Roads Untraveled - Part XXV
The gang discovers the enemy's plot and prepares for war, but reflects on family during the calm before the storm.
Thanks to a slow week at work, I had a lot of free time for this chapter. I purposefully leave these lulls between action blank, because I like for the raw emotion to come out of the characters. These honest transactions are a great contrast to the fighting, but also prove the reason why the gang even fights at all.
The story does progress though, and leads directly into the final battle of the book. This chapter has a little bit of everything. Plus as :iconSydney-Karidan: puts it, sex counts as action too! :3
As always, this story may contain adult content and explicit sexual imagery. If you aren't allowed or don't wish to view such material, please stop reading immediately. You may cringe / giggle / have an aneurysm from silly content tags. Love is in the air, and may or may not affect your capacity for rational thought. Common side effects include squealing, crying, and smiling. To all the rest, enjoy! Comments and critiques are welcome and encouraged.
"Gods... I'm so sorry..." Ilaria stepped into the steaming column of water spouting from her shower, the trail beneath her quickly shifting a murky red-brown as her mission washed from her borrowed burlesque clothing. "Fuck..."
«Lulu? You... need to talk?» Iolvin forced his way into Ari's mind like any concerned brother should. «You're feeling sort of...»
«Fucked up? No shit, Yoyo.» The otter fell to her knees, unable to discern the water running over her fur from her own tears. «I think I lost a bit of myself back there. Hell, I even lost my wedding dress.»
«About that: I came across it when I was moving you to safety.» Yoyo paused as he tried to assess his twin's reaction by empathy alone, but she was as emotionless as stone for the moment. «You're confused about what you went through. So am I. You didn't lose a single thing though. If anything, you're stronger now.»
«Yoyo, just...»
«I know. You need some time.» The marginally younger otter bled concern into the signal as he admitted defeat in his attempts. «I'll leave you alone until we figure out where that maniac went. Even if all you want now is revenge... I'll always help you in everything, Lulu.»
Ari quivered and held herself, a nanite tendril forming to switch the water to the coldest setting without her unfruling from her balled state. "I'll be fine after that... after ending this... Right?"
"You'll be fine once you've said 'Hello.' to your girlfriend." Rhyme shed her clothes and hopped into the shower behind Ilaria, only to cringe at the frigid temperature. "Holy crap, woman. Don't give yourself pneumonia."
Ari reached out and cranked the temperature back up a little. "S-Sorry..."
Rhyme slipped her arms around Ari's waist and held her close. "You alright, hon? You don't normally sulk like this."
"I don't normally have to kill clones of my wife."
"Oh, shit..." The tanuki wrapped her tail around the both of their waists, furthering her protective embrace. "You want to talk about it? Get it off your chest? Or... you could just cry. I'm here for you."
"That's not..." Ari drooped her head down towards the drain. "She needed a quick death. I can live with what I did there if it was better than doing nothing. What's really got me riled up though is... not being able to avenge her."
"So you helped her out of a bad situation in a way. I'm proud of how you handled that, then." Sensing she was perhaps getting a little too touchy, Rhy loosened her grip around her otter. "What happened that she needed avenging?"
"Someone indirectly killed her." Ari groaned as her anger and confusion came back full force. "No, it was your brother that killed her. And I wanted to kill him back. I almost did."
"My brother...?" Rhyme nearly went limp at the notion, reflecting upon the concept inwardly. "If he deserves it, maybe... it wouldn't be the worst option."
"Rhyme! He's your brother!" Ari's paws went to her face, cradling her head in frustration. "He needs to die for the good of this planet, but... I can't kill your brother!"
"He said that, but I'm not sure what he meant." Rhyme sat back on her heels and looked straight into the water spigot. "When he mentioned that, something started itching inside me. There's something buried in this stupid head of mine, but... nothing specific. He ~feels~ close like a brother, but I don't have any concrete memories of that."
"But what if he is your brother, and you just forgot because of whatever happened to you as a kid? What if I kill him and you suddenly remember him?"
"It wouldn't nullify the fact that he deserves it." Rhyme leaned forward and gave her otter a kiss on the back of the neck. "I only have this vague, dreamlike memory of someone like him. That's not enough for me to get emotional over."
"He... Both of you look alike. You look like twins, even."
"And we might be. I can't call a twin I don't know my brother though. Whatever he is to me, he's not family." Rhy grumbled and started breathing a bit heavier. "I don't particularly care what you do with him, not as much as I care about having a home to share with you anyway. I'd like to know more about him, but he's made his choices. I'm making mine now."
"That was my thinking. He wants to take away everything, but he's just one demented fur. Lesser of two evils..." Ari turned to her side when she noticed her tanuki's labored breathing. "Rhy? Are you feeling alright?"
Rhyme immediately answered by loosing her breakfast down the drain. "Ugh... I'm still feeling iffy. Sorry."
"Rhy... That isn't just motion sickness." Ari turned around completely to give the tanuki a quick examination, finding it strange that she was absentmindedly clutching her abdomen. "How long has this been happening? Is there any pain or anything?"
"Ever since we started getting close, I guess. There's no pain, just uneasiness. I don't know."
"Oh gods... Does this wash over you sort of on a schedule?"
Rhyme quirked her head at the inquiry, her own data lining up in a pattern now that it was brought to light there might be one. "Actually, almost exactly twice a day. The odd ones have been after eating something that didn't settle well, though."
Ilaria's teary eyes welled up with joy, the otter suddenly latching onto her tanuki for dear life. "Gods above! Rhy... I think you're... we're going to have a pup!"
"You..." An expression of pure fear washed briefly over Rhyme's face, but after ingesting some of her girlfriend's glee she had a massive change of tune. "You really think so? We're going to have a little puppy?"
"Yes! And when this damn asshole..." Ari's mood quickly soured at the thought that flushed her head. "Shit."
"Wh-What...?"
"Now I really don't like having to kill your brother." Ari stood, gave her girlfriend's head a rub, then offered a paw in assistance. "We'll have Ellie check you out when this is all done. Regardless of what I have to do, I'm absolutely thrilled to have another kid with you."
"I've... uh..." Rhyme stood and stared up into her otter's eyes. "Do we need to get married or something...?"
"Only if you want to. I'm not... against the idea myself, even if it might be a bit soon." Ari pulled Rhy's chin to hers and softly shared a kiss. "But if life's taught me anything, it's to screw what everyone else establishes and enjoy every moment for what it is."
"Y-Yeah..." Rhyme nodded and rested her head against Ilaria's chest. "Let's just take things as they come and enjoy ourselves—together."
— — — — —
"He couldn't have just disappeared. Come on, guys." Ilaria rubbed her temples as she hunched forward in her captain's chair. "We just haven't thought of something. A ship big enough to hold all that oxydium can't just vanish without a trace."
"Maybe there's a way we can trace the oxydium itself? Some kind of radiation or particle trail?" Adrian sighed as he brought up what little research data he had on the strange material. "I'll see what I can find, but it's a long shot."
"Good. That's the kind of thinking we need here. Thank you, Dee."
"There's no reports from any of our allied ships." Carbon groaned as she combed through situation reports. "Should we mobilize them just in case? Get everyone in a formation?"
"Yes. Actually, this might be more of a deciding factor than the invasion fleet." Ari pulled up a hologram representing the voluntary Earth Orbit fleet ships and their trajectories. "What if he's hiding in a neutral colony satellite?"
"We've go them all covered." Carmine updated Ari's view with the locations of all registered space stations. "No way they're going unseen if they try to dock anywhere."
"Well... Fuck me." Ari heaved a huge sigh as she came up blank. "It's like they aren't on the fucking planet."
Mik and Chelle perked up as they read those words of their mother's lips. <You might not be wrong, mom.>
<That idiot has too much precious cargo. He's got to be storing it somewhere. He won't be in high orbit.>
<That's not what we mean...>
Yoyo followed his nieces' train of thought and looked out the window. "Lulu... Give your girls some credit..."
"What? I don't get what they're..." Ilaria found what Yoyo was staring at and nearly slapped her own face in disbelief. "Of course. An arrogant, plotting bastard like him would certainly head for the moon. He probably even has a secret base complete with death ray."
"The ~moon~? As in Luna? Wheel of cheese? Unlikely." Carbon peered out at the celestial body and shook her head in disbelief. "But if they were using it to slingshot, ~that~ wouldn't be so crazy..."
"What do you mean?" Ari pulled up a diagram of the Earth and Luna. "Show me what you're thinking."
Carbon went one step further, placing her paw on the hologram emitter so Evelyn could illustrate her point. "You're thinking too small. Why would the guy go through the hassle of stealing all that oxydium? Or how about trying to lock us away where we couldn't interfere?"
"I'm still not following."
"~Time~. He needs time." The diagram updated to show a trajectory from former London to the moon that arced back into Earth orbit. "He could easily loop back with a weapon ready, but he needs time to set that up. And if we have a ship that can just warp to his location, he needs to get rid of us as well. Without us and with none of the UNEO ships being long range, he'd return ready for war."
"But that still doesn't make sense." Ari tapped virtual screen near her chair and 'tossed' it to the hybrid, giving her a clear view of the weapon of mass destruction casually laying in the cargo hold. "He's already got nukes, and good pre-war ones at that. He doesn't need another weapon."
Adrian walked over and, with Buck's assistance, overlaid some sensor data that highlighted a differing path. "Their engine ballast is leaving a trail. They're definitely headed to the moon, but at this speed and angle..."
"They aren't coming back?" Ilaria scrutinized the overshooting trajectory, then locked eyes with Carbon. "Oh, of course. Fuck me. Fuck. Get the fleet together, every last ship."
"On it."
Dee and Yoyo looked to each other in confusion, then pressed for a more detailed explanation. "Lulu, what's that mean?"
"He's going straight to the source." Ari sighed and told the hologram to zoom out of the Sol system, continuing until their planned interception location for the invading Sect fleet highlighted far away. "The coward's running for backup, and we gave him the fucking technology to make it possible."
"Oxydium portals..." Dee pulled a paw to his gasping muzzle. "They're diving to their allies."
"And I bet he's planning to hold the line until we try our ambush, only we'll be the ones getting ambushed by nukes." Ari sat back in her chair and furiously typed out various orders to the fleet. "Except ~we~ don't need any time to prepare. If we can get the fleet together quickly, we'll beat him to his own game by diving from Earth."
"Fleet's all connected." Carbon gave Carmine a slap on the shoulder. "Light up the lines, Car."
"One sec..." The hare combed over a dozen different communications interfaces, expertly finding ways to connect them all into the Starbreeze's communications switchboard. "All good. We're broadcasting, ma'am."
"Perfect"
Ilaria smirked to Rhyme as she picked up her microphone. "Attention, emergency defense fleet. Our time has come to fight for our great planet and all the values for which it stands. We fight now not simply because we must, but because we choose to live. We compose the bravest hall of warriors ever gathered for one sole purpose. Our enemies see us as unworthy of survival. They haven't seen the many troubled roads we've traveled to triumph or the one's we've lost to get where we are now. The whole of our culture and history fuels our charge and gives us the strength to win."
Ilaria looked to the friends and family surrounding her, only pausing momentarily to hug her children. "Tonight, we make known our right to exist among the stars. Tonight, we reveal how strong we are, united as a pack." Ilaria paused to stare at the gleaming, brilliant moon alongside her crew. "Tonight, we _ hunt _."
— — — — —
"Just let it happen..."
"No! I didn't agree to this!"
"It'll only be for a second. Trust me."
"No means no!"
Ilaria dropped her forehead into her palms, wanting to tear her hair out as a walrus on video communications protested. "If you don't let our AI control your nav computer, you'll get lost in the cold of space. We can't dive at differing speeds or headings."
"I've always controlled my ship by feel. No way I'm letting some fancy computer do ~my~ duty."
"Then you're staying here. Decide quickly." Ari muted the line and calmly complained, "Who does he think he is? We're the same rank."
Carbon shrugged and proposed her own answer. "Yet Commander Hyneman has two decades of seniority on you..."
"Well I don't like the old fart." Prisma frowned in her hologram emitter. "Who does he think he is, calling me a simple computer?"
Ari chuckled and lent the AI a comforting nod. "We all know you're much more, Pris. Don't worry about him."
"Alright." The walrus grumbled in his defeat. "I may not like it, but I'd hate being labeled a coward more. I'll do my duty to the fullest."
Ari tapped her console with a smile. "Good! Please have your comms officer open a large data line with our system. Thank you for your understanding." Ari sighed as she cut off the line completely. "Carmine, make it happen. Finally, we've got everyone ready to go."
"Yeah, and hopefully not too late." Sydney drooped her head against an aluminum window and watched as the final ship started correcting into a perfectly synchronized formation with the rest. "I want to kick ass. I'm pretty sure our girls would like some fun, too... if I could find Lea anyway."
"She's hiding out? That's odd for a veile, but not unheard of." Carbon looked to her shoulder where Evelyn sat. "Can they get sick or something without Cid feeling it?"
Eve just shrugged her shoulders. "You got me. They're a completely new variant lifeform compared to me, even if I am their mother."
Carbon rubbed Cid's back softly. "Best keep an eye out for her. I hope she's not feeling bad."
Cait faded into view, looking a tad lonely. "She's going dormant for a while so she can grow."
"Oh. Well that doesn't sound so bad then." Sydney perked up a little with the update and smiled for her phantasmal child. "Thank you, Cait. I'll try to keep you entertained until she's back."
Ari shook her head at the broken bits of conversation she could actually hear. "Everything alright? Having fun?"
"Oh, we seem to be alright." Carbon noticed the ships were all in the Starbreeze's temporary control and nudged her snout towards the main hologram. "Looks like we're green across the board."
"About time." Ilaria double-checked the status readouts and then confirmed her intent. "All good to go. Brace for dive. Alex, engage."
"Right out of a classic... Preparing to boldly go where no fur has gone before." Trick flipped a few switches, but mostly left this complex dive up to Prisma and Ari's girls. "I think we're... Yep. Diving!"
Sydney latched onto her otter and closed her eyes. "Gods... I hate this part."
Time and space billowed around the fleet, warping at increasing speed until the stars were hard to discern from the black. What little movement could be detected revealed a gentle acceleration, but as the scene was devoid of perspective and scale it became impossible to guess the speed they were actually traveling. The process took far longer than normal, but then again the fleet was a larger cargo to move and the distance was immense.
Ilaria unlatched her safety belt and drifted over to her children near the front. <Girls, how long will we stay like this? The crew's not used to zero-G.>
<We're taking the long way around. You said we should be safe so we don't collapse the universe and such.> Chelle performed a little flip before steadying herself with her vines. <You have to admit this is a bit fun though.>
<For some of us, yeah. Your uncle and Cid won't appreciate it as much.>
Ari looked around and confirmed that statement by the uneasy looks on those faces, but another pair of victims made themselves known over the intercom a moment later. "Commander... How long are we, uh..." The whine of two baby girls rang over the audio line. "I know I'm the last one that should be complaining to you right now, but—"
"Lilly... You brought back those kits?" Ari felt a chill down her spine as she remembered what happened to their mothers. "It'll be a while, so I don't know what we can do. Try to make them as comfortable as possible for now. I guess I'll take care of them—"
"No!... No, I'll take care of these girls. I can never replace their mother, but I can sure as hell make up for their loss." Something about the way Lilly shushed the girls brought assurance of their wellbeing to Ari. "I don't know how you do it. Let's just say I'm already respectful of you and your daughters, ma'am."
"Lilly, call me Ari. We're not on bad terms, and we'll make sure you never go out of control like that ever again." Ari smirked as she gave her children pats on their heads. "And who knows? You might make one hell of a mother."
"Th-Thanks, Ari."
Ilaria sighed as she cut off the line. <Girls, sorry to ask but could you synthesize some baby formula or something for her?>
The two nodded enthusiastically. <Sure thing! Little kids sound like ~fun~.>
"If only reality matched your imaginations..." Ari stopped grumbling to herself and put her mind back on track for a moment. "So, we've got some time to waste, I guess. Best prepare now so we can take it easy." The otter checked over a few screens of operational data on her watch and then kicked towards the hallway door. "I'll leave you in charge, Carbon. Notify me of any issues and whatnot."
"Sure. What're you doing though? Need some R & R?"
"Mostly just the 'relaxation' part. Rhyme's... still a bit spooked about getting found out, amongst other things." Ari grinned as she floated out the door. "I figure there's one surefire way to cheer her right up."
"Goddess... Don't break the poor girl. We might need her with working hips if something ~else~ breaks."
"Heeee..." Ari giggled as she coasted to her quarters, finally aware of the usefulness of the huge handlebars on the exteriors of doors as she came to a hard stop. "Oof."
"Are you okay?" Rhy met Ari in the hall by chance, coming to a more practiced and controlled stop herself. "You don't need to shove off too hard. Slower is safer and still gets you were you're going."
"I'll have to remember that next time Liv complains about the scratches on my limbs." Ari reeled in her girlfriend for a hug, which Rhyme escalated into a kiss. "You're feeling better, I take it? Getting something to eat?"
"A bit. Only threw up once today, but there's still ~plenty of time~ to prove my optimism wrong with a full stomach." Rhy slid open the door and pulled herself inside. "We have a guest, by the way. Gimbal's in the other room with Sprite. Sorry."
"So you ~are~ on the same wavelength as me." Ari smiled as she floated over to the tanuki, using her momentum to pin her to the bed. "If we're quiet enough I bet it'll be fine. I've got to claim that tight puss of yours while I still can."
"You mean before you have to share it?" Rhy chuckled as she rubbed her tummy. "I know we haven't known each other that long, but I'm hopeful. I really think I'd like having a kid with you."
"Been thinking about it, I see."
"Well... You're the only person I've ever met that just... accepts me. We get each other." Rhyme watched as the hallway door closed and then reached for the zipper to her bodysuit. "If I could choose anyone to be a parent to my potential family, I'd choose someone like you. So... I am. Bonus that you have experience already, too."
"Oh, so this is entirely a logical affair? It couldn't have anything at all to do with getting speared by a huge cock?" Ari grinned as she took the lead, peeling apart Rhyme's suit so her... oddly massive chest spilled out for her muzzle's enjoyment. "Woah... And you say this only happens when you're hormonal?"
"Uh... I did say I was hopeful, right?" Rhyme gasped as Ari sucked one tit while groping the other firmly, both surprisingly seeping the new mother's milk. "Gods... That feels ~way~ too good..."
"I think we don't need Ellie's confirmation, hon. There's only one reason you'd be making that tasty milk."
"Don't say it like that. It's ~embarrassing~. And get this thing off already so I can taste ~your~ milk." Rhyme fumbled around with Ari's advanced bodysuit to no avail. "I'd much rather have you in those sexy stockings and lingerie right now."
"The stuff I wore back from ye' olde London?" Ari giggled as she opened a seam in her suit and slipped out of it gracefully, leaving it to flutter in the air. "All you have to do is ask and I'll try whatever you'd like. If you have a kink for lace and leather, I'm definitely on board. I like it too."
"In that case..." Rhyme started blushing as she scooted her ass out of her own suit, revealing a transparent lace string bikini. "I felt like giving it a try for once, and your girls said they could make me some..."
"Fuck, Rhy. That look fits you way better than boxers." Ari took her throbbing cock in her paw and guided it to those panties, pushing herself inside without bothering to move the fabric aside. "And since the girls can make more, I don't think they'd mind us ~destroying~ a pair."
"But I was sort of just getting into these..."
"And now you're sort of ~getting out~ of them." With a squeak Ilaria shoved herself deeper with enough force to snap a hole through the floral lace pattern of the panties without actually snapping them in half. "Damn... You're as tight as can be, but that fabric..."
"Gods, tell me about it. Maybe... Try going slowly? Please?"
Ari's instincts sent out a groan, but the soft side of her embraced the idea along with her lover. "Whatever's best for you, Rhy. You're so heavenly inside I could pop any minute even if I was doused in acid. I'm all about making you feel best." She nudged forward until her tip poked painfully at the entrance to the tanuki's womb, but unlike the last time Rhyme appeared to be in embarrassing levels of bliss. "What? Too much?"
"No, I... I'm not used to hearing all that." Rhyme wrapped her arms and legs around Ilaria so it would be easier to keep up the pace as they drifted about the room. "It's sort of strange yet satisfying, embracing my female side. So... don't worry about me so much and keep making love to me, Ari."
"Oh, but that's the difference between fucking and making love." Ari groped and kneaded a leaking tit with one paw and Rhy's ass with the other as she started up a rhythm of deep thrusts. "There's ~no way~ I'm cumming by myself."
"Then stop wasting so much effort ~talking~ and—"
"Ah... Shit." Iolvin and Zoë hovered in the doorway, one looking embarrassed and the other seemingly disappointed. "I didn't mean to bother you two. S-Sorry..."
"Ari!"
"Yoyo! At least pick a side and let the door shut!"
"Oh, uh..." Yoyo pulled himself into the room but kept his distance and averted his gaze. "Sorry, sis. I didn't mean to expose Rhy or anything..."
Ilaria tried to shield her lover from prying eyes, but could only truly float helplessly. "Yoyo, what are you doing here?"
"I... I wanted to spend some time with you. We might all die in a few hours, so I wanted to be close one last time."
"I'm already being intimate with someone, Yoyo. See?" The two finally drifted near a wall and Ari latched onto a padded stabilizer bar. "Besides, you should be spending that time with your husband. Go confirm to him that he's the most important person in your life... before you can't anymore..."
"Actually..." Adrian glided through the door with Ari's girls in tow and let it finally shut. "Yoyo wanted some family bonding, and I thought that was a great idea. I forgot about Rhyme though, so..."
"Gods damnit..." Ari gave up on modesty, only for Rhyme to freak out and curl up into a fetal position behind her. "I just want to help my pregnant girlfriend relax and you guys—"
Yoyo quirked his head and queried, "Pregnant?"
"Pregnant!?" Dee's response was far less reserved, the smaller otter leaping for his sister-inLaw for a gleeful hug. "Why didn't you tell us sooner? This is wonderful!"
"We... We actually aren't sure yet, but she's showing signs of it." Ari chuckled to herself as she reached for an enlarged breast and squeezed just hard enough to coax out some floating blobs of milk. "Big signs, as it were."
"Oh, wow."
Yoyo grunted as the twins shoved off of him to reach the second bedroom, apparently knowing the extra company was unwelcome at the moment. "Well that's great, Lulu. We should have Ellie take a look to be sure everything's in line, though."
"If we live past today, that is. That's why for now we're fucking like there's no tomorrow." Ari started thrusting into her tanuki again, only to receive a ferocious growl of disapproval. "No? I'll stop."
"You'd better." Rhyme glared daggers at the other inhabitants of the room. "Can we please have some privacy? I'm not..."
"Like I said, I'm sorry for this." Yoyo appeared practically defeated as he spun to exit the room. "I know how sensitive you are about us, Rhyme. We'll just have our own fun and leave you two."
"Yoyo... wait." Ilaria gave her girlfriend a soft kiss, silently requesting an official audience with her. "I can't just deny my brother like that, Rhy. And... eventually we'll just run into this scenario again. Can't you test your limits at least? If this is already it, I'd have no problem picking you... but I need to know where to draw the line."
"I'm not... I don't want to... um..."
Ari sensed the polarity of Rhy's impending decision and offered a test. "If it's your gender partly getting in the way, what if they made it even and stripped down too? Nothing to hide?"
"That... would at least make up for barging in, I guess..."
Yoyo didn't hesitate, slipping out of his bodysuit in seconds. "Whatever it takes. I'm willing to make this work for the sake of the family."
"Family?" Rhyme locked her eyes on Yoyo's familiar yet different manhood, then flushed a new shade of red when Dee's came into view as well. "How the hell is this a family thing, anyway?"
"We share everything together as a family and as a tribe." Yoyo tried to deflect his cock between his legs, but without gravity to keep it there the beast wasn't having any of that. "As far as I see it, you're family now. If you felt like fucking my Adri, I wouldn't complain about it at all unless he did."
Dee cleared his throat and added his own more impartial insight. "I didn't get it at all at first either, but... it's nice. You learn to stop worrying about all the bad stuff tied to possession and sexuality and just start... enjoying yourselves. It makes our love life richer, but it also bleeds into our everyday lives."
"I'm not sure I get what you're talking about." Contrary to her words however, Rhyme was starting to loosen up her death grip around Ilaria. "So what? You just fuck each other and everything's alright?"
"No, we show each other how much we care, physically. Yoyo here helped me through some tough times, and when I couldn't talk about how I felt he just... showed me I was loved."
Iolvin pulled Zoë closer and randomly gave her a kiss on the forehead. "And take Zoë here, too. She's required by her people to have sex with me, but Adri knows it's only physical because he knows there's nothing hidden here. Or there ~was~ anyway." He gently passed the human over to his husband. "Now she's having our child, one that we could never have had without her. We wouldn't have a family of our own if not for this openness."
Dee caught Zoë and planted a similar kiss on her cheek. "I don't know how to explain it, but it's like... she's a wife to both of us. I... I love her, even."
"And that's all because you... don't listen to what others say?"
"In a way." Ari gave her calmed girlfriend a soft kiss. "I'm not trying to rope you into anything or ask this of you selfishly. I'm not trying to cheat on you and ask you to be fine with it." Ari once again bucked gently into the tanuki's snatch, this time to a more approving response. "I just want to share ~everything~ with you. I love you, so why should I hold anything back?"
"Share... everything?" Rhyme looked around Ari's side and took a calming breath. "Because you won't fight for power if there's no advantage to hording it. I think I... might get it."
"And because I want to give you the world. But see? Understanding is way better than fear or jealousy." Ari softly kissed Rhy's neck a few times. "So what's the next step? I'd rather ease you along than force you past your boundaries."
"I want... Well..." Rhyme flushed red again as she quieted her voice and ducked her head down. "I want you to feel better, so... if that means your brother... then... yeah. Yeah, maybe just him."
"You want Yoyo to join us? I'm ~pretty confident~ he'll do that. But how?"
"DOn't make me say..." The tanuki flushed a new tint of red suddenly. "He can... do you while you still do me, right? Or does that not feel good for you, or—?"
Iolvin grinned and pushed himself so he nudged his twin from behind. "I absolutely can. It might make it rougher on you though."
"She wants it slow, Yoyo. You can go hard and deep if you'd like, but try not to throw off my pace please." Ari sank herself as deeply as she could into her tanuki's depths as her twin brother punched against her cervix in a single, hard motion. "Gods, Yoyo... Fuck..."
"I... I felt that."
"Mhm... You'll feel a lot more soon, too." Ari began pulling and pushing against Rhyme, trying her best to slide all the way out while fighting the inherent wobbliness of zero-G. "There's not much breathing room between the two of you. Wow."
"Damn..." Dee found his paw had roamed to idly stroke his exposed cock and brought up a valid concern. "What should ~we~ do? In any case Zoë has to stay, but I can go sit with the girls if you'd like."
"Ah... Oh yeah... Uh..." Rhyme barely even noticed the smaller otter pawing himself idly, but decided to act more boldly. "Can you have sex with Zoë? I've always been curious about humans and, uh..."
"I'll screw her so you can see it if you'd like." Dee wasted no time in turning Zoë around and shoving his whole length into her from behind, making sure Zoë spread her exposed thighs for Rhyme. "Is that good? Can you see well enough?"
"Ah... Could you get closer?"
"We can certainly try. In fact..." Adrian guided Zoë to hold herself against him, then slowly guided the pair along the walls until Zoë's legs nearly wrapped around Rhy's head. "Best seat in the house. Gotta warn you I won't last too long, though."
"Especially if Lulu eats you out." As if begging for that request to be granted, Yoyo teased the head of his cock into the weakening seal of his sister's womb. "You're not afraid of eating ass, right sis? He's clean, I swear."
"Only if you stop teasing me, silly." Ari shook her head with a chuckle, then shoved her tongue and snout beneath Dee's tail. «Not my favorite idea so you owe me more cock, Yoyo. Pay up.»
«With pleasure.» Yoyo pulled on his sister's hips hard, not only punching through to the back of her womb but tying his knot in her as well. "Oh shit, sis. That's a bit... ah... too much for me..."
Ari instinctively bucked forward in reflex, driving her own tip into unexplored depths and drawing a pained yip from Rhyme. "Ah! Fuck, I'm sorry!"
"Yikes... So deep..." Rhy focused on the human getting plowed in front of her and tried to mask her pleasured pain by licking and sucking Zoë's clit. "Oh, tangy..."
"Ah!" Zoe started seizing first of the group, the added stimulation proving too much for her. "I'm... Oh God...!"
Dee couldn't last long at all once Zoë's tight folds constricted around him like a vice. "Zoë, me too! I'm cumming in you!"
Adrian's cock pulsed once, twice... then strangely felt cold air before the tip met a new, moist warmth oddly resembling canine muzzle. "Mm..."
"What...?"
"Nice. Way to let yourself—" Ilaria gasped and quivered as she felt as her twin brother dumped a ridiculous load of jizz directly into her womb. "Gods, Yoyo. Ooh..."
Iolvin's knot worked only to build pressure inside the whole of Ilaria, not just in her deepest sanctum but against her prostate as well. Ari rolled her eyes back as she gave into lust, her muzzle shoving forward to play with Dee some more. Without even realizing it she also pulled Rhyme against her, cramming her knot against the tanuki's small, abused petals. Perseverance and raw animal instinct won out in the end, the better half of that bulb of flesh blocking the coming torrent even if it didn't quite lock tight.
Ari threw her head back and squeaked as she started blasting literal gallons of liquid love straight into Rhyme's womb. "Fuck...! I love you, Rhy!"
"Fucking _ gods _!" Rhyme gasped as she spat out a combination of Dee's cock and his well-earned release. "I f-feel so... Ah! Oh!"
Ari didn't stop bucking her hips, hoping to either jam the whole of her knot in her girlfriend or to blast her off of it, whichever came first. "Fuck... Cum for me, Rhy. Cum..."
"Ah, fuck...!" Everything finally fell into place for the tanuki, her whole body shaking uncontrollably as her orgasm washed through every muscle. "Ha~h... F-Feel... ama—"
"Gods... So full..." Ari rubbed Rhy's swollen belly and smiled, the sight bringing back fond memories of Robyn and the girls. "You'll look like this every day soon. I sort of... think the curvy mother look is great on you, Rhyme."
Rhy quietly rode out the remainder of her climax by suckling on Dee's re-hardened cock, oddly savoring the taste and texture differences in his cum. When he honestly couldn't take it any longer he pulled back behind Zoë for protection against the overstimulation, leaving Rhy to finally fend for herself. "I... I'm not sure about that..."
"She's right, though. You look sexy as hell right now." Yoyo tried to pull himself free, and while the back pressure was helping he still needed a minute to prevent hurting his sister. "Should you be going that deep though, Lulu? With a baby?"
"Oh, shit. I didn't even think of that." Thankfully Ari was already on the verge of popping her own knot free, so she yanked that plug of a cock free so a huge, weightless glob of amber cum would leak out of Rhyme and coalesce into a worbly sphere. "Now that's new. Zero-G is way messier."
"Yeah, in a few ways. Hold on, sis." Yoyo finally managed to pull himself free of his twin's snatch with similar effect, though he didn't stall to watch the magenta blob leak out. "Adri, lift your tail, please. I can't help it after seeing that."
"Wait, um..." Dee spun around with Zoë and he offered her spread legs instead. "I was thinking... we're trying out new things right now, so..."
"Oh yeah. You can fuck me, babe." Yoyo turned around and presented his rear to his husband, then carefully led Zoë to his front. "What are you thinking? Gonna try ~that~?"
"Oh, I have to see this." Ari grinned sheepishly as she adjusted to be below her brother with a perfect view of his taint. "I'm curious as hell about this, Yoyo."
"What? I don't get it." Ari extended her grin to Rhy as she pulled her close for a similar view. "What's the big... Oh, is that...?"
"A tiny pussy? Yeah, gonna be awesome. And he's still a virgin, too."
Rhy suddenly got really into watching this set of events unfold. "So he can... do ~that~?"
"We'll see, won't we?" Ari's eyes slowly but surely settled on Rhyme instead however, to the point that she couldn't hold back and brought her cock between Rhy's breasts. "Do you mind if I try something too?"
"I, uh... S-Sure..."
"Slowly now..." Yoyo tensed for a moment, but Dee took a lot of care in letting him ease up before he actually squeezed his manhood into that impossibly-small flesh pocket. "Woah! Ooh!"
"That a good or bad 'ooh', Yoyo?"
"A fucking ~fantastic~ one. Gods." Yoyo pulled down on Zoë's hips and gave her the same treatment but on a far larger scale. "You still have another in you, right kiddo?"
"I'm sensitive, but yeah."
"Good, because I'm making you look like Lulu when I'm done." Yoyo's knot was already forming, causing him to rush the bulb into the poor human before it fully enlarged. "Won't... be too long..."
"You're damn right, honey..." Try as he might, Adrian could only wedge half his long cock into his husband's cunt. However he was sure that with that tight grip he'd never last even half as long if the whole thing fit. "I'm cumming! Yoyo, I'm—!"
"Ah! M-Me t-too..." Yoyo held Zoë down hard as he emptied the quart or so left in him directly into her uterus. She swelled a fair amount less as a result of the lesser volume, but in the end Yoyo was quite satisfied with the human cum balloon locked to his groin. "Ah, fuck me..."
"I did, and it was ~great~." Dee slowly kept rocking his hips, sliding his whole cock in and out of his husband's cum-slick clam. "I think I might have to ~give~ as much as I ~take~ if that's how you feel inside. Gods, I love you."
"I love you too, Adri. And you too, Lulu..." Yoyo chuckled as he checked on his twin, spying that not only had she absolutely coated Rhyme's chest, face, and hair but that she was also hard at work trying for a second deposit in that tanuki pussy. "Intimate family bonding: bringing furs together through bodily fluids."
"Huh...?" Ari looked up just as she went cross eyed in ecstasy, that plump roundness in Rhyme's belly sloshing slightly with each thrust that followed. "Ooh..."
"How did I ever go this long without this? Without you?" Rhyme panted and yipped as her most sensitive places stretched delightfully. "I think... Gods, I want to be your mate."
Ari quickly sobered up, though her flagging tail signaled her lightest coming orgasm of the night was now unstoppable and perhaps even strengthening with that comment. "Do you... Do you mean that?"
Rhyme locked lips with her otter, only relenting once her lack of breath forced her. "Yeah... Yeah, I do. I... I really love you, hard as that is for me to say."
"I'm so... so happy!" Ilaria gave her new fiancée another deep kiss as she came, but grinned as her erection continued itself. "Let's keep celebrating then!"
Yoyo and Dee shook their heads at the two lovebirds, nuzzling each other in contented happiness. "Good for them, but ~oh gods~ they're sappy."
"And insatiable." Then as if called by name Ari's girls opened the bedroom door with a determined look Dee instantly recognized as their daily dose of lust. "Our gods won't save us now."
Yoyo nodded to the girls as he pulled his manhood free of Zoë. "Especially not if Lulu keeps churning out an army of succubi. Come over here, girls. Your mother is busy."
<Okay!>
— — — — —
"I can't believe you're having another." Iolvin ruffled a towel through his fur as he searched for his bodysuit that was lost in the return of gravity. "Congratulations, you two."
"Thanks, Yoyo." Ilaria pucked up the found suit and tossed it her brother's way, then went back to brushing her hair. "If not for Rhyme's quirkiness about it, I'd be shouting from the rooftops right now. I'm surprised as all hell."
"Surprised?" Rhyme struggled with her own jumpsuit, her newly-ballooned breasts wedging tightly into the male design. "Even I know you can have a child if you, uh... make love without protection."
Ari stopped Rhyme before she broke a zipper, giggling as she nudged her nose against her tanuki. "I have really low chances even at my peak virility. Statistically I shouldn't have been able to knock you up at all, much less the ~first try~."
"The twins were already a miracle." Yoyo draped his towel over his shoulders and stepped into his suit as he watched Adrian and Zoë play with said twins. "You're extremely lucky, Lulu."
"Says the unlikely father. Congratulations, yourself." Ari focused on her tanuki's slight problem, pulling a stretchy sports bra out of a drawer and slipping it over Rhy's head. "Here. It'll be a bit small, but that sort of helps I guess if you're going for a flatter chest."
"Oh, thanks." Rhyme adjusted the fit a little, then easily zipped up her suit. "Much better. I get to go back to pretending I'm a..."
Ari frowned along with her fiancée. "Just ignore the others. They'll forget about it and see you as a guy again soon enough."
Yoyo tossed his towel in a hamper in the bathroom, returning with a curious expression. "So you really want to be a guy?"
"I... I like being seen as one. It used to me a disguise, but I've grown to like it." Rhyme wiggled her rump back and forth until her tail better fit inside it's baggy compartment. "I guess the closest thing you could call me is a tomboy, but there's more to it than that. Gods... It'll be harder when I start showing, won't it?"
"Not necessarily. Some women don't blow up too much." Ari put away her brush and gave Rhyme a hug. "I'm sure nobody will make a fuss over it though, not when you're their captain's fiancée."
"About that... Um..." Rhyme lowered her voice and hid her face from the others sheepishly. "I was... caught up in the moment..."
"Rhy, don't worry about it. I get the emotion behind it, and that's all that matters." Ari gave the tanuki a kiss before continuing. "I'm not holding you to anything here. I... really discovered how much more I love you than I thought, and I think that's mutual. We'll wait as long as we need before we actually take it as far as marriage. No pressure."
"But... I do love you, enough to be your mate. I just don't think we've known each other long enough and—"
Ari cut Rhyme off with another kiss. "You've suppressed that side of you for a long time. Be confused. Be in love. It's all normal. Just don't over-think any of this and we'll be fine."
"Y-Yeah... That makes sense." Rhyme returned that kiss and took a soothing breath. "So more than just lovers. I can start with that."
"And I can have fun calling you my—"
Ilaria's watch flickered into life, Prisma sharing the display with a long range scanner output. "Sorry to interrupt, but you actually said I should 'interrupt whatever I'm doing and tell me when there's signs of the enemy'." The quoted bit drew odd looks as Pris switched over to an actual recording. "There's definitely signs. Let's go."
"That was quick. We've only been here a few hours." Ari sealed her own bodysuit and strutted out into the hallway, watch arm outstretched. "Relay to the fleet that they're to get in formation facing the threat. I'm coming to the bridge."
"You got it, Ilaria."
"Ari. It's just Ari. Damnit, girl." The otter shook her head at the AI, swearing she was playing games with her after a few dozen corrections. When she hit the bridge she swapped from her watch to the main hologram in the middle of the room. "Show me what we've got."
"Blips say different things an' all with the shape of the ship." Buck pulled up the scans and an estimated model of the enemy ship. "Shakey on the one or two part, but contacts are off port and low."
"Prisma, you see anything like this design in your databases?"
"Uh... One or two." Two much nicer models popped up parallel to the first. "Both are construction barges. The assembly gantries are what ping as separate ships on radar. Lidar's more accurate."
Buck turned back to his console. "Yes ma'am. Calibratin'"
The enemy ship cleared up until it matched one of the provided designs. "A Russian barge... The cranes are different, though." Ari stepped in closer, but that didn't help the lack of visual definition in the rough model. "Buck, work on cleaning that up as it approaches. If there's any secrets, I don't want them to bite us in the ass."
"Ah, ma'am?" Carmine turned to Ari, immediately regretting the chosen title. "Sorry, Ari. The fleet is in position and requesting operational guidelines."
"Well, we're blowing that bastard out of the black. Let's see..." Ari scrutinized the various ships and their armaments as her brother came up behind her with a light shoulder rub. "Ooh... Okay, keep doing that. Meanwhile, I've marked all the ships with designation numbers. Tell... five through ten to move forward and load weapons. Return fire is fine for now, but hold off on assaulting."
"Roger. Relaying that."
"Yoyo, does this sound right? Keep the smaller frigates back and to the four flanks?"
Iolvin shrugged his shoulders and commented less tactically. "I'd say that's alright to frame them. If they break through the center though, it's only us left."
"But that's just it, this isn't football. There's no goals, just a melee. He has to fight or run, so I'm thinking that spreading a wider net will make running less of an option." Ari groaned, both in frustration and from the kneading of her shoulders. "Maybe I should keep our destroyer back, since it has range with those missiles? Yeah, they need time to change their path, so—"
"Ari, ma'am? Four baddies now. Six. Ah, fuck..." Buck updated the main display and sure enough there were several smaller ships breaking away from the gantry arms of the main vessel. "There's tons."
"Fighters. Good thing most of our smaller frigates are flak chuckers." Ari ran her paws over her console and updated the display with new pathing. "Car, try to get the remaining ships to head to these positions. We'll hold off the fighters with flak while the larger ships pummel that carrier. Once their leader is dead, we can focus on cleanup and then regroup."
"Ma'am..."
"Buck?"
"I... Them's some big, brawny ones." The moose normally had a cheerful demeanor, but fear crept into his tone as he revealed a fleet of ships appearing behind the Starbreeze. "They're here."
"Shit, what?" Ilaria's face drained white at the realization that there were over a hundred enemy contacts that just caught the defense fleet with it's pants down. "Oh... dear gods..."
"Lulu? What's the plan?" Iolvin gave his twin sister a comforting hug. "We're here, together. What can we do?"
Ilaria pulled up the velocity and range of the various contacts as she gripped her brother's paw tightly. "New plan. We can do this if we don't falter and we have a little faith in Robyn's big girl."
Yoyo quirked his head as he watched the fleet pathing shift in the hologram. "That isn't what I think it is... is it?"
"Oh hell yeah. We've only got one shot in that cannon so we're shoving it down his fucking throat." Ilaria stood tall as she grabbed her helmet from behind her chair. "We'll punch a hole in that thing and then we're going to pay Rhyme's brother a visit. Relay those coordinates, Car. Trick, I'll prepare the cannon for you. And just in case, sound the alarm: Prepare for potential collision."
"And the fleet's heading the other way? Sis? That's damn close to suicide."
The fearless Commander shoved her helmet over her head and sealed it shut with her suit. "Then it's a good day to die."