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_ Chapter 13- Combat Drills . . . _

<UEF-A 'Tiamat' -B-Deck Room 18> June 8, 2085

The message roused Canith from his deep slumber, causing him to come awake gasping. It didn't happen often, but he awoke with no memory of how and where he was. A moment later, it all fell into place. (I'm in my room, aboard the Tia'. The last I recall, I was . . .) The memory of the previous night had is red and gray furred face flushing in memory of his amorous activities.

He laid there, letting everything play out in his mind, and once he reached the point he had blanked out, Aura chimed in. (He received a message and then helped you back to your room.) Aura's tone was level, but Canith got the sense that Aura found the lack of control rather funny.

(Oh.) He had nothing to say to that. (So what message roused me up, and I feel very tired, so I couldn't have slept for long.)

(I'll paraphrase it. There is going to be action soon, the ETA is approximately 0830, and there is a meeting for all combat capable individuals, you included, in fleet tactical support in 30 minutes. According to the memo, the reason is that there is a moon base under assault by raiders, and we are going to assist since were are the closest to respond. Further intel I have acquired suggest that they don't have a space combat capable vessel and it will be mostly close quarters fighting in hallways.)

Canith spoke the next point aloud. "Maybe bedroom gymnastics are not the best idea if they would interrupt my 8 hour rest period." He sighed and pulled himself to a sitting position.

(Point of conflict on that, it's only 0430, and this IS the first time an alert has went out since you came on board.)

Canith tensed and relaxed his normal muscles, then the muscles in his tail. "True enough. Although, it's a bit strange. Normally I'm much more self controlled then what I was yesterday. It's not like me." He looked on the floor, and spotted the two pairs of panties from yesterday. The first had been word during a rather intense workout, and had been rather musky, but not sweat soaked- Having scales or fur, it seemed, prevented you from sweating. The other pair, however . . .

They looked very stiff from where he sat, doubtless due to all the dried semen that had leaked out of him on the walk back from Tyco's room. That rabbit could really go the distance, and had came at least 2 times, maybe 3, before Canith had passed out from the pleasure.

Canith snapped out of his reverie abruptly, and was startled. "When the hell did I turn into a sex crazed maniac?" This bothered him a lot, as he had not noticed the shift at first.

(Actually, your chemical balances have been different since you got back from E-deck the first time. As I did a scan at the time, I can give you my assessment if you like.)

"I would, though I have a feeling I know what you will say."

(It basically amounts to this. As you are now classified as both male and female, logic follows that your body would have to balance varying amounts of androgen and estrogen. It would also follow that you would either have them in perfect balance, or it would be cyclical. In your case, it seems more cyclical in nature, and as you have only spent about a week in a female form, therefore it follows that your sex drive would skyrocket. Especially as from what you have told me that the changes seem to encourage this as well.) Aura paused a bit, and Canith got the impression that they were preforming another scan and calculation. (It also looks like the cycle hit it's peak yesterday, and is beginning to swing back to a more male configuration.)

While Canith was listening to Aura, he made his way into his bathroom and got into the shower. He cleaned himself off, then thought for a moment after Aura finished. (Hey Aura, this is rather new to me, but I feel like I should clean myself out a bit. No sense if we are going to be seeing combat for me to be slightly uncomfortable with dried cum between my thighs.)

There was a click, and a hidden panel in the shower popped open to reveal a wand that's most obvious function was for what he was looking for. (Oh.) Canith found himself saying again, then picked it up, stared at it for a moment, then brought it down to his nether region. The head had a multitude of holes, with the center having a slightly larger hole.

As he slowly pressed it into his slightly sore slit, the holes started spurting out warm water, both soothing the muscles and cleaning the dried discharge. He rotated it back and forth, then pushed it further in. As he did so, the center hole started filling his vaginal canal with water, pushing his lower belly out slightly. He removed it, and the water gushed out, then quickly tapered off into a dribble.

He repeated this a couple of times, and sighed as he realized that as good as it felt, it would not be able to clean his womb out. But he did feel much cleaner, so he retracted the hose of the wand and replaced it in it's slot. The door to the compartment clicked shut, and he finished up quickly.

He looked again at the panties on the floor, and had a second thought about them- they had felt comfortable, after all. So with this in mind, he generated several more pairs of varying styles and colors, and pulled a new pair on. He took the old pairs in to the bathroom, and placed them in the shoot labeled for miscellaneous clothing articles. That done, he headed back into his room, pulled on a new jumpsuit, and headed out and down to the galley, thinking. Along the way, he made a few observations of his own.

First, his apparent lack of restraint yesterday- which was completely at odds with how he normally operated. He might have a valid explanation, but that didn't comfort him much, as that just meant that it could happen again whenever his cycling hormones tilted full female again. So that necessitated a talk with E-deck personnel, probably Sun or Sky, as they were the two he had the most contact with. And secondly, on the talk of Sun, he had noticed something else. He had been used to meditating to calm his mind and deal with major personal issues, but now he found he had no need to. And that bothered him, as it had been a good habit that he had quit almost cold turkey, and with no apparent reasoning. While musing on these things, he continued down the nearby stairs and across the walkways over to the galley.

He arrived to a strange scene. For starters, most of the lights were off, and the only ones that were happened to be at the entrance. Secondly, one of the tables had been moved over to the door, and a note was on it.

"Breakfast will be small articles and pastries, served in the fleet tactical room."

Canith tilted his head quizzically at this. Normally, he would have assumed that the galley staff would still be at work down here, then thought back to the night before. This had to have been the reason Tyco had helped him back to his room instead of just letting him crash there. Shrugging at this, even with no one around to see it, he turned and headed to the grav lifts, and took one up to A-Deck.

Upon arriving, he saw that there were a couple people already standing around, either in the hall or the entryway where the grav lifts were. It definitely wasn't a crowded as he thought it might be, seeing as he was only about 10 minutes early for the meeting. Stepping lightly past the ones most in the way, he headed towards the room.

He head some murmurs as he past, all of them complementary, some vocal and some faintly getting past his shields. Not all of the voices had a sexual tinge to the thoughts though. Most had only seen him at a distance, and didn't realize that scales had given way to fur. Of the one or two who thought they saw a discrepancy, he said nothing, letting them either think they had not remembered properly or let them approach him about it. None did at the moment of course, but he moved inside to the much closer quarters.

Immediately inside he spotted a table set up on the side, with several carafe full of various beverages. His nose caught the tell-tale scent of coffee, and he immediately zeroed in on it. Pouring himself a cup, he added some creamer like he used to, and stopped himself just in time from putting some sugar in it. Looking around, he tried to spot something to replace it, when he heard footsteps coming up behind him.

He turned slightly, spotting the rabbit from the night before. He looked relaxed and alert, which was slightly unfair in Canith's opinion. After all, he must have gotten even less sleep and didn't look to be suffering from it. He smiled slightly at Canith, a knowing grin that showed that he knew that Canith was suffering from sleep deprivation. "I saw your tail start wagging a bit on my way over, but it drooped all of a sudden. I'm guessing you realized sugar in you coffee is a no go?"

Canith cocked an eye ridge at this. "Are you reading my mind? Or am I just that obvious?"

"No mind reading- it's not my specialty. It's the subtle, and the not so subtle, hints around you that gave you away. For instance, you went straight to the table and said aforementioned tail started wagging. You then started pouring a cup, grabbed the creamer without thinking on it, and almost did the same to the sugar. That's the moment your tail drooped. Here." He handed Canith a small cylinder with some brown granules in it. "Use this. It's not the same as normal sugar, but it should mix with it and be almost the same, maybe a bit sweeter."

Canith nodded, and tipped a bit in. He took a sip, and his eyes went wide. Yes, it tasted almost exactly like normal sugar, but that wasn't what surprised him. The temperature of the coffee should have scalded him, and in fact it had a lot of steam coming off of it. But that sip had not even came close to burning him. In fact, it felt almost cool. "Uh, is it normal for dragon anthros to not have an issue with hot materials?"

Tyco shrugged, but before he could vocalize an answer, another voice spoke up behind him. "For westerns maybe, but not for eastern dragons. It's like eastern dragons prefer the spicy tastes, where westerns prefer the temp to be near boiling. Has something to do with body temp, I believe." The speaker came into view then, a rather large western dragon with jet black scales. His wings were folded crisply on his back, and his tail ended in a bit of a spade. Along the spinal ridge, where Canith had a white mane, the western dragon had what looked, at least at first glance, to be a mane as well. Only when he moved, Canith noticed that the 'hairs' that made it up were not hairs, but spines, and them rubbing together made an almost metallic rustling sound.

"I don't think we have been properly introduced. I'm Drake." The tall dragon held out a paw, and Canith took it reflexively, noticing that Drake didn't have the usual five digits that most anthros had- a throwback from their roots from humanity. Instead, Drake had 3 fingers and a 'thumb' that was set slightly further down, more towards his wrist. It reminded Canith of old depictions of feral western dragons. Drake smirked when he caught Canith's focus, and brought up a K-blade for him to see. Even with the slightly off placement of his claws, he had a strong grip. Then, winking at Canith, he let go of the blade, and it just floated there. "When the claws do not suffice, I use my brain of course."

This drew a chuckle from both Canith and Tyco. The rabbit motioned to both of them, and led them over to a corner, plucking a couple different pastries as he went. Once in the corner, he handed both the dragons a pair and began nibbling one himself. As Canith knew that Tyco was aware of his dietary restrictions (almost obsessively so in fact) he had no hesitation biting into it. He had expected it to be sweet, so when he got a savory bite of meat and gravy instead he almost choked. Drake simply raised an eye ridge, and Tyco snorted once, flopping one ear back and continuing to nibble on his treat.

They stood there in companionable silence for a bit, each eating their own, while more and more individuals poured into the room. Finally, when it looked like almost everyone who could fit into the room comfortably was there, the Captain strolled in. The murmur of the room died down a bit, but he simply strolled over to to table and grabbed a cup of coffee. He added nothing to it, blew on it slightly, and took a long drink. He then waked to the head of the table, and it hummed to life.

"Alright people, listen up!" he began, his voice commanding but level. The noise immediately died off at this and he had all the attention of the room. "This is what we know so far." He made a small gesture, and the holo tank projected the image of a moon orbiting a gas giant. The surface looked surreal, with a large amount of flora appearing on it in large swaths, interspersed by what could only be meteor impact craters and strips of bare rock. "There is no 'official' designation for this moon, as it is both privately owned and operated, on top of the fact it is classified what they research or produce. With this in mind, these are the details we do know."

Another gesture brought the various reading and designations up, showing that it would be able to support life, albeit one that could survive the occasional pressure wave from incoming meteors. O2 levels were not optimal, but only a bit on the low side. "There are airlocks to the facility, allowing them to maintain much more comfortable oxygen levels. The raiders landed a bit away, then blew one of the 'locks."

The image zoomed in to reveal a complex half buried in a mountain. There were several doors on the side which appeared to be for small to medium sized ships, probably cargo and transport ships. Further down, on the ground level, was a smattering of entryways, spaced far apart. Red blips appeared about a half mile out, with red arrows indicating their pathing to go to a door in the far south of the complex. Once inside, the dots vanished. "That's how they got in. It's also all the intel we have for now. Once closer, I'm hoping we can convince them to transmit at least some basic floor plans, else we are in for an uphill struggle."

Another gesture, and the whole scene changed. Instead of a moon base, there was a table with names, divided into four segments. "These are the team assignments, with the team leaders' names at the top. Team 1 will be meeting here, Team 2 in holo room 1, team 3 in holo room 2, and finally Team 4 in Systems Administration. Please verify your team designation and head there immediately for a strategy meeting. Dismissed, and good luck."

Canith started to look for his name, but Aura saved him the trouble. :Team 4. And based on the rest of the roster, you should be rather comfortable with them.: Canith gave a nod, then headed to his work station.

He arrived then had Aura help him fire up the tanks, per usual. He had a notion that the captain, without coming out and saying it, was hoping that Canith could get the needed intel for him. So, before they got there, Canith would need to dive. He got everything set up as a couple individuals came in, barely noticing them in his focus for the task at hand. Or at least, until one of them walked up behind him and gave him a hug. He froze for a moment, then (once the furred arms loosened enough for him to turn, he returned the hug, giving Will a kiss on the side of the muzzle. "Good to see you. I guess you are on Team 4 as well?"

Will gave his usual grin. "Of course. They need someone to watch the prodigy after all." He noticed the fur and stepped back to get a good look at Canith. "Uh, I have to ask. Why do you have fur? I know you had scales. Intimately know you had scales." Canith felt himself heat up a bit a this, but to a breath and squashed the rising feeling with a mental rebuke to himself. (I will not let these odd impulsed drive me to distraction.) He took another breath, then remembering what Tyco said, gave Will the line that had been discussed. "E-deck. Apparently, they needed to to a bit of tweaking to settle the instabilities I was experiencing." Not a lie, per se, but not the whole truth by a long shot.

Will got a knowing glint in his eye, and then frowned a bit and sniffed. His eyes widened a bit, then he chuckled. "I'm guessing that you and Ty got together recently- I can still smell him on you." He gave a conspiratorial wink and leaned closer. "I don't blame you. I have only heard stories, mind you, but that boy is like a fucking machine. He goes on and on, till you loose you mind. I almost feel jealous of you." He leaned back then, mischief twinkling in his eyes. "You soooo have to tell me about it some other time."

Others had trickled in, and Canith looked to see who else was on his team. Besides Will, he spotted Tyco, who waved at him, Mist, who gave him a nod, and Lt. Terry, whom he had only met briefly during the officer's lunch, and had spotted in the distance a couple of times since. She was a female western dragon, like Drake, but her blue scales shined almost like sapphires, and she had a wicked gleam to her eyes. The last member of their team arrived at that moment, a small looking female fox he didn't recognize. She seemed to be the more traditional red fox variant, but although she had the black 'socks' of fur on the last third of her arms, Canith could see that the hairs were stained by grease and other materials. She was also, besides himself, the only one in there that was not wearing at least one K-blade.

The fox walked right up to him and thrust out a hand, which he immediately took. Her grip was firm, and even if the fur was stained, he could tell that she tried to keep it clean anyways. "Hi, I'm Holly. Twitch said you helped with that targeting error a while back. I had a feeling that it might be the system, but could not for the life of me figure out how to go about fixing it. Thanks." With that, she dropped the handshake and walked back over to stand by the door, leaning against it a bit. Her ears rotated back and forth, but her eyes drifted closed a bit.

"Well, now that you know everyone here, lets go over the basics of formation and . . ." Terry began, but Canith cut him off.

"Pardon, but before you do that, there is something important that needs to be done. I know the captain didn't mention it, but I'll say it now. He wants me, or at least hopes that, I can get the intel he needs."

Everyone in the room went deathly still and silent. "It's one of the things I'm good at. It's also one of the main reasons the Captain brought me on board- I can remote hack systems better then anyone, and that is mainly in part due to . . ."

"Me." Aura said, appearing in the main tank at full size, standing nearly two and a half feet tall. Her luminous eyes swirled their multicolored hues, glancing at everyone in the room. Will, grinned. Mist stared at Aura, putting pieces together. Holly took one glance, then closed her eyes again. Tyco whistled a bit appreciatively. However, the biggest reaction was from the Lt. She threw herself across the room to begin pacing around the tank, taking in Aura's form. And from the pings Aura was sending to Canith, was doing a bit more then just visually checking them out- she was surface level probing Aura, almost as if . . .

"Ah, you are an AI fanatic, I take it." Canith said to Terry. She turned to him, the flames of passion burning in her eyes.

"Yes. I keep up with Aegis and Arias, and have always wanted to try my hand at programming one from the start. The captain did mention you had experience with them, but if memory serves, there is only one AI with the designation of AURA that isn't just an interface." She looked between Canith and Aura. "I think I understand now. Darion, was it?"

"Once, but that name was cast off over a year ago, when I left Earth. But enough digressing, I'm going to do a dive, and although it shouldn't take too long, can you delay the briefing till then?"

"Hell, I'll do one better, if you don't mind." She said, a touch of excitement leaking into her voice. "I want to watch. Passive observation only, mind you- I have always been fascinated by stories of you."

Canith was taken aback by this. "Stories of me? Wow, that . . . more than a bit creepy actually."

Aura gave a snort at this. "You heard stories about him, but the real stories that took place are probably equal parts funny and horrifying. But that is neither here nor there. I have no objections if Canith does not." They tilted their head slightly as they gave Canith a look, as well as chimed in through his uplink. :I like her. She could learn a lot from you about AI's, and that could only be beneficial. In fact, judging by her records and what I know from her two AI's, eventually teaching her about how you constructed my memory core would be a wise idea. She has talent, but not the resources that you had.:

He nodded to Aura's point, then spoke aloud. "I have no problems with it. Hell, you might even notice if I do something wrong." He gave her a wink. "Of course, you would be learning too, I'm guessing."

She beamed, and sat down with her back to the main tank. Canith sat down in his chair, and after reclining it, triggered the dive.

One swirl of color and sensation later, they both were in the digital space in the lab, floating in the 'air'. Aura appeared next, and both turned to Terry.

"I hate to ask this, but what you are about to see is rather sensitive, and no one else know about it. I would appreciate it if you never speak of it to anyone." Canith was looking rather serious about this, and Terry looked back and for nervously.

"I guess, but I fail to see what you might have to be secretive about." Then, in a more serious tone, as if she was going through the motions to satisfy him, she spoke again. "I promise that whatever I see here will be kept in the strictest confidence. I will tell no one without your authorization."

"I will hold you to that then." Canith said, then assumed a sitting position across from Aura. "Aura, Authorization 5H4D0VV for ghost protocol. Begin spin up." Unlike the last time Aura had initiated this particular protocol, this time the processing power of the entire ship was at their disposal. The AI sat down, the luminous form going indistinct for a moment. Then, what appeared to be a deep red spark ignited in the AI's form, and like tracing the circuits traced outward in blinding speed. The quickly filled the AI, then reached out to the environment, giving the appearance of the digital hairs of the wolf standing on end, and each having a mind of their own.

Terry gave an audible gasp at this, but the show was only beginning. Aura's digital tone had always been slightly feminine, but when they spoke next, it was a bass like rumble that shook the nearby line of code.:Protocol Active. Spin up complete. Black box security algorithms released.: They then let loose a primal howl, and the whole datascape went dark. Then, crimson traceries appeared all around them. :Ship linkage confirmed stable. All non-mandatory system free resources rerouted for Designation:Black access to remote systems. Awaiting command.:

Terry addressed Canith with a shaky tone. "What is going on here?" The simple statement was laden with multiple meanings. Most AI's were exactly as they appeared. Few had hidden protocols. And none that she had ever heard could take over an entire ship like this.

Canith let out a breath. Turning back to Terry, he motioned to Aura. "The long and short of it is this- Aura is . . . well, actually, it's hard to quantify what they are. They are an AI, but they have so many special protocols and processes that it would be impossible to give them a traditional designation. Among them are top secret security algorithms from all over Earth and beyond. Add to that a self evolving core, that has a relatively limitless growth limit, and you have a baseline to start with. It usually looks like I treat them as a personal AI, and that's due to the partnership we have. In reality, it's more like I poured everything I had, mentally, physically, and financially, into a digital form, and Aura is what resulted. After stripping away everything but the base interface, I sold the pattern as the AURA system."

Terry's eyes were wide as he explained. "So you are telling me that if the United Earth government ever discovered that you had the most advanced hacking tool know to sentient species, they would kill you to get it."

Canith let loose a harsh laugh at this. "When you put it that way, I see your point. However, the truly diabolical thing is that without key knowledge to how the system works, the whole thing is impossible to bring to fruition. It's just too big. So a bit of misinformation, and voila, no duplicates."

Terry thought about this for a moment, then another. She looked over at the still glowing form, and the spark in the middle. "The core." She said simply. He nodded.

"Without the know-how to recreate it, no memory medium is large enough to sustain an AI. And without the working relationship, which by the way has to be 1:1, the AI would implode. So those two limiters alone ensure Aura cannot be duplicated."

Terry sighed. "You gotta teach me, Canith. This is all so amazing."

Canith glowed at the praise, then turned back to Aura. As this was more brute force then the delicate scan previously, he reached out to the wolf AI. A Tendril of red data extended to him, and wrapped around his arm, causing his digital form to flicker for a moment as they synced. His eyes began whirling in colors, same as Aura's.

Now synced, they turned as one towards the outside of the ship, with Terry watching them work. Quicker then though, paths were established using every sort of backdoor, security hole, and in one or two rare cases, a simple system takeover. In less then a minute, they had digitally perched on the relay satellite that orbited the moon. They solidified their base, the Canith murmered to Terry, "Watch this." Quick as a snake strike, Aura hit the network of the base. The firewalls rose as grids of light and in some cases literal fire, to hold them back. But the strike had been surgical, and the defenses were too slow. Aura went with simplicity, creating a clone of the master admin account, and was able to bypass all the security in an instant.

All around the trio, brilliant squares of light burst into being, and resolved themselves into security feeds for the entire compound. Below them, a grid began to form, with these cameras illuminating portions of it. More data, and the grid became a blueprint for the entire base, complete with real time security feed showing the raiders pillaging supplies, holding hostages, and attempting to access lower levels. As Aura continued to monitor the situation, generating more blueprints and data points, Canith disengaged from them with a mental shake of his head. Getting up and looking around, he made some observations aloud.

"This is odd. Most of the raiders are human, with only a couple of the others being anthros. And the anthros all have something on their necks."

Aura's bass rumble answered, then after devolved into a rumbling growl. :Collars. High intensity shock from the EM fields around them. Might have some sort of additional hardware under the skin.:

Terry gasped. "I have heard of this. They are no better then slaves. They go against orders, if they can get past the conditioning enforced on them, those collars will next best thing to kill them. And from what I have heard, if they manage to get free, those collars also have triggers for bombs rigged into them, set to blow the poor soul's head off if tampered with."

Canith's vision went red at this, and the whole datascape became slightly unstable. "Aura, transmit all info to the captain, and to all officers on the teams. Use the holo tanks in the various rooms to get their attention if need be." He phrased the next words like a command. "Echos of eternity, returning from infinity, unto nothingness." Aura gave a visible shudder, and the sullen red glow pulsed once, and changed to a normal blue hue. The color spread out from there, returning Aura to their normal colors and state. Except the line was still open to the base, but camouflaged to appear as a normal line out.

Terry gave a low whistle at this. The whole incident had taken less then five minutes, and already they had all the intel they could want. They nodded to each other, and pulled out of the dive.

They both opened their eyes to a room of individuals not even paying even the remotest attention to them. Instead, the gazes were fixed on the main tank, and the sub tanks. Aura, as per the command, had redirected the feeds to this room and they other meeting rooms. In addition to that , the entire complex was mapped out, with glowing lines of various colors connecting the feeds to various points- the position of the cameras in question. Red blips, like what the captain had used, showed the the positions of the intruders, and green blips for the staff. At a mental question, in the corner of the tank absent of the map a personnel list with faces and names started scrolling, with numbers beside them relative to the blips. Most were accounted for, but there were at least a dozen that were not.

Terry turned to Canith. "I promised you that I would share what you showed me, but please." Her eyes were pleading. "Please teach me. I have loved working with AI's, and feel like I could help more if I had more knowledge. Give me that, and I will attempt at least to get you anything you need.

Canith smiled. "I won't ask for anything in return, as I know the feeling of wanting to know something and it being denied to me for one reason or another." He motioned with a thumb at Aura, who had lain down with a sigh of what looked to be relief. "Care to guess what my response was to those limitations?"

Terry gave another laugh, and hugged him. Then, turning back to the group, she put on her officer voice. "Alright, back to business. Now that we have reliable intel . . ." Holly raised a hand.

"How recent?"

Canith answered. "Real time, delayed maybe one to two minutes tops." Holly responded with a low whistle, but lowered her hand.

Terry continued without much delay. "Team assignments. Holly, your on defense, per usual. I will be your backup, as well as center." She turned to each individual as she gave the positions. "Will, rearguard. Mist, left flank. Tyco, right flank. Canith, point."

Canith blinked at this. "Why am I point- out of everyone here, I'm likely to have the least combat experience."

Mist and Will chuckled, and Terry rolled her eyes. "That may be so, but lacking actual bloodshed, you are probably the strongest here. Will is nimble and can sense a flank from a hundred yards easy, and both Mist and Tyco and both smaller stature then you, which makes it easier for them to dart in and out as they see fit. Also. . ." She eyed his lack of K-blades on his belt pointedly. "I have heard that someone is rather unorthodox on their blade work. Everyone else is used to each other, so having the rogue element out front prevents stepping in your way."

Canith nodded sagely at this, acting as if it hadn't been a barb. "Okay, what about guns? I get that bladework is good for CQC, but all they have to do is open up with a gun and we are done."

Mist answered this one. "I forget that you haven't served on combat ships before. Guns are not prohibited, but highly frowned upon nowadays. The reason, of course, is due to the unpleasant fact that a stray shot can kill everyone. And that's assuming that it's not just a misfire. After a few times of that happening, most crew only keep less advanced weaponry on board now. Either that, or guns and rounds so advanced that they will pierce flesh, scale, bone, and armor with equal ease, but not ship hulls. And any laser rifles that can do that, Holly can deal with."

Canith cocked his head and asked the obvious question. "How? Through the use of telekinetic to redirect the fire, through pyro or cryo kinesis to decrease the thermal bloom of the actual projectile, neutering it's damage and velocity?" Holly got wide eyed the more Canith hypothesized, and Mist just chuckled.

"All of those, and none of those. She has one of those abilities that is generally not written about, due to how dubious some might view it. She is an Energy Crafter, or EC for short."

Canith thought hard at this, and Aura scanned the massive database of information they had collected. And came up with only two written lines in an old journal. It simply read:

Energy Crafting=Magic ability?

Not possible, phenomenon overwriting disproved early 22 century.

"Huh. What's it entail?" He glanced around. "You know, so I can plan for it." Holly answered for herself finally.

"I can manipulate the various electrical and magnetic fields around us to cause any energy based rifles to not be able to hit- their trajectory will be pulled slightly away from us, and the bullets will veer off, same way. I also can use those same magnetic fields to throw some discharges around." Canith tilted his head a bit, and she raised one paw up. Visible electrical arcs danced between her fingers, and he got it.

"So you will fling lightning, and keep us safe. Got it."

Terry pitched in at this point. "Since you seem unaware at this point on energy crafting, let me give you the quick and dirty." She concentrated for a moment, then held a hand out in front of her, palm up and fingers spread. "Energy crafting comes in many different flavors. Holly can use lightning, or rather is more attuned to it. Other variations are Fire," above her thumb and flicker of flame appeared and danced, "Water," water seemed to coalesce from the air until it made a droplet about an inch in diameter, "Air," dust from around the room gathered in her palm, swirling as the air visibly moved, "Earth," the dust motes froze, then pulled together, creating a small rock from the pressure exerted on them, "Ice," the droplet of water froze into a crystalline shape. "The last two I am not good with. Light, and the creation of it, and it's counterpart, Darkness."

She glanced wryly at Holly. "I also cannot do lightning, but other than those three, I have a small talent with the rest, which is rare in and of itself. Most can only do one or two. Some can do three. I'm the only one that Snow has seen that can manage 5. He theorized it's due to my balanced nature, which also hinders the more advanced usage of the classical elements."

Canith was impressed. "So can anyone learn it?"

Mist shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. But on the flip side, it normally comes about with genetic instabilities. And as I know what your template looks like, I can tell you that there is actually a likely chance that you develop at least Fire and Air, and maybe Lightning and Water."

Canith felt taken aback at this. "Why those particular combinations?"

Mist took on his familiar teaching voice. "Easily. Western dragons tend to Fire and Air, due to wings and breath. Eastern, when it does develop, tend more to Lightning, Water, and Air. Those three make up the storm triad, which, while rare, can develop singly or all together in them. Other species have tendencies as well, but you yourself only need concern yourself with that."

Canith turned to Terry. "Looks like eventually you will have something to coach me in, perhaps."

Terry raised an eye ridge, then nodded slightly. Anyways, other then that, most of the raiders are human, so no need to worry about abilities being thrown about. And the poor souls with them probably have no notion of how to consciously use any abilities, if they are even remotely lucid and not lobotomized." Canith winced at this, remembering the warning he was given before getting in the pod himself. So if the raiders are fool hearted enough to be firing guns, me and Holly will cover you long enough to close the gap. If it comes to hand to hand, we protect Holly. Everyone clear?"

A round of affirmatives went around, and Terry continued. "Canith, could you discern a goal that the raiders were working towards, or any thoughts?"

Canith thought hard, looking at the security feeds. One point stood out to him. "Why did the raiders not just kill everyone. In fact, why is there no dead showing up at all?" He had Aura, through the active link, scroll through the security logs. "Oh, damn. It was an inside job. They didn't blow their way in, they walked right in. And though they are scavenging for supplies, one crew looks to be trying to get into that lower lab, and not having much luck."

Said team was working with all manner of pry bars, cutters, and drills. Thus far it didn't look like they had managed to breech the door, but there was many scratches and burns in it. As he was staring, the Captain peaked his head in. "Team 4, your primary objective is that lab. That is where the distress signal came from, and from what I gather where the remainder of the scientists are at. Meet up in the cargo bay in 15 minutes. We are on final approach." With that, he retracted his head and walked back towards the bridge. Everyone in the room gave a final nod, and they filed out of the room, the security feeds still running in the tanks.

:Aura, please track the progress of all the teams, giving aid where you can. If you need me to relay to anyone, just tell me.:

Aura responded quickly. :My primary focus will be on you though. Come back alive.: Canith just grinned, a rather savage smirk that bared more then a little fang.