FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Knights in Shining Armor are men who have never had their mettle truly tested.

Chapter 2: First Fight

Attention: You are ten minutes from arrival in the T'Ber system

I nod and finish the food I'm eating. A few steaks to get me the energy I'm going to need since I think that this is going to be a long operation. I leave the plates my steaks were on there on the table along with the cutlery and head for the bridge, once again putting on my helmet. Once in the pod and back in my command interface, I look at the ETA counter. Five minutes. I look around and see not only my teammates' ships, but also our escorts, which had linked up with us after we had left the Solath star system. After all, escorts aren't allowed in the newbie system. Four Nimrods, two for both me and Orion, and a single Gunnerside class Special Mission Battleship, an escort that had finally arrived for Arya.

The Gunnerside is nothing to write home about in terms of ship beauty. Being the first SpecOps capital ship of the commando line, it's essentially a Missouri class battleship with flight pods. A boxy cylinder in shape, with six main gun turrets, three on top and three on bottom. Secondary guns are spaced out among the ship's hull, along with point defenses. Coming out from the sides of the cylinder are a small flight pod, armored for its tier and, once again, situated on armored pylons coming out from the hull. Rather than the single armored pylon that are on all SpecOps commando ships after its tier, these are split into several different pylons, one on top, middle, and bottom of the deck. It's a solid ship for a level 50 commander to hop into if they want to go SpecOps and can match a dreadnaught in firepower and tanking, though it lacks any spinal weapons.

We're still without battleships, cruisers, and destroyers...even the limited number we could put around us would help out greatly in a true formation battle, but we were on covert ops before this whole thing and didn't hire any to bring with us.

"All good here." I send out to my team, "How are you two doing?"

"Back and ready to rock!" Orion says, and I can see his profile picture grinning a bit.

"How are we going to do this?" Arya asks.

"Give me a minute and I'll tell you. First, I need to get Elsa in the team, if it's possible." I say as I bring up my personal menu and then go to my friends list. Once in it, I send a team invite to Elsa Bright. It takes a minute but it's accepted.

"Hello?" I hear from her. Her profile picture looks a bit worried.

"We're...three minutes out from the system" I say to her. "Give us another five and we'll be in orbit. Where are you?"

"Panic room inside my house." She says. "Drakkenhold soldiers are fighting with my guards but they haven't gotten through the internal shield yet. It's at 20% though. That's why I'm in here."

Internal shields are the primary line of defense for a house. They block anyone who isn't supposed to be in there from getting in. Usually, they are only in place to keep rodents out, but they keep out burglars just fine. Larger homes for more influential or richer people also have security guards who tie into the shield network to investigate any attempted breaks. Against an assault though, that's another story. Likely the Drakkenholders are using a low power beam to drain the shield, something strong enough to do so while being weak enough to not demolish the house when they break through.

We drop out of ISJ and immediately a new quest pops up in our field of view.

New Quest from Draconic Kingdom. Designating as Culture Shock due to no quest name being assigned by the assigner.

Well, that doesn't bode well. It means that the quest is actually a demand by the assigning people rather than a job offer you can accept or decline. I have a very bad feeling about this.

This message is being sent to all mercenary draconic Chosen who have not joined the Draconic Armed Forces: By decree of the Royal House of Drako, all draconic Chosen are hereby instructed to report to their nearest starbase for integration into the regular forces of the Draconic Kingdom. The Royal House is aware that Chosen originally inhabited a different culture than the ones in this Universe. Integration classes, lands, possible titles, and conversion of draconic guilds into draconic Houses are available for eligible Chosen with sufficient Standing and Rank. Failure to comply with this order will result in severe consequences. You have two days from receipt of this message to report in.

**Objective: Choose a side: Loyalist or Rebel

Upon Choosing Loyalist: Your faction standing with the Draconic Kingdom will increase by five points. You will be listed as a part of that faction.

Upon Choosing Rebel: Your faction will be set to unaligned. You will lose all standing with the Draconic Kingdom and will be hunted by Kingdom military forces while in Kingdom space.**

**Reward: XP Gain (Minor), Finalize Character

Special Reward Due to High Standing (7.8) and Rank (Admiral): Create Minor House**

This Quest has been automatically accepted and was issued to all Draconic Chosen still in Kingdom Territory. Be advised, all governments know Chosen are not of their universe.

Dammit, I knew that the Draconic Kingdom was technically the bad guy kingdom. Not the true evil of the orcs, goblins, and other roaming mobs out in space, but still tyrannical, imperialistic, and militaristic thanks to the House that currently runs the nation. If things get too bad, another House will rise up and overthrow them after gaining strength and allies. In many ways, dragons are the Klingons of this universe. Luckily for us Chosen, you could pick and choose what quests you accepted and whether or not you were loyal to your faction or a mercenary by choosing to join that faction or by leaving it behind. You start off in whatever faction your species belongs to and only get the option to go the mercenary route at level 31 when you buy a battlecruiser. Being a capital ship commander gives you some measure of independence, after all! Plus, this update was supposed to add in the ability to change factions. For example, it was going to make it so a dragon could join the United Packs of Furthen, which is the canine faction. Several lions and some dragons were planning on doing just that, the UP is the only actual Republic in the game. With the game turning into real life, we certainly do have the ability to change factions now!

Still, the idea of forming a draconic House. That would be interesting. His thoughts drift to the other races though. If he were to make his own draconic House, other races may be more standoffish to him. It'll reduce his ability to get contracts among those other races. If he loses all standing with the Draconic Kingdom, though, a large part of his paid contracts goes out the door, especially since he thinks the player wars are all about to come to an end.

**New Quest: The Shepard

You are the leader of a group containing the only Chosen who have completed the 'Far Away Home' limited-time exploration quest. The quest 'The Shepard' is a unique quest given to you based upon your quest history. No other Chosen have access to this quest.**

You have been summoned to this Universe, but what happened to those who brought you here? You know where the Magi live: Earth. Return home and all things will be explained.

**Objective: Lead your team and anyone who chooses to follow you to Earth.

Reward: XP Gain and Credits (Variable: Number of Chosen In Area Upon Completion), Lore, Access to Previously Unknown Claimable Star Systems, Unique Spawn Zone, 2 Hidden Rewards**

Time Limit: 6 Months

This Quest has been automatically accepted.

Share with Party?

Yes|No

Well, that one is a no brainer. With those kinds of rewards, I would be foolish to refuse it! Hidden rewards are something you don't pass up. You may not know what they are, but it's always better than the standard rewards that are given for a quest. Not only that, I would rather not join the in-game equivalent to the Empire. Hell, all of the factions have their serious downsides. Even the UP has a few downsides, namely that there's citizenship tiers, racial biases among the populations, and that slavery is legal among all the factions out among the stares. That's a pretty major blemish among...wait...an idea hits me. It's a bit morally dubious, but still, it's an idea. I check my inventory and look at my credits. Yeah, I should have enough for this.

I also share the quest with the party.

"Holy crap, dude! You got a unique quest?!" Orion calls out. "That's awesome!"

"I'm all for making a House. I don't want to risk those _lionesses_getting their hands on you two if we have to leave dragon space." Arya says.

I nod in agreement. "Hold off on making your decision for the Culture Clash quest. It's something we'll discuss after we finish getting Elsa off that moon." I say. There's pros and cons to both sides, and it's not something that can easily be determined.

"Wow." Elsa says. "I'm going to start streaming now. These guys are almost through my shields. It'll let you know exactly where I am if you can watch the stream too." She says, and as she does so, a notification comes up saying that Elsa Bright had begun to stream. I set that aside, I don't need to watch her stream to know where she is. As a group member, she has a little marker on our maps letting us know where she is.

"Set course for T'Raven." I say to the group. Looking over at my navigation pane, I select the moon and align my ship towards it. Aligning is done so a formation can enter FTL together and emerge at the same time. The other ships of my formation and those of my friends line up, running the same direction I am going. With a single command, I send the entire formation into warp to head straight for the moon of T'Raven, knowing deep in my heart that we're about to get into a firefight with a moderately influential draconic house. My mind races almost as fast as our ships do as they cross the star system, trying to figure out a way to minimize the standing loss if at all possible. I come up with a way to at least mitigate the faction impact. "Elsa, I'm going to send you a contract right now." I say, pulling up a contract template. I quickly type out her name in the appropriate field, using the function to convert what I'm saying in my head to text.

**_Contract for Mercenary Action for Chosen

Hiring Party: Elsa Bright

Contract Objective: Evacuate Elsa Bright and any other persons Elsa Bright Dictates from House Drakkenhold territory using any and all necessary force.

Description: House Drakkenhold has engaged in hostilities against Elsa Bright and her guards and threatens to enslave her. These actions have forced Elsa Bright to hire mercenary Chosen to remove her from the situation using any force necessary.

Reward: Repayment in full of debts owed by Aquila Phoenix to Elsa Bright._**

By acknowledging this contract with a return message of 'I acknowledge and accept this contract' you enter into a fully binding contract with Aquila Phoenix and his group and are obligated to meet the terms of this agreement.

I send it off to her and say 'Sent'. I'm so quick at filling them out, especially since I just have to tap the proper spots and dictate to myself what will be put in there, that it only takes me a few minutes. This should cover our asses with the Kingdom. After all, there's standing with a faction, then there's standing with the factions that make up that faction. It's like how a company works in the real world. Excite Oil, my dad's company, is a case in point. It loves Texas due to its business environment. Texas loves having the company there due to the tax revenue from its workers and its business. Their relationship with Texas would be high, like in the 7 to 8 range. However, it was headquartered in California and left the state after bashing the crap out of it. The state kept reducing its standing with the company due to its anti-oil laws it kept putting into place, and yet tried to keep the company there because it liked the tax revenue. So, the company had a standing with the state that was in the 7 or 8 range, but the state kept on having its standing in the company fall off. When the company left and bashed the state, its standing fell to, oh, a 1, but the overall government loves the oil company because it provides most of the refining capacity the country has, so it's standing with the nation is still high.

Ping

Message from Elsa Bright. Open? Yes|No

That was quick. I thought-click Yes.

I, Elsa Bright, acknowledge and accept this contract.

Well, that makes things easier.

"Elsa, are you able to make it to your shuttle?" Orion asks over the group comms. Elsa, who appeared to have been talking but not into our group chat, suddenly pipes up, saying, "Yes, I think I can. Shield is at 10%."

"Get in it if you can." Orion says, "We're just about there. If they corner you, just surrender. We'll get you out."

She nods, then we hear her speaking, saying, "That was Orion Phoenix, everyone. He and Aquila Phoenix are coming to try to get me off this moon before..." And with that, her feed to us is muted as she speaks to her stream. I do wonder how many are watching, but with it likely we're about to drop into a combat situation, I don't have the time to pull it up.

As we drop out of warp, the moon springs up in front of us, a blue orb with spots of green, with a gas giant behind it, both lit up from the light of the star behind us. In front of the moon? Two Nelson class dreadnaughts, one Fuso class dreadnaught, one Kuznetsov class carrier, ten Missouri class battleships, and twenty cruisers. There are also fighters out on patrol. An impressive force, more than capable of defending the planet against any orc raid that came its way.

"Unknown vessels, this is Captain Marven of Task Force Silver, part of the T'Raven Defense Force. Identify yourself." Comes the hail. I blink at this. Aren't our IFF's visible to them? Plus, they're broadcasting in the clear. That means everyone in the nearby area and on the moon can hear it. A quick look over at the profile pics of my team members shows that Elsa has stopped talking and is listening.

"Task Force Silver, this is Admiral Aquila Phoenix of the Whispering Death, leading Task Force Phoenix_._ We are here responding to a mercenary contract given to us by Elsa Bright to extract her from this world and escort her to her next destination. Please stand down and allow us passage." I say back in as commanding a tone as I can muster. Somehow, I feel nervous about the coming battle. Still, I can't let them hear that. I need to seem strong, confident, and commanding. Still, Task Force Phoenix? Couldn't I have come up with a better name? FUCK.

"Negative, Phoenix. You are not authorized to interfere in the internal affairs of House Drakkenhold." Comes the response almost immediately. Wow, didn't even buy the line about us being there on a merc contract to escort her from A to B. Then I realize he had just said 'Phoenix.' Not 'Admiral Phoenix', just 'Phoenix.' This pisses me off a bit. I should have guessed that this guy was part of the House's forces. Still, such a cold dismissal, and not even using my title. I worked hard to reach the rank of Admiral. Way to prove the point that if you didn't join the faction militaries and instead went mercenary, the factions don't really respect you.

"Not the smartest way to talk to the heavily armed group that just dropped in on your head." I send back to him, "I wasn't asking permission. You will stand aside and allow us to continue our mission without your interference. Failure to comply will result in the destruction of your task force."

"They're launching fighters." Arya calls out over our private comms.

"Launch ours."

"Negative, Phoenix. Reverse course immediately and leave the system. Further encroachment will result in your ships being fired upon." Comes the response, accompanied by indicators around their ship icons letting me know they've locked my ship with their targeting scanners. This means gun crews on those ships will know I'm a hostile that they can shoot when the order is given to fire and that any guided missiles they have a general area to travel to until the ships lose lock. Still, I'm not worried about missiles.

I command my fighters to launch. Eighty fighters rocket out of the sides of my flight pods, turning and getting into their formations alongside my ship as it closes with the enemy. My Nimrods are launching their fighters as well. After a few minutes more, eighty more fighters launch from my ship. The launches are fast and as we get close to weapons range, with the entire time to launch all fighters taking about five minutes in total. How it happens so fast, I have no idea. Still, can't complain about it. All of my fighters, all two hundred of them, are in space and ready. That's when I realize I deployed them as fighters, not as a mixture. I look over and see that Orion has launched some bombers. It looks like he made most of his force be bombers, launching 160 of them, his first two launch groups. Everything else is fighters, 700 in total from our ships and our escorts.

Looking at the scanner, I can see that there are 480 fighters coming towards our formation from Task Force Silver. The tier difference is telling in our favor in this fight. These guys are the House guards? With that low a tier and small number of ships? There's still a few minutes until engagement range. "Valkyrie, tell me what House Drakkenhold is known for in the Draconic Kingdom." I say to my AI, muting my group communications.

"House Drakkenhold provides information and limited economic backing to various Houses in the Kingdom. They are not known as a military or economic power and instead focus on the cultural aspect of the Kingdom." Valkyrie responds.

Explains why Elsa got close to them. As a streamer, she'd be in on all the culture stuff. They are in her circle, as it is. Still, that means these guys are either the barebones military force that they felt they needed or, more likely, a mercenary force.

"Task Force Silver, this is your last chance to stand down. Failure to comply will result in the destruction of your task force. This is your final warning." I send to them.

No response. I send clearance to my fighters to open fire when they're in range. If that's how they want to be, then we'll play it the hard way. "Orion, set your escorts to guard Arya. She may need them." I say to him. He doesn't respond as he gets to it, but I see it when his escorts turn and take up station next to Arya. I then look forward and see the swarm of fighters going towards our fighters and set my two escorts to fighter interdiction. As the two waves of fighters close into range of one another, missiles start launching from both sides, targeting each other. The fighters start wild maneuvers in all directions as missiles are launched and explosions start lighting up the space between and inside the two groups as missiles are intercepted or intercept their targets.

As I watch the dogfight starting to rage, missiles sweep into view from the periphery of my view, interceptor missiles launched from my escorts. A few of the cruisers closer to the fray are launching their own missiles from the enemy side. Hell, almost all of them are. Interesting...missiles aren't a part of the PD package for cruisers. They must have missile tubes equipped as secondaries. That explains the lack of destroyers. I set my own ship's point defense interceptors to engage the enemy fighters, then refocus on the enemy as the whooshing sound of missiles launching comes to my ears. "Ey Orion, set your interceptor missiles to engage the enemy fighters."

"R-right! I knew that." He says, and shortly after his own missiles start to fire. Same from Arya's ship as she picks up on it.

"Arya, the carrier." I say to her. Time to show them we aren't going to rely on our small craft for this fight.

Looking over, I see Arya's ship reorient a little bit. The ship glows a bit as she activates her ability, powering up her spinal cannon shot. Unlike the Ships of the Line, who have abilities around their primary and secondary batteries as well as buffing their survivability, Sniper specs have abilities that buff up their spinal cannon attacks. The shot fires from Arya's ship and spears straight into the Kuznetsov. She's a full tier higher than that ship, and a Chosen to boot. The round blasts the carrier's shields apart, penetrates deep into the hull, and detonates inside, causing near catastrophic damage to the ship.

"Damn, almost a one shot." I say, "Nice hit." The indicators show it has no shields left and that its hull is at 10%. The carrier itself starts to drift, no longer powered as the shock of the impact caused its main reactors to shut down rather than detonate catastrophically. I zoom my view in on it. The carrier is moving slowly forward, lights flickering on the ship as emergency power struggles to stay on, a great gaping hole on the front of the ship. Holy crap, she had put her shot right into the hangar! The ship was lucky to still be there. As I watch, smoke, bodies, and assorted junk starts drifting out of the hole that was made when the round impacted. This was never in the game, though I find it's ghoulishly fascinating. The same urge you get when you pass by a major wreck on the road, the desire to slow down and just gape at the damage. It's constantly leaking these things, meaning there's fires burning inside. A lot of them. That ship is out of the fight. Immediately after the hit, a full hundred and fifty fighters on the enemy side lose power. They keep going on their ballistic trajectories along their direction of travel.

Suddenly, a beep sounds, causing me to jump a bit.

**You have engaged in open hostilities with military units belonging to House Drakkenhold of the Draconic Kingdom.

Standing Losses:**

**Draconic Kingdom: No Loss (-0.5 due to firing on a House aligned with the Ruling House, +0.5 due to giving warning about mercenary contract and giving sufficient warning to local forces)

Current Standing: 7.8

No impact to current quest rewards.**

**House Drakkenhold: -3.0 (-2.0 for engaging with House Forces, -1.0 for engaging in combat over House Capital)

Current Standing: 1.0**

And now we're on Drakkenhold's shit list. I think to myself. The fighter battle appears evenly matched and our attackers are making their way to launch position. I look over at Arya and see her ship fire its spinal weapon again, the shot racing across space and slamming into one of the dreadnaughts, the Fuso. Its shields stay up but I can see from the reading that it's down to about 40% shields.

"Orion, when we get into spinal range, target that dreadnaught that Arya's shooting at." I say.

"Gotchya, we'll be opening up in about a minute." He responds back.

"Boys, there is a shit ton of fighters coming up out of the atmosphere of that moon." Arya says. I don't see it yet, but I can well imagine. "Must be a hangar structure down there somewhere. Arya, can you get a bit closer to the moon and scan its surface?" I ask.

"Already am." She says as she boosts ahead a bit, catching even with us as we move forward at combat speed. A few minutes later and she speaks up again. "I'm picking up five hundred fighters coming up, three hundred appear to be from from three structures spread across the side of the planet facing us. Reading a couple dozen PDT's with SOM sites at each." I nod at this. A capital world for a House would have Planetary Defense Turrets and Surface to Orbit Missile sites.

Makes sense, those are the hangars. "Take Orion's escorts and snipe 'em, we'll take on the ships." I send to her, then look at the range indicator. We're coming up into range now. "Orion, let's show them who they're fuckin' with." I switch my shields to double front and give my spinal mounts the fire command.

While Arya is our sniper, able to both detect and engage targets farther away than we can as well as buff up her spinal gun's damage so it matches the damage of a spinal gun from the tier above hers, she's still only in an Apache. That's two tiers down from us. We have the spinal mounts of a ship of the line a tier above her, meaning we actually have a bit more firepower than she does. It'll change when she tiers up, but still...

On either side of my main forward hull, the spinal guns flare up. Though I can't see it from my camera angle, the enemy would see a pair of blue dots getting rapidly brighter, noting where each spinal mount is. A lance of energy stabs out from the cannons on either side of my ship, racing out and slamming into the enemy Fuso. Yeah, I splurged with my ship and got particle beams. Orion did too! The thing is, with that M/AM reactor, we can afford the enormous power usage and still have a damn strong primary and secondary setup. Most ships will use a kinetic as a spinal so that it isn't at a disadvantage when the enemy closes, because they always close in.

The enemy Fuso is preparing its own shot, which appears to be another, smaller particle beam. The ship itself is shaped a little like a shark, with a large central area, engines to the rear, and 'fins' on top and bottom like a shark's fins, coming out from a large, prism shaped primary hull. Those fins are laden down with the ship's primary gun turrets with the hull holding its secondaries. The prism fades to a point at the front of the ship, a point that is lighting up red as the shot charges. Too late. My shots hit amidships and Orion's hit straight on. The Fuso's shields shatter under the impacts, the four beams spearing deep into the ship. My shots, which came in at an angle, actually overpenetrate and come out the other side. Orion's shots rip the guts out of the ship and cause both the energy being built up to fire the spinal gun to detonate and the reactor to lose containment. The back half of the ship disappears in a bright flash as the fusion reactor goes, while the front is torn apart, first by the explosive release of the capacitors' energy for the spinal gun, then by secondary detonations of onboard munitions and fuel for the fighters, which launch from a hangar on the bottom hull, positioned between the fins to give the fighters some cover as they launch backwards out of the ship. The top fin is flung farther away than the others as its magazine detonates at the base of the fin, the gas canisters weakened enough by my shots to cause them to fail.

I look at the two Nelsons. They are your typical spaceship kind of design, blocky cylinders covered with weapons and defenses, with engines on the back. The Fuso had more weapons on it thanks to those fins, but less defenses because energy went more to guns. Those Nelsons will be a bit tougher, but not by much. I am about to call out which to engage but then realize that I hadn't designated them One and Two. As I start to do that, their spinal mounts lash out at us, firing kinetic projectiles. The beams could do more damage but require a longer charge time, as the Fuso showed.

Like in all games, you have balance between weapons. Energy weapons in this game are primarily plasma blasters. Energize gas into a plasma bolt and fire it out at a target. Typical thing you'd see in a whole lot of sci fi shows. To get as much bang per shot as possible, a very volatile gas is used to create the plasma for each bolt. They take a bit more energy to fire than a kinetic though, since the gas needs to be ionized and then fired out, as opposed to a railgun which just requires its capacitor to recharge before being fired out. The railgun has three main munitions it can fire: Penetrator, which is essentially a solid slug. It has no explosion risk and can pass straight through a ship if it overpenetrates, not doing much. Then there's explosive, which is the other end of the equation, exploding as soon as it impacts the target. Good against thinly armored targets but will just make a light show against armored ones. Finally, there's the middle ground, an armor piercing explosive. Not as much penetrating power as a penetrator, not as much boom as an explosive, but has the ability to penetrate armor and detonate inside.

The two kinetic rounds from the spinal mounts cross the distance between us and them very quickly. The first round sails underneath Orion's ship, while the second hits his shield just below centerline. Badly aimed shots. These guys must be new to firing the big guns. The shield flares as the round detonates, showing itself to be a PE round. I ignore the other round, knowing it'll go for another few minutes before detonating on its own so it isn't a danger to anyone else.

"Target one." I send to Orion, who doesn't say a word in return. We start spooling up our spinal mounts once more. We'll get one more shot from the guns before we'll be in close range and the gimbles won't shift the aim point enough to catch a target without turning the ship. After a minute of charging, and another pair of impacts on Orion's front shields, we fire again, just as the enemy is unleashing a third volley of spinal gunfire. Our four particle beams slam into the Nelson labeled '1', shattering its shields and ripping the ship in half. The other Nelson gets off another shot at us, then we're into primary weapons range.

Without even the need to be ordered, my main guns and the main guns on Orion's ship, the Wraith, orient to the second Nelson and start firing, hurling bolts of plasma out at the enemy dreadnaught. A deep fwoom kind of sound as my rounds are fired. Oh, that's just a cool, basey sound that tells me the power of the weapon that's firing. As if to accentuate that, the highly energized nature of our extra-large primaries makes the bolts themselves a blue color. The enemy's shields light up and it returns fire, kinetic rounds lashing out at us and exploding on our shields. The sheer noise of the explosions, while not enough to hurt my ears, is enough to put me in the right mindset. This is a real fight! Course, with it being kinetics that's being fired at me by the Nelson's primaries, that means the majority of the Nelson's energy is going to defense systems. I watch as the ship's shields steadily lower on my display as we close with each other. That's when additional explosions start to light up my shields. The battleships are laying into us now, firing their large guns at us. Again, kinetics.

"How you doin' over there, bro?" Orion asks, keeping an eye on my shield indicator. It's down to 50%. I don't want to use my abilities on this though, the target is two tiers under me, dammit! Better by far to not use any ability and give their bosses the feeling that their forces were such a non-issue that we Chosen didn't need to use our abilities to beat them.

"Enjoying the light show." I say back to Orion, keeping my voice as steady as I can. I look over at the battleships, panning the view to focus on one of them as I think about it. The boxy cylinder with primaries on top and bottom. Missouri class ships...and all those guns are aimed at me and firing. I don't even look at the cruisers. Normally, they're no threat to anything underneath the tier line, the line on the ship chart that is the start of CapSpecs. These cruisers are slightly more dangerous, each missile packs the punch of a cruiser's main cannon, but they can be picked off by point defenses once fired and missiles that small don't have much gas.

"Ah, is that why you're leaving your escorts out of the fight?" He asks and I blink, then look back at them. Sure enough, they had broken formation and were staying between us, our fight with the Nelson, and the fighter battle, popping off missiles at fighters.

"Fuck!" I shout, then facepalm, which makes Orion start to laugh at my expense! I had gotten so wrapped up in the moment that I forgot all about them! If I had remembered to turn them off fighter interdiction and onto escorting us, the Nelson would be dead by now. And since it's AI controlled, not crew controlled, the ship won't take the initiative! "Fuck fuckidy-fuckfuckfuck. Just keep shooting the bastard. If I call them in now it'll make it look like the Nelson is more than we thought it'd be."

"Yeah, but those battleships would be a different story." Orion says back. With a sigh, I have to admit he has a point. The battleships joining the fray surprised me a bit. I had been completely focused on the Nelson and forgotten about them! That was stupid of me! Even though they pack much less firepower than the Nelson, enough of them can still batter down my shields if something isn't done about them. In a fight like this, every scrap of DPS can make a difference. And here I am putting that aside. Sure the bombers will come in and kill a good number of them, but it's supposed to be task force on task force, not two ships rushing in headlong like some noobs fresh out of World of Battleships. Seeing that the attackers we had launched earlier to flank around are starting to launch their missiles, I set it so that the two escorts will fire on the remaining enemy escorts after the attackers finish their run.

At two missiles per attacker, a wave of 380 missiles streaks out towards the enemy escorts who had been screening against the fighter battle too. The cruisers form up close around the battleships and point defenses start firing, small railguns shooting out rounds to hit the incoming missiles and small fields of constant flak fire popping up between each ship and the incoming missiles. The missiles part, jinking up and down, side to side, and rapidly changing course to try to go around the flak field and throw off any point defense fire. The whole thing looks like something out of Macross!

The fields shift, trying to catch the missiles. They do a decent job of it, considering they weren't able to form up into an actual PD formation. Two thirds of the missiles fall to the flak and PD fire, but the remaining missiles sweep through the battleships and cruisers, shrouding them in nuclear fire. Nukes have a nice way of dealing damage, relying on one of two ways to cause it. The first, most obvious one is from direct hits. These nukes are eighty kilotons in yield or something close to it, if I'm remembering lore right. That's a lot of damage to place on a hull, even if it isn't a shaped charge. The second way is by absorbing the heat and radiation from detonating close by and causing a ship's shields to fail, giving their crews lethal doses of radiation and melting hull armor. After the missile swarm finishes detonating, two battleships and eight cruisers had blown up from direct hits after they lost shields. Two more battleships and all the remaining cruisers show some signs of damage.

The two escorts and all the attackers press in, swarming over the remaining ships even as Orion and I bring that poor remaining Fuso between us. I switch my shields from double front to hull mapping, making the shields swap down to covering the hull and stopping rounds a few feet away from the hull. Nukes won't be a problem at this close range. My secondaries open up as well with medium pitched pops, flashes of EM energy showing every time they launch a projectile at the enemy Nelson. While my primaries are all plasma throwers, my secondaries are railguns. I opted for the balance between the two, a slower firing but higher damage per hit primary battery with a more rapid firing secondary. It's worked well so far, especially when the secondaries are used against battleships and below.

Explosions start to blanket the shields of the Nelson as it fires back at us, its own battlecruiser sized secondary batteries firing back at us, causing more explosions to blanket our own shields. A few interceptor missiles even leap out from the ship, streaking towards the attackers as they work over the remaining escorting ships. A flash from the side causes me to reflexively look and I watch as one battleship finishes shattering, its core having gone critical. Main gun fire from my two Nimrods is slamming into the remaining ships, ripping them to shreds. I bring my focus back over to the main fight, the one between Orion, me, and the Nelson.

When the shields on the Nelson hit 10%, they go to armor reinforcement mode. The shield energy is shunted into the armor then, greatly increasing its resiliency and resistance to incoming fire. Even so, the HP of its hull starts to drop off rapidly with the amount of incoming fire it's taking. Secondaries chip away at its armored hull, repeated shots in the same area able to break through, while main gun fire carves deep into the ship and rips apart critical components. As the ship passes by us, it starts to drift, then loses power entirely as the damage becomes too much for the ship. Either the ship is surrendering or our shots had done enough damage to the reactor system that it was in danger of blowing. Either way, the crew or the ship's AI shut down the reactor. The ship would be on auxiliary or emergency power and no threat to us anymore.

That's when a choice would normally be made: Do you destroy the disabled enemy ship or let it live? In the game, this affected your morality meter. With real life, though, I guess you'd call it a reputation. And we don't have a reputation for destroying ships that are no longer a threat. With the enemy Nelson losing main power, our outbound fire stops. The ship and its crew would survive. I look out at the rest of the battle, just in time to see the final surviving battleship succumb to our attackers. Another ship disabled. The attackers had gone for the enemy's weapon systems and engines, leaving the remaining ships drifting but under power, just defanged and no longer a threat.

"You boys done over there?" Arya calls out to us. I spin around and look back, seeing her closing in on us, Orion's two escorts as well as her single escort flying along in formation.

"Yeah, we're done! Man, that was Intense with a capital 'I'!" Orion says back, clearly riding on an adrenaline rush. Good for him! I had settled into the battle with a calmness I didn't even realize should have been unusual for a life-or-death struggle.

"Yeah, it was like my first big battle in Frontiers all over again." I say to her, giving a smile. I take a moment to glance at my shield indicator and smile. It had gotten only down to 36%.

"Great! Glad you both had fun. I let out a LOT of frustration." She says, smiling. This gets me to look at the moon. There are several spots on it that have been hit by orbital fire.

"You...what did you do to that place?" I asks, awed at the site of there being so much damage I can see it from orbit.

"I tried using surgical strikes with missiles, but they shot them all down. Had to resort to using spinals." She says. I look at her ship, then back at the planet again. While particle beam fire from orbit would be enough to destroy those sites, the ships would have to get close to fire them. I focus on Orion's escorts and see that their shields took a beating. She, however, is fine. Her shots are longer range, firing from outside the PDT's range. Still, a kinetic round going that fast at that size would cause a pretty big boom. No wonder parts of the surface look like a nuke went off.

"You bombarded the moon?!" I shout in surprise. I have a sinking feeling so I check the notification record. When I'm in battle, notifications don't pop up.

**Your group has bombarded the capital of the Drakkenhold House. -3.0 standing with House Drakkenhold.

Current Standing: -2.0

Warning: Your standing with House Drakkenhold has fallen into the negatives. The House will now consider you Hostile.

Standing Gain with the Draconic Kingdom: 1.0 (+3.0 due to two wanted ships destroyed and a third disabled. -2.0 due to bombarding the capital of a House)**

Wait, we gained standing with the Kingdom? What the hell?

"If they're slavers, they're scum. They deserved it." Arya says with finality. She is so certain about that and so self-satisfied with it, even if that would make all the major races into assorted collections of scum.

I look at the location of the furball that had tied up our fighters. Half of our fighters are still remaining, heading back to their respective ships. There are several hundred drifting fighters out there, their connection to their pilots cut off when the buildings were destroyed and the ships either lost power or were themselves destroyed. I then look over at the drifting ships. They had been surprisingly weak for House Guards. Maybe...

"I'm coming out of the atmosphere now!" Elsa calls out, interrupting my train of thought. I see her shuttle then, complete with another shuttle in formation with hers and twenty multirole fighters. All of the fighters and the shuttles are weaving around, which causes me to nod. If they flew in a straight line, the PDTs would be tempted to take a shot. With them maneuvering, given that the sites are designed to engage large ships, they couldn't be guaranteed of a hit, so they hold fire. Seeing she did not get captured is a welcome sight. I did not want to have to threaten to reduce the planet in order to pull her out or go chasing around her fleeing captors and do a boarding action on whatever ship they were on. "That fight was amazing you guys! I was able to use the camera to get it all! My watchers loved it!"

"She sounds excited." Orion says, his voice a bit more subdued, showing he has come down off his rush.

"You have fighters?" I ask her in a conversational tone as I mark her little formation as friendly, "I didn't know Horizons players could have those."

"I know, right?! I didn't know I did until my guards asked how many should be in the fighters versus how many should be in the shuttles. Apparently, I have quite a few to do security during my events." She says, "Which one are you so I know where to land us all?"

"You still streaming?" I ask as I put an icon my ship for her using a group icon.

"Nope, I stopped the stream once it looked like the fight was over so I could focus on getting onboard." She has a definite smile in her voice. Looking at her profile picture with her face on it, I can see a big smile on her face. Understandable, she just slipped by becoming a guy's sex slave by the skin of her teeth.

"My fighters won't dock until after you and your people have docked. Pick a pod and settle in." I then look at Orion. "Can you start picking up the drifting fighters so we can make up our losses?" I ask him.

"Gotchya bro!" With that, he starts getting to work, ship starting to head towards the drifting fighters.

"Before you go, why did Simbastard say that he couldn't come help? I know he's a lion and we're in dragon space but still." Elsa says, sounding a bit confused.

"It may not seem like it on the ground in Horizons, but in Frontiers, the racial animosities are much more...intense. If he came into Kingdom space, he'd have probably been shot at." Arya says to her. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I'll answer what I can."

"I will too! Been in the game as long as Aquila!" Orion says with his usual enthusiasm.

Ping

New Message from Simba Stard. Open? Yes|No

Well, that's a new one. Simb4st4rd, a lion player. He's at level 74 and is the leader of one of the larger lion guilds. I had worked with him before, a hired gun in a war between two of their prides on the edge of draconic space. I set my ship to follow Orion and push the yes button.

Aquila,

I assume that the dragons are doing the same thing as the lions and forcing all the chosen to join up or get hunted down by the military. I've contacted several major guild leaders and we had a conference about it. I think that Madra Vein and her Fiery Rage guild are going to join up with the Kingdom. Like the good lap dog he is, Sharlen Bomb is going to bring the Striking Talons with her. They said they were going to form a House if possible. With how many players they have in their guilds, they may just get it.

For the guilds in the Confederation, I'm not going to join up and most of the guys in my guild aren't going to either. They don't like that the Confeds want us to give up command of our own ships and guild to lionesses the government has decided we have to join prides with. Can you believe that? They even gave me the whole 'a good lion stays home with the kids and leaves the fighting to the lionesses' bullshit. Liara Felora of the Flying Leopards is going to join the Confederation until she has gotten all the players who don't want to be in there, but are forced to stay in it, out. I don't know what she's going to do after that's done. Hell, I don't even know if she'll succeed, they're all about prides and pride size is a big status symbol here. She doesn't even have a guy! They may just laugh at her and try to pride her off too. She says she has a plan but didn't go into detail.

Oak Longbreath and Shining Hull are going to keep the wolves and herbivores in a big, unified group over at the United Packs. With all the wolves and equine players in one big group, they'll have a lot of throw weight in the UP and think they can set themselves up pretty good there. The smaller guilds are all working with his Pack of the Chosen guild, a lot have already merged into it.

If you decide not to join your Kingdom, let me know. You're welcome out in the Fringe with my guild even if you don't join. I'm heading there now to fortify it and take a flotilla over to the Arborea system. You left a message yesterday saying it is right outside the fringe and that you cleared it of orcs. We'll make sure the Horizons players are all safe. I didn't tell anyone at the meeting about the system, I wanted to sit on the information until I knew which way they'd jump.

If you gather up any more Horizons players, feel free to bring them out to Arborea. Same with any Frontiers players you find. Any who come with you if you come out here are welcome. None of our bottleneck guards will give you any trouble at all.

Drop a line to let me know what you'll do!

With a nod at this, thinking about my own course. Liara's idea to join her faction so she can funnel out Chosen who don't want to stay is a good idea, especially with what I just saved Elsa from. I rub my chin and think about it for a minute, then go back into the notifications, scrolling up on them past the standing loss for bombarding T'Raven.

Close-range scans reveal the forces you are engaging are known pirates wanted by the Kingdom.

**You have destroyed the Dreadnaught Killing Fire, commanded by pirate D'Ravik.

Kingdom Standing Increase: 1.0

Bounty Payout: 51,000,000 credits split among your group**

**You have destroyed the Dreadnaught _Treasure Horde_commanded by pirate M'Virk.

Kingdom Standing Increase: 1.0

Bounty Payout: 48,000,000 Credits split among your group**

**You have disabled the Dreadnaught _Black Fire_commanded by pirate S'Mik.

Kingdom Standing Increase: 1.0

Bounty Payout: 50,000,000 Credits split among your group

Additional Standing and Bounty to be given should you turn her over to the Kingdom rather than destroy her floating wreck.**

I scroll back up in the messages and find the escort carrier we took out early on. While it's not a named ship, it does give us another million apiece. I tag the disabled escort carrier and dreadnaught, as well as their escorts, and report them to the Kingdom.

**Report of disabled Wanted persons sent. Ships on the way.

Standing gain with Draconic Kingdom: +1.5 (+0.25 for capturing Wanted pirate, +1.25 for salvage of 1 dreadnaught (0.75) and one escort carrier (0.5)**

The payout notification puts an end to all conversation happening in my group chat.

"Woah, look at the bounties we just got." Orion says in a bit of a surprised tone. "Those guys were pirates? Over a faction capital? They acted like House Guards, though."

"I think House Drakkenhold is going to have some unpleasant questions to answer to the Kingdom." I say, getting nods from Arya and Orion and a puzzled look from Elsa.

"So, what's the plan?" Orion asks. "I know you've been thinking about something."

I sigh a bit. Straight to the point. "Well, I'm thinking we should join the Kingdom for now." I see Arya about to speak up and hold up a hand. "Hold on, let me explain. There could be others like Elsa out here, forced to join or become slaves. Liara of the Flying Leopards over in Confed space is going to join the Confeds and funnel Chosen who don't want to be in the factions out of Confed territory. We could do the same here. The only problem will be Madra. Simbastard thinks she's going to be angling to make her own draconic House."

"Yeah, that'd be a problem. Chick always wanted us in her guild, but if she gets a House, she could order us to join. We refuse without joining the Kingdom, we're branded as rebels." Orion doesn't look to happy with that, despite him being the one who said it.

I nod in response. "Unfortunately for her, I have enough standing with the Kingdom that if I were to join up, I'd get my own House. I'm thinking we go to the military starbase next system over, dock, and accept the call to join the Kingdom. Then we form a House. After that, we start trying to get newbies out to us. We'll also keep an eye out for Horizons players. Arborea is about to be under Simbastard's control and he's staying out of all the factions. He's said we can send anyone who doesn't want to stay in the Kingdom to him and he'll make sure they're taken care of."

I see Orion thinking about this, but Arya is glaring at me. "What is it, Arya?" I ask while getting ready for the explosion.

"You want to join up with a slave holding faction?!" She snaps.

"They're all slaveholding, or most of them are. This way, we can buy up any Chosen who are enslaved, free them, and send them out of Kingdom space." That stops Arya's comeback she was about to shout out, enough that she shuts her jaws with an audible 'click'.

"We become an underground railroad of sorts." She says, the gears turning in her head as she thinks about this.

"If you add me to your House, I can help with that." Elsa says, surprising all of us. I had been certain she wanted to be shipped off to the Fringe to be with the other Horizons players in Arborea. "There are plenty of draconic Horizons players here in Kingdom territory. I'll put out a call over the same thing I stream on, telling them where to go to meet up with us after you form the House and get me in it with you." She says, looking directly at me.

"Woah, quite the power play there, Elsa." Arya says teasingly, prompting the streamer to break into a blush. The blush itself interests me. It's not a pink one, but a lighter blue glow! It fits her light blue and white scale coloration nicely!

"I...I..." Elsa says in weak protest but is blushing so hard she can't seem to pull herself together.

I clear my throat. "Have we finished salvaging everything?" I ask. The silence as they look back and forth at each other is telling. "Okay, let's get to it then."

A few minutes later, shuttles leave my flight pods, heading out for the drifting fighters. It takes about ten minutes for the shuttles to get all the fighters we need to replenish our losses onboard, but after that, we set course out of the system and to the next one over. There's a Kingdom starbase there not tied to any faction. I set the autopilot, hit the command to leave my pod, and then bring up the message Simbastard send, hitting reply.

Sup dude! I've read your message and that's a lot to throw around. With everything changing, it's good to know that plans are being drawn up.

I like the idea that Liara is taking with her guild, so I'm going to do the same thing here since we don't know what Madra is going to be doing. I have the standing even to form up a House. My team has agreed to do so with me.

We also rescued a Horizons streamer, you know the one. Elsa Bright. She was about to be enslaved by House Drakkenhold when she made a contract with us and we exectuted it. Arya got a bit carried away and bombarded their capital, but we got Elsa out. We'll be heading over to the nearest Kingdom military base to sign up and accept the House creation offer. I'll start funneling any Chosen or Horizons players who don't want to stay in the Kingdom out to you. If we need to think up some excuse to explain their disappearances, we can come up with something. I'll get you more info when I have it and keep an ear to the ground for any info on what's going on.

Laters.

I open my eyes and turn to leave the pod, only to see a light blue dragoness with white markings, golden blonde hair flowing freely down from her head, wearing in a tube top and a short skirt, standing right outside my pod, waiting for me to leave, a smile on her draconic face that shows plenty of teeth. Now, I know intellectually that I should be scared of that predatory smile, it's the stuff of things that would kill and eat a normal human, but instead I find myself smiling back as I retract my helmet.

"Elsa, how are yo-" I'm cut off as she flings herself at me, wraps her arms around me, and kisses me fully on the lips. No tongue, but still, a kiss! The first one I've had as a dragon and it's definitely just a bit awkward, but a kiss!

She breaks off the kiss and, still hugging me, says, "I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me! I can't imagine the life I would have been facing but now I don't have to. I owe you big time."

"D-don't mention it." I tell her, giving a nervous smile. "Want the grand tour of the ship?" I am desperate at this point to get her off me so that I can step out of the pod. "Also, the goop is getting on you."

She breaks the hug and looks down at her outfit, then smirks and shrugs. "What is 'goop'?" She asks.

"The gel that fills the pod when I command my ship. It's the best way to describe it. When I go into combat in the future, you'll have your own pod." It's a standard thing, all stations with actual crew have pods that fill up with the stuff. Not only does it allow for better handling, the stuff dulls the shocks and jolts of impact a ship can take in battle.

"Can I be in yours?" She asks, smiling impishly.

What?

"No, I don't think that'd work. Besides, I move around a lot in there. You see..." I go into an explanation of how the system inside the pod works as I walk towards the lift at the back of the bridge. I want to go to the cafeteria and get some food in me. Everything that happened today has me surprisingly hungry! I finish explaining the camera and ship controls to her by the time I get to the cafeteria, and she has paid attention to every single bit of it.

"I understand. It sucks I can't be in your pod with you though. You think maybe a pod I'll be in will have similar controls?" She asks, smiling.

"I honestly don't know, I've never gotten in a passenger pod." I say in return, going to the replicator. I'm about to replicate up some steaks when she steps up to it and looks at me. "What do you like?" She asks.

"I was gonna get a steak and..." I stop as she turns, calls up some raw steaks, then takes them and walks back into the kitchen area, holding the plate they appeared on. The replicator silently replaces the plate with another in its stock as we go back there.

"What are you doing?" I ask in as mild a tone as I can manage. Something deep inside me is causing me to be a little alarmed that she took my food! It's something that I am trying to squash down, after all I could just replicate more, but still! Another part of me is excited, a female dragon with my food, heading into the kitchen?

"I'm cooking your steaks, what else would I be doing? It's the least I can do to thank you." She says, then gets a little bit of a blush on her cheeks. "What?"

"I...uhhhh..." I say, showing just how articulate I can be. Why is this making me feel so nervous?

She smiles. "Go out there and sit down." She says, flashing me a coy smile, then she turns and turns on the gas on the stove top. She puffs a bit of her fire over the burner as it pumps up gas to catch it alight, the flame a pure dark blue fading to light blue. Somehow, that makes me feel even _more_nervous! Like, butterflies in my belly nervous! I meekly do as she says though, going out into the cafeteria and taking a seat at a table. I'm focused inward, wondering just why the hell I feel this way!

I can hear it soon after as the steaks start sizzling as she grills them up. And is she...humming? I lean back in my seat, still thinking about it. Calm down, she's just cooking food. She used her own flame though. Why? We only have a few of those per day, though maybe that doesn't matter since it was such a small spurt. I think as I sit there, furiously trying to come up with the why. She seemed adamant about it though, no asking, just saying she's going to do it. That kiss too...wait...

I break into a blush myself as the thought that maybe she is repaying me, and that cooking is just the start of it, enters my mind. Is she going to...nah, there's no way! She's a big-time streamer. There's no way she'd want to...but does she? Gotta stop thinking about this. I'm starting to pop a chubby.

I bring up my menu and try to get lost in going over things about my ship. I can see that my fighter bays are fully stocked, the new fighters ready to go. The secondary guns are slowly ticking up in their munitions counts as my onboard factory section cranks out rounds for them. I take a look over at the gas display. I have a full load of canisters to feed into my plasma throwers, but the stores of hydrogen are starting to run a bit low. It's not surprising, I was at about half before we got sucked into this universe, after all. I pull up the map and look on it for suitable gas giants. Excellent, our destination system has a gas giant that'll work out just fine.

I pull up group comms, surprised at how quiet it is. "Hey Orion, I'm off getting some food. You're group lead for now. Stop us off at the gas giant in the next system, alright?" I say.

Orion doesn't respond audibly. I see in his profile picture that he gives a thumbs up. That's good enough for me. I drop off group comms just as the smell starts to intensify. That smell of a perfectly seasoned and cooked steak. I'd recognize it anywhere. As if on cue, Elsa comes out of the kitchen holding two plates, each one has a pair of steaks on it. She slips the first plate down in front of me, then sits down across from me and watches me, expectantly. My mind flashes back to all the slice of life animes I've ever seen where the girl watches the guy to see how he likes her food.

No, there's no way she is like one of those girls.

I focus down on the steak and take up the fork and knife, cutting a piece off and putting the piece into my mouth. Dammit, she's watching so expectantly, and is she holding her breath? The taste is good, definitely much better than the unseasoned stuff! Nowhere close to how good dad and I can make them, but still not bad! And she cooked it just right! I chew the piece and then swallow it, giving her a smile. "It's good." I tell her, smiling. The smile that crosses her face and the way her eyes light up a bit tells me I gave the right answer! Holy crap, it's like in those animes to a tee!

"I'm glad you like it! I'll be sure to cook more for you going forward, then!" She says enthusiastically. She then goes into eating her steaks as well, missing the stare I'm sending her way. My mind's blank. She's going to cook for me more? It's a second or two before the smell of the steak draws my attention back down to the food.

"There was nowhere near enough seasonings in there. It's not my best. I'll have to check the station's store to see what I can do." She says as she eats. I know from those animes I mentioned to keep my mouth shut and let her go into it. It's a minefield, wading into conversation about a woman's cooking. I don't want to step on one, have it blow up, and ruin my shot at...

Nope! Don't think about that! You've known her, what, two weeks? There's no way she wants to play hide the sausage with you, Alex! I say to myself, focusing on eating. I swallow another bite of steak, then reach out and take hold of a glass of water, taking a drink from it.

"So, where are your quarters?" She asks, causing me to just about choke on the water I was starting to drink. Her laughter at this tells me she had intentionally planned this! I give her the stink eye after swallowing the water down. "What? I'm not opposed to...you know..." She says, blushing a bit more. "You're my knight in shining armor, and a princess always takes care of her knight in shining armor." She says, dropping her voice to a sultry tone when she says 'always', a tone that makes my other head stand up and pay attention. That and the fact that she bent forward to look at me, a sexy, seductive look on her face and her cleavage in full view!

"I...didn't rescue you for that." I say to her, taking another bite of steak, a bigger one, to keep my focus off her and her boobs, which my eyes had been drawn to.

"I know." She says, "And don't hold back on looking. I want you to look at me. Have since we met." She says, getting up and coming over to my side of the table. I watch her as she makes her way around, watching her as she intentionally walks all seductively. Then she slides into my armored lap and brings a hand to my cheek. I am held riveted in place by her when she does this. It's a hell of a superpower! Then her lips close with mine and she's kissing me again, holding it longer this time. As I kiss her, I notice a new scent in the air. Sweet and strong, yet distinctly feminine, with an undercurrent of...the best way I can describe it is the scent reminds me of how the sky smells right when it's about to rain, but with a slight hint on rose.

It's like all restraint I had just took a shot from a spinal gun. Abandon ship! All hands!

The kiss is broken off and she stands up. "How do I get this armor off you?" She demands. With an eagerness I've never had before, I reach down to my belt and push on a single button. My upper leg and hip armor retracts back into the groin guard it was before, then I take it off. She reaches down before I can and pushes a button on my chest, the chest armor retracting into the breastplate. She then takes it off and looks at me, then her eyes slide down my body to my crotch. Upon seeing the bulge I have down there, she reaches out with her clawed fingers, taking hold of the undersuit on either side of that bulge and pulling. The undersuit, however, opens along the seam that stretches down the centerline of the front, exposing the thing she's after!

She steps back a single step, scrunching up her skirt. She then takes hold of her panty straps on either side and pulls the underwear down. I don't even have any attention for it as she is looking at me with such a look of lust and need that I can't tear my eyes away. She then steps out of her underwear and straddles my lap. I can feel her hand close around my manhood and align it, then the blissful feeling of tight warmth as she sits down the rest of the way on my lap. The drawn out, needy groan she lets out as she settles down fully on his lap just makes it all the more pleasurable to him.

With her seated on my lap now, my sausage hidden well and true, she smiles to me. "Finally..." She whispers to me, "I've wanted this for a good while now..." She rotates her hips in a circle as she sits on my lap, the exquisite feelings shooting through me as she does this making the fight, the mission, hell...even the transition to this world all worth it! I bring my hands up and pull that tube top down. As expected, no bra underneath, just perfect white boobs with light blue nipples..which are glowing brightly! The same light blue as before, as her blush, but glowing! I stare at those heavenly orbs, glowing with their celestial light, my hands coming to them to take hold of them and squeeze on them. Elsa makes it easier by leaning forward a bit, leaning into my grip, sliding her hands around my shoulders to link behind my neck. I look up at her and see her smiling, eyes half lidded with her pleasure and a blush on her cheeks, even across the top of her muzzle, glowing as brightly as her nipples.

"Take me, Aquila." She whispers to me, lost in her lusts. "Use me to let loose all your desires." She grinds herself down onto my cock as she rotates her hips, squeezing around me, only to rise up nearly off me, only to slide herself back down forcefully, her gorgeous boobs dancing in my hands as she takes me to the hilt again. She tightens up more then, squeezing on my rod and grinding against me. I can feel her body tensing just a bit as she moans out in hot pleasure. Did she just...? She then smiles down at me and kisses me again, this time our tongue meet and dance with each other.

I take control this time, putting my hands on her ass and holding her steady on me as I stand up, even as she keeps squeezing and grinding against my shaft. Her tits feel absolutely wonderful mashed against me like this! I have a very clear goal in mind, so I lay her down on the table and break the kiss, grinning at her. She props herself up on one arm, her boobs squishing once again against my chest. She reaches behind her, grabs my plate, and pushes it aside, the plate sliding down the table away from her. As she is doing this, I slide my undersuit off my arms and let is flop down until it's just hanging off my hips. She then lays back on the table, her hands going to my shoulders, a look of pure pleasure on her face as she looks at me. She's ready for this. Propped up as I am on my hands, I'm at a good angle to put my all into it.

I draw back and start to plunge into her, fast, powerful thrusts that cause those glowing tits of hers to bounce every time I hilt in her. She moans with every thrust up into her, too! Beautiful moans that cause me to push harder with my thrusts, feeling a slight bit of resistance on the very tip of my cock each time I push all the way home into her. Those moans start getting replaced by cries of joy and yearning, passionate pleas for me to keep doing her. I lose track of time as I pound into her willing body, taking her as hard and fast as I can. All too soon for my tastes I feel my own release coming, so I try desperately to hold back against it, trying to hold off the climax, not wanting it to end. Then she starts to squeeze around me again, that glorious tunnel of hers seeming to milk me. "Give it to me, baby! Yes!" she cries out in pure ecstasy. I can't help but give her what she wants and grind up into her, putting my back into grinding up into her as I let go. My peak sweeps over me, washing me away with it as I pour every drop in my balls deep into her! For her part, she's moaning loudly, squeezing her legs around my hips as she holds herself to me with her arms crossed around my back, squeezing her boobs against my chest as she gets every single bit of my seed that she can into her. That resistance against my cocktip is even gone!

It takes me a few minutes to come down from my high and realize I just busted a nut inside Elsa. No contraception, no nothing. I look down at her, expecting to see one pissed off girl, but she is laying there, panting, nipples still glowing, her gaze down at where our bodies are linked at. There's a bit of a mess down there, if the feeling is anything to go by. She then moves her head back, relaxing as her horns touch the table, closing her eyes, a smile on her face. "Mmm..." She moans softly, rotating her hips a little bit. "I feel so full and warm..." She murmurs. "I wanted you to use me for your desires and you delivered..." She looks like she wants to say more but instead she closes her mouth and bites her lower lip. I take that to mean she's a bit nervous about what we've done!

A million things spring to mind to tell her in order to make her seem less nervous. Men are always eager to make their women feel good, especially after busting a nut in them. All I can think of that doesn't seem extremely corny is to kiss her, so I do. She seems a little surprised by it but returns the kiss. When I break the kiss, she smiles to me. "I have a confession: I'm your biggest fangirl." She says, blushing once more. "Being able to be with you like this? It's a dream come true."

"I have fangirls?" I ask, surprised. She giggles and nods. "Pretty much every max level has fans. There are plenty of streamers who have gotten your fights on stream and posted them up. I've been following your exploits since the Third Fringe War, when Fiery Rage set you in an Elvor system and told you to hold it."

Well, that would explain why she seemed so eager and willing. Still, a fangirl? Holy shit. I didn't know I even had fans! "I wouldn't have thought streamers would have time to be fangirls." I say to her, smiling. She puts a hand to my chest and the gentle pressure gets to back up a bit from her and stand up straight, sliding out of her, and by natural progression I go to sitting back in my seat. I have a brief but very nice view of her pussy, leaking a bit of my seed out of it. Mmm, white seed against white scales, leaking out of a blue pussy. She closes her legs, slides forward, then sidesaddles my lap by sitting on my legs, and cuddles in against me. "Busy yes, but I still had time to read up about your latest actions. Did you never read the player news releases?" She asks.

I shake my head. There were player news releases? That's news to me. She shakes her head and rubs her forehead a little bit. "Right, it was a Horizons thing. Sorry. Since we knew we'd merge with Frontiers, a lot of people wanted to know what was going on in there. Like in real life, several news companies sprung up to give the news, complete with video from the battles. The devs even gave a few screenshots and some video themselves of the fighting to encourage it. You showed up in the news a lot." She pauses for a second, "Looking back at it now, it makes sense as a way to normalize being in-game."

"Hey lovebirds! We're about to dock." Orion's voice comes over the group comms before she can continue. He has this amused tone about him that lets me know he knows exactly what we were doing. Arya is also completely silent.

I blink at this and look at the team display, blushing. _Holy shit, did our profile pics show the looks on our faces as we were fucking?!_The look on her face is the exact same, but to our combined relief, our profiles had blanked out. Now that we're back to paying attention to it, our profile pictures pop back in, showing our faces and necks down to where it connects to the torso but nothing else. It's easy to tell, though, that I am not wearing my armor. And that my undersuit is open. Elsa stands up and quickly helps to pull my suit up and get me back fully in it. We are both able to fully ignore that Orion is laughing over the group chat as it appears I am dressing. Arya appears to have a light blush on her face and her head is turned away from where our profiles would be, quite deliberately in fact.

**Now docking at Drakoris Station Shipyard

Do you wish to purchase antimatter to refill reactor stores?

Yes|No**

The hud notification makes me grin. So, the ship can manage to dock on its own. I tap yes and a couple hundred thousand credits are deducted from my account to refuel the reactor.

Refueling commencing. ETA to completion is one hour.

Hmm, the time needed to do things seems longer in game now. Well, it's not a game anymore, despite me always tending to think of it as being 'in game'. I really need to change my mindset. Elsa slides my armor into place, watching as it slides into being once in place. This draws my attention to her. She is fully dressed, tube top back in place and all. It doesn't look like we had been up to anything at all! With that done, she smiles to me and plants a kiss on my lips. "I'll take care of the shopping. You have work to do." She says to me, seeming much happier than even when I rescued her. I nod to her and give her a grin. "I'll be back in an hour." I say to her, and the two of us start walking over towards the hallway and the lift beyond.