards the still kneeling cheetah and simply fell into her. She grunted as his weight bore her to the ground.

"Not so... tough... now, are you?" The otter's words came between heaving breaths.

"Fuck... you..." she panted back, grinning despite herself.

When Mackerel's cock entered her she could only grip his shoulders, biting into his neck like a predator would its prey, only this time she was on the bottom! Mackerel could feel his flesh tearing slightly from the bite, but he rutted into the warmth of her pussy anyway. His paws curled around her arms, pinning her to the ground as his sleek body lay sprawled atop hers, his dick wedging itself against the interior of her folds and she gasped out in undesired pleasure. Her own hips lifted, letting him position his shaft as he began to thrust dominantly into the sprawled female. Minutes passed like this, the sex less the point than the conclusion it would lead to. Fingers curling, the otter came at last. It was like nothing he had felt before, the sticky warmth of his cum interlaced with something new, as if there was more coming out of him than simple seed. The girl came seconds later, her body bucking and writhing as a stifled growl ripped from her throat. Locked in the lust of this lover's embrace, the two rode out their respective climaxes in relative silence, neither releasing the other even once the pleasure had ebbed.

*********************

"Do you have it?" the commander asked.

"Yes sir." Mackerel stood once more on the flight deck of his own side's ship. The fanfare when he returned had been non-existent, few aware that he had even left let alone returned. The otter handed the small disk to the eager commander, sparing only a glance for the relieved lieutenant who stood beside him.

"Good job, soldier. You've done well in returning this to us."

"What're you going to do with it?" Mackerel asked, thinking briefly, 'with her'. A pause followed, the look on the commander's face betraying his own mistrust of the biodroid.

"Reverse engineering. Her algorithms will provide us with years worth of research in improving our own techniques."

"Sir."

"Dismissed, tech-sergeant."

Mackerel turned to leave as he'd been requested, no words following him from the room as he left.

"You didn't tell them." A voice in his head mused. The otter didn't answer at first, however. "So you're just going to leave me locked in here like some prisoner?"

"You're no prisoner."

"Oh really? And where am I supposed to go. You got a cinema in here maybe? Maybe I'll go catch a movie!"

_ _ "Don't be such a child. If you want out, you'll find a way out." A crew member that passed the otter stopped and watched him go, confusion showing on the young caracal ensign's face as the otter seemingly argued with himself.

"Maybe I'll just take over your systems from here! Then you wouldn't be so smug!"

_ _ "Sounds like a challenge"

"Not for me. You might have all the processing power in this body, but I'll find a way."

_ _ The otter could only smile to himself. "Game on."