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** A Ranger's Tail**

Book 2: Gone

Chapter 1 New Game

200 yards from Ranger LZ 1104 hours Military Time

For a long moment the three of them just stood there, both Captain Reynolds and Colonel Hushing were stunned and not sure what had taken place; they just waited to see what would happen.

Finally the Colonel keeled over, clutching his neck and heart, leaving the Captain very, very surprised and confused.

He smelled the cordite mixture of a recently discharged weapon and turned to see Cathy, with his ancestor's M1A1 Thompson shouldered, and a small mist of smoke leaving the end of the barrel and the chamber. To further his surprise she looked quite perplexed as well, her ears pinned back.

"I-I only fired once," she mustered, "did he shoot you?" she furthered, with a lot of worry in her voice.

"No... no," he managed.

She stood, while still having the weapon trained on the dead colonel.

Reynolds looked at her, he was never so glad she was there.

"Now were even," she said, trying to sound cheerful, she didn't.

Steve was still stunned, but they both walked over to Hushing's lifeless body. He had died with a scowl on his face, and his orange fur slowly turning as blood red as Cathy's, only it didn't look as good on him.

"Who fired the other shot?" Cathy asked, still sweeping the area with the Thompson.

Reynolds had regained some control, pushing the emotion down to deal with later, and he looked up just as General Osing and the Quartermaster walked into the supply bay; the General holding a pistol that looked as ancient as the Thompson.

Both the Captain and Sergeant put up a crisp salute, but neither the General nor Major returned it, they merely walked up to the two of them.

"Sir, what the hell are you doing here?" asked Cathy.

"Yes, it's a long story, but you have no time to hear the whole thing. Maybe one day you will but this isn't the time," said Osing, and he turned to face Reynolds.

"You've done well son, picked a good one, I can tell she'll care for you as much as you care for her," Osing smiled.

Reynolds turned and looked at Cathy, she smiled, and so did he.

"I know sir, but how and why?" he gestured to the fallen Colonel.

"Well," he started, "from the moment he came to me," the general gestured to Hushing, "and requested your unit do baby sitting to the south, and from your reaction when I called you into my room, I could tell what was going on. This isn't the first time this has happened, if those damned assholes in the senate understood that, they may have grown a brain and removed the ban, letting me keep my soldiers, not help them run away," Osing said.

Once again, both Cathy and Reynolds were astounded. Their thoughts paralleled, as did their speech; "we're not the first?"

"In the past," Osing continued, "soldiers have fallen in love, and no one wants to be viewed as a traitor, so they usually try to do exactly what your doing now, run off and live a better life, and usually we help them. I don't know how we can always tell; the quartermaster and I here seem to be quite intuitive on the matter. Most of the times we don't even need to meet the pair, but due to Hushing's easily noticed hatred for you, I felt the need to watch you more closely, so I followed you down in a stealth ship."

It was then that it hit the captain, the extra passage back aboard the assault craft, it was Hushing, but he still wanted to know why.

"Sir, but why, why go through all this trouble just to help us, or anyone?" Reynolds furthered.

"Both of us," the Major answered, "once had loves in the military, and we both decided that it was better to stay in the Federation, and when we both lost our loves to war, we came to each other, and decided to help all those before they made similar mistakes."

"We had to do so much extra work for you," the General chimed in, "because of your high profile, if we don't stage the right disappearance, your reputation will be ruined, and you don't deserve that, you've fought for the Federation to damn long and to hard to have that."

"I have no idea what to say sir," Reynolds said.

"You shouldn't say anything, just take Sergeant Grey and go, quickly," replied Osing.

"Thank you sir," was all the Captain could muster, and he shook both of their hands. He turned and held Cathy by the shoulders.

"To be honest I never figured you would fall in love," Osing laughed, "but I have to say, you found a winner there, never forget that and never lose that, or you will regret it forever."

"And to you, Sergeant Grey," the General went on, "I'm glad to see that you will do what is necessary, it will help you in the future. Here," he handed her the seemingly ancient pistol, "this one uses the same ammo as that Thompson, and its about as old. Like I said, take care of him, he needs you more than you both know," the general turned back to Reynolds, "She's one of the most beautiful foxes I've ever seen, and I think it does you justice, you've had such a hard life, at least this will more than balance this out. I wish you both happy days, and I want you, Captain to always know that you will have a loving family in the Sergeant and anyone else you add to it."

Cathy held onto Reynolds arm and they both walked out to the ATV. They mounted it and he turned on the engine. Cathy turned back and looked at the two officers, they smiled and Steve speed away, heading south.

"Do you think they'll try and come back?" the Major asked, his one ear very perky.

The general replied, "I think they'll do more than that, but not for awhile, but rest assured, this won't be the last we'll see Captain Reynolds and Sergeant Grey."

159 Miles from Ronch, Chyane

This had all been too strange and too fast to really get grips of what had happened. He saw on the satellite maps there was a plain coming up at the end of the tree line so he stopped the ATV at the edge of it. They both got off and sat, rather fell, to the ground next to it. He turned and looked at her, and she to him.

"I think that we're, actually, safe now," Cathy smiled, as she studied the pistol the General had given her. It looked like no other pistol she had seen, it was similar in design to his Thompson, but it felt like no other gun she had held before either.

Some explosions in the distance went off.

"We need to get going," he said, "Our troops won't bother with us, but the wolves won't be so understanding."

She shook her head and stood up with him. They locked eyes and kissed, very deeply, their first as free lovers.

Further explosions went off and they mounted the ATV and continued driving until dark, by which time they had gone about 75 miles.

***

They came to a small wooded area and stopped, deciding to set up camp for the night. She worked on concealing their position, while he set up the tent. About an hour later they had a well hidden, and well built camp.

They wanted to make a fire, but they knew that they were still to close to both wolf and Federation lines, and they may draw unneeded attention. So they stayed in the tent the whole night, recapping on the very long day, but when they tried to talk, they both found themselves speechless.

Finally Cathy broke the silence; "do-do you think they will chase us?"

This brought the captain out of his state of deep thought and he replied, "no, General Osing will stop anyone from following; I cant believe that he just let us go, I mean he never broken a law of the Federa..."

"But he has," she chimed in.

"I guess, I still can't believe it thought," he replied, still in a daze.

She knew what was wrong, it finally hit him like a ton of bricks, he had left the Federation, and she could see he may harbor some regrets, and for his own mental security, she knew she had to help him. The vixen got up, walked over and sat down next to him.

"You okay?" she asked, trying to comfort him by the sound of her voice and the feel of her paw on his back.

"I just-I just thought I lost you back there, I was so worried I would never hold you again, kiss you, tell you I loved you," he said, still with strength in his voice, but it was starting to fade a bit, "Then you and Osing shot, and I was sure it was over, but Hushing dropped..."

"Hey, its all right; I'm safe, your safe, and we have a whole new life ahead of us, literally, which brings me to a question, what's our plan of getting to uh, actually, where are we going exactly?" she asked, trying to get off the subject of the day.

For the moment, she had to be the stronger of the two; Cathy knew it would take some time before he could come to grips with ending his livelihood and everything he had known for years.

The play worked and he was seemingly back to himself for the moment. He hugged her with one arm and picked up his data pad, she rested her chin on his shoulder and kissed the side of his face.

He turned on the data pad and to both of their surprises it wasn't a satellite photo, or a map, it was an article with a picture of a man giving a very happy female fox oral sex.

***

"What is that?" she asked, not angry, but taken aback by what he was looking at.

He was embarrassed, as anyone would be and lost words for a moment.

"I was, heh heh, looking up ways to make you enjoy... well, ya know, more, I figure it would be nice surprise," he replied, feeling a little embarrassed by being "caught."

Cathy wasn't sure what to think, but then remembered her own data pad and grabbed it from her sack next to her. She turned it on and brought up the article she had found.

"Your not the only one," the vixen said, rather sensually, "I've been looking for things to do too," she said as she handed him her data pad.

He was shocked again, he never would have thought she was so "into" fucking that she would look up different things they could do, but he was mostly stunned that they had both done the same thing.

He smiled and looked up at her; rubbing the fur on the side on her face.

Then Reynolds said, trying to be equally sensual, "well, find anything good?"

She made a joking gasp and laughed, apparently she had.

"Not tonight, I think I would rather wait and save it," she said and rubbed the bottom of his chin with her paw.

"Just as well," he said, "I have another surprise for you, and we're not there yet," he said slyly.

She looked at him and tilted her head; he noticed her tail started to move in curious circles. He could tell she was quite surprised, and a bit mad; she didn't like not being "in the know," probably why she's in- was in the intelligence department. He realized that neither of them were in the Federation anymore, he had to stop referring to himself or her in a military fashion

Steve's thoughts were right, the fox wasn't happy at this, she didn't like secrets, but she realized the last thing he had surprised her with, that last beautiful dinner aboard the Endeavor, which had been one of the most Romantic and supreme moments of her life, so she knew that whatever he had planed would be great. But she still wanted to know.

Steve interrupted her thoughts with what was on his mind, "you know, since neither of us are in the Federation, do we still have to follow all of the rules?"

It was stupid question, and he knew it, they had broken about forty rules aboard the Endeavor in the last week; from theft of government property, to having two soldiers of the opposite sex share a room. Osing had basically discharged them, but he needed to hear it said from someone he trusted, someone who really trusted him, and someone most importantly who shared his love.

"We don't have to, but most of those rules are good, but not all of them are," and she kissed him again, this time deeply and long.

He patted the side of her face and rubbed her side. He knew that things wouldn't go past this, but he was glad to just kiss or hold her. He was still shook up inside over the thought of how close he had come to loosing her, and he wanted to have as much contact with her as possible.

They broke the kiss and smiled at each other, and they both chuckled. The mood was much lighter now.

"Anyway," he said as he closed the article and brought up the map. He laid down on the sleeping bag and she snuggled up to him to watch the small screen. "We're going here," he moved to the view of the small, very small, town. "Its called Ronch, only about a hundred citizens in total, all of which are part of the indigenous dog population. They're neutral so they won't turn us in, and we'll try to not put on that we were part of the Federal Army."

She listened carefully, specifically the last part. She trusted Reynolds with her life, no matter what he would ask of her she would do, but she still didn't trust anyone else, and dogs sometimes ran with wolves, but she kept her thoughts to herself. He had managed to not flinch or give off any sense of regret when he mentioned that they would hide their identity of being runaway Fed soldiers, and she didn't want to make him think twice.

"So what do you think?" he asked, more optimistic than he had been in days.

"It looks good to me, nice and small. We'll set up a nice life there," she smiled and kissed him again, "I do have one question though, this says we're 170 miles from Ronch, but our ATV only has enough fuel for about 100 miles, so we're going to have to march the last 70 or so miles?"

"Ya, but believe me now, it will be worth it," he said, toying with her. He could tell she didn't like it and it caused him the laugh.

"Alright, we should get some sleep, we've got a long week or so ahead of us," he said as he pulled her in close under the flap of the sleeping bag.

She snuggles into him even deeper and within a few minutes they were both asleep.

Aboard FN Endeavor Debriefing Room 2000 hours military time

"A grand victory General," the leader of the Federation, Consular Otho Amstrad told Osing, "a total retreat by the wolves, most are stranded and are in hiding now while we hunt them, almost no friendly causalities and limited property destruction; a text booked victory even by Federation Standards, but I still have a few questions."

"Sir?" the general questioned. He knew what the arrogant falcon thought of, but he had to, for the sake of his mission, play dumb.

"The uh," he looked at the papers on the table, "two officers, both very important to the Federation, and one of them was a friend of mine. Tell me, how is it that in total only 14 infantry officers were lost, and two of them, both very high profile, just happened to be lost in the same operation, in the same area, and one of their bodies is missing? Care to explain? And also I would like to know why the intelligence officer was found dead, appearing to have been killed execution style?"

General Osing had always been fairly tactless, and in this case he had been going through great lengths to cover this, but he felt the Consular deserved the brunt of his attitude.

"Otho, if you're going to accuse me of something, accuse me, don't walk around the bush poking me."

"Alright General, I'll be equally concise, I think you killed Colonel Hushing. You know I was always fond of Hushing, but I know that you despised him; particularly his less than..." he searched for the right words, "admirable actions in protecting certain interests of the Federation."

An understatement at best the general thought. The late Colonel probably had an equal number of wolf and federal soldiers killed, and his "pal" Otho loved him for it; hell, Otho's friendship with him was half the reason that Osing hadn't had Hushing killed sooner. Also, Hushing had helped Otho gain a lot more power than he deserved, or should have had. The Federation wasn't in trouble, far from it. From every government that existed, all had problems, and all had ended, but the Federation was sound, its checks and balances pretty much ensured that, but one could still advance himself as Consul and have some dark dealing that insured a safe future once the limited term was up.

"Well sir," Osing began, "I didn't kill him, and I wasn't even in the area when he was discovered at the destroyed supply craft. Plus, the shell casings at the site match that of wolf rifles. I am very unhappy to hear you accuse me of such a thing," and the General glared at the Consular, causing him to shift uneasily.

"Well, nonetheless, we have the case of the other officer who was located in the same area, one Captain Reynolds."

Most people would have flinched at the name of the man, but Osing was used to this from past situations, so his rock chiseled face didn't change a bit.

"Yes," the General remarked, "I liked the captain; damn fine Ranger."

"Hmm, why was it no body could be located, and none of his troops were aware of his location?" Otho asked, not as interested as he had been with Hushing, but still quite inquisitive, "I didn't know the man personally, but his exploits are legendary, him being missing without a trace doesn't look good. I mean, how does one of the greatest soldiers in the Federation disappear, and leave no body or evidence behind to suggest anything?"

"If I knew that I would have found his body to give him a proper burial, but I fear the wolves killed him and put his body on display, or ate him, their known to do both."

The Consular nodded, appearing to be satisfied with that explanation and continued, "I have one last question and then you can debrief your own men; what was all these going ons about Captain Reynolds and this Sergeant Grey," Otho looked the General right in the eye, "I understand that after saving her, he transferred her to his unit, and then after he had her released from the hospital, he had her and his room under almost 24 hour guard, and rumors that she was in fact staying with him in his room. Then, by sheer coincidence both he and Sergeant Grey both disappeared without a trace, the only MIA's on this mission."

"Again sir, if I knew what had happened it would be in my report, and if I thought they were alive, I'd be out there looking for them, I don't like leaving people behind. If I were to make a guess on past experience, I would say that Sergeant Grey got into trouble again, and the captain went to save her and they were both killed, and the wolves only know what happened next."

Otho, actually sounding satisfied, finished, "so you think its possible that the two had more than a professional relationship?"

Osing decided that it wasn't a time to lie, give the consular what he wanted and he'll give it no more thought, "I knew Captain Reynolds quite well sir, and I would have been surprised, but yes, its possible, it actually backs up my theory to their deaths to be honest."

"He's right," Otho thought, "it fits in with the rest, it must be it, but I do wish Hushing was here, he would have figured it out for sure."

"Very well General, go debrief your men, and congratulations again on your victory," the Consular saluted.

Osing returned the gesture and walked out, and thought of the matter no more.

En rout to Ronch, Chyane 10:30 AM

They sped along at a decent rate; the terrain wasn't so great so they both bounced along.

The two had left their camp early, at about 8:00 AM. Reynolds wanted to use up the last of the gas on this day, try and get as far as they could in the first two days. They both figured that if they could avoid detection for week, they would both be forgotten.

"Do you think we'll run into any wolf patrols?" Cathy yelled over the ATV's motor.

"No, if the attack went well they'll exit by orbit, and jump as soon as they can, they won't hang around to be hunted by clean-up crews," Steve replied reassuringly.

The fox was worried still, she knew he was probably right, but she still was weary, as most soldiers- former soldier in this case, of the federation, always harbored some fears of the wolves. Yet, not so much to her surprise but envy, he didn't seem to fear them at all. She knew that they in fact feared him, but you'd think that there'd be at least some alarm in his manners towards them.

"Ronch won't even know what's going on, they're a pretty self sufficient, so, from what I understand, they barely communicate with the outside world at all," he furthered, still trying to put his lover's mind at ease.

She wouldn't show it, but this actually scared her worse, and not of wolves this time. Her old town on Foc was similar to the small village, and she couldn't help feel like she was heading to a dreaded home.

They rode all day, not even stopping to eat lunch or drink, they needed to get as far as they could from all lines, they both knew that neither side would be very forgiving to the lovers.

Finally at about 9:30 PM the ATV started to act sluggish, it was almost out of gas.

"We have to find a place to hide this thing, check the map for any caves or hiding spots for it," Steve said as he stopped the vehicle.

"Why?" she asked, not quite seeing the point, "Why don't we just toss it in the lake and be done with it, leave no trace right?"

"One day we may need some small transportation, and there's the recharge cells, so it can be used in the future, it wont go very far, but it will be better than nothing should something happen."

She lowered her head, "your worried that we maybe found?"

He stroked the side of her face, "no, but don't forget, I spent 10 or so years in the Rangers, and part of our training was hiding and waiting for a rescue, even if it could take years, all Rangers can take refuge in the wild. We're going to hide this thing because it's still working gear, and you never throw away anything if you're cut off from resupply."

They pushed the ATV into a nearby cave, and decided to set up camp in the cave.

"What's our long term plan once we get to Ronch?" she asked.

He tilted his head and frowned, he knew something was up. Although they had only been with each other for about a week now, they both felt like they knew each forever, so he could tell something wasn't sitting right.

"What's wrong Cathy? You've been worried about that village all day," he asked, genuinely concerned.

She stared at him for a moment, a very noticeable look of worry in her eyes, "I'm just, I guess, I'm just a bit afraid of wolves, I mean its still their planet. Even if we won the battle for the capital there's still a couple thousand wolves elsewhere that, last I check, were still unknown. I just don't want to walk into the village and be met with a 'warm welcome,'" she finished, some of the worry gone from her voice; she had needed to get that into the open.

The Captain sighed, "To be honest the thought did cross my mind even on the Endeavor, that's why I made sure that you could wear the P9 armor, but even if there is a wolf unit left there, we can handle it, and don't worry, I won't let you down on that," he gestured to the Thompson in the corner, "if it came to that, there would only be a small wolf command left, and they will likely not investigate, lest it look like they still had a presence here."

He could tell she was actually relieved a bit. Cathy's mind was filled with worried and it had clouded her ability to see the facts. He had reverted to his training, so he put any sense of worry or dismay in the back of his mind, but she didn't have that training, and she wore her emotions on her armored sleeve.

They sat quietly for a while, and then Reynolds got up and brought back some MRE's. The two ate quietly as they had done aboard the Endeavor, and finished relatively fast. It was late, and to further ease her mind the Captain shut off all the lights at about 11:00 PM, and they laid in their common sleeping back.

The vixen turned, facing him and rubbed her furry snout against his face; she was very comfortable and on a level of mixed sleep and slight awareness. He just watched her, with a happy smile on his face. Steve let his backed up emotions flow for a moment and discarded them, he knew he made the right decision, and he would do anything to make sure she was as happy as she was now, forever.

Chapter 2 Learning

Moving towards Ronch 8:30 PM

This time when they awoke they took their time, neither was terribly looking forward to the next few days, it was going to be a long march, roughly seventy miles. He was looking forward to one day though, particularly that first moment when Cathy saw the mountains.

They started off on what was a very unused road, so little used that it was completely over taken by grass, but it was a lot easier to walk along than the gravel and hard dirt to its edges.

They walked side-by-side; chatting and telling stories, they were both in high spirits, both thinking for the first time in days that this may work.

"How many days do you think this will take?" she asked.

"At our rate, I'd say about three to four days, there's a small storm coming from the north, but even if it hits it will only delay us a half-a-day or so."

They walked all day; Steve offered to stop to eat lunch, but she felt fine, she was glad to be able to walk with him, she wasn't hungry at all.

At about 6:50 PM Chyane time they stopped and set up camp once again, this time with a little less care, they figured they were far enough away from the lines that they needn't worry.

"I'll set up a fire," the fox said, "I can cook up some good fish if you go and catch some," she gestured to the nearby pond.

"I've got to see this," the Captain said jokingly; she gave him a wink.

He didn't exactly expect this, and he wasn't sure how to catch a fish, but it seemed she really wanted to make something, so he was going to make sure he did. He walked over to the pond, and indeed there were fish, "she must have been able to hear them from over there," he said aloud, and, as a joke, she replied, "yes I can."

He laughed at this and sat down, and waited. While not a fox, he knew how to fish like one, and he waited for a fish to come close to his submerged hand, grabbed it, and flung it onto the ground where it suffocated. In about a half hour he had caught two pairs of fish, meaty ones at that.

Steve took his catch to her and the fox smiled at the sight. She took the fish from him and to his amazement she attacked them; deboneing, skinning, and cutting, rather tearing, all with her paws alone. She put the cut up pieces into a small metal pot, usually used to boil water to a clean state, and added some amounts of ingredients she liberated from various MRE's.

Seeing that she was busy, the Captain took a small stroll. Back at the pond he looked in the general direction of Ronch, and in the very, very far distance he could just make out the peaks of the mountains that he was desperately waiting for. While he would never admit it to himself, he wanted to fuck her; he was indeed a man, and his body, having distained from relatively any sexual acts for his entire life, was, needless to say, awakening to the concept. He thanked God he had such good military training in self-control, or he would have run back just then and laid her out. He didn't want to fuck her just for his own pleasure, he enjoyed making her cum.

"She does look very beautiful next to the fire," he thought. "I wonder what brought this on?" he further mused.

He could tell she was enjoying cooking, and he knew it was mainly because she wanted to surprise him, since the vixen was aware of his harbored plans, but not of their nature.

He really couldn't wait, and just seeing the mountains was starting to get him going.

"Just one more day," he said aloud, "Just one more day."

His eyes drifted skyward and he saw something instantly had him back into "combat mode." Above, moreover in orbit, he saw a large space battle in progress. Long streaks rocketed from Federation Capital ships, most meeting their marks on the fleeing wolf transports.

"What a stupid move, one day they should learn to surrender, they never succeed in making a good exit in those old transports," he whispered aloud.

One managed to jump and it whisked off into nothingness, which surprised him a bit.

Smaller dots raced back in forth, most likely dogfights. The planets atmosphere was so clear he could see the fleet insignia on the side of heavy cruisers in space.

Cathy looked over at him by the pound; he was transfixed to the sky, so she looked up as well. She was amazed at what she saw, a huge space battle. She stirred the forming stew and walked over beside him. She slipped her arm through his and looked into the sky as well.

"Are we winning?" she asked, also transfixed.

"We?" he asked, very surprised at her statement.

She didn't look down, just stared at the flagship, a muliturreted battleship move toward the center of the enemy transport fleet, taking out the various small wolf destroyers in its path.

Finally answering she whispered, "we may have abandoned them for our love of each other," she lowered her head and nuzzled his face; he hugged her with one arm, "but I'm sure you still love the Federation, and so do I."

He was greatly relieved at that, he had come to terms in his mind with leaving the Federation in the last two days, a feet that surprised him still, but he still loved it, and still missed it, but each time he had doubts, which he had a lot the first night on the run, he would look at her and he knew he had made the right decision. All that aside, he was very glad that she too still loved and respected the Federation. He no longer felt like a traitor.

"Do you miss it," he pried.

"What, the Federation?" she replied, still transfixed on the space battle.

"Ya."

"Ya, I miss it, I wish that they were smarter, and realized that if they have soldiers of the opposite sex in the same military this is going to happen sooner or later," she replied with some bitterness in her voice.

"In their defense, there is a reason for the law," he said.

She stared at him with obvious question in her eyes.

"I mean... well look at our situation. Lets say we didn't have to leave the Federation. Obviously we would have to stay in the same unit. That means that we'd be fighting on the ground with each other, whether in the Rangers or in an intelligence unit, and lets say something happened to the other. I would drop anything and everything to save you, I don't doubt that for a moment, but if we're on a mission, that's unacceptable," he shook his head, "If we're on an important mission, I or you might risk the mission to save the other, and while that's a good thing for our sake, that's not at all acceptable for the Federation, they cant risk a campaign for love."

She nodded her head, his logic was right, she would do the same as he would, drop anything or kill anyone to save him, at any expense; a mere mission paled in comparison to how hard she would try to save him.

"But," he continued, "I do think, now at least, that the punishment and actions that are supposed to be taken against anyone who falls in love is way to high. I mean being discharged from the military is one thing, at that point you are almost useless for active duty at least, but removal from the Federation and revokement of your citizenship is way to harsh."

She nodded again, she had thought about that from the moment she proposed this whole idea about a week ago.

"I think that's why General Osing does what he does, he's more logical than anyone, a great commander; he must have come to the same conclusion years ago. Of all the things in the Federation I think I'll miss him the most, he was like a father to me for the past few years. I think I'll miss leading troops too, even if they didn't trust me, they still were loyal. What about you, what do you think you'll miss?" he asked.

The fox thought for a long moment, she was very content with her life now, she wanted to be with him and that was enough, but she had a few thoughts.

"I guess," she started, "I'll miss those," she pointed a cruiser as it took out a significantly larger wolf cruiser; the space battle was getting larger, "I always loved space battles, and before I was moved to the intelligence unit I wanted to be ship Captain, those huge ships have fascinated me ever since I was a little girl on Foc-" she trailed off.

He could tell this was a bad subject line and quickly changed the subject, "I didn't think there was so many wolf ships in this system, what did intelligence know about this?"

She looked back up at the sky, it was really escalating now; a Federation and Wolf destroyer collided and burst into flames.

"No, this is surprising, we didn't think that the wolves would place this system in such high regards, there must be more nova here than we suspected," she said and felt a cold sweat form over her body, "oh shit, Steve, the stew!"

They both ran over, luckily it was just starting to boil, so no harm. He set up a blanket on the ground near the fire and they laid down on it, looking at the sky. They both had front row seats to what was becoming quite the battle, it wasn't as one sided as it had been before.

Two huge wolf battleships jumped in system, weapons already aimed in the general direction of a nearby destroyer and destroyed it with half a salvo, and took a cruiser with the remaining rounds.

The entire fleet converged on the two battleships; they posed to high a threat. Ten cruisers and a few destroyers hammered the wolf ship, engulfing various parts in flames. One of the cruisers scored a lucky hit and it was engulfed in a nuclear flame; a direct reactor shot.

On the far side of the horizon the remaining battleship and the Federation flagship squared off.

On Board FN Trident En'Battle over Chyane 2000 Hours Military Time

"Bring us about 40 degrees port, cross their 'T!'" Admiral Drake yelled to his guidance officer.

"Lieutenant Paul, turrets 1 through 6 are at your disposal, fire at will, but 7 through 9 I want pounding their turrets, we've got to keep them from firing salvos. After our second salvo, rotate the ship 180 degrees, show them our belly, we cant loose our turrets. Ensign Carney, have all personal leave decks 1A through 2D except reactor personal, move people!"

The admiral had a commanding effect on the rather large bridge of the Battleship, as the highest officer on deck and in control of all navel forces in the area he had to be. Plus, as all who served under him knew, he was the best there was, he had never lost a battle before and he wasn't going to loose now.

"Sir we're coming about," Lieutenant Junior Grade Thompson reported, "our speed is .2 and we'll be in optimum firing range in 30 seconds."

"Very good son, prepare for port roll; lieutenant Paul, be ready to elevate turrets to track the enemy ship as we roll under it."

"Sir!" Paul replied.

Drake was a bit uncomfortable here, being the only human on the bridge, but he couldn't show it. He never got used to being around furry officers or personal, his home had almost no furries what so ever, and he didn't really approve of them sometimes, but some species did do particular jobs better than people, sometimes.

His weapons officer, lieutenant Paul, was a very, very violent dog, and a big one at that. The first time Drake seen him he had thought he was a wolf. Lieutenant Thompson was a rabbit, and very observant; he often gave reports on enemy positions, even though he didn't have too. Ensign Carney was a very... vivacious young cat, she tended to be a lot perkier then Drake would prefer a deck officer, but he didn't have much of a choice right now.

"Range 250 and closing sir, awaiting command," Paul reported.

Drake waited a full 4 seconds before yelling, "fire at will Lieutenant, send them to hell!"

The whole ship shock as all 9 of the 50-inch guns fired, each shell weighing about 22 tons, more than enough to penetrate wolf armor, but the enemy fired as well.

The whole ship shock as both the enemy and their own rounds hit, causing the Trident to roll prematurely. Thanks to the auto loading system the next salvo fired and hit the enemy square in the bridge, causing a massive venting of atmosphere, but the ship was still in play.

"Fire! Fire! Hammer their turrets and engines, don't let them escape!"

Unknown field Chyane 8:15 PM

"Look at the flagship, she nailed the wolf battleship!" Reynolds pointed to the two huge ships tearing each other apart.

The Federal ship scored another blow on the enemy battleship's superstructure, a fireball that could have engulfed half the fleet blew out the other side. It turned and began plummeting to the planet.

"Oh shit, Cathy do you know what that ship was, I mean is it an important one?" the ship continued coming down, not in their direction but he was uneasy.

"Yes, I think it's the Okira, that's one of their heaviest battleships, if it lands its going to make this battle a lot worse. They're not going to let the officers on board be killed, although it appears they're not as good as they said they were."

He pointed to the victories Federal battleship, "No, they just got beaten by the best, that's the Trident, and that's Admiral Drake's ship, its got the heaviest guns ever mounted on a Federal ship, that wolf battleship picked the wrong fight."

A very violent rumble went through the ground as the enemy flagship hit earth over the horizon, likely near the planets northern pole. The remainder of the Federal fleet mopped up the wolf ships as they tried to jump out of the system.

"The foods done, believe me your going to love it," she filled a bowl with the thick stew.

It did smell good he noted, and Steve took out his spoon and took a taste.

"Wow, this is good," he said, the surprise noticeable in his voice.

"Oh why are you so surprised?" the fox laughed, "you didn't think I could cook? Don't forget, our intelligence units sometimes got put in places for long periods of time, and if you think we only ate MRE's your crazy."

She got up and laid across his lap as they both ate the stew.

"No, it wasn't so much I didn't think you could cook," the Captain said, trying not to laugh, "I just figured you couldn't make something," he grinned, "good..."

She sat up and pushed him, he was laughing hysterically now, she pushed him over, now laughing as well and they rolled on the ground, leaving a deep indentation in the ground, they had both forgotten they were still wearing their armor. They both rolled around for a few minutes, and in the end he ended up on top, both out of breath from laughing and the rough housing.

She looked him in the eye and kissed him, holding the back of his head. He kissed her deeply as well and pushed his hands around behind her and held her.

His armored hand brushed past her black ear tip, causing it to react on its own.

"Why don't we take off this armor," she said, very sensually, almost enough to convince him; and he really, really wanted to.

"No," he tried so hard not to just rip off her armor and fuck her good and hard right there; "we may have to evac from falling debris."

Cathy laughed, "you're not a good liar, but that's a good thing," she giggled, "whatever you have planed better be really great, cause I'm waiting..."

She stood up and walked over to the pot, looking over her shoulder and wisped her tail around her body, he really was surprised he could hold back himself. The vixen bent down, further torturing him, and poured the little bit of stew into a container.

They set up the tent and went inside, they both laid down in the sleeping bag, both still in armor. She commented on how comfortable the armor was once it was on for a few days.

"It's also self cleaning, another nice feature, that's why the few who use them tend to spend much of their time encased."

A chill ran down her spin, "hey do these have tracking chips in them?"

He laughed quietly, "Yes, but their removable, they have to be for when they send us on black ops, so that the intelligence officers had liability."

"Hmmm" she said, and snuggled up to him, something they were both becoming accustomed too.

He kissed the fur on her check and stroked her head. It didn't take long and soon, for the first time, he was asleep before she was.

"Damn, I know he's got something special planed, but I still really want to... to... fuck," Cathy thought.

She dreamed of his hard cock filling her pussy; had she not been wearing the armor she'd been rubbing her moist cunny. The fox stopped and thought about the situation; just a week ago she had been raped by a wolf, now she was almost dying for her lovers cock, hell, calling it a cock and dreaming of it in her. She wanted it because it made her feel whole, like it was what was missing from her life. Just being with him was enough, but she loved the way he made her cum.

She was restless all night, but eventually fell asleep.

Chapter 3 Bonded

Small field 55 miles from Ronch 9:30 AM

Cathy awoke alone in the tent, but she could hear him moving about outside, and she also smelled something good. She stood up and stretched, and put on her assault vest over her armor.

"Morning Cathy," Steve greeted her with a smile as she walked out the tent.

"What smells so good?" she asked, still slightly asleep.

He replied as he flipped the brown patty in the pan, "sausage, and once their done I have an egg for each of us."

She smiled and went for a walk, back to the small pond. In the sky she saw the leftovers of the nights battle, at least forty wrecks of broken starships, wolf and Federation alike.

To the north there were many new Federation starships, all disembarking new troops; the Federation had underestimated how much the wolves wanted this planet, which, she thought, may make things much harder for her and Steve.

"Foods ready Cathy!" he yelled out for her, and she walked back to their campsite.

It was a rather large breakfast to have in the field, but she figured that he was trying to equal her for the fish stew she had made the night before.

It was good, the sausage was cooked quite well, but she had more on her mind, and he could tell.

"What's wrong Cathy?" he asked, "Still worried about the Federation?"

She shook her head and replied, "No, but I think we may have to leave this planet, it looks like there's still a lot more fight in the wolves."

"Oh you saw the transports," he said, without worry, "they've been going on like that for about an hour. I wouldn't worry, thermal scans last I heard mainly detected nova in the northern hemisphere, and we're well south now," for the moment he was glad it was such a small planet, to bad it had to be ruined over those damn green rocks.

They ate and packed up camp. By about 10:15 AM they were on the move again, toward Ronch.

On Board FN Trident Flagship over Chyane 1200 Hours Military Time

General Osing wasn't very happy; his recent victory on the surface had been paled by the abrupt and deadly space battle last night. While they had won, it had been quite bad, and in the confusion many enemy transports slipped past the blockade, landing fresh troops.

It looked to him like this campaign was just getting started.

The bridge was full of action, people and furries running from station to station, trying to patch up the damaged battleship before the enemy returned. At the main console stood Admiral Drake, an old friend of the general.

"I see things went well Drake," the general said in a friendly voice, "makes me glad I joined the army."

The Admiral turned to meet the General, and unnatural smile played across his face.

"Good to see you George, I bet you were thinking that this whole deal was done," the Admiral reached out and shook his old friends hand, "I'm sorry to hear you lost Captain Reynolds, damn fine officer, saved my ship once."

The General's smile disappeared, he had been thinking about the Captain, he knew it was for the better, but he was still quite invaluable to the Federation; not to mention his damn near priceless P9 Armor that went with him.

"Yes, he was a good friend," he replied, "Fred, I need to know, did your ship track any of the landers; we need to start taking them out before they gain another foothold."

The Admiral looked at his radar operator and called him over and asked for all radar reports. A few minutes later the officer returned with a print out.

"Here George, this is a list of all radar contacts at about the time we began engaging the enemy battleship," Drake said as he handed Osing the report, "I hope you get them off this rock, so we can move onto more important things," Drake continued, with noticeable bitterness in his voice.

The general, knowing exactly what his friend was implying decided to pry, as to his nature; "We're not just here for the Nova as those stupid rumors suggest, what it comes down to is defending citizens of the Federation, their safety comes above all else."

"Its just a bunch of dogs," Drake replied, with no concern in his voice.

The General chuckled, but not happily, "you always had a problem with furries, I never understood why, but you sure as shit have. Why do you hate them all so?"

"I don't hate them all," he said, disregarding the fact that almost the entire bridge was eves dropping, and that more than half were furries, "just a few, but enough that I don't care for them in general."

It was a known fact the Admiral felt this way, it was never a suppressed fact, he was to damn good to get rid of just because he had a problem with certain soldiers and sailors.

"To bad, they tend to be a lot nicer than some people," the general said, very coldly.

"It's been nice George, but I have to tend to my boat, I'll see you when you finish on the ground," the Admiral turned, obviously angered by the Generals play on the subject.

Osing shrugged and strode out, leaving Admiral Drake to his thoughts.

"All right Paul, begin cleanup operations, we need to clear some airspace," the Admiral ordered; he noticed the Lieutenant hesitate for a moment, a look of anger in his dark eyes.

42 Miles from Ronch 4:30 PM

He could barely hold himself back, he was so excited. Reynolds had placed himself a few feet ahead of her, he wanted to make sure that they stopped just a few feet from the mountains, but not close enough that she'd notice it, which would be a hard task.

Reynolds checked ahead on the map, and noticed that the mountains would be to their backs when they emerged from the forested road and a lake was between them.

"Good," he thought, "I'll keep her distracted so she doesn't see them."

He had done harder things in the past, but he had never done anything so important. He knew that any doubt that she may be hiding or even any she was unaware of would melt away at the sight. Also, he wanted to see them as well, in 10 years in the army he had never seen mountains like what was supposed to be viewable from less than a mile away.

They continued walking, until he noticed the road was turning, so he quickened his pace a bit, to make her pay attention to his moves more than her surrounding. It worked, he could here her footsteps become harder and more directed, and she was following him a bit more attentively.

They cleared the tree line and were in the open road, he didn't dare turn to look for fear she would as well. On the side of the road there was a small flat area, and from the right angle, would frame the mountains perfectly.

Reynolds moved into the flat with her following, and put down his pack. She came up behind him and did the same.

"We're done?" she asked, about to look at the sky, he reached out quickly and held Cathy's face.

"Ya, I figured we can take our time tonight," he kind of let on to what this night would hold for them.

She got his drift, and she was very excited to say the least. The vixen had been waiting to have sex with him ever since they left the Federation, and she knew that it would be better than it had been onboard the Endeavor; they were both had been afraid of being caught, now they were free to enjoy it as passionately and, as she could feel, loudly as they wanted.

They set up camp, the whole time she tried as hard as possible to entice him. Each time she grabbed something from one of their packs she made sure to lift her tail and waged it in soft circles.

Cathy was getting to him, in a good way, but she still was "over doing it." He had been reading the article this morning and learned a few things to pay her back with. He couldn't wait, for the both of them.

After the whole campsite was up, including a large blanket, not a sleeping bag. They sat down behind the tent, still with the mountains hidden, something that Reynolds saw as a miracle that she still hadn't seen.

They both ate a simple MRE each, but the atmosphere was tense, they both knew what was coming, but they were both, admittedly, loving the dance beforehand.

Once they were done he took her by the paw, and walked over to the blanket he had set up, facing the mountains.

Before they rounded the tent he turned to her and said, "I want you to close your eyes, I know its cheesy but you'll love it."

She giggled and complied, trusting him that he wasn't playing a joke. She felt him walking to the edge of water, but she still trusted and kept her eyes shut.

Finally they stopped and she felt him walk in front of her; she could feel water lapping up against the bottom of her armored legs. He stepped in front of her, and held both her paws. She couldn't wait to see what he was hiding.

His heart was beating a mile a minute; he had almost missed a step when he saw the mountains as he walked her over to the edge of the lake. He was sure that this was going to be a day to remember.

Finally the Captain worked up the courage and said, "Okay, open them."

For a moment she didn't notice them, she was looking at him, but her eyes drifted to the right and saw the mountains over the water, and she was mesmerized, she had never, never seen such a thing. They were snowcapped and seemed to rise for miles.

He walked up next to her, still holding her paw, and he stared at the mountains. They stood there for a long moment, in a mixture of awe and contempt. They felt alone and together at the same time, and most importantly, they felt an unlimited amount of love for each other, and were fine to just stand there like that forever.

Eventually he turned to look at Cathy, she had tears in her eyes, not from bad memories this time, but because she was completely head over heels in love with him, and the small, insignificant doubt that she didn't even know she had, melted away.

"This is beautiful Steve, I've-I cant- I mean..." she trailed off.

He felt very proud of himself, he had left her speechless.

"They're beautiful aren't they?" she finally mustered, still staring at the distant peaks.

Almost to himself, not really intending for her to hear, he replied, "not as beautiful as you."

He didn't even pick up on his own statement, but she sure did, and she broke eye contact with the mountains and literally threw herself at him. Had he not been wearing armor as well she would have definitely crushed him.

Even in her armor she still didn't weigh that much, and he held her, with her legs around his hips, as they both kissed passionately. He walked them over back the camp and the blanket, laying her down on her back; her legs still wrapped around his waist.

She kissed him as if possessed, "apparently," he thought, "she's been missing this as much as I have."

And boy was she; Cathy wanted him and didn't want to wait another moment. As she continued kissing him she reached down and turned off her armor, it zipped back into the gauntlet and he did the same. They both lay there now, naked, except for an assault vest that they both wore.

He looked at her for a moment and saw how the vest made a corset of sorts for her, her stunning breasts pushing out the top in an arousing show of cleavage.

She pushed Steve over on his side and they both removed the last of their clothes, and they went back to kissing. He reached down and caressed her pussy, which was extremely wet and dripping; it only took about two minutes before he moved his body down and started licking it. Cathy arched her back at the sudden pleasure, moaning with passionate joy.

It was hard to tell which one was really enjoying this more; she was building up a good cum, the first since leaving the Endeavor, but he wanted lap up every ounce of her pussy juices.

Her moans became longer and louder as he ran his tongue from the base of her pussy to the tip of her clit. It was only another minute or so before she felt herself cumming. The fox started bucking her furry hips; trying to get his penetrating tongue as deep as possible, which he was all to glad to do.

He heard her moans silenced and knew she was cuming. He put his hands on the back of her ass and started sucking at her whole pussy. It was all she needed and she came right into Reynolds mouth, hard enough that her whole body arced up in the air, but he still kept his mouth sealed on her love hole. Her juices mixed and swirled in his mouth, adding to his already horny state.

After about thirty seconds she eased down and she stopped cumming, but her pussy still convulsed. Cathy didn't wait to recover this time; she sat up and licked his face, tasting her own cum on his lips. His face was covered; his short black hair was actually wet with her cum. As she did, Reynolds stroked the sides of her face, running his fingers through the fur. Her juices got the vixen even more aroused than before, making her ready to cum again, as she could tell he was going to make sure of.

He remembered back to the article and laid Cathy down on her back. Steve began massaging the fur on her legs, working his way up to her groin. To his surprise the play worked and even without stimulation to her pussy she still started moaning.

"She definitely has a sensitive sexual side," Reynolds thought to himself.

Steve continued rubbing her legs and groin area. He moved his hands to her sides and worked up to her perk tits. He took one in each hand and slowly rotated them, she moaned each time he did. The massage was getting to him as well and Reynolds jutted out his head and began sucking one of her tits, which was enough to get her to roll her head back in pure pleasure.

"This is new," she kept repeating in her head. She hadn't ever been touched like this before. She had never really been touched in a loving way before him, but still this was new in a different way.

Reynolds moved his hands along the fur, and eventually he was back down by her groin muscle, trying hard to not touch her pussy to change the massage's effect. She started moaning, almost as much as she did when he ate her out. He moved his hands back up to her sides and rubbed her from her tits to her feet, she smiled at this gesture and continued moaning.

Cathy had no idea how, she actually didn't really care, but she could feel the pressure building deep up inside her cunny and she knew she was cuming. She was over taken by the feeling and as he massaged her legs she used her own hands and fondled her breasts; she couldn't help it.

Then with one long moan she came again, her juices spurting in a gusher from her shuddering pussy. He kept massaging one of her breasts and kissed her deeply as she finished.

He kissed her for a minute or so as she caught her breath. Reynolds was satisfied with just this, he was enjoying making her feel good, something he knew few had done for her, but she wanted to return the favor.

Once recuperated, the vixen sat up and rolled him on his back. She had been wondering about trying this for almost four days, and after his massage she actually wanted to do this. In Reynolds mind he thought that Cathy was going to massage him, but to his surprise he saw her lower her snout down to his erect cock. She opened her mouth, and he still wasn't clear on what she was going to do until he felt her long tongue roll up and down his dick. The sudden, new sensation caused him to grip down on the blanket, and he felt himself trying to thrust, but he stopped himself.

She held Reynolds' cock with one of her soft paws and ran her tongue all over his dick. Cathy could tell he was enjoying this by the sheer fact that he had a noticeably stunned look on his face. To add to his reaction, she let go of his dick with her paw and took his entire length is her mouth. She almost remembered a horrible time, but she found herself enjoying this now, and she threw those memories away, and continued licking and sucking his member.

He never would have thought of this; he couldn't even imagine her wanting to suck his dick, apparently her love was boundless. It wasn't as good as her warm pussy, but it was definitely up there with it. Each time she closed her mouth over his cock and ran her tongue down its length he had to check himself from thrusting, for fear of hurting her.

After about seven minutes he felt himself starting to cum, he didn't want to have to stop so early, and he really, really didn't want to cum in her mouth; he still believed she was very fragile and didn't want to overstep his boundaries. Nonetheless he could feel it circulating up his shaft.

"Cathy, Cathy, I'm cumming!" he said as she licked the base of his balls with his whole cock in her mouth.

Instead of taking it out of her mouth, Cathy just attacked it faster and harder, and with her paws took his hands and, to his utter disbelief, rested them on her head. She looked at him and winked, and pushed his hands on her head. She wanted to drink every drop of his hot cum as he had done for her.

He had been surprised she started sucking his cock, but her holding his hands on top of her head put him into amazement. He rolled his head back as she pushed his whole dick down again. He played with her ears, unintentionally, which apparently she liked as she gave a blissful sigh.

He felt the feeling build and he came, hard, into her mouth, he held her head down as to her obvious wish and felt her sucking every last drop down. For a moment he regretted and wanted to release her head, but after about a second the feeling of her tongue and sucking actions overwhelmed him.

She drank so much that she actually started to choke a little, but she kept going, and made sure not to cough, doing so would ruin the moment. She was wholly enjoying this; the sweat and salty taste of his cum made her pussy lips open and drip. What she really enjoyed was the look on his face. She couldn't quite tag what it was; joy, arousal, primal lust, any of them could fit the bill, but the base fact was he felt someone's trust and he felt her, and that's all he wanted or needed.

When he finally finished cumming she lifted her head up. A little of his cum rested on the fur of her chin, and she wiped her whole face. The vixen moved herself up to him and rested her head on his chest.

"That was great Cathy," he said with a distinct sense euphoria in his voice. She smiled at him and was glad he enjoyed it so.

"In an hour," he went on, "we can do some more," he chuckled.

She gave him a sly look and said, "No, we don't have to wait."

Reynolds tilted his head in confusion, not understanding what it is she planed to do.

Before he could finish the thought, Cathy reached down and took his semi hard cock in her paw. She carefully held the sides of the tip and cautiously rubbed the sides with her other paw. To both their surprises the technique worked, and his erection built up again and so did his arousal.

"Where-how?" Reynolds asked.

"I read it in my article," she replied, voice tingling with eagerness, "I was glad to find that you could cum more than once; that I could repay the favor."

Steve smiled as she laid down on her back and made a come hither motion. Reynolds got up and laid down on top of her, kissing her deeply in the process. With one hand he pet the side of her face, she moaned with delight. With his other he started finger-fucking her pussy, focusing on her moist and erect clit.

She reached down and positioned him right over her and rubbed his very hard dick in her paw. She guided it to her welcoming pussy lips and rested its tip on her, just barely penetrating. She replaced her hands on the side of his face and waited for him to trust.

The Captain moved both his hands under her head and pushed his entire length into her. She moaned loudly shifted her arms to his shoulders. He didn't move for about a minute, which was fine for her, they were both enjoying the sense of warmth and togetherness.

Reynolds slowly started rotating his hips, he needed to loosen and relax her pussy a bit further, it was much tighter than it had been when he thrusted in; she really enjoyed being filled.

She cooed as he moved slowly, feeling her moist pussy walls open wider for his cock. The space created was quickly refilled by his growing cock and her juices.

He stopped rotating and drew his hard cock nearly out of her and gave another slow thrust all the way in. She moaned mischievously as he did it once more.

She thrusted her hips to match his, teasing him. He growled playfully and gave her a very deep kiss and increased his rate.

He moved in and out, in and out; each time she groaned a bit; he could tell she was loving it. He slowly built up his speed, and in time he was fucking her hard enough that her beautiful tits bounces with each thrust.

This time she moved her hips against his, making it so that each time he thrusted she made sure his cock went all the way in. She started to feel herself starting to cum. She clenched her arms around his and yelled out, "I'm cumming!"

He slammed his cock deep and left it there as her pussy muscles convulsed and tightened around his rod. They could feel her cum forming a layer around his cock and she silently screamed in ecstasy.

As her pussy was finishing it's shuddering, she stuck her tongue out and open air kissed him as they had done back on the Endeavor. They're tongues rolled over each other and he then moved his head closer and sealed his lips around hers.

Once Reynolds was sure she was ready he resumed thrusting, faster than before.

She started repeating, "Fuck me! Fuck me!" to both of their surprises; she didn't know what had come over her.

They're thoughts paralleled once again; she had gone from distressed to nympho in about a week.

He didn't need her request to keep going. He pushed himself all the way in and made large rotations with his hips. He made sure to roll his cock against her special spot as often as possible, to add to her pleasure. Apparently she really liked that because she started gasping and drooling.

She came again as he was doing this; but she came very hard this time. She lost control of herself for a moment and started bucking her hips against his, making a glorious slapping sound each time. The vixen came so hard that her cum managed to shoot out her pussy and all over their bodies, acting as a very warm and appealing lube between the two.

During this time he didn't stop his rotations, he loved watching her eyes almost roll back and was further excited by her humping of him.

His cock enlarged even more and he continued fucking her, now by any standards, very hard.

He reached down and held Cathy by the sides of her slim stomach, trying to hold her and not just the smooth, soft fur. He started pounding her and using his grip to add extra feeling to it.

This was a lot more than she expected, but she found herself loving it, and even wanting further acts. As he was pounding her cunt she looked over his shoulder and saw the mountains in the distance. Between his grand fucking, the romance, and the scenery, her whole personality did a 180-degree turn.

As if possessed Cathy blurted out, "I want you to fuck my ass!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, of anything she could have said, that was one of the only things other than "stop" that would have brought and end to his fucking. For a full minute he just stared at her, in total disbelief. The Captain realized she was more than just his lover and she more than enjoyed fucking, but, in his mind, what she just proposed was beyond words. He had just saved her about a week ago from being raped in her ass, now she wanted him there. He had to find out what brought this on.

Through his whole thought process, Cathy's mind had caught up with what she had said. It was beyond personal lust, or even just gratification, she really did want him in her ass. She knew in her heart she always dreaded such action, but with him a lot of the things that stalked her nightmares were now among her favorite things, and she wanted this now.

Finally Reynolds worked up a response, and he made no attempts to hide his attitude, "Cathy, how can you ask me that? I love you to damn much to possibly hurt you."

She understood his disbelief and worry, hell she wasn't sure how and why she asked it entirely herself and she feared it a bit herself, which is why she wanted it. In her mind if she made him do this she'll be totally his, the only thing of fear in her mind would melt away.

"I-I don't know, I just want to feel you there," she said, a little scared of what his reaction would be, "I want you to be the first to really have me entirely in a way we can both enjoy it."

Thinking for a long moment, he still wasn't too sure that she knew what she was asking. He wasn't even sure he wanted to do that, although the concept did excite him.

He smiled and replied warmly, "I think your enjoying this more than you realize, say it again so you can realize what you actually said."

Steve was sure if Cathy did that she would come to her senses and realize that she wasn't ready for that, but to his surprise, she replied in a very reassuring and confident voice, "I want you to fuck my ass."

Now he was taken back a step, so to speak.

"I can't do that, what if I hurt you, I could never forgive myself," he said honestly.

"I trust you, and I know what you will do and how careful you'll be, but I want you there," she said, very sensually, almost enough to convince him but he "stood firm" with his objection.

He didn't want to bring it up, not at such a meaningful moment in their lives but he needed to talk some sense into her, "Cathy, my love, just last week you were, ya know, raped there..." he trailed off.

She hung her head in shame, she hated that such a thing had to happen, that it changed and still affected their beautiful relationship. She then realized the best way to convince him was to turn his play against him.

"That's why I want you to fuck me there now," she replied in a full voice, "I want you end every bad thing that's happened to me so I can be yours and yours alone."

"You already are in my mind," he replied thoughtfully, Cathy smiling softly at the comment, but looked down at his cock and licked her lips.

He could tell she wasn't going to take no for an answer, and he didn't like denying her, but he was still, admittedly, afraid.

"But what if I hurt you?" he repeated.

"You won't, I know you won't," Cathy added, with every argument she posed towards this she grew hornier and hornier.

Finally he nodded his head and finished, "if your sure, I will, but if you have any pain, I will stop, I just can't bring myself to do anything difficult to you."

She nodded back and took her paws and guided his hard cock from her pussy; which made a "pop" as it came out, and she pressed it against her ass hole. Cathy could tell that this wasn't going to work right away so she pushed herself up so that they were on an equal level and sat him back. She gave his cock a good lick, to moisten it up so it would slip in easer, and she turned and backed up, to sit on his hard dick. She wanted to make it seem to him that she was controlling the situation, and she didn't want to him to see her winch if she did.

Reynolds felt her ass hole against the tip of his dick; it was so tight he could barely feel the hole. He couldn't believe she expected to enjoy fucking there but it seemed she was going to force it in no matter what. Her tail twitched between the two lovers as she reached down and slowly, lowered herself onto his dick, trying to push its head in.

Though for years and years her father had abused her there, as did the wolf in resent day, her ass had remained tight. And it was tight enough that they were both having a hard time trying to do this, as neither, obviously, wanted to hurt her.

He could tell this was never going to work, and Reynolds didn't want to ruin the moment, nor ignore her wishes, so he thought of a better way. The Captain knew he needed better leverage, so he, very carefully, laid her down on her stomach, and positioned himself behind her.

Cathy's heart was beating loudly now; her attuned ears could hear it in her chest. She wasn't scared, nor nervous, but eager, particularly now that he was taking charge of the situation. She felt the Captain pressing his dick's head against her ass again, clumsily pushing and sliding against it.

Finally he worked up the courage to make a full attempt, and he leaned down and held one of her paws. He felt her grip tighten, she was scared, although she wouldn't even admit it to herself, and so he asked one last time, "Are you sure?"

She replied, "As sure as I am that you're the one and only love of my life."

Reynolds smiled and kissed the side of her head, and, without letting go of her paw, used his other hand to aid in inserting his cock into her tight ass.

As he managed to slip just the head in she moaned deeply and squeezed his hand quite hard, making him hesitate for a moment. They stayed like that for a moment, with just his cock-head in her and waited for her to loosen up. Unfortunately, at least unfortunately in his mind, her anal muscles didn't seem to want to give up and refused his entry. For a second he considered stopping, if only to massage her rear to put its tense muscles at ease, but she started rocking her rear, trying to shift his cock into her welcoming passage.

Reynolds took his free hand and held her by her belly, and with one powerful, yet careful, thrust; he shoved more than half his length into her. He couldn't see it but he knew she had winched by how hard she grabbed his hand and how her tail went ridged.

Carefully he lowered his head and kissed her cheek. The Captain saw his love's eyes clinched shut, and small tears in their corners. He released her paw for a moment and held both sides of her face and she opened her eyes.

"You okay?" he asked in a very careful voice.

Cathy turned her head and replied, "Ya, it just kind of stings, but keep going."

He nodded and moved both his hands to her hips. He started pushing the rest of himself into her ass, she moaned each time it slipped in another inch.

Finally, ten minutes after starting, he had his entire cock buried in her extremely tight ass. Neither of them had a clue on how he was going to take it out, much less fuck her. The feeling was so intense to her that without any movement on his part she moaned loudly.

Reynolds began just rocking his hips side-to-side, trying to loosen her up even a little, not only to remove any pain for her, but also to actually make some room. The feeling for her was magnified ten fold; it didn't hurt or anything, which surprised her a bit, but she could feel herself getting lightheaded and was worried she may pass out but she calmed herself and focused on the feeling and closeness of the situation.

After she appeared to have loosened up what felt like millimeters, Reynolds finally shifted his hands to give him leverage as he drew himself from her. As he did, she made and auditable yelp and he froze.

"Oh no! I didn't hurt you did I? Did I go to fast?!" he yelled, very nervous.

Cathy moaned uncomfortably and said, "No, it was me, I tried to stop myself from clenching and I couldn't help it. The only way is if you take this fast and stop my ass from catching up," she replied, with a mixture of eagerness and nervousness in her words now.

He really didn't want to do this now, he knew there maybe some strange and unforgettable things that would happen tonight, but he didn't plan this, not by a long shot. Now he was very afraid he had hurt her, and, to throw on top of this, she wanted him to actually go fast, when he had been doing nothing but going as slow as possible.

For a long while, could have been days for all he knew, he had no idea how to proceed.

Knowing that the only way to get the Captain started was if she did some of the work herself, Cathy carefully pushed it deep within her bowels. She suppressed a yelp as it hit home, and she moved it out, again and again, slowly, but in a clear humping fashion.

Cathy could tell that his cock was to dry, her ass didn't get moist as her pussy. She reached down and gave herself a good rub, soaking her paw with her cunny juices, and reached back and rubbed his hot dick with them. Once she was satisfied with her improvised lube she continued easing him in and out. She felt herself getting a more fluid motion and he started to move as well.

Reynolds saw her look over her shoulder and without words knew he was to take over. He started moving in and out pretty well now, faster than he thought she could take.

She propped herself up on her paws and he shifted himself on his knees. She was enjoying this now, her uncomfortable grunts now replaced with moans of passion. He held her hips and was now fucking her good; both completely lost any sense of fear or nervousness of what they were doing.

He rubbed the fur on her back and butt, rubbing it and moving his hands around the base of her tail. She was really enjoying this, so much so that her tail was more than wagging, it was wrapping itself around him like a whip.

"Oh fuck ohhh!!!" she yelled adoringly.

He continued; a warm squishing sound sounding each time he filled her. The feeling was great, he couldn't even dream anything better than this. He was enjoying this so much he even moaned, something he hadn't done before. She managed to look at him as he was doing so and she smiled; but he gave her a full thrust and she shuddered in pleasure.

Cathy started bouncing herself again, she was enjoying this as much as he was, which scared her. She knew she wanted this, and expected to enjoy it, but she was still very surprised with herself that she liked it so much. To add to that surprise she could feel herself starting to cum. She had no idea how, but she knew the feeling.

Steve knew he heard her start saying, "I'm cumming! I'm cumming!" but he had no idea how either, but she started screaming feverously and a think stream of her sweet cum shot out her pussy.

He stopped and let her just feel his whole cock deep in her as she continued cumming. This was different in it's own way; she usually lost her voice when she came, but she was yelling this time, but enjoying it equally.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Fuck me! Fuck me!" the vixen moaned, a shock wave passing from her tight ass all throughout her body.

Once done, she laid back on Reynolds, pushing him on his back. She sat upright and started bouncing herself up and down. She really liked this, and she reached up and cradled her own tits and even tried to lick one. She loved the feeling of his warm cock spreading her ass checks and she could feel him in both holes.

Each time she sat up, and his cock was drawn from her ass nearly to the tip, she could feel her anus shake, trying to go back to its normal form, which caused shivers to run through her entire body. Then, as she slammed herself down back onto his dick, his cock would press against every surface deep in her ass which make her want to scream in joy.

He reached around and started rubbing her pussy as she slammed herself down on him. This furthered her pleasure and his. He licked his fingers and tasted her juices, and it was enough to add to his very excited state. He grabbed her hips again and started slamming her down harder than she was before. She lost control of her own motions and leaned her head back, between his ass fucking and rubbing her out she was in total paradise, she never wanted it to end, yet she did want him to cum, hard, as deep as he could in her.

She came again, this time on his hand. He brought it to his lips and began licking his fingers again, but this time she laid down on his body and turned her head to lick his fingers as well.

He slowed up a bit as Cathy whispered, "I want you to cum deep in my pussy. Fill me Steve! Fill me and make me yours!"

He nodded and removed his cock from her ass and laid her down her back. As they had been before, he laid down on top of her and inserted his very hard and moist dick into her drooling pussy.

She gave him a quick kiss and he began fucking her good. This time she let him do everything, she just let herself go to him and tried as hard as she could to cum.

The fox's velvety sleeve did feel better than her ass, although only a little. He laid right on her, only bucking his hips, and kissed her deeply. He could feel her muscles beginning to tighten and he felt his cock beginning to fill as well.

This cum was going to be big, very big, and she knew it. Because of his gradual upgrading from touching to fucking it had been warming up just for this. She felt a layer of her cum forming deep within her and her legs started to tense. She felt him wrap his legs around hers and she felt as if she was completely within him. Her fur tensed and she could feel the sweat underneath it and on each hair. She felt his cock harden and forced her pussy open even more to welcome his seed.

She was ready and he knew it, so he pressed against her g-spot and felt her whole body go firm. Her tail started wagging, hard, in between their legs, and it excited him each time it brushed against his leg. Her eyes lit up and pure elation and her pussy opened up, ready to welcome every inch of his cock and every drip of his fast approaching cum.

They both came at the same time, this time he groaned loudly as she did. His hot cum shot up into her belly. Her normally quite cumming changed into a rapturous scream of complete pleasure, and she pulled him in as close as he could get. Their cum danced and played in her cunt, almost setting off another orgasm as the first was going on. She felt the cum mixture in her pussy fill every crevasse of her pussy and had strange, yet happy, feeling of completeness.

What he felt is beyond description, her pussy moved in a way that it literally sucked what felt to be every bit of cum in his body. He loved her more at this moment than he loved anything before. As they were still mutually cuming he wrapped his arms around her and drew her as close as possible; they both loved each other enough that they wanted to truly be one.

After what felt like an eternity, her pussy stopped convulsing, and they both stopped moaning; the only sound they could hear was their equally rasped breathing and each other's hearts beating rapidly. His cock still dribbled cum, and each time it moved she shook a little.

He collapsed and laid his head on her breast. She cooed as he did and weakly stroked the side of his head, and it had the same effect on him as it did her. She reached over and pulled the side of the blanket over them and she hugged him and whispered, very quietly, "Thank you..."

He looked up and smiled, as did she. He kissed her; neither releasing the other's body, and they both drifted into sleep; his cock still deep and twitching in her cunt, and with their tongues intertwined.

Chapter 4 A Warm Welcome

Edge of a Lake, Roughly 40 miles from Ronch, Noon

As they had the day she lost her virginity to him, they both awoke the way they had fallen asleep, and without missing a beat they continued kissing.

Cathy let herself go into the truth, she was a nympho, and she believed he had brought this out to her, and she was glad. He had been the only one to love her, and the only one to satisfy her, and she wanted to fuck him as often as she could. She knew this was true and decided to share this with him.

"I love your cock," she said, which, although he didn't show it, caught him off guard, "And I want it whenever possible, I want you to fuck me and do whatever you want," she said very sensually, she felt his hard cock still buried in her hot and still wet cunt.

She continued with her confession, "Had I never met you, I would never had enjoyed sex, and I know no one else could bring this personality out of me, and I'm glad you did."

She saw him smile and knew he was glad for her.

The vixen finished with, "and I want you to fuck me now, good and hard again."

The Captain was totally hers, so he willingly obeyed. He was surprised that coming right out of sleep brought on by a long night of fucking, she wanted more, but he wanted to fuck her just as much. She looked beautiful under the blanket, and her eyes bore a hole through all sense of awkwardness.

He decided to speak his thoughts as well and said, "I hope you realize this makes you a nympho?" he smiled, actually eager at the concept.

Cathy simply replied, "I know, now fuck me."

That was all he needed, and Steve began grinding his hips against hers. He figured this time he needed no wind up in the fucking so he pushed his cock against her g-spot the whole time, having great effect.

She moaned graciously, loving every moment of it. Her vagina was burning with the warmth of the cum still in her and his cock pulsating within. She had admitted to being a sex freak now and she loved its rewards. Each time he thrusted in a loud squish was made, and this drove her wild.

Because they had both been horny as they slept, it didn't take long for them both to cum once again. This time he came hard enough to cause real, yet small pain, deep, very deep, within her pussy. Her cum filled in the space between his cock and her swollen outer pussy lips. His cum filled the space above, and enough was there that it forced some of hers out and down her leg. The smell was great and she started licking his face.

Their cum mixed up as he shifted his cock deep within her, and that feeling alone made her moan out in pleasure, causing her to open her mouth widely. He saw his opportunity and kissed her, letting his tongue go deep and intertwined with hers. She was the one surprised this time this time and held the sides of his face; glad he was eager as much as she was.

Reynolds whispered in her ear, "this is a great way to wake up."

She giggled and kissed him again, she really, really loved him now and she knew he really loved her as well. Cathy had spent her life looking for a way away from others, but she was so happy she was in love now, this was what she really wanted in life. Not fame, not fortune, just Steve's love and he threw it at her, something that just made her pray that this wasn't a dream.

She was playful in their post coitile state and said, "so you love fucking me?"

"Of course I do," he laughed, "I love have sex with my little fox."

She was his, and she knew she always would be. Cathy licked his lips and laid her head on its side. He placed his head on hers and they were both each other's.

This little foray was enough to wear them out once again, and they both feel back asleep.

***

At about 2'o-clock, they awoke again. This time he smiled and kissed her lips, and began removing his amazingly still hard cock from her warm pussy. Once he did a very think stream of semi-white cum rushed from her pussy lips. He let it wash over his cock, loving it, and although she felt there was still more in her, it slowed to a trickle and stopped.

Cathy leaned over and licked his dick, lapping up every drop of warm cum on his hard-on. He returned the favor and licked her delicious cunt. Once they're respected sex organs were cleaned they licked each other's faces, then kissed as deeply as they had their whole relationship. She leaned on his chest and they sat for about a half hour like that, both very content with life.

Finally Reynolds picked himself up, his legs slightly weak from the very full night and morning of sex. He put out his hand and helped her up, she was weaker than him and she needed to rest her whole, yet light, body on his.

He knew she couldn't walk, so he held her in his arms, her long elegant legs hanging over his arms, and carried her in the same way he did when he had saved her. Steve walked them to the lake, right into the small, lapping waves. Luckily for them it was summer and the planet was rather close to its sun, so the water was as warm as bath.

It was clear to both of them they weren't going to go anywhere that day, so they both equally figured to just enjoy the day as a holiday. He laid her down in the waist deep water and she swam around him as he lowered himself as well.

As he floated on his back she swam up and on top of him, her light body now completely weightless in the water. Her now soaked fur lapped against his body and he just held her, the feeling of togetherness in the water was very humbling.

The cloud cover over the mountains lifted and he pointed to it. She looked and gasped.

"Beautiful," they both whispered.

He moved himself next to her and they just floated there, bobbing in the water, for a long while. They were both, amazingly enough, horny, but this time he was more so than Cathy. He figured that maybe once he would start a "game" and he carefully moved behind her. He positioned himself and pressed his cock head right on her anus.

She yelped and turned to meet his devious gaze.

"Ohhh," she groaned, "you like my ass don't you."

He smiled and said, "you wanted to be mine entirely, and your tight ass is great."

She turned for a moment and locked eyes with him, "I'm a vixen, a nympho, but most of all, I'm yours."

He sighed at her display of love and spun her in the water. This time when he inserted his cock head into her ass; it wasn't as hard, but still a challenge, and she enjoyed it from the beginning this time.

He slammed his whole length into her, causing the water to swish around them. The weightless environment of the lake allowed him to position himself in a way he could never do on land. He was behind and a little below her; he pushed the linked pair out a few more feet from the shore so that they could feel no land beneath them.

Her ass was tight as ever and he could barely hold back himself. Through her anus he could feel the muscles of her pussy trembling, and she was as well. She let out a deep moan, then silenced and apparently came very hard. She cocked back her head on his shoulder and just stared into the sky.

The Captain kept fucking her ass through her cum, which apparently was more than the now nympho could take. She reached back with a paw and held his hips, causing him to stop short. As hard as he would fuck her he would never hurt her or do anything against her wishes.

She finished cuming and her legs, which were causing the water above to ripple, stopped shaking. Slowly at first he began again, but he knew that if she came again, so would he.

"Where do you want it?" he asked, somewhat interested in unloading in her ass.

"Mmmm, wherever you want," she moaned, totally engrossed in the moment.

He shifted himself a little, and replied, a little embarrassed, yet strong, "in your ass, okay?"

She breathed hard as he sped up a bit and managed to reply, "Yes! Yes! Cum deep in my ass, cum! cum!"

Steve continued fucking her ass hard and felt his cock muscles constrict, and her ass actually tighten, she wanted to have it in her. He wasn't going to displease her now so he released and filled her ass with his cum. It was something she wasn't entirely ready for and had he not been holding her she would have lifted off him. She screamed in pure pleasure and came herself as his cock erupted. Her sphincter clenched down, hard, on his dick and it caused him to buck his hips, which made her moan deeply and resume her long scream.

Unfortunately she had felt someone cum in her ass before, but this time she enjoyed it and felt her ass checks close in around his cock. His semen shot up so far that she could imagine it coming out her mouth. Instead of his cum though, a wisp of pleasure induced droll dripped down the side of her mouth.

This time she removed his cock from her ass as soon as they were both done, and turned quickly, and put it in her pussy, not so that he could fuck her, because she wanted to always feel filled by him.

He tilted his head, somewhat confused by the action so she explained herself, "I want you to be in me whenever possible, and when were done, put your cock in my pussy and let it be there until we're both really done."

He hugged her, she was really a nympho and, although less than a week ago it was not even conceivable, he was very, very glad she was. He recapped on the last day's events as he looked at his beautiful red fox... then he realized what had brought all this on. He hadn't seen her as a fox or himself as a human, just as a pair of lovers. While it was a beautiful thing, he had forgotten some key things that did apply to her biology.

"Cathy," he started, with a very humorous attitude, "have you ever been 'in heat' before?"

She was still recovering from the good fuck, but she managed to shake her head, "No, I guess with all the bad things in my past my body never really caught up with itself and I never had that part. I still can have pups, but I never went into a heat over it. Until you I never wanted to fuck anyone."

He laughed, this time she was confused. She was young and naïve, no matter what she had been through.

"Honey, I think you are in heat now," he said very warmly.

Cathy stared at him and, even through her fur covered cheeks, he could see her blush. He laughed uncontrollably at the sight and the explanation. She giggled innocently too, and hugged him.

She said out loud, "I guess my body was just waiting for you."

He stopped laughing and turned her to meet his gaze and smiled.

"I really love you," he said and kissed her.

"And I love you," she said and kissed him.

"Does this mean I won't always want sex?" she said, actually a bit disappointed.

He chuckled and said, "No, maybe not with such..." he searched for the right word, "impatience, but I can tell from just our time on board the Endeavor that you do enjoy sex. You may not always want to do some of these things, but I love you and you love me, and from time to time I'm sure you'll want to do more than just be with me."

She smiled and said, "Being with you is all that matters, if you never wanted to have sex again with me, I wouldn't care. Just so long as you were always with me."

He laughed, "All I want to do is be with you as well, but don't worry," he said, then shifted his voice, "I'm sure I can find time to give you a full night," he said jokingly.

She smiled kissed him.

"By the way," he furthered, "now we both have something to look forward too from time to time..."

She moaned gleefully and hugged him but tilted her head in a quizzical way, "I may be in heat, but what came over you?"

Reynolds still smiling replied, "You did."

She smiled broadly and hugged him closely, she was glad he loved her so.

He then remembered that his cock was still buried in her, and he could feel his cum from the their last days session still circulating in her.

"Ohh," he said, "you know there's a lot of my, you know, up in you."

She shifted herself and nodded, she had been enjoying the feeling of his cum seeping up very high inside her tight cunt.

"Here," he began lowering his hand to her pussy, "your in heat you may get pregnant."

With lightning fast reflexes she grabbed and stayed his hand, fast enough that the water didn't stir at all.

He asked the obvious question of, "what's wrong?"

She locked onto his eyes and said very sternly, "I don't want you to do that."

The Captain was very surprised by her sudden change, "You mean clean you out? Why not?"

"I want to have your pups, and even if it doesn't take, I want you to just leave it," she replied adamantly.

He sighed and brought his hand back above the surface and pat the side of her face; her firm attitude melted away at the touch.

"Okay Cathy. Do you want me test you with the hormone detector?" he asked, trying to push her in that direction.

He wasn't so much afraid of the possibility of her having pups now, but he didn't want to start something like that when they may not be able to stay in the same place permanently.

Her mood reverted back to what he now figured was her protective instincts and she said, "No, let it be. We'll know sooner or later."

He smiled, he wasn't angry or offended. He remembered how protective mothers usually were towards their young. While his had not been, she preferred to let Reynolds raise himself; he still realized that for a fox it might even precede birth, right to conception. He still wanted to know, but he would find another way, without disregarding her wishes, to find out if he had seeded her womb.

Steve kissed her and she went back to her happy self. They swam back to the shore and walked back to the camp. The swim had been more than just a great sexual experience, it had also given them both a good washing, Cathy acting as a big brush to his whole body.

They both dried and dressed, putting on their armor and turning it on. The metal plates incased them both. He loved how the plates fitted closely to her body and showed off her slim figure.

"I'm hungry," he said, "how about you?"

"Ya, I'm starving," she replied and hopped over to the food pack.

She took two MRE's and handed one to him. They talked about various things as they ate. Usually they ate in silence, but the mood was so light that both their personalities had done a 180, particularly hers after he had pointed out her hormonal state.

Steve made a joke, "so your not a nympho, just a horny fox."

The vixen laughed and choked a bit on her food. She shoved him and laughed fully. She was quite a bit embarrassed by the whole episode, particularly that he had been the one that figured it out. They finished eating and he thought of something she might enjoy doing. The Captain went into the tent and emerged with the Thompson.

"How about we try shooting this for real?" he proposed.

She thought for a moment and said, "Are you sure its safe? We don't want to draw attention, it is pretty loud."

"We should be fine," the captain replied, "both sides are focused to the north, for the nova deposits, so I would be very surprised to find anyone down here. Even if they were, we're wearing some of the most well build armor made by the Federation, we really don't have to worry about anything."

It was enough for Cathy and she got up to go with him.

On Board the FN Endeavor 1600 Hours military time

Osing was very unhappy to say the least; the wolves had gotten a foothold and were fanning out. New battles were ensuing and what was thought to have been a reclaimed planet was now back to a battle zone. To add to his disinterest to this situation he now had to be briefed by the late Colonel Hushing's replacement.

Colonel Brigs stood at the older General's side as they walked into the briefing room. Inside they found a Lieutenant Colonel, a dog; a bad thing considering that dogs were the indigenous species of the planet, he may take things to personally.

The Lt.Colonel saluted. The two army officers returned the gesture and sat at the briefing table.

Without missing a beat the Lt. Colonel opened with, "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Renault Sterling. I would like to start by saying that I am a lot different from my predecessor."

The collective mood lightened at this statement.

Being very frank he continued, "The actions of Colonel Hushing's," Sterling continued, "were deplorable at best. I always condemned him for it and to be honest, I'm not to sorry that the wolves finally got him."

Osing smiled, he could tell he was going to like Sterling.

"Well at least we can agree on that," Brigs, to the surprise of Osing, chimed in. He hadn't thought much of Hushing either.

"Alright sirs, first things first," Sterling began, "as you already know the wolves have retaken much of the land they evacuated, and even retook some key parts of the northern cities, but we still hold the capital."

The other two officers nodded.

"While at first even intelligence couldn't figure out why the wolves were so interested in this planet, even with its rich nova reserves, but we recently intercepted a message that may explain their true intentions."

The Lt. Colonel, who seemed to be "cheerful" as an intelligence officer could be, seemed to become very serious for a moment, which made Brigs uneasy and peaked Osing's interest.

"We are led to believe that the leader of the wolf forces here, General Nadine, is personally protecting the leader of the wolves himself, Alpha Prime Mafeu Sadovnik.

Both of the officers shifted uneasily now, if this was true this maybe the last battle of the Federation against the wolves, brining and end to a thirty two year war against them.

Osing asked, "And do we have any idea where he is?" very interested.

"No, unfortunately," the dog answered, cocking his ears in a disappointed fashion, "but we do know that he is trapped, wherever that is and that an entire fleet is being assembled to kick us out and find him."

"Why doesn't he try and run?" Brigs asked.

Osing replied for Sterling, the answer was obvious, "either he doesn't know that the fight is going bad, which is unlikely but possible, or he may have staged that useless space battle to see if him trying to run was even possible, which as long as our fleet is here, isn't."

"I couldn't have said it better," Sterling commented. "He's hiding and waiting for his men to bail him out. Our guess says that the reason he chose to hide on this planet was that it is indeed small, and not likely to over draw attention. Obviously he was wrong."

"So what's our course of action Colonel?" Osing asked, interested in what he had to say.

"Well," he started, a bit of hesitation in his voice, "after briefing Admiral Drake and his staff they toyed with the idea of a Delta-2-Zero, but I think, as do most, that that's just unacceptable. There's to many civilians down there, and, thankfully, I was able to appeal to Consular Otho's monetary side and made him aware that a Delta-2-Zero would make him lose all chances of gaining the nova deposits, so that is adverted, but that leaves only one possible solution, ground assault. It will be messy, but in this situation it's needed; we really could end this damn war if we act quickly. To answer the general's question we believe, rather think, that Sadovnik is closer to the southern hemisphere, which makes sense since neither side made any real incursions into the south. I suggest when your planning your ground assault that you focus your efforts there "

The room fell silent for a moment, and all that Osing could think of was that he wished Reynolds was there to lead the ground assault, and that they weren't very possible walking into a trap.

Edge of a Lake, Roughly 40 miles from Ronch, 10'o-clock

They walked back to their camp, they had spent the whole day shooting and they had both thoroughly enjoying it. He still loved the fact he was lucky enough to have found a lover who could rest and coddle for hours and then go out for a day of shooting, on of his favorite passions.

They ate a MRE each and went to bed, this night in the tent.

Although they had both slept very late for soldiers, they were both very tired from the two days activities, although neither held any regrets.

She snuggled close to him in the sleeping bag, her fur warming both of them. He smiled and said, "I want to do some reading on my data pad, you can go to sleep if you want."

She smiled, yawned and lowered herself, resting her head on his chest. He heard her breathing slow and could tell she was asleep.

He grabbed his data pad and turned it on. The whole day he had kept her actions in the lake filed away in the back of his mind, mainly those having to do with her womb. He wanted to make her more than his lover, he wanted her to be the mother of his children, but he was worried that bringing along another person, or fox, whatever it would be; he wasn't entirely sure, would be dangerous for all of them.

He typed into the built in encyclopedia "pregnancy signs" and a list came up with common signs of pregnancy;

* missed menstrual period

* nausea

* extreme fatigue

* frequent urination

* tender breasts

* headache

* heartburn

* constipation

* spotting

* feeling faint

He looked up each one. The first two were unique to humans, a certain hormone caused them, as did urinations, heartburn, and spotting. He also found that headaches, constipation, and feeling faint didn't take place for a long time into a pregnancy, 6-8 weeks. What he did find was that extreme fatigue and tender breasts did occur in other species and sometimes could take place within days of actual conception.

He made a mental note of both and planed to watch out for them carefully, but promised himself that even if he found that it was true, he wouldn't tell her. She wanted it to be a surprised, and if it happened, he would see to it that it was.

***

The next morning they packed up the camp and moved out. They spent the whole day marching south towards Ronch. The march was easy for them due to the full days rest and relaxation.

This day went by fast, they're collective mood was light and happy, and they walked all day.

By about 6:30 they stopped, having covered whopping 26 miles, leaving only 14 more for the next day.

They set up camp and watched a movie on a projection unit. They both barely watched it as they were both focused on being with each other. It was nice for both of them to feel the mutual love and respect of the other; they were beyond bonding, they were joined in a way that couldn't be broken.

They went to sleep in each other's arms, both glad and hoping they could do that for the rest of their lives. When Steve and Cathy awoke they kissed rest for a little while but knew that it should be a quick march. They packed up for what they both knew was the last time and began marching towards the town, every step they both found themselves trying to spot it in the distance.

This time however they stopped at about noon, rather he stopped them. They were less than three miles from the town, and he needed to finalize certain things. To his surprise she looked a bit tired, he wasn't sure why.

"Why'd we stop?" she asked, panting a little.

He stepped up to her and s kneeled down, "we need to figure out exactly what we're going to do once we get there. We can't exactly waltz in and ask for food and shelter and fail to mention how we came to be there."

Cathy frowned, knowing him to be correct.

"I've been trying to think up an account, but I'm drawing a blank, there just isn't any believable explanation," Steve said, "but, you were the spy, so you must have some idea on what our cover story should be."

The fox thought for a long moment, she had a hard time thinking. Normally this would have only taken a few moments, she was quite devious at times, but for some reason she couldn't think of a thing. Moreover she really couldn't think, she just wanted to lie down.

"I don't know, I'm to tired to think," she finally said.

He was struck with fear. It was all to obvious what was up, he knew from the moment he looked it up, as if he had jinxed the situation, that she was going to be expecting, but now he was sure, she was tired, and they had walked the previous day 26 miles with no problem, now a mere eleven miles had tired her. He thought at first that this was kind of fast, even for those symptoms, but Fox biology was different for humans, "and" he thought, "lord knows what the added fact that I'm human and she's a fox is going to do to whatever grows in her."

But aside from this he did feel a sense of thrill, he wanted to share it with her, but he had promised to leave it be, and he wasn't going to go against that, not now. Maybe when the signs were more evident, but not now, he may still be wrong.

All this time Cathy had been studying his facial expressions, and she was a bit worried by what she saw, he was hiding something.

"A penny for your thoughts?" she asked.

He came out of the daze that was his thoughts and said, "uh, well you've got nothing and neither do I, so what do we do?"

She decided to focus on the needed objective, she would find out what he was thinking later.

"Well, what's wrong with telling them the truth, that we're run aways. I can't see why they'd care," she said sincerely.

He considered it for a moment, it was her idea to leave the federation in the first place, and he was glad she had proposed it, all he wanted now was to spend his life with her, and so he made up his mind to trust her decision.

"Alright," he said firmly, "I'll let you led us and do the talking."

She smiled and they continued walking towards Ronch, she felt very tired and for some reason her chest was starting to feel soar, but when she was about to mention it Ronch finally came into view, a speck about a mile away, but it was obvious what it was.

Abandoned Freighter in Orbit over Chyane

The hooded figure paced back and forth in front of the video screen, waiting for the important call.

"Why did I do this?" the nervous figure said to himself, "there's no way this is going to work."

The secret individual was playing a dangerous game. Before he was willing to do anything to gain a safe future for himself, but now he feared he was too deep.

The screen flickered to life and a wolf's picture came into view. Even though it was only a video of him it still sent shivers through the fearful dignitary.

The wolf was Alpha Prime Mafeu Sadovnik, and his grin was penetrating. A long scare ran down his cheek to his eye, and it added to the wolf's freighting appearance.

"Well, how goes our deal?" the wolf asked, grinning.

"I think we're okay, the intelligence department is suspecting some things, particularly now that one of its best officers is thought to be murdered, but I don't think anyone suspects me," the crafty fellow replied.

"Good, good," the wolf replied, nodding his head, "It seems we'll both get what we want. My war will continue, and you'll get to enjoy the spoils."

"I have but one question Mafeu," the figure asked, causing the wolf to winch at the use of his first name, the crafty figure was too much of a politician, "what do you want me to do if they find out your location?"

The wolf's features hardened and he drew himself closer to the screen, "That better not happen. You make sure to kill who you need and remove those who get in your way to keep me hidden."

The politician flinched, noticeably to Mafeu.

"Lets put it like this," Mafeu said, "Your fate is linked to mine. If I'm exposed, you will be too, and that means no precious nova for you," He smiled and continued, "not to mention what the Federation will do with your body once they find out what you're doing."

The other's eyes widened in fear, the mere concept of being exposed scared him wholly.

"All this to make sure my future is secure," he snarled to himself.

The wolf seeing this chuckled and said, "I trust you will do what is needed, and I'll contact you with my escape strategy in a day or so. Just make sure that no Federation sweeps go this far south."

The politician nodded and the screen went blank, leaving him to his thoughts and fears.

Ronch, Chyane 1:25 PM

Karl was bored as hell, he didn't want to be here and he really didn't want his "guests" here anymore, they were annoying and too needy. Also they were a bit scary, but the soft country folk of their small town had learned long ago not to ask questions of weary travelers, no matter how strange.

Unfortunately for Karl, he knew exactly who his "guests" were and how dangerous they really were, but they were hiding and he didn't want to make them feel threatened, lest he invoke any more rage from them.

The thought sent a shiver through the brown dog's bones and a pang of anger.

After he finished tilling the fields he sat down on his favorite tree stump and looked around at his work. This was the best year he had seen for farming, the temperature was just warm enough that the soil stayed warm all day and night, but not hot enough to dry it out.

As he was admiring his work, he noticed, from the north, a pair of specs on the horizon. At first he thought it was just his eyes, that maybe the sun was stronger than he thought, but after a few minutes they grew and took the form of two people, or at least one was, the other, he thought, had a tail.

They were walking right towards him but they appeared friendly, so he got up and walked to his fence at the north side of his field and watched them come further into view.

To his surprise they were both a lot larger than they had looked from a distance. The fox, which Karl thought was quite beautiful, was clad in metal armor except for her face and tail. She wasn't armed but Karl wasn't stupid, he knew that the only group of people and furries that had armor remotely like that were Federation soldiers, and they were expert fighters.

The man, or at least Karl thought he was a man, was fully clad in armor, head to toe. He was armed though, but with something Karl couldn't quite figure out. It looked like a small rifle, but it had wood on it and had a very short barrel.

As the two travelers came within talking distance the man lowered his armored faceplate and waved to Karl. He didn't return the gesture, but not to be rude, he wanted to be sure they were friendly; if they were they may be very useful.

The Captain saw the brown dog almost a mile away, he was working his fields and didn't notice the pair until they were about 1800 feet away. He kept his Thompson loaded and tried to stay in front of Cathy, but she would have nothing of it; so they walked side by side until they were face to face with the dog.

"Who are you?" the canine asked.

Reynolds hesitated for a moment but he felt, rather heard, Cathy brush her hand against his back and he knew it was okay.

"I'm Captain Steve Reynolds and this is Sergeant Catharine Gray. We're runaways from the Federation and we're looking for shelter," the Captain replied, glad to have started with being honest.

Karl didn't care, all he heard from the armor-clad soldier was "Captain" "Sergeant" and "Federation" and he jumped at the chance.

"Your with the Federation?!" Karl asked, excitement in his voice.

"Well yes, sort of. We were," the captain replied, now a bit intrigued with why the young dog was so interested in that particular fact.

Karl disregarded the "we were" and almost yelled out, "We need your help; a wolf General is hiding here and has us hostage!"

Chapter 5 Frying Pan

Ronch, Chyane 1:30PM

"What do you mean, 'hostage?'" Reynolds asked, he held the Thompson a bit closer.

The dog replied, with no fear in his voice, "If we try and leave they said they would kill us. Please, can you help us?"

For a long moment the two former Federation soldiers stood still, not sure what to do. They had come to this town with the specific intent of avoiding any wolves or fighting, now they may very well be tasked with liberating a town.

"No," the Captain thought to himself, "I won't risk it."

He didn't want to disappoint the young dog, but he didn't want to risk Cathy or himself.

"I'm sorry, uhh, what's your name?" he started.

"Karl Devon," the dog replied.

"Well Karl, I'm sorry, but we're both in hiding, and we don't want to draw attention to ourselves. Don't worry about the wolves, they need you to hid them, they won't hurt anyone," the Captain replied, and he turned with his fox companion and motioned to turn away.

Karl was distraught now, he wanted to have these wolves removed, and when he though he was so close, his only hopes, the two soldiers were walking away. He tried to think of something, and remembered something he saw a day or two ago.

"They have three Federation soldiers!" he yelled, almost in tears.

That stopped both Reynolds and Cathy in their tracks. They both still loved the Federation, and both never would want to watch another Fed soldier suffer or die at the hands of the wolves. The Captain, however, wasn't convinced, but he decided to pursue what the dog was talking about.

He turned back and strode up to the dog, although he was about two feet taller than him the canine didn't flinch at all.

"What do you mean they 'have federation prisoners?'" he asked.

"I mean just what I said, when they came here a few weeks ago they had three very beaten up soldiers with them, but they weren't wolves. One was a human, a woman; the other two were rabbits, one male, the other, I think, a girl. Please, there's about eight of them here."

He thought for a long moment on this, eight wolves weren't that hard to get, but if this dog was right, and one was a wolf General, the other's in his party would be elite guards, the kind that could take 10 rounds and keep smiling. Moreover, he knew that this would effectively end any chance of he and Cathy hiding here, a lost General would really bring the heat down on this small village.

He turned to Cathy and said, "I'll let you decide."

This whole time she'd been silent, just observing the situation. She knew what she should do, and she knew what she wanted to do, and she knew what was better for her and Reynolds, but unfortunately, they were all different. She thought about how he had saved her from that revolting wolf, remembering how terrible that was and how glad she was that he saved her, and knew what she was going to say.

"Save them," she said simply.

He smiled and turned to the dog and said, :All right, we'll help you."

Admiral Drake's State room, On board FN Trident

Drake was enjoying a moment of peace for a change. The last few days had been quite hectic, even for the old veteran. A pair of suicidal wolf destroyers had managed to get past the blockage and detonated their own reactors in the vicinity of one of the three heavy battleships of his fleet and knocked it out of orbit. Had its Captain not been smart and shutdown everything but it's shields, the ship would have been destroyed.

And, to throw onto all this crap, intelligence rumors suggested that the wolf Alpha Prime was here. While the intelligence units were well known for spreading rumors, this wasn't something to joke about.

Drake wanted to just flatten the rock; who cares if a few dogs get killed, they could end the war in minutes with an orbital bombardment. But the boys at intel and the bastards up top felt that the nova was to important, and that it would be a grand victory to capture the Alpha Prime, something Drake and most believe to be impossible.

Nonetheless, it was out of his hands, but not out of his mind. He sipped some of the old scotch and heard a knock at the door.

"Enter," he said, rather nonchalantly.

In stepped Consular Otho, bringing Drake to an instant level of attention.

"Sir!" he saluted.

Otho, never being one for military etiquette, didn't return the gesture, and sat himself down at the table.

Very rudely, as to his nature, he started almost mid sentence; "I have a busy day Admiral so I must keep this brief."

Drake's temper flared, he never liked the annoying falcon, and he particularly hated rude individuals, which, from other's point of view, was rather funny, considering how rude Drake could be to furries.

"Alright sir," he said carefully, "What can I do for you?"

The falcon sighed and began, "you've been briefed by Intel that there's a high probability that Alpha Prime Mafeu Sadovnik is here, correct?"

Drake nodded.

"Well, we need to clarify something. If you or anyone you are aware of comes in contact of this wolf, you are to kill him on sight," the falcon said, trying to hide the fear in his voice. He realized he maybe invoking some terrible repercussions, but it was a chance he had to take.

For a long moment Drake just stared at him, not sure what to say.

"Why? I thought we wanted to capture him," he said and continued in a mocking voice, "and parade him as a prize on every planet in the Federation."

"I want him dead, and since I'm in charge of the Federation for the next 4 months, and you have to follow my every order. I know that he must be killed, if we capture him his remnant forces will try and free him, but if we kill him," the crafty bird thought for a moment, trying to make up a good reason, "we'll break their spirits, and this war will end."

The Admiral had served under many Consulars, but he hated this one the most. Otho was a sniveling coward and Drake didn't care for him at all.

To get rid of the bird as fast as possible Drake simply replied, "will do sir, good day."

The falcon got up and walked out, feeling that he had saved himself from a great deal of pain.

Ronch, Chyane 6:30 PM

Reynolds was very unhappy with his situation now. The small cabin that the young Karl had put him and Cathy in only made him feel more uncomfortable. Normally he would have been glad that they had their own home, a real bed to share, but he was back in his combat mode and this made him feel cornered.

Karl walked in, he had been gone about an hour.

"You both okay?" he asked, something neither he nor Cathy was used to; someone checking on them.

"Yes," Cathy replied, "this is such a nice place," she finished innocently, apparently she was not as worried about their situation as Reynolds was.

Karl walked over to the Captain who was looking at his data pad.

"I did what you asked," he said.

Without looking up the Captain replied, "Good, what did you find?"

The young dog sat down at the table and continued, "I saw eight wolves; six were huge, bigger than you, and two were what you said would be 'normal.'"

He figured that there would be elite guard, but he wasn't sure who the other wolf was; probably another officer just not as high up.

"And the prisoners?" Cathy chimed in from behind.

The dog continued with, "I only saw two, the human and one of the rabbits, both woman. They both looked really beat up, and the rabbit was almost out cold."

Cathy and Reynolds stared at each other, they both knew what was happing to them. Her good mood disappeared and fear filled her eyes.

"Alright," Reynolds said, "tomorrow I want you to go around and tell everyone to stay indoors. We will both strike early and should catch them completely off guard."

"Okay, and where do I meet up with you?" Karl asked.

For a moment Reynolds had no idea what he meant, but he caught on after a second.

"Your not going with us, lets get that straight," he said sternly.

"Why not?" Karl asked, very heated. He stood up trying to act intimating, something the Captain almost found amusing.

He needed to knock this guy down a peg, he was to gung ho, something the Captain could ill afford right now.

He stood up, very imposing in his armor, but the young dog didn't budge or show any sign of fear. Reynolds liked that.

"First of all, how old are you?" the Captain started in a firm voice.

"12 sir," Karl said equally adamant.

The Captain smiled, the young dog did remind him of himself, which wasn't good, "listen young fellow, we don't want, nor need your help."

"It's my village, I've been here my whole like and I am going to help you kick these guys out," the dog said.

The Captain smiled, he was trying not to but this was to funny. This little dog, with no combat training, thought he was going to be able to take on 6 fully armed wolf elite guards.

"Listen pup," Reynolds said, noticing that Karl's temper flared at the joke, "aside from the fact that these guys are next to impossible to kill even for me, we only have two guns, and both of them are close ranged weapons to begin with."

"Oh ya?" Karl replied, his eye twisted slyly.

"Oh what, you have a gun?" the captain perused.

"I do," and he walked over to the wall, pulled out a panel, and produced a heavy wolf rifle.

Now the Captain's smiled faded, his argument against this was now gone and it actually made sense to bring him along. However, Reynolds still didn't want to have him with them.

"Can you even fire that thing?" he asked.

Defiantly Karl loaded the weapon and charged it up, causing Reynolds to shake his head; Cathy laughed.

"Fine, fine," he said, "but you stay back and just watch our backs, got it?"

"No problem sir," Karl replied, a broad smile played across his snout.

Reynolds sat back down but Karl wasn't done, he wanted to know what was up.

"Sir," he said quietly, although Cathy could hear she didn't let on. "Well, who are you two and why are you here?"

The Captain sighed and said, "I told you back at the fields, but you didn't listen did you?"

Karl chuckled and nodded.

"We're both runaways from the Federation, which is why this is so complicated," Reynolds replied

"What's your names by the way?" Karl asked.

"I'm Captain Steve Reynolds and this is Sergeant Catharine Grey," Steve repeated, realizing that Karl really was a pup.

Karl nodded at Cathy who returned the gesture.

"We left about half a week ago while the Federation took back the capital of your planet," Reynolds added.

Karl stared at him for a moment and asked, "What did you both do?"

"You assume we did something wrong," the Captain answered quickly, somewhat irate at the dog's prying. Steve heard Cathy chuckle on the bed and realized she was listening in, "We left because our relationship isn't understood by the Federation."

Karl cocked his head in confusion, he was much to young to really understand love, much less this. He looked at the young fox on the bed and she smiled at him and nodded.

"B-but you're a human..." he started, Reynolds nodded as well, "and she's a fox..."

"And?" Reynolds continued for him, now amused by the young canine's confusion.

Karl was a bit embarrassed by his lack of understanding and just managed to get out, "I just didn't know that people and... that... ya."

Cathy turned on her data pad and ignored the two for now, she didn't want to embarrass the pup more. For a moment Karl just looked back and forth at the two, finally coming up with something to say.

"So she's your wife?" he asked.

This one caught the Captain of guard, he hadn't even thought of that. He loved her truly and completely, he hadn't even thought of actually marrying her, he didn't think it mattered. They loved each other the same no matter what status they were given.

"Uh, ya, sort of," he answered, "we're not married but she's more than just a wife to me."

He turned and saw Cathy wasn't paying attention, this was another bomb to drop at a different time.

The Captain's attitude warmed and he said, "I think you should go to bed, tomorrow's going to be quite a day."

That was all Karl needed to hear and he bolted out the door, back to his home, he had enough things of this nature in his life, he didn't want to know about other's business.

Reynolds got up and walked over to the bed were Cathy was lying down.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" he asked lightheartedly.

She rolled over and met his eyes. She shrugged and replied, "maybe this is what we have to do to gain our freedom; our last test."

She looked tired, which scared Reynolds, he knew very well what it meant, and he made a point of finding out if his suspicions were true.

"You look tired," he pried, "you okay?"

The fox shrugged again and replied, "Ya a bit, but I'm fine, I guess I was just ready to settle down," she laughed.

"In more way than one," he thought to himself.

He kissed her and laid down next to her. It was the first real bed either of them had been given in years. It was much better than the cots used in the Federation.

Although it was huge, by comparison to Federation beds, she still snuggled up to him and straddled his leg.

He rubbed her side and, testing his theory, rubbed his hand down to the side of her furry tits, even though she was still encased in her armor.

She groaned uncomfortably and he knew it was true; she was tired, her breasts were sensitive enough that even armor it caused a reaction; she was going through the first signs of pregnancy. He didn't want to worry her now so he kept it to himself and just held her in his arms as they slept.

***

They both woke to a knocking at the door, and both had guns trained there as Karl walked in. He didn't even seem to notice them, and just walked over to their bedside, but then realized what was going on.

"Ohh, sorry," he turned, embarrassed.

Cathy whispered in the Captain's ear, "His father must love his mother a lot too."

"My fathers dead," Karl replied, hurt in his voice. "My mother too, the wolves killed them both the first day they came. This was my home, but I now live with a friend."

Cathy felt very bad now, she hadn't meant anything by it, and she surely didn't mean for him to hear that, she had intended it for Reynolds, she had been thinking a lot about what they would do in the future.

"Karl," she started, very sorry she hurt him, "I didn't-you know I didn't..."

"I know, I just wanted to clarify why I hate the wolves," he said, his back still turned. "They're all still asleep and the whole town is going to stay indoors today, I'll wait outside until your done."

He walked out side and they both heard him sniffling on the other side of the door.

Cathy turned to Reynolds with a tear in her eye and said, "I feel so bad..."

"Don't worry, we'll make them pay," he replied.

They heard Karl outside stand up and run off somewhere, she felt very bad for him. She hadn't meant anything by it, she really hadn't. Cathy knew the feeling of not having a parent, she had wanted her mother everyday of her life, particularly when she was around her father. She knew they needed to do more for him.

"What if we took care of him?" she asked Reynolds.

He stuttered, "Wha-wha-what do you mean?"

"I mean if after we take care of him, like if he was our son? He's a lot like you," she replied. She was still a woman, and for some reason, she wasn't sure why, she had a sense of nurturing right now, above all now for the poor dog who's feeling she had hurt.

"I uh," he really wasn't expecting this, "I guess we could watch him, but he does seem to be a bit independent."

It made sense now why Karl wanted to help so much, it was a personal vendetta. He got control of himself and knew that this line of thought was bad, they needed to solve the problem at hand.

"We'll figure this out later, we need to get ready, there is still a pack of wolves out there that is a big threat to us and this village," Steve added, getting out of bed and pulling her out by her paws.

She smiled and kissed him.

They got on their various pieces of combat uniform; he had been right to not through away anything. He had her remove her armor and he toyed with its systems, he wanted it to be able to cover her head. He got it to the point that it would cover the bottom of her snout, but that was all. She put it back on and left it on to the top of her head, so that it formed a helmet of sorts.

They loaded their guns and were about to get up when Karl burst into the door looking very scared.

***

Karl laid on the door, tears in his eyes. He missed his father and mother, those fucking wolves had taken them from him.

His father had died protecting his mother as the wolves tried to take her, he was yelling something about, "Please! You cant do that to her!"

Their reply was a bullet to the head. His mother screamed and managed to loosen the wolf's grip enough to run to his father's side, and they executed her as well.

He cried hard now, repeating in his mind, "I want my mom!"

Karl didn't want to appear like a puppy or weak in front of the Captain so he ran to his adopted families home.

He ran in, past his friend, an equally young female puppy who was quite surprised at his sudden entrance, and locked himself in his room.

He sat down on the bed and sobbed, he hated the wolves, he was only 12 and he wanted to kill them in every horrible way his young mind could imagine.

His friend knocked at the door and called in, "Karl what's wrong, can I come in?"

He didn't answer but kept crying in bed. She pushed the door in and timidly walked over and sat down beside him.

"What's wrong Karl?" she asked holding his paw.

She thought for a moment and realized, "your thinking about your parents right?"

He didn't reply but his crying increased, so she got up and closed the door.

"I know you miss them, we all do, your father..." she trailed off.

Everyone in the small village missed his father, he had been their leader and mayor of sorts. His wife, Karl's mother, was the only schoolteacher in the village who had been taught at the capital, and she had died as well, leaving their beloved son Karl orphaned.

She put her head on Karl's shoulder and let him cry it out, there wasn't anything anyone could say to him, how could they, the poor pup lost his whole family. His only friend was her.

After about five minutes he was done, and out of breathe. She patted his head and quickly got a glass of water for him. He drank it down quickly and rubbed his sore eyes. He hugged her, he missed his mom and dad.

"Why did those wolves have to kill my parents Lucy? Why? What did they get out of it?" he asked, not so much her but out loud.

The pup pat his head, although she was only 12, just like him, she had the instincts of a female much older. His ears were pined down and his eyes were bloodshot.

"What about the soldiers you found Karl, aren't they going to help?" she asked, he always told Lucy everything.

He came out of his daze, he knew that he needed to pay the wolves back. He got up and smiled at Lucy, he would have probably ran away if she wasn't there. He walked out his room and walked outside, the sun was just coming up.

In the distance he herd a rumbling, something he wasn't used too. In the air he saw what looked like a bird at first, but as it came closer it got bigger, soon it was as big as his house.

It landed in the north field, about 550 feet from the village and out stepped to large wolves. Karl knew exactly what was happening, the wolves, the bastards that murdered his parents, were leaving.

He ran faster than he had in his life, his tail almost parallel to the ground, and he burst into the two Federation soldier's house.

They were loading their guns when he came in, now out of breath.

"What's wrong Karl?" Cathy asked.

Although out of breath he managed to get out, "they're leaving!"

In one fluid motion the two soldiers got up and ran out the door.

Karl reacted, not quite as fast, and ran to the wall and grabbed his captured wolf rifle. The gun was almost as big as he was, and he could barely control it, but he wanted to shoot each wolf in the head.

Reynolds had been trained in urban combat, as was Cathy, so they took it slow. Checking each corner they slowly advance to the location of the wolf's hideout. They could both hear the wolf dropship and knew they only had a few minutes, maybe 15, before they would leave.

The Captain heard Karl run up, loudly, behind them. He motioned with his hand to Cathy to make sure Karl stayed quite; this was starting to seem like the bad idea he thought it was last night.

The pup took the hint and hefted the rifle quietly behind them.

Around the next corner was the enemy. Reynolds careful looked around the corner. He saw a total of ten wolves; seven were of the huge elite class, two were smaller, and another he only saw the tail walking into the dropship. Of the two smaller ones he recognized one; General Nadine. The other, he didn't, but by his uniform, he guessed was a Captain himself, and they were both unarmed.

He turned back to Cathy. She only had Osing's pistol, so she needed to have as close a shot as possible.

"Alright," Steve began in a whisper, "you stay here and wait for my signal. I'm going to run around and get behind them. Don't start shooting till they all have their backs to you, then you and Karl," he nodded to the small dog, "shoot them in the back until your both out or they turn around. We'll go back and forth until they're all dead or they retreat into the dropship. If they do, only after you see me dash, Cathy you dash too, Karl you provide cover for us so no one gets a drop on us okay?"

The young dog nodded and held up the rifle. Reynolds looked at Cathy and gave her a kiss, she smiled and he lowered his armored visor.

She watched him run off and she sat down and waited. Karl sat down next to her and looked very eager, a dangerous thing in combat.

"Calm down, take a deep breath," she urged him, "if your too excited your aim will be off."

He took a breath and calmed himself, something he had gotten good at in recent day.

About five minutes past before she heard his voice over her intercom, "I'm in position, take aim and fire as soon as I do."

She motioned to Karl and he laid down at her kneeled feet.

Cathy lowered her head down and whispered in his ear, "aim for the close on one the left, and I'll take the one on the right, move up like that. Remember, aim small, miss small, aim for the wolf, you'll miss him, aim for the zipper on his pants, and you'll miss but hit him."

Karl didn't do anything but sight his rifle at the target he had been given; she did the same and they both waited for the crack of Reynolds' first round.

***

He double-checked his Thompson, he was anxious, something that almost never happened to him in combat. He knew that this was going to make or break a lot of things for he and Cathy and every shot was going to matter. He would only get off two mags before he would have to dash in.

For the first time in almost 3200 years the Thompson was raised against an enemy for a battle; and its owner rested his finger on a trigger that had been fired by his family for just that long.

***

The wolf smelled something, it stunk and burned his nose. He couldn't tell what it was but it was definitely something that didn't belong.

He looked at the General and his aid de' camp, they were chatting, likely about something stupid. All he was interested in was that cute little rabbit they had been carrying around. Tonight was his turn to have her and he was excited.

"That smell," he thought and he looked at the nearby woods and saw an armor clad soldier, point something, something right at him.

***

Reynolds saw the wolf look right at him and he didn't hesitate a second; he fired a burst of about 7 rounds, each one striking the offending wolf in the head.

The wolf feel, skull crushed and twitched. The others in his pack turned and opened up on his location; rounds bouncing off his armor.

He fired on automatic, managing to down two more wolves and to his surprise General Nadine as he ran to the dropship.

A well-placed wolf round hit his foot and while it didn't penetrate it knocked him over. He heard gunfire on the other side of the field and knew Cathy had opened up. He sat himself up and reloaded.

With a satisfying click he cocked the Thompson and retrained it on the nearest wolf; he noticed that Cathy and Karl had managed to down two wolves in the process.

There were only 3 wolves left in the field and they had taken the hint and ran for the dropship.

He unloaded on one, dropping him, and managed to hit another, but the huge wolf shrugged it off.

He got up and ran for the dropship, looking for Cathy but he didn't see her. He kept running to the dropship though and stopped at its edge and prepared to clear it.

***

Cathy saw him stop at the dropship's main hatch and she signaled to Karl to cover her.

He stood up and trained the rifle on the ship and she started to bolt towards it. No sooner had she started to run when she heard Karl grunt and fall behind her, and she turned to make face-to-face contact with the butt of a rifle.

***

Steve turned into the dropship, not seeing anyone, but he heard breathing. The Captain zeroed in on the sound and looked up to see the wolf captain hiding above. The wolf tried to tackle him, but to no avail, the Captain pumped ten rounds into his chest and he dropped to his left.

Unfortunately for the Captain the wolf had distracted him and the last of the heavy wolves did tackle him. The Captain fought to get up but the other wolf was stronger, and he held his arms, almost breaking them. The armor went ridged but the wolf held still, then another wolf walked in, a heavy one, but to the Captain sheer terrified sight, he had Cathy draped over his shoulder.

"You let her go!" the Captain yelled through his armored faceplate, "You let her go right now or I'll rip your fucking head off!"

The wolf holding her ignored him and said to the pilot, who had walked out during this, "I found another toy," and he chuckled.

The sound of this gave Reynolds a boost, but it wasn't enough to free him.

The sight did scare the pilot and he replied, "good, kill him and stow her with the other three, we're leaving before more show up."

"Noooo!" the Captain screamed, he could believe what was happening.

He had to do something, he didn't know what, he couldn't let them capture her, he wouldn't.

The wolf holding Cathy dropped her to the ground with a thud. She awoke in her mind, in pain; she tasted blood.

The wolf walked over to he captain and held him by his neck; it didn't matter the captain couldn't feel it, but the concept was obvious.

"He's one of them you know, how are we going to kill him?" the wolf asked.

"I can rip his head off," the other replied.

She woke up completely now and saw that Reynolds was captured too. Cathy rose to her feet but the pilot was on her and held her down.

"You're a pretty one aren't you," he said, giving her furry head a smell.

He rubbed his rough hand on her tail causing her to scream.

The Captain, hearing this, went nuts. A thousand thoughts rushed through his mind, all focusing on how to get them out, but he found only one way, but only she had the possibility to get out.

"Please! I'm a Captain of the Federation, I know thousands of military secrets; access codes, troop movements, locations of high-ranking officers!" he yelled.

The pilot looked at him and was interested, but weary, "What do you know, you just have fancy armor!"

The Captain reached to his armored gauntlet and released his helmet portion, he figured he was dead anyway, he had to get Cathy out.

"I'm Captain Reynolds, you know that."

The pilot huffed; he knew who Reynolds was, but he didn't want to make it seem that the soldier was famous on both sides.

"So what, we'll drill you anyway," he replied harshly.

"I can ignore torture, you wont get a word out of me unless I want to, I'll tell you things willingly if you let her go," Reynolds nodded to Cathy.

The pilot dropped her to the ground and she saw the Thompson and went to grab it, but the wolf that carried her in kicked it out the back of the dropship. She was terrified, and now scared for Reynolds' survival.

The wolf pilot, now very interested, crossed his arms and asked, "Why do you care, we've got three more just like her?"

Without thought he blurted out, "She's my wife and she's carrying my child!"

Cathy just stared at him, fear replaced by confusion, but she saw him mouth the words "I'm sorry" and she felt faint.

Apparently this was getting loud because the last of the wolf passengers walked in and to the horror of both Cathy and Reynolds it was Alpha Prime Mafeu Sadovnik, leader of the wolves.

The pilot stood at attention and the Alpha wolf walked in between him and the downed Captain, not even looking at Cathy.

"What's the problem lieutenant?" he asked in a booming voice.

The pilot was scared and his voice showed it, "This human," he said with disgust, "claims to be Captain Reynolds," they all knew it was him but they didn't want to give the Captain the satisfaction, "and he's willing to give us information if we let his," the pilot snickered, "wife go."

The Alpha wolf looked at Cathy, who froze, she didn't dare move. She feared that if she did they might kill the now unprotected Captain.

The Alpha wolf turned back the Captain and lowered his face to be equal with his; the wolf holding the Captain tightened his grip. Steve was frozen as well, he wanted to kill the wolf, but he couldn't risk Cathy, and it appeared they might very well take his bargain.

"How can she be your wife, you're a," the wolf spit, "man?"

"I will do anything to protect her," was all the Captain could muster.

"You'll betray the Federation then?" the Alpha wolf smiled.

Reynolds was angry now, he didn't mind leaving the Federation, but he still loved it, and didn't want his actions to hurt it, but he looked at the semi-catatonic Cathy and mustered a, "yes."

The Alpha wolf lifted his face and laughed.

"Do what he says, throw her out the back and stow him with the prisoners, but remove his armor and bring it to me."

The Alpha strode back into the cockpit and the pilot motioned the two heavy wolves to carry out the orders.

Her mind couldn't quite catch up with everything, but she knew what was going to happen. Cathy lurched out, tears in her eyes and grabbed the Captain. The large wolf grabbed her by the leg but she didn't release. She kissed him, not wanting to leave him.

She whispered, "Let me go with you, don't leave me!"

He replied, "I'm so sorry Cathy, you have to let me go, please, you cant, they'll do things to you I couldn't bear to know!"

The wolf pulled her, now grabbing her by the hips but she wouldn't budge.

"I don't care! I don't care! Just please don't make me leave you!" she cried.

"You must!" he replied, tears now streaming from his eyes, "go now while you can!"

The wolf was getting angry and pulled her tail, yet she still stayed in place.

"Cathy please! Don't do this, you must go and warn the Federation! Tell them that I've been captured and they must move and change everything!"

All he could think was that the bastard had been right; Colonel Hushing's words echoed in his head, "First its leave the Federation, then its helping its enemies."

She sobbed and Steve managed to free one of his hands. The wolf tried to grab it but to no avail.

He patted the side of her face trying to comfort her, she rubbed his hand with her furry cheek repeating, "Don't go! Don't go!"

He whispered, "you must stay, you have our child."

That moment the two wolves were feed up and managed to pull the two apart. The wolf holding Reynolds dragged him on his ass to the brig but the other wolf just tossed Cathy out the back.

She hit the grass on her side and went to her knees, locking eyes with Reynolds as the dropship's engines flared. She was sobbing uncontrollably now, but he, although with tears streaming down his cheeks, mouthed the words, "be safe."

The dropship lifted up, leaving the broken Catharine Grey on the ground, crying for her lover. She looked up and saw hundreds of other wolf dropships lifting off the ground, and in the distance she saw a Federation battleship moving towards the spot.

She wanted to die there, in that hole, but she had to push on, she had to save him. The fox got up and ran to the nearest dead wolf. She was lucky and on his body he wore a radio. She could barely see through her tears as she searched for a Federation channel.

Cathy heard the chatter of a navel combat and keyed in the headset and yelled into it, "All Federation please respond! Over!"

She got no answer so she yelled again, "Any Federation Battleships please respond! Over!"

Still nothing, the radio traffic persisted as if unaware of her presence on the line.

Cathy tried once more, "Please any Federation navel vessels in the area respond! I am aware of the location of the enemy wolf Alpha Prime!"

At that the sound of hundreds of various radio communications went totally silent; she felt her heart leap.

"This is Admiral Drake, to whom am I speaking? Over."

Ignoring the question; she had little to no time, "There's an enemy dropship carrying the Alpha Prime but he's capture Captain Steve Reynolds," she paused at his name, "and you mustn't destroy it!"

The Admiral, a famous Admiral, replied over the line, "I thought he was dead?"

"No, he ran away with me but he's been captured! You can't blow up the ship!" she yelled, her crying auditable on the line.

"Mam there's over 200 enemy dropships bugging out, you want us to ignore one and one that just happens to be carrying the leader of the wolves, your insane."

She felt her heart sink, they were going to blow him out of the sky and she couldn't do a damn thing. She had to think, she had to think.

"Before he was capture he told me that they build a super weapon somewhere!" she lied, she had to save him, "he didn't tell me where but its out there!"

"I'm not so easily fooled mam, your making that up, we have to, we cant let him get away, I'm sorry."

Now she just didn't care, so she blurted out over the radio, "He's my husband you can't just kill him like that! I love him please!" she sobbed

There very well was likely upwards of a thousand people now listening in on this, and a collective gasp was heard.

"Who is this?" Drake asked.

"This is Sergeant Catharine Reynolds at Ronch, please don't kill him!"

As she said this, her file came up on Drake's personal display, and in fact she had disappeared the same day as the Captain. To his surprise she was a fox; it sickened him to know that some animal had seduced the great Captain.

Drake thought for a long moment, but his duty was clear, he had to do it.

"I'm sorry Sergeant Grey," he stressed the last word, "but I'm under strict orders and I can't do this for you."

She sighed into the radio and said as he last words, "do it for him..."

She fell to the ground and passed out.