Kaleidoscope IX

Person of Interest

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The Starbreeze

Prototype Science Cruiser

En Route to the Darian System.

08:09, 36/2/1

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“Maybe we should force the intercoms to work even in the staterooms.” Vydr tapped the buzzer for the third room and groaned after a short silence. “Nadi? Qes? You guys sleeping in?”

“They’re quite awake, if their vitals tell the whole story.” Prisma held a paw against her Captain’s chest. “Excuse me if I’m wrong, but I’ve noticed you prefer to leave couples to themselves--to avoid interrupting them actually. You may want to save them for last.”

“Oh, is that what they’re up to? Right.” The door slowly opened and Layla groaned to the guests with lidded eyes. “Oh, Layla. Are you three ready for our briefing?”

“Do they look like it?” The human moved aside and gestured to a huddle of exhausted bodies beneath rustled sheets. “I need to wash my goddesses. Could you give us a minute to get ready?”

“Well we had issues finding Quill this morning anyway so we’re running a bit slower than expected. We’re starting an hour late in the Ready Room by the Bridge.” Void noticed Qesis climb atop her wife for another round and placed a paw on Layla’s shoulder. “Hang in there, love.”

“Thanks. See ya’ soon, Vee.”

“Ditto. Next on the list…” Void touched Pris on her own shoulder and blinked them both to the Bridge of the Hermes. “I haven’t heard from Kino lately. Is she still here?”

“Apparently. Her tracer signal is hard to track through the hull, but it went out of range entirely for the last two hours.” Prisma scanned the area with a visible laser grid and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m getting nothing. Does she have a favorite hiding spot?”

“Only her charging bed. She refused to take a room and puts it out of the way to save space.” Void walked around slowly as he tried to remember the last obscure location, then snapped his fingers and headed for the aptly-nicknamed ‘junk room’. “Kino? Time to get up. You’ll need to be at this briefing since we’re taking the Hermes down to the planet.”

“Why’s it dark in here? Do the main lights turn off without vital signs aboard?” Pris tapped a dead control panel to no obvious effect, then switched on a few lights on her frame. “Did we break the power system in our repairs? Only the emergency light strips seem to be working.”

“They’re on their own battery system, same as the backup life support. I think you might be correct though...” Void found Kino curled up in her charging bed and kneeled over her. “Time to wake up, Kino. We’ve got better things to do like fix the power grid.”

“Void, I’m not detecting an electric field near her…”

“Aye, something’s wrong. Kino? Hey--” Void went to shake the android but her body was as stiff as a bronze statue. “This isn’t good. She’s locked up. Bugger all…”

“Perhaps she… ran out of power when the Hermes did? I would recommend starting the engine.” Prisma moved toward the Bridge but Void was a blink ahead of her. “Be careful about tripped breakers, Sir. We don’t know what happened.”

“Don’t care. Kino comes first.” The controls were dead near the pilot’s seat, but a few spools on a nearby rotary crank solved that issue. “The capacitors are still primed. Here goes. Firing up the fusion drive… now.”

The rear of the ship clacked rapidly for a moment, then the power started breathing life back into various systems. “That appeared to be the only issue. How did the power drain in only one day though?”

“Hermes is rated for a week of passive power. We’ll have to run a diagnostic later. Damn, Kino.” Another blink back to the construct found her rising up into a very polite posture sitting on her ankles. “Kino! Thank the gods. It’s okay now. Just charge for a bit and we’ll go over the briefing again for you later.”

The android sat with her eyes closed or a moment, then her ferret-like shell faded of all color and her lifeless eyes reopened to a blank stare directly ahead of her. “Please assign a designation.”

“No… Kino, don’t tell me…”

“Confirm designation ‘Kino’ to continue setup procedures.”

“Kino…”

“Confirmed. Please assign a default configuration, role, or profession.”

“She performed a factory reset?” Prisma crumpled between Void and Kino, shielding her fellow construct. “Stop. If you begin her default installation you’ll lose any hope of restoring her.”

“Can androids be recovered?” Vydr grabbed Prisma by her shoulders and gave her a desperate shake. “I can’t lose her, Pris; She’s my oldest friend. How do we fix her?”

“I don’t know. It’s… rare that data can be restored. Constructs are different than most machines.” Pris held up a paw and let her gelatinous filler bulge from her frame. “Their wetware is based on my nanites. The cells form unique links and neural networks when they activate long term functions, and those networks are unique to the wetware itself.”

“I don’t care how you work. I only care that we bring her back!”

“Vydr, listen to me. If you continue this re-installation of her systems you’ll wipe out more and more of those neural networks. Replacing data means destroying the original form.” Pris eased her Captain down from his tense state and helped him focus. “Wetware networks can’t be cloned or emulated; If we don’t reuse or transfer her existing wetware, Kino will be lost forever. We need an expert technician to make that even a remote possibility.”

“Elliot helped invent these, right? Find him. Who else…?” Void gave his vapid friend an arm rub as he considered his options, then perked up and began probing the Starbreeze Bridge with his teleportation bubbles. “Arty, where are you? Come on… Um… Ah, there!”

Artemis flashed into existence beside his brother, Vix wrapped around his waist. “Wh… What the hell? Is this the Hermes?”

“Junk room, brother. Sorry for the sudden blink.” Void took Kino’s paw, relieved that her current state left her limp enough for even such minor comforts. “Kino said you used to hack into her, yeah? How true was that? She’s in trouble and--”

“She’s lost her custom boot information. Looks like… power failure?” Arty looked around for something to help visualize the information, grabbing his brother’s Slate from his belt. “Yeah. She ran out of backup power an hour ago. Her logs say… she was restricted to the Hermes but the engines were off…” Arty raised his head from the display and checked the connection of Kino’s tail plug into her power socket. “She’s drawing more power than the heat core of the engine. According to the system log, she’s pulling more than… everything else combined, actually. How is that possible?”

“I don’t have a bloody clue. I mean… I gave her free reign to upgrade herself with her pay, but she couldn’t have racked up that much power usage… Correct?”

“Let me take a look. Tell me what’s happening now though. Why’s she white?”

Void slowly stroked up and down the ferret-droid’s arm fur. “She’s in the middle of a factory reset, apparently.”

“Please tell me you didn’t actually start it.” Arty paused his probing for a moment to check the status himself. “Oh, good. If you had started that she’d be wiped clean… all six hundred quintillion of her cells. Holy fucking shit.”

Vix held the Slate for her man and hugged him closer. “I take it that’s a lot?”

“That’s about a thousand times more density than a research model. It’s almost impossible.” Arty pulled up some new information and the situation started to make more sense. “Considering she’s a prototype of the fourth generation models, she might not have safety limitations though. How did you get your paws on a prototype, and such an old one at that?”

“I told dad to buy one with some money I was saving. That was the first big purchase I’d ever made and I was only five. I think he took that request to Dee...” Void rolled his eyes at the surprise in Vix and Arty’s eyes. “I’m fifteen. I just age faster than normal like our other brothers.”

“So Kino’s had a whole decade to cram upgrades into her shell. Interesting, I guess. What’s odd is that she chose to only upgrade her wetware banks…” Arty squinted at the display for a moment as he confirmed a certain tidbit of information. “She’s never replaced a single module. All of her changes are additions. She didn’t want to wipe out a single bit of information all these years. What’s more strange is that she’s only using half a percent of her storage for skills and routines. She’s crammed full of nothing but experiences.”

“I don’t understand. Is there a difference?”

“Well constructs can either load applications and code into a sector of cells, or they can store recorded data in those cells--basically like the way our brains store memories. If they want to have more application space available to learn new skills, they need to cannibalize memories.” Arty once again looked Kino in the eyes, unsure what drove the construct to her current state. “She can’t physically fit any more wetware inside her shell, so she deleted her application backups to make room for more memories. That’s why she couldn’t boot back into her operating system after losing power.”

“She wanted to keep her memories that badly? Kino, why?” Void clasped a paw around hers and brought it up to her chest. “Brother, tell me you can fix her. I’ll give anything to bring her back. She’s like a sister to me.”

“Now that I’ve found the problem, I can try to remedy it. You’re lucky I know how her neural map works.” Artemis grabbed the construct’s other paw and formed a more direct connection to her systems. “The factory reset module contains a copy of her operating system. If we’re lucky I can manually replace the files that were damaged and… we can try another reboot from there. However she’s prone to this happening again--worse even--if her power fails in the future. She’s not exactly rocking new parts, either.”

“We can worry about that down the road. Just save her, Arty.” Vydr grabbed his brother’s shoulder and shared a stare. “What can I do to help?”

“Brief the others. This will take time, and if we get caught by that jackal with our pants down we’ll lose more than a single construct.” Artemis sat beside the ferret bot and laced his webbed paw loosely with hers. “Fill us in later. I’ve got this, bro.”

“Thank you kindly, Arty. Thank you.”

Artemis shook his head slowly as Vixellyn cuddled against him. “De nada, hermanito.”

The Starbreeze

Subspace, Mid-Dive to Trans-Planet Darius Prime (Darius-3)

09:44, 36/2/1

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“Finally, the guest of honor.” Vydr hopped out of his large chair and crossed the Ready Room for a pat on Quill’s shoulder. “We let that fake Eve through to our universe. You’re our best chance of undoing that. Can anyone read that writing of yours besides Vix? She’s with Arty right now.”

Quill tossed her finger-like feathers side to side in uncertainty, then chirped while pointing to Glacier. “<Few can read well enough, but this fine girl is doing an admirable job learning my native language.>”

“Glace? What’s she--”

“She said I’m… not half bad at translation. The writing is in English technically so there’s less of a barrier if you can read it.” Glacier stood to join the two, the remainder of the room clearing a path for the blind girl. “Go on, Quill. I’ll do my best.”

“Okay. This might be faster, if a bit less accurate.” Void led the two into a set of chairs and found his own again. “I guess the first thing we need to know is how you got here, Quill. We found you in that Nexus place, which isn’t exactly a normal universe.”

“<Ah, yes. This might answer a few other questions as well. I’m not fond of the subject matter however.>” The bird-like mammal took a deep breath between chirps to let his translator relay the message. “<Perhaps a direct approach is best. I am the last of my kind, the Oel. My planet, our homeworld, and even our roaming fleet… We were all exterminated because we refused to follow a tyrant. We were slain by a spiteful goddess. My… My mate and child…>”

Void leaned forward in his seat and gripped the central table tensely. “Take your time, Quill. I’m sorry for your loss and the pain we’re bringing back, but… we really need to know, love.”

“<I’ve had time to come to terms with it. Fear not for my sanity, friend. My way of honoring their deaths now is to prevent this fate from happening to others.>” Quill pulled out a device hidden in her chest feathers beneath her cloak, the ceramic discus emitting a pattern of rainbow ink that turned into a still shot of his family. “<For their souls to rest, the goddess Gaia must suffer the same fate. As a huntsman I cannot let this quarry escape. I care not for fleeing, for I have no home to call refuge.>”

“And so you follow us toward a similar goal. I admire your perseverance.” Void waved a paw across the table and opened the floor to questions. “So how do we make that happen? What do we need to understand first?”

“I’d like to know about mysel--” Evelyn twitched with visible disgust in her association to a killer and chose a formal differentiation. “I need to know about Gaia. What is her goal? What drives her? Why does she need to… commit genocide?”

“<She seeks power. Not just any power will do, either. She requires power through absolute devotion. Her army fills the sky and holds dozens of species. Yet even with such might, she demands that every race she finds worship her or die.>” Quill paused for a moment, her words punctuating a running sentence in her head. “<Gaia has gone out of her way to chase me, however. She has spent two dozen lives for that cause and seen no returns. For this, I question if she holds another motive beyond simple power. I pose no threat to her, nor do I even choose to reside in her universe any further.>”

“Interesting point. I’d maybe consider she hunts you for sport, but that was not the impression I got during our fight.” Cherenkov spewed from her lantern and sat upon the table. “She earnestly wanted you dead, as if you did pose a threat--a dire one at that.”

“<I have yet to permanently harm her, so I fear you may be wrong.>” Quill fell limply into her seat and formulated a hypothesis. “<Some creatures defend their territory by expansion, hunting those on the border to create a contested barrier. To support this though… I’m curious, am I the only of my kind in this universe? You’ve never seen my kind before?>

“You’re the first we’ve come across if there even are more in the Black.” Void pulled up a hologram of explored and mapped sectors of the galaxy. “Do you think you could find your people on this map? This is where we have explored as a joint effort of species.”

Quill took out her ink pouch and drew circles around different stars. “<My home is located here in my universe. My people originate from this system here, however.>”

“Let’s see… Damn, even I can’t read this too well. Pris?”

“This star is Yangu-Grurra. Isn’t that where you found Quill?” Prisma frowned at the series of confirmations, then moved to the other star. “This is only two star systems from here, the Corbin system. We’ve only sent probes there so far, just to test the viability of placing fueling stations. Some of the planets had temperature ranges good for colonization too. It’s possible there could be life there, Void.”

“If your kind do exist in our universe, they haven’t spread very far. We could try checking, love.”

“<Perhaps later, for… closure. My Grand Hunt is more important.>” The avian stood and started pacing behind her chair. “<I wonder if the other species are from different universes. If so, my ability to traverse the Nexus could pose a threat, perhaps as I could rally allies. Similarly Gaia may have been hunting the, uh… My friend... Wi-xa-quin…>”

“She said Gaia is hunting… something I couldn’t understand.” Glacier reached out and requested, “Could you spell it?” The Oel reached out with a feather of fluff and penned the name she couldn’t pronounce. “Oh, Vixellyn. I could definitely understand that being hard to chirp.”

“<Indeed.>”

“So because Vix has control over various universes she’s a direct threat, one even higher priority than you. That’s one good bit to draw from this mess. We’ll need to protect her.”

Sydney walked into the room and leaned against a wall with her arms crossed. “That’s my job. I’ll keep the girl safe.”

“I know you’re trying to sound cool there, but the gas mask isn’t helping.” Iolvin chuckled as he approached the ottkat with a set of odd goggles in his paw. “Sorry it’s a few days late but here’s a little birthday gift, Cid.”

“You buffoon…” Sydney smiled at the gift, a set of goggles with a small breathing system attached near the nose bridge. “Right to the point. Thanks, Yoyo. My mask was the reason I was late, so I’ll make sure to give this thing a try.”

“Ahem.” Void snorted back a laugh and went back to the matter at paw. “Vix will be fine with that backing. What about Darius? That planet doesn’t belong here, so what threats can it bring?”

“We should see if those humans are alright. They were under attack when we left.” Leannan stood next to her mother, emulating her confident pose. “I know that’s not the priority, but if we can save people we should.”

“Yeah. I think I’d like to help.” Caitlynn nudged behind her sister, undermining her ‘coolness’ factor. “I can heal people. Let me come along.”

“Only if you stay near your sister and… away from danger, if possible.” Sydney shifted her gaze to Carbon through the doorway and they both nodded at an unspoken decision. “I’ll have to upgrade your arsenal, Lea. Come with me when we’re done, my lovely.”

“<That seems like a just cause, but I sincerely doubt the inhabitants will have survived. If they did, they’re now the enemy. Otherwise, the planet is harmless.>” Quill sat in her seat again and leaned over the table, staring closely into the faces of her interestingly feminine, though less colorful husband and her young daughter. “<Get me there and I’ll track Gaia. Bring Wix with us. I’m not sure how, but she rescued me from the Nexus. She must be meant a significant role in my Hunt.>”

“That’s not the best way to keep a protected target safe.” Sydney hooked her new gift onto her belt and groaned in thought. “I suppose it might work though. We have Void, so we can teleport her to safety if needed. On the bright side that lets us keep our enemy guessing rather than just attacking our ships.”

“Damn, I married well.” Carbon walked over and bonked masks with his wife. “You’re a born strategist. Brilliant.”

“Yeah, and that’s starting to sound like a proper plan. I’m feeling better about all of this.” Void gripped his chin, playing with a hint of scruffy beard he had let grow since his injuries. “Okay. A small team of me, Arty, Cid, and whomever she needs will keep Vix moving. I suppose we could investigate the fate of the locals if you’d like to come along, Cait. The rest of us will back up Quill doing her thing. Between both teams we should come up with something more concrete… or find Gaia directly, perhaps. Quill, any hope of fighting her?”

“<None that I know. She’s impervious. Perhaps… she may truly be a goddess.>”

“No, she’s vulnerable.” Evelyn calmly stood from her seat and left the meeting. “If I can die, so can she.”

Carbon reached out to slow his mate but couldn’t stop the determined singularity. “Eve? Where are you going?”

“I’m going to find out how to kill myself.”

Darius

The Crystal Valley, Previous Landing Sector.

12:33, 36/2/1

---

“Where’s the forest?” Vixellyn stepped through a field of shredded glass where once there were glistening trees made of crystal. “This place was so beautiful. Why would they do this?”

“I don’t think they had much choice. It looked like they resorted to orbital bombardment from the view coming here.” Vydr surveyed the crunching terrain and pointed toward a specific direction. You said there was a village there, right? I’m betting this is collateral damage from an attack there.”

“The whole planet is leveled. How much firepower do you need to glass a planet? Hell, how many ships?” Artemis followed the others as best as he could, but found his balance on the slippery rubble failing constantly. “Damn. I really need another arm for this.”

“I’ve got something basic started in the Observation Lab.” Paprika cleared an intact tree trunk from the path with her exosuit, then fell back to help Arty. “I’m recording a lot of data right now, but I’ll make your arm a priority when we get back. Sorry it isn’t ready yet, but the matter printers on the Starbreeze are first-generation ones.”

“Thanks.” Arty took an offered robotic arm and hopped over a small fissure in the ground. “Well what do you have so far? Anything mechanically usable?”

“Technically it can mount and move, but the neural interface and controllers are nowhere near done. The parts are delicate and take time to print.” Rika paced beside her cousin and made sure he didn’t stumble again, the sharp ground making for horrible bedding. “We’ll need to size the fit before I work on any of that though. I think I’m close based on a quick scan from earlier.”

“Well this isn’t working as well as I thought. I’m slowing you guys down.” Arty picked up his pace briefly and slapped his brother on the shoulder, using that joint to keep stable as well. “Void, could you blink that arm to us from here?”

“If I knew exactly where it laid, sure.”

“But it’s not usable. What’s the point? For balance?”

Arty shook his head truthfully, then fibbed a bit for expedience. “Yeah, that’s it. Then I won’t need to lean on you guys.”

“Oh. Well the shoulder is near the telescope and the paw is…” Rika slid out of the rear of her suit, her paws still gripping the controls to move the mech forward while she poked out the top. “I think I left the paw in my room, actually. Maybe by my bed, in that sunny room on the same deck?”

“I think I’ve got it. It doesn’t feel much like a paw, though.” Void probed a bit more with his powers, then blinked the two components into his paws. “This all, love?”

“Yeah, that’s it. The wrist twists to lock the paw in place, Arty.”

Vix took the components from Void and let him focus on the group’s path. “So… like this….?” She presented the easily constructed arm, a mass of motors and pneumatic pistons bolted around a set of structural shafts. “This looks like it could cook me dinner, not like an arm.”

“Well it’s only a temporary model.” Rika noticed a larger fissure ahead and stepped inside, allowing her exosuit to become a stepping stone for the others. “When we return to the Furnace I’ll consult Olivia and we’ll try for something more realistic.”

“Actually, I sort of like this one.” Arty nudged his shoulder socket against the arm as Vix held it up, then twisted his body until it locked into place. “It’s heavy, but that could come in pawsy.”

“Again, just a work in progress. Hopefully it’ll help you keep from toppling ov--” Inexplicably to the tanuki-otter mix, the arm started moving to test it’s range of motion. “How in the hell…?”

“I try to keep it on the down-low, but I guess family can know too.” Arty held the paw up to his face and tweaked each of the fingers until he understood how to articulate them properly. “I can interface with electronics. I’m not sure what you call that, but it’s like I’ve got a universal remote control.”

“That’s bizarre. I’ve never heard of that kind of magic.” Once the group was clear Rika climbed out of the gap and took the rear. “What would they call that? Technomancy?”

“I’m not sure it’s magic. After seeing what dad can do, I think it might just be those nanite things inside me.” Artemis walked up to his brother and gave him a much heavier, stinging slap to the shoulder. “In any case it’s good to have two arms again, even if this one wants to rip my shoulder off.”

“Maybe hold back on the personal contact until you get nerves hooked up, yeah? That hurt, brother.” Void slowed as the crumbled and melted remains of walls came into reach. “I think we’re here. Think anyone survived this?”

“Eek!” Caitlynn squeaked in fright as she kicked an unidentifiable bone from a pile of rubble. “N-No… It doesn’t… seem like they’d survive if…”

“You’re right, sissy.” Leannan pressed the muzzle of her SMG into a pile of bones and ash. “They’ve been cremated. The heat must have been insane to do this.”

“Agreed. This might have been plasma fire.” Carbon stomped his own walking tank over from within the city, his reconnaissance complete. “A few of the remaining troops have plasma weapons at least. It goes with reason their ships would use similar tech.”

«They’re wrong. I know this technology. It’s Mimic siege weaponry.» Mime gained control over Void’s body and led him to dig deeper than the embers and ash on the surface. Soon he produced a piece of hard body armor that while scorched was not melted. «Microwave beams heat living tissue but not much else. The population was killed before their cities were destroyed, for whatever sense that makes. Usually we want to preserve resources when we use this tactic.»

“Mates, Mime says mimics played a part in this. That’s unsettling.” Upon regaining control, Void presented the armor to the others. “I agree it’s odd, too. They used a weapon to kill the people, then another to destroy their cities. Why would anyone do that? It doesn’t make tactical sense.”

“Tabula rasa.” Sydney stepped out from behind another building, her smaller stature causing her to trail behind her mate’s vehicle. “They don’t care to cannibalize technology. Being a fleet on the move, they also have no reason to hold and occupy territory.” The ottkat tossed a picture frame to Void, revealing the inhabitants weren’t human after all. “They eliminate their opposition and then strike the next opponent before they can form a reactive defense. They’re on a blitzkrieg run.”

“These people were defenseless. They don’t even have spacefaring technology.” Void wiped the soot and ash from the protective glass of the frame and sighed at the lithe, pointy-eared beings smiling their sharp teeth back at him. “They simply disagreed and now all that’s left of them is dust and echoes.”

Artemis took the picture with his mechanical paw, accidentally crushing the glass with his untested grip. “You saw enemies further in? Any signs of Gaia?”

“Looking good, Arty. One sec.” Carbon opened Ex’s hatch and waved through the cockpit. “We saw a small camp, but they don’t have transport nor are they patrolling. If I had to guess, they actually look like they were left behind on accident.”

“They abandoned their own troops?” Lea readied her rifle, but her mother tapped the muzzle downward due to her recent allowance of live munitions. “Maybe we should take them out. We might grab something we can use off them.”

“Let’s not be reckless, dear.” Sydney accepted a quick hug from Cait and held her own weapon up high. “If they left troops, they must have retreated. We should seek who or what might cause such a large fleet to flee at all.”

“No… They could have kept firing until this planet became nothing but an asteroid field. Assuming they glassed the whole planet, they had enough angles of attack to aim at least some of that firepower at an enemy.” Paprika climbed back inside her exosuit and reestablished her Link to her sensors. “There’s only a few valid explanations I can surmise. Either they came across a natural disaster of some kind and ended their campaign, or they knew a threat was coming and avoided it early. Hell, they might even plan on ambushing that threat.”

“You might be smarter than all three of your mothers combined, hon. Bravo.” Carbon aimed a cannon attached to Ex’s shoulder directly upward and launched some sort of artillery shell that never came back down. “I’ll get some eyes in the sky just in case. Rika, see if you can discover whatever the Gaian forces did.”

“Already on it.”

Void pulled out his Slate and tethered it to a portable radio antenna. “Dad? Can you read this? I’m breaking radio silence.”

“Copy, maybe a four-by-three. Looks like they might ha-- used radiation of some kind to kill p-- so sorry if I ask you to repeat things.” Iolvin audibly clicked his radio a few times before coming back. “You reading this? I hooked up to a Sense so I can hear it better. Over.”

“Aye, that’s much better. One sec. Over.” Void looked around and reached for a Sense on Lea’s neck. “Mind if I borrow that, love?”

Lea disconnected the device and tossed it to her Captain. “I probably don’t need targeting assist anyway. Just don’t break it, mate; That’s an expensive one.”

“No worries, love. I’ll treat her well.” Void snapped the Sense onto his neck port and his antenna to an auxiliary line. “Dad? I switched over as well. How copy?”

“Five-by-five. Okay, what’s up? Over.”

“We’ve spotted some abandoned troops. Right now Carbon and Rika are working on why they packed up and turned tail. We’ll brief you when we get an update.” Void found a burnt table and tested it’s strength, then hopped onto it for a seat. “How goes the hunt? You find anything on your end? Over.”

“Could we stop with the military crap? It’s not really my style.” Ilaria took over the radio line with a very annoyed tone. “Sorry, son. We’ve come up dry on our end. Quill tracked Gaia down until she apparently boarded a ship. She’s gone.”

“Blast. Naturally this won’t be easy for us…” Void hopped off the table and tossed an arm around his brother’s neck. “Let’s see what we can find out, then we’re going back to the Starbreeze. If we’re lucky we can find a way to track their ships.”

Paprika powered her loudspeaker. “Void, we should got back to the ship now. There’s no time.”

“I’d rather get what data we could first. It might prove more valuable than hoping for magic space exhaust--”

“No, we need to go. Now.” Rika lowered her exosuit’s frame for Arty’s sake. “I’ll carry you, cousin. We need to evacuate before--”

“Too late. We have incoming.” Carbon picked up his girls with Ex’s arms and offered for Sydney to hop in the cockpit with him. “My satellite sensors just picked up debris heading through the atmosphere. We’re about to get bombed by meteors.”

“Well bollocks.” Void looked up at the thick, overcast skies and noticed flashes of red and orange. “Hermes, come in! Someone there better know how to start a class A engine!”

“I’m on it, son.” Robyn flipped a few switches and her signal improved. “Power’s coming up. Do we need propulsion?”

“How do you--?”

“I designed it. I can operate it. Now what’s the matter, love?”

“Hell’s about to rain down on us, quite literally. Dad, if you’re hearing this you need to get back to the Hermes too.” Void grabbed Vix by the arm and almost blinked away, but hesitated after remembering their trip to the Nexus. “I’ll start getting everyone back with my teleportation, but some of us will still need to hoof it.”

“Roger that, son. We’re not too far. Take care of your team and we’ll meet you there.”

“Dad…” Vydr let out a sigh as he affirmed his trust in Vix’s condition, blinking the two back to the hold of the Hermes. “Take care of mom for me. Come back safe.”

“Ain’t a thing, son. Worry about your own. We’re coming.”

Void nearly fell from dizziness after his blink indeed didn’t go exactly to plan, but flashed back to the Crystal Valley with a smile of renewed confidence. “One down. Arty, you’re next.” A large piece of smoldering rock penetrated the stone surface in the distance, shaking the ground beneath the group enough to topple Ex backward. “You alright, Carbon?”

“Don’t worry about us. I’m just glad I remembered to refill Ex’s jump jets. We can get back in a few minutes.” Ex kicked back with his spare leg and stood upon the remaining two with ease. “Get Arty and Paprika back, then help Quill’s team. We’re heading off.”

“Good luck.” Void grabbed Arty’s new arm and blinked away just as Carbon started a rocket-fuel powered jump. “Get Vix up to a safer room. Keep this area clear so I don’t need to worry about teleporting into people. Can you keep people moving, brother?”

“You got it, bro. Vix, let’s get moving.”

“Good on ya’, brother.” Void stumbled again as he blinked such a long distance in such a small timeframe, falling onto his paws and knees when he reappeared near Rika. “Not as easy as it looks, love.”

“You don’t look so good.” Rika used her own abilities to create a gravity well above her exosuit, pulling it into the air. “If you’ve only got a limited number of jumps left in you, don’t waste them on me or your brother and sister. We can bus ourselves back like this. Just take care fo the rest, please.”

“Aye… I’ll trust you th… then…” A massive headache suddenly hit Vydr, yet he still managed to start probing his best guesses for his father’s location. He didn’t have much time to think though, suddenly forced to blink away by a nearly direct impact of a building-sized meteor fragment. “Damn, that was close!”

“Son?” Iolvin skid to a halt as the others ran full bore back to the Hermes. “Go! I’ve got him!”

“I should trust my instincts more often. Heh.” Void grabbed his father’s shoulder, but the larger otter then picked him up and tossed him over that shoulder. “Dad! I don’t need you to carry me! I came to save you!”

“Hgrah!” Yoyo dove out of the way of a secondary cluster breaking from a previous impact, his arms shredding through shards of broken crystals. “Are you okay, son!?”

“Well shag me rotten…” Void regained his bearings, then blinked his father into the hold of his ship. “Get to the main deck and patch yourself up. Cait should be along soon to help that.”

“Son, you don’t look like you can--”

“I’m fine, dad. Just a little winded is all.” Void needed to teleport a few more times but couldn’t keep up with the strain on his body… so he shed half of it. “Take care of Mime for me too. It’ll be easier this way.”

“Gods damn, you’ve grown a pair.” Yoyo grabbed Mime but he oozed out his grip, slinking into a corner. Instead he reached for a brief hug with his son. “Makin’ me proud, my boy. Go. Be a hero.”

“Dad… Aye.” With a nod Void blinked yet again, reappearing just ahead of the remaining escapees. “Hah… Uh… Gl-Glacier! Grab!”

“Where…?” Quill towed the girl over to Void and placed her paw into his. “Void? Oh thank the gods.”

“Be…. right back…” The otter flashed back to the hold, this time barely able to stand. “Arty!”

“On it!” Artemis slid down the ladder to the hold and took Glacier’s paw. “Engines are running. Just get them back here before we’re hit, bro.”

“You kidding…? Back… in a blink...” Vydr did just that, blinking away in a well of light so he once again landed ahead of the others. “Qu… Quill…”

“Crap. The little shit’s out of juice.” Salt stomped up to her brother as he passed out from exhaustion. She picked him up with her oversized mech and tossed him over her shoulder. “Keep moving. We’re almost there.”

Ilaria sprinted as fast as she could and tossed a nanite tendril to Salt’s shoulder. “Vydr!” She reeled back that tether and grasped the exosuit, then tossed the tendril back for Quill. “Can’t you make this thing fly!? We need to move faster!”

“Shit, you’re right.” A massive mountain of rock crashed into the actual mountainside, cracking and rippling the ground in a massive wave toward them. “Birdy, you need to grab on!” Quill did just that, hanging by that lifeline with two feathery grips as Salt levitated clear of the disastrous shockwave. “Watch for debris!”

“Crap!” Ari shielded her helpless son from a wave of crystal flak thrown from the ground, taking a few punctures to both flesh and synthetics in the process. “Almost… Faster… Must go faster…”

“Not helping, mom!” Salt finally slammed her metal boots into the outer hull of the Hermes for a sudden stop. “Everyone run!”

The shockwave quickly approached, but the shards of mineral death rained back down far sooner. “Inside!” Ari snapped her tendril into the rear hatch of the ship, tossing Quill inside. “Move, Salt!”

“Fu~ck!” The large tanukott sent her suit’s heavy duty motors into overdrive and rounded the final corner, leaping into the hold head-first to leave a trail of sparking metal in a final slide. “We’re in! Go! Take off!”

“On it!” Robyn slammed the throttle and the Hermes blasted off, not even waiting for the tailgate to fully close before lifting from the ground. “Don’t make your mum kark it from a bloody heart attack, my lovelies. Fuckin’ ‘ell.”

“We’re alright, Pillow. We’re… just fine.” Ari cradled her son in her arms, ignoring her bleeding cuts in favor of feeling his chest heaving with life. “Get us out of here, honey. We need to find out what the fuck just happened.”

“Lulu, is--!?”

“Vydr’s fine, Yoyo. We still have a healthy son. Worry about Arty, would you?” Ilaria heaved her son up in her arms and strained to carry him to the ladder between decks. “Don’t be too much like your grandpa, Vy. You’ve got a long life of heroism ahead of you.”

“How come you don’t talk to us like that?” Salt flipped her suit over and climbed out of it awkwardly. “We can be heroes too, you know.”

“I’m sure you’ll all have your moments. Just let your little brother have his for the time being.” Ilaria slumped against the ladder and waited as Cherenkov climbed down to assist. “I see plenty of opportunity to prove yourself ahead. Just know this: I’m officially calling dibs on Gaia’s head.” She pulled a long, bloody shard from her good shoulder and flicked it onto the floor. “Nobody fucks with my tribe.”