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Hearth Star: Exodus

By Psion

All Rights Reserved

The Hearth Star, a massive roving city in space controlled by pirates. The barbaric Wuffs, bane of the peaceful Galactic Republic and unaffiliated civilizations, ruled the colossal world ship and the empire of slaves it contained. Most of the ship was dominated by the lupine Wuffs and catered to their needs, and to the needs to visiting privateers but the lower levels had been taken over by escaped human slaves, survivors of the sacking of Earth. For countless weeks, the humans existed in a fragile existence constantly at odds with the Wuffs they were forced to share the ship with. Now, that was finally starting to change.

While Lt. Jerky and his squad had gone around sabotaging and raiding Wuff facilities on the ship, the humans of Freeman’s Hold and the engineers of Ironbelly’s Guilders were working frantically to restore a passenger vessel large enough to allow most of the people trapped on the ship to escape. Life support and navigation systems were repaired and brought back online without attracting too much attention but restoring the reactor required isotope fuel rods that couldn’t be taken without raising alarms. Even the normally dim Wuffs knew there were only two reasons why the humans would want such a thing and the lower deck enclaves weren’t so crazy as to risk blowing up a large portion of an already rundown ship. As a result, once news of the theft of the isotopes spread, the Wuffs redoubled their efforts to crush the free human enclaves. Several communities crumbled almost instantly in the face of the gray-furred tide, those who weren’t dragged to the slave pens fleeing for the increasingly crowded settlements that managed to continue to maintain a solid defense.

The enemy’s attacks became more frequent, Jonathan Freeman contemplated grimly as he joined the militiamen manning the barricades. Crude submachine guns hammered out of junk barked and occasionally jammed as they sprayed volleys of bullets into the charging wave of Wuffs rushing towards the firing line with their swords drawn. The energetic halo of their powered sabers emitted a pale light in the otherwise dark corridor, the light from countless swords illuminating almost as many before the hallway lit up briefly from the muzzle flash of weapons fire. When they would previously attack in groups of five to ten every week or so, now they attacked daily in groups numbering well over a hundred. Just when he thought he had a handle on how many of them there were in this giant junkheap, he was surprised again when they drew upon reserves he previously didn’t think existed. Good thing the evacuation had already begun, they weren’t going to hold much more then a few days like this…

While Ironbelly’s technicians continued to run tests on the ship’s engines and shields, Lt. Jerky and his peers had taken up positions covering the main approaches to the escape ship and watched the steady stream of dirty humans and GalRep survivors boarding the vessel. So far the procession had been fairly orderly, the flow of oncoming people barely paused to look at the rotund Star Corps troopers and their IPA allies, even Gabrios the Tech-Knight barely got more then a passing glance as the unarmed citizens hurried to board the passenger liner as it was being coaxed to life. The whine of the liner’s ion engines being test fired punctuated the echoes of gunfire from deeper within the Hearth Star. The stream of people seeking to board the escape ship couldn’t have started to thin out at a better time. Jerky checked to make sure he had a fresh magazine in his BFR and a round primed in the chamber. Any time now his communicator would bark with…

“They’re breaking through! Everyone fall back to the ship!” One the militia officers ordered over the din of weapons fire and Wuff howls.

Jerky looked at the rest of his squad as they readied their weapons. The staccato echo of automatic fire grew closer and closer as the retreating militia occasionally paused to shoot back at the encroaching lupine marauders before continuing to flee. The Troopers took their position in a line, staggering themselves so they could bunch up and form a wall if necessary but allowing the fleeing militia to slip through between them. What few remaining stragglers among the civilians were quickly grabbed by the arm as Freeman’s Rangers rounded the corner and squeezed past the rotund Star Corps. Jerky and his squad remained unflinching; their faces were largely unreadable behind the polarized tint of their crimson visors. But Jerky was sure even Donut was having a hard time remaining entirely expressionless at the sight of Freeman’s Rangers, arguably the best of the human guerrillas, running past them with a look of absolute terror on their faces. The gray tide was coming…

And as it turned the bend, hot on the heels of the fleeing humans, it came with the force of a tidal wave. The elephant-like space marine hadn’t seen a horde this large since he arrived on the Hearth Star, this one might actually even be bigger, the slender Wuffs were doing as good of a job at clogging up the starship corridor as his fellow beer-bellied Troopers. Jerky didn’t bother enforcing trigger discipline as the front of the mob ran around the bend. “Fire! Fire! FIRE!” He ordered and squeezed the trigger on his BFR.

The rest of the squad quickly joined in. PFC Chunky was as quick on the trigger as Jerky was, Corporal Vodka was firing his sidearm with them as his scoped rifle wasn’t much use in this fight, and a second later Sgt. Donut’s minigun finished warming up and sent a spray of bullets down the corridor. Gyrojet rounds flew into the horde of Wuffs, severing limbs or tearing the lupine marauders in half with explosive force. And yet the attackers kept coming, the Wuffs pushing through their slain comrades only to get mowed down by penetrating shots or a follow up attack. A narrow space, one that was far too narrow for Jerky’s comfort, had started to form between the firing line and where the Wuff bodies had begun to pile up on top of each other. The assault had finally relented just as Jerky reached to reload his rifle. Wisps of smoke traced a long lazy finger from the barrels of their guns as the four Troopers reloaded or cleared weapon jams. The echoing sound of chants and war whoops coming closer warned them that another mob was coming and that this one sounded even bigger then the first…

“FUCK YOU ASSHOLES! THIS ONE’S FOR JIM!” Came the sound of a familiar voice screaming a furious war cry punctuated by the sound of a pipe bomb exploding. Lockhart had joined the fray.

Claire Lockhart rounded the corner and motioned for a small band of huddled human civilians to hurry past Jerky’s line before turning back to fire a few shotgun shells into the mob outside of the Troopers’ field of view. Running after her charges, Claire slipped on some slick gore and fell on top of the pile of bodies left from the previous push. Crawling over the macabre mound, she had just started to squeeze between Jerky and Chunky as the next mob charged into the killing field. On reflex, Jerky and Chunky squished Lockhart between their flabby sides and opened fire on the Wuffs. This wave was almost comical in a way. Most of the privateers slipped and tripped over the crimson gore and dead bodies in a way that made Claire’s own pratfall look positively graceful by comparison, turning the attack into a massive shooting gallery. Jerky briefly wondered if the others were having a similarly easy time holding back the pirates before he focused back on the task at hand.

Lukis Gabros smiled inside his armor as he waded into glorious battle. The Wuffs that made the unfortunate decision to charge his corridor looked like they were regretting that choice. As he was by himself, the badger-like space knight had taken the smallest of the three approaches to where the escape vessel was berthed. Even more unfortunately for his foes, he had indulged quite gloriously in feasting since he arrived aboard the Hearth Star. Not only did he manage to stave off the depravations of starvation on his noble girth but he managed to expand his waistline by experimenting with the many tastes both fair and foul available to him on this ship.

“Run, fatazz is blocking da way!” An unusually astute Wuff put it succinctly before Gabros speared him with his grav-trident and shoveled the morsel into his insatiable maw.

Indeed, tasty treat squirming on my tongue, my noble personage is almost too wide for this corridor. Gabros thought as he quickly gulped down the privateer and swatted away several more with a gauntleted hand. His bright orange biometal armor shone in the artificial light of the corridor as he alternated between beating back attackers with his free hand and spearing them to shovel into his greedy mouth. His black and white furred stomach bulged with the intoxicating sensation of struggling Wuffs kicking and squirming inside him. The floor became lined with discarded swords and saliva-slick boots belched up as his belly fought to settle his unruly meal.

Mortified and completely routed, the remaining Wuffs turned and fled. And not a moment too soon for Gabros, he had started to get uncomfortably full off of the ones that were too slow to evade his reach. Though on the positive, his expanded circumference made him a very effective barricade. So much so that he was barely able to move aside and grant passage to a scared young human woman that had been hiding in a supply closet during his binge…

It was a good thing that the others were holding up well because Cayenne was certain she wouldn’t be able to spare anyone even if they needed it. Thinking the IPA team would be the easiest to break; the Wuffs pushed her group the hardest. It was a relatively correct assessment too; the IPA simply weren’t equipped for a ground war. Pulse pistols and Pepper’s pulse repeater sent charged bolts of directed electromagnetic energy into the charging horde of Wuffs but it wasn’t enough, the Wuffs just kept charging and pushing closer and closer. Soon they would be past the bulkhead and… then something happened that made both parties stop.

Throughout the IPA’s corridor, a series of pipes ran the length of the ceiling. Cayenne had been on enough different starships to recognize them as waste pipes carrying gray water and otherwise fluid sewage to the cisterns at the absolute bottom of the ship. In an instant, a remote explosive ruptured the pipes above the Wuffs’ heads, showering them in sludge, as the bulkhead doors slammed shut together. Cayenne first looked at Sage, her techie, but the Buk maiden promptly shook her head. The yellowish equine then looked over her shoulder. Standing behind them was Alex, Claire Lockhart’s soft-spoken techie partner. The black-haired human just stood there quietly behind them, a thin smile crossing his lips as he stood there with a cobbled-together remote in one hand and a pistol in the other. Quiet, meek, if the four of them didn’t know him as well as they did they would have thought he was admiring the view of their fat donut-fed rumps but no, his eyes were fixed squarely on the door he had trigged to shut remotely.

As he walked up to the door and holstered his pistol to draw an unlit welding torch from the bag of tools on his shoulder, fiery Pepper was the first to kiss him, quickly followed by Cayenne and the others. If he hadn’t already found someone to spend the trip with, there were four bunks he was going to find himself invited to once the ship was safely underway…

The Wuffs driven back and all the survivors that could or would make it to the ship safely aboard, the GalRep fighters fell back and joined a gathered crowd of human militia. The engineers just needed a few more minutes to make sure everything was ready and perform last minute repairs. The defenders just needed to hold the Wuffs back just a little while longer. Even knowing they were committing to something that could either save or destroy their species, it still unsettled Jerky to see the human quartermasters hand out ammunition to militiamen like it was a pile of sweets and the rebel fighters hastily loading multiple magazines and stuffing ammo in every possible pouch and pocket. Do or die battles tended to end more often in “die” then popular fiction would have people believe…

Meanwhile Freeman’s combat engineers had been setting up tripwire explosives in the two remaining tunnels, Jerky had Chunky set up sentry turrets facing those directions. The monochromatic cheetah had just finished setting up his turrets when the human sappers came running back screaming that the Wuffs were back; a second later, the remaining corridors echoed with the sound of explosions as the Wuffs tripped the explosive surprises left for them. The battle began in earnest quickly afterwards, the surviving Wuffs charged through the open tunnels. A dark tide of gray fur and a rainbow of Technicolor hair gushed towards the defenders. The human militia replied with a fierce war cry and opened fire; scrap-metal submachineguns belched staccato bursts of projectiles into the oncoming horde. Not even a second later, the GalReps joined them. Bullets tore into the charging Wuffs yet they kept coming. Undeterred by their enemy’s advantage they just kept charging, screaming obscenities. Fitting in a way, Jerky mused silently, they were leaving the same way he and his peers arrived. As the battle raged, the engineers announced they were finished and ready to go. Slowly waddling backwards towards the ship, the four Star Corps troopers let militia run ahead of them onto the ship after most of the human warriors spent their last magazine. They may have managed to escape with ammunition to spare but not by much…

As the restored passenger liner took off in the endless night, there was an atmosphere of suffocating tension throughout the ship. Behind them, the Hearth Star was ominously indifferent to their attempt at escape. At first there were no visible attempts to alter its course or focus its many guns on the fleeing vessel. Finally, the massive worldship made its displeasure known with a volley of weapons fire but it was too late, the escape vessel’s hyper-drive finished charging and the ship jumped out of normal space. The unthinkable had been successfully accomplished; they had escaped from the Hearth Star.

The atmosphere aboard the ship was of bittersweet jubilation for many of the passengers as the ship continued to sail along in hyperspace. To Ironbelly and the rest of the GalRep civilians trapped with the humans, it was the fulfillment of long awaited hopes. They were finally able to go home, they were able to go home and maybe put all of this behind them. Yet as they looked to their human friends, they remembered that there was still no going home for many of them. For the humans, from the average dirty refugee all the way to the champions that kept all of them safe for so long, the sense of triumph was watered down by the fear and uncertainty of what awaited them next. A few broke down and cried but most just stood or sat looking absolutely exhausted. The rotund anthros merely smiled and decided to answer at least one of those crushing questions about the future.

Dr. Cinnamon Soufee smiled as she set down her bag next to a too-small bunk aboard the passenger liner. As much as the mink-like anthro had dared dream, she never expected that it would actually happen. Even after Lt. Jerky arrived, she still believed that they would all die or be captured before the Galactic Republic took over the Hearth Star and made things right. To be on a ship that successfully fled that lumbering home of a thousand nightmares, she couldn’t wait to be back home among the universities and colleges of the Galactic Academy of Sciences. Why, to imagine the expressions of her peers when she recounted her experiences living among a band of noble techno-barbarians… Her face fell as she remembered. Sarah, the reason the GAS scientist escaped the slave pens at all, long-suffering Sarah, who almost certainly could not return back to the Republic with her as would otherwise be proper. Sarah, currently hugging her knees in fear as she sat on the same bunk they were sharing. The purple-eyed mustelid unzipped her eggshell-white laboratory suit before sitting her pear-shaped figure down next to the frightened human. No, she decided as she kissed her lover-slash-lab assistant on the lips and laid down with her, letting Sarah’s fingers press deep into her soft blubber as she made herself comfortable against her smaller mate, her research on humanity was not finished…

Gorgazanna squeezed quietly into her bunk aboard the ship, the female Rubent chef smiled sadly as her elastic belly churned and gurgled the half-digested roast she had eaten several days ago. The beast she had claimed as payment for helping the human enclaves aboard the ship had almost completed its journey to her expansive waistline, she idly rubbed her bloated, bulging midsection with her free hand as she stared longingly at a two-dimensional photograph her human friend Zack had taken of the two of them together. Zack had disappeared several months ago and rumor had it he was one of the humans thrown to the beast pen, specifically the pen of the beast currently digesting in the cruise chef’s stomach…. “Gorga”, as Zack had taken to calling her, prepared the slain beast as best as she could manage, roasting it in a repurposed environmental heating unit and rubbing it down with the last of her secret stash of spices. Then spent the better part of a day devouring it down to the bones. Flesh, sinew, guts, she gorged herself on all of it until she was a barely mobile ball of waddling Rubent. She shrank down a bit since then, the consumed biomass compressing into soft wobbly flab on her legs, breasts, and the majority going to her massive abdomen. By the time they arrived at a safe haven, the beast would have finished becoming a part of her. Plenty of time to reflect on the times she had with Zack and hope that she gave her friend a proper burial, she contemplated as the tears started to run down her face…

Once everything was taken care of and the rest of his squad was dismissed to do little nothing duties that he was sure they either blew off or finished as quickly as physically possible before sneaking off to find one or two humans in need of strong companionship for the night, Jerky steeled himself. Now was the only real time. Before he had to focus to make sure they all stayed alive, later he and his squad would likely be reassigned to any number of places. That left now, as the two of them sat alone together enjoying a late dinner. Claire stared at her half-finished tray, her mind a swirling maelstrom of emotions and memories he could only guess at, her hand trembling as she tapped the table subconsciously. Jerky removed his gauntlet and gently clasped her slender hand with his thick, gray leathery one, giving her a reassuring squeeze as she turned then promptly hugged him. Resting her head against his large beer belly, she twitched then started to cry quietly in his arms as he tried to think of something to say.

“Come on Claire. Finish up or at least let me finish up for you. Then… then if you want, I can show you I’m at least half the male Jim must have been.” He replied, silently grateful no one else could see him fumble. Of all the corny things to say, even the Troopers in the holo-dramas had better lines…

Tears still streaking her face, she looked up at him with a meek smile. Brushing his wrinkled gray trunk aside, she kissed him on the lips and started to crawl into what remained of his lap as her pelvis squished up his ballooned gut. Her hand gently caressing his warm doughy pudge as the stout Trooper returned her affections. Somehow they had managed to go from the ship’s mess to his bunk without getting spotted or at least not spotted by anyone that would be a nuisance. After he took off his armor and she took off most of her clothes, the two warriors from different worlds curled up against each other. Claire hugged the portly space marine like he was a life preserver thrown into a stormy sea, savoring his warmth as she nuzzled up to him and rested her head against his shoulder. Finally, for the first time in a long time, she was safe. Safe enough to completely remove the mask of the brave huntress and expose the tired, worn out fighter grateful for a short moment where she could enjoy Jerky’s soft abundance. The black-haired Trooper merely smiled and held her in his beefy arms, enjoying the quiet moment that thankfully seemed to stretch on for eternity….

Wrench smiled as she lay down in her bunk, her long red hair worn loose as the stout bellied Lapeen pulled the covers up around Alex and herself as they drifted off to sleep. The slender human male had already surrendered to fatigue; succumbing to a fitful slumber punctuated by feeble pleas as he wrestled with demons only he could see. Wrench sighed sadly as she stroked the human resting against her bare azure blue fur and whispered encouragingly into his ear before kissing him on the cheek. The dark-haired man smiled in his sleep as his thoughts were gently nudged towards something more pleasant, his mind less focused on the horrors he left behind and more on the soft body currently embracing him….

Freeman exhaled and sank into his chair in the conference room the surviving enclave leaders had been using to hold meetings. The other human leaders were not happy in the slightest but that was to be expected, he completely uprooted them with no prior warning. They would have their revenge later once they reunited with Blackman and hopefully convinced him to reform the council or at least formed a damn cabinet in Gabe’s government. If they did get their wish and somehow forced him out of a leadership role… that was fine with him. He accomplished what he wanted and then some, he was done with being responsible for other people. Done with not knowing if his decisions would get them killed or not. Too long he had dealt with that burden and it had been slowly crushing him while he fought to survive aboard the Hearth Star.

His only other company in the conference room other then his thoughts was Ironbelly. The Buk maiden was looking at him with a coy smile on her face, her pearly buckteeth glistening in the artificial light of the ceiling lamps. “Is there something else you wanted Clover?” He asked before the big-bellied beaver woman abruptly kissed him on the lips.

“That, I wanted to do that. Oh, and a chance to warm up your bunk would be nice. Don’t know if I’ll ever get another chance to do that.” She smiled and kissed him a second time.

Jon smiled despite himself as he wrapped his arms around the pear-shaped Buk engineer. “I think that can be arranged. We’ve all certainly earned some time to ourselves after that escape.” He agreed, losing himself in the soft embrace of that squishy marshmallow of a female….

Gabriel Blackman was neck deep in council in a conference room that was much too small for his tastes with Carbloat, Bargebottom, and Hughes, as well as Major Hopper and Commander Longfoot when the aide came rushing in. “Governor Blackman!” The man cried as he came rushing in.

Each of the three heads of the GalReps protectors turned to look at him and choked back the habitual reprimand. Blackman merely looked at the station’s communication technician. “I trust this is important, the Operations Center knows just how much I absolutely enjoy these meetings.” He began sarcastically.

“Sir… they did it. Freeman did it! They escaped the Hearth Star! The other escape ship is outside, we’re talking to him right now.”

His five guests dumbfounded, Blackman merely titled his head back and laughed. “Oh now this is the kind of problem I don’t mind having. Have Ops splice him in if they have him on the comm, I have people he’ll want to meet.”

The aide nodded and pressed a few buttons on a data pad he had in his pocket. In a second the display on the far end of the conference room came alive with the faces of the missing Guildmistress Clover Ironbelly and a trio of humans. Sitting closest to the display was one that Longfoot assumed was Jonathan Freeman. The Lapeen engineering officer was taken aback by how young Freeman appeared to be for a war hero and military commander of the humans. Granted he looked extremely harried due to a hard life aboard the Hearth Star but if the flax-haired Space Fleet officer was to venture a guess, Freeman wasn’t that many standard years older then she was. The former civil engineer Blackman was older then he was.

Blackman smiled as he recognized his old friend. “Hello Jon, it’s been too long my old friend and fourth favorite pain in the ass.”

“Fourth favorite? I thought I was your favorite?” Freeman laughed.

Gabriel chuckled briefly. “Recent events have seen you go down in severity. I have people you’d like to meet. But first, what should we serve for dinner? Something spicy or some comforting home style?” He asked, a seemingly innocent enough question but there was something about it that caused the others to raise a suspicious eyebrow.

“Home style of course. There will be plenty of time for spicy later, hopefully much later.” Jon replied with a laugh. “We’re fine you paranoid twat, there’s no need to greet us with a boarding party. There’s no room for Wuffs anyway, we have people sleeping in the corridors as it is.”

Blackman looked like he wanted to disagree but apparently wasn’t entirely in the mood to. “Alright then. I imagine Guildmaster Clover Ironbelly needs no introduction. The fellow that was just talking is Jonathan Freeman, leader of Freeman’s Hold and the closest thing we had to a military commander for a while. The black-haired woman sitting on the other side of Jon from Ironbelly is Dr. Daoming Chen, leader of Daoming’s Crossing and one of our best surviving botanists from Old Earth. Standing in back is Claire Lockhart, one of our best fighters.” He began, moving on to the introductions as he gestured to each of the humans on the screen. Major Hopper could tell the human leader was looking for a few more familiar faces on the video feed but it looked like anyone else didn’t make it.

Disappointed and probably a bit depressed with the realization that more people didn’t make it then did, Blackman continued with the introductions regardless. “Chen, Jon, allow me to introduce you to the three heads of the three fists of the Galactic Republic in no particular order. General Carbloat of the Star Corps, Admiral Bargebottom of the Space Fleet, and Chief Hughes of the Intergalactic Police Agency. With them is Major Hopper, commander of the Star Corps garrison on the station, and Commander Longfoot, captain of the Silver Pantry.”

Jonathan smirked a toothy grin as he looked at the group Blackman was surrounded with. “Well Gabe, something must have gone horribly wrong for you to swallow your bitter pride. Good on you to confront your claustrophobia head-on though.” Freeman joked.

“There was a minor incident concerning a Wuff raid that had the distinct possibility of overrunning the station. A concern of no significance other then it would have killed everyone on board and destroyed several months worth of work.” Gabriel replied sarcastically. Longfoot smiled, these two clearly had a history together. She could almost picture the back and forth that must have gone on when they were both aboard the Hearth Star.

“I see. Jokes aside, a pleasure to meet all of you. I’m already personally familiar with the Corps and the IPA. Space Fleet… I seem to remember Lt. Jerky saying something once about GalRep having a navy of some sort. I guess we have a lot to talk about when our ship finally finishes docking.”

As the escape ship docked with Lighthouse Station, the last to break out of the Hearth Star disembarked to meet their long lost peers. Jerky and the other anthro fighters on the ship lumbered out behind several fire teams of Freeman’s Rangers. The human militia fighters stood visibly slack-jawed at their surroundings once they were station-side. The Star Corps lieutenant looked around and smiled as his squad and Cayenne’s team followed him; after being forced to scrounge and make due with whatever they could find, it was nice to see proper GalRep industrial fabrication and food production facilities at work. It was also as good of an excuse as any to not look at Claire Lockhart and be reminded that his brief dalliance with her was just that. Soon his squad would be reassigned and the two of them would be separated by an unknowable amount of light-years. Oh well, at least he took the chance when he had it. He’d be kicking himself if he passed on his last opportunity to spend a quiet moment alone with Lockhart. Best he and the others reported in to Carbloat and Hopper before it got any later.

Claire kept fighting the urge to reach for one of her holstered weapons as she walked along through the main docking area and the cavernous maze of the industrial level after she separated from the others. This wasn’t natural, being able to move without a constant feeling of fear and apprehension hanging over her head didn’t sit well with her. Her stomach turned and did flip-flops as the brown-haired gunwoman continued to walk along. The smell of food started hanging heavy in the air and the size of some of her fellow humans had left her agape. Clover Ironbelly and the other Guilders she had been stranded with aboard the Hearth Star frequently threatened jokingly about submitting their human friends to GalRep cooking but to see it now, to see her neighbors enjoying a life without constant food rationing. Peace… a number of her formally starving friends now obviously overfed… Lockhart’s throat tightened and she suddenly found it hard to breath. This was wrong, this was all wrong, any second now the Wuffs were going to come and destroy all of this.

As she began to lose herself to the panic attack, a huge, round dollop of black and green soon filled up her vision. A strong grip pulled her up and made sure she was steady on her feet. “Breath, slowly. You’re safe now.” The male voice intoned politely.

Claire relaxed, barely, and managed to stand and look at who was talking to her without stumbling and landing onto their fleshy body. A large horse-like anthromorph, same species as Cayenne from the looks of it, dressed in a jet-black uniform with bright green trim on the shoulders, collar, and the lip of his gloves and boots. On his right, slightly above the breast, was the badge of the GalRep Space Fleet and slightly below was the word “Zedd” written on his name patch. Black hair, worn short in a military cut, and bright blue eyes, Zedd cut the robust image of a GalRep sailor down to the GalRep waistline. The sailor definitely enjoyed the cuisine of countless worlds; his barrel-shaped body was defined by an immense, cushiony belly that rivaled Jerky’s post-Hearth Star beer gut and Claire remembered what a dream it was to curl up against that particular ball of warm flesh...

All of this was observed in a quick instant, Claire had long since gotten good at taking in everything at a glance, as Zedd resumed talking to her. “Are you alright Ms…?” He began politely.

“Claire Lockhart and thanks, I’m fine now Mr. Zedd.” She replied with a deep breath. Her panic attack had since passed and she was now starting to process details around the two of them

“Lockhart? Governor Blackman and my commander are both looking for you. They should be both still talking with Admiral Bargebottom over at the station’s command unit. Better there then to be with Major Hopper while he’s billeting Lt. Jerky and his squad.” The equine sailor snorted audibly.

Claire nodded, she already knew where the station’s command module was, but something about his reaction pressed her to ask for more information. “Billeting them? Jerky and the others are staying on the station?”

“Wuffs don’t tell you much about what’s going on outside of their giant tin can do they?” He replied rudely, ironically helping her calm down further. Relative peace may be a new sensation but a jackass was something Claire knew how to deal with.

“Well they’d kind of have to either kill me or enslave me first so no, I don’t hear much about what’s going on outside of the Hearth Star.” She replied back sarcastically.

Claire scanned her surroundings and recognized Commander Longfoot from the videoconference between Blackman and Freeman as the portly rabbit spotted them standing to the side of the busy thoroughfare; guess that meeting with the admiral went quicker then expected. The flax-haired bunny-like anthro raised an eyebrow but kept quietly behind Zedd. Lockhart herself had seen this gag a hundred times back when she was still a Detroit cop back on Earth. The universal game of “the boss is watching dummy.”

His apparent ego had been somewhat deflated by Claire’s cutting rebuttal, Zedd took a moment before continuing on with his explanation. “Well normally there’s an agreement between the Galactic Republic and its allies, we don’t interfere in the development of pre-hyperspace cultures. Contact is strictly forbidden to prevent the possibility of exploitation.” He continued, oblivious to the fact that a redheaded alien woman dressed in Star Corps greens joined Longfoot in standing behind Zedd. A redheaded female that looked like a giant cow with a massive, sofa-crushing ass and a shoulder patch that Claire vaguely recalled Jerky mentioning something about. Was that Crem, an old flame Jerky reluctantly told her about?

“And because of the Wuffs, humanity is in a legally gray area. Which means we’re open season for anyone in the Republic that’s short on scruples. And the more people who know about us that get out into the Republic at large, the more people that can talk.” Claire finished for him. It made sense and ultimately it greatly increased her respect for the trio that was giving Blackman a hard time, humanity already had way too many enemies to fight. One more could very well crush them into extinction.

“Exactly! Top of my class at the academy, earned my Helm and Navigation greens with distinction, and I’m stuck running supplies to this backwater post. Lt. Jerky, that poster boy of the Star Corps, is in for a similar surprise. From leading a raid on the Hearth Star to guarding a bunch of slop-slinging Mess Chefs, that’s got to be a massive slap in the face.”

Considering the Wuffs were finally starting to reduce them to the same quivering, thumb-sucking nervous wrecks we were broken down to, that’s probably going to go over better then you think dumbass. Claire thought as she crossed her arms. “Tell me Mr. Zedd, did they teach you situational awareness in that GalRep academy of yours?” She smiled wickedly as she gestured behind him to Longfoot and Crem, both of them still watching him with a telling scowl on their faces. “Thanks for keeping me from passing out on the floor earlier but I don’t think I can bail you out of this one.” Lockhart said as she patted him on the shoulder and he put on a feeble-looking smile.

The two GalRep females were quick to amble up to Claire and the helmsman. “Ms. Lockhart, so nice to finally meet you.” Crem began, taking the thinner female’s hand in her own armored one and shaking it briskly. “Gina Stewart mentioned you a few times.”

“Indeed, though Mess Sergeant Crem is probably going to be busy making sure Ensign Zedd is given an ample taste of Star Corps cooking before we need to set off again.” Longfoot replied with a cold tone as she planted a hand on Zedd’s shoulder, Crem following suit and soon the mess sergeant was leading the helmsman off to the Star Corps mess hall.

Longfoot was silent for a moment as she watched her two portly peers waddle off before turning back to Claire. “I’m sorry about that. Zedd’s a good sailor but that… I can’t have that.”

Lockhart merely smiled and shook her head. “No, no, it’s alright. That actually made my day.” She chuckled as Longfoot gave her a confused look. “So before he went off on that tangent, Zedd said you and Blackman wanted to see me about something?” The human warrior added, eager to keep her mind off the relative strangeness of her surroundings. Peace was going to take some getting used to….

Lt. Jerky and his squad were silent as they stood together in the commander’s office after they received the news about their new orders from Major Hopper. Seated in front of them, the immense garrison commander in charge of all the Star Corps personnel on Lighthouse Station was watching each of them carefully. The lime green Lapeen Mess Chef looked from one to the other as they stood squeezed against one another in front of his desk. All four of the Troopers had accepted the news that they were assigned to Lighthouse Station until further notice without any sort of protest. While he wouldn’t have expected much less accepted overt signs of protest, that sort of thing was unbecoming of professional Troopers, there were no subtle signs of any of them silently balking at the idea of not being immediately sent out to squash another Jelly Bug infestation or battle pirates. If anything they all seemed to be quietly relieved they weren’t being sent back out just yet. That was somewhat worrying in the major’s mind, just what sort horrors lived on the Hearth Star?

Much more reassuring was the sight that all four of them still carried a respectable paunch. The squad might actually be heavier then when they left which meant that at least they didn’t starve even though looking at the humans that came with them, he had to wonder what they ate. “Well if there are no questions about your posting then Lt. Bakin can show you to your bunks and you can get something to eat down in the mess. I’ll assign your duty assignments tomorrow unless something comes up between then and now.”

“Thank you sir.” Lt. Jerky replied automatically, all four of them giving him a brisk salute.

“There is one question I have before you’re dismissed though. What did you eat while you were on the Hearth Star?” Hopper asked, a sinking feeling in the bottom of his stomach telling him he was going down a line of questioning he might not like the answer to.

“Starchsrooms, Verm… and a mix of Jelly Bugs and various war beasts domesticated by the Wuffs.” Jerky replied, hesitating on the last two as he watched the base commander mentally connect the dots.

Hopper frowned slightly, he was about to ask what the bugs and the Wuff war beasts had been fed but decided he was better off not knowing the answer to that question. “Very well then, you are all dismissed.” The Lapeen officer nodded as all four Troopers lumbered out of his office. Perhaps he should see what recipes Sergeant Crem had been coming up with for those beasties the Wuffs had been domesticating and see what he could come up with himself. He had heard from the first wave of Troopers that came with Carbloat that the humans were suspiciously tight lipped about what had happened to a lot of their people and had seen this sullen silence for himself; their expressions and the expressions of Jerky’s squad told him plenty. Perhaps the next time the Wuffs dump a zoo of alien predators on this colony, he’d take a very personal hand in the barbequing afterwards…

“You did WHAT? Were you out of your mind?” Freeman asked incredulously as he sat in the conference room with Blackman and the others. Now, seated in a chair that had him physically in the same room as the three immense GalRep representatives, he could emphasize a little with Gabriel’s unease even if one of the other corpulent bodies in the room was Clover Ironbelly. Still, being surrounded by all that girth was impossibly pleasant compared to the bombshell his old friend just dropped.

“Jon, we were trying to get some of our people back. We had to raid Iron Pecs.” Gabriel defended nonchalantly.

Jonathan Freeman opened his mouth as if he was about to say something then looked at the others, Carbloat, Hughes, and Bargebottom all had a look of puzzled impatience. The look of someone who was not entirely sure what was going on and was about to abruptly demand to be clued in. “You haven’t even told them about those blasted ship breaker yards have you?”

“No, I have not had the opportunity to.” Blackman replied glumly, his face fixed in a withering scowl. He knew this conversation was coming and had been dreading it.

Jonathan put his face in his hand before turning back to the GalRep representatives. “The Wuffs maintain a handful of shipbreaker yards supplied by the Hearth Star. Iron Pecs is the largest, gets the most traffic…” Freeman hesitated before getting to the last point. “And it’s been chopping up an abandoned flotilla of warships that we’re almost certain are yours.”

For a minute there was silence from the GalRep side of the table then finally Bargebottom broke the silence with a mighty curse. “Saints alive! I told them, I told them we should have scrapped all the ships that were to be mothballed after the latest budget cuts. Scrapped them or stripped the weapons and sold them as civilian vessels. But no, the Senate would change their mind they said, the cuts to personnel were only temporary they said. Now I have to explain to the Senate why the Wuffs are running around with Fleet-grade weapons.” The immense feline fumed in her hover sofa before she focused back on Blackman. “Why did you withhold this from us? I could have had several artillery ships bombard that location with kinetic energy projectiles and turned it into dust.”

“For once I agree with Bargebottom, we could have taken care of this easily and had time for a barbeque afterwards.” Carbloat added, the massive rhino leaning forward to give his immense belly a gentle rub.

Blackman merely rolled his eyes. “Who do you think does all the physical labor at that glorified chop shop Bargebottom? Or is there as much fat in your head as there is in your ass?” He asked calmly, his voice as cold as ice.

The spotted feline admiral scowled at him with her multiple chins. “Fair point.” She conceded. “Still we cannot allow that station to continue to exist.” Bargebottom insisted, looking at the two human leaders in the room.

“That seems to be the only thing we agree on.” Hughes added before attempting to salvage the conversation. “Do you know anything more specific about Iron Pecs or the Wuffs ship breaking operations in general?”

Gabriel exhaled and shook his head. “There are four that we know about. Two were found abandoned; I had the raiding teams salvage them down to the last weld and rivet. The third is being raided right about…” he looked down to check an old analog watch worn on his wrist. “Several minutes ago actually, I should have someone from Command and Control interrupting me with an update on their status any time now. Finally there’s Iron Pecs. The actual station itself isn’t that large, at least not compared to something like the Hearth Star. The Wuffs suspended a hollowed out asteroid below the relative center of the abandoned flotilla. Most of it seems to be shipwright and life support facilities; the majority of the Wuffs’ defenses in the area are ships. Either theirs or ones that belong to independent pirates.”

“Which would make their numbers difficult to calculate.” Bargebottom replied. “And it also explains why your last attack failed so badly, you caught them when they were at a peak period.”

“With a single armed freighter when we should have tried to find several battleships before we went after them.” Blackman snorted. “Good thing for my people that you forgot about something after you finished with Captain Alyssa.” He added, chuckling as he contemplated something.

Bargebottom’s cheeks burned when she realized what he was referring to, she forgot to blow up Alyssa’s warship the Crown of Thorns after that incident where Longfoot had to rescue her daughter. Her embarrassment was quickly forgotten when she realized the implications of his comment. “You have it?”

“Recovered it shortly after the Wuffs were driven off. Currently have it sitting in one of the station’s dry docks. Other then some minor work here and there, it’s practically ready to go.”

“You have the trained sailors to operate it?” The bloated admiral asked skeptically. Rightfully so, producing a crew to fly a light freighter or troop barge was one thing, getting a crew of combat capable sailors to fly a proper warship was an entirely different matter.

“I have people who can make it fly, stop, and even stop without crashing into anything on purpose. As for people who can use it in actual combat though… well I can get plenty of volunteers. What I can’t get are plenty of good ones.” He answered with a sigh. “So that will be an obvious problem on my end. And I don’t know how many more people you can make swear to secrecy before bringing them here but I imagine it’s not many.”

“We may not have to. If I can order any ships patrolling nearby sectors to meet the attack group at a rally point, we can have them join us then continue on their way once the defenses have been crushed and we need not get any more of the Galactic Republic at large involved then already are.” Bargebottom replied as she leaned back into her hover sofa. “There is one other issue we should address before going much further with this discussion.” The immense feline added as she turned to Guildmistress Ironbelly.

The Buk female was nonchalant. “I’ve already spoken to the others about staying on the station. There was some grumbling but not much. Most of us wanted to stay anyway, we’ve gotten too attached to these people to just leave them behind.” She began with a slight frown, the Guilder engineer was unsurprised to discover that the GalRep military wanted to keep people from talking about the humans just yet but was not pleased by the reasons for keeping anyone that could talk from wandering too far. “But there shouldn’t be any problems for now. The complainers will quiet down once we make this station more like a GalRep colony and the rest of us were going to try and do that anyway.” She ignored Blackman’s stare as she looked at the three immobile gluttons in charge of protecting the Galactic Republic. “That’s the idea isn’t it anyway? Show the humans what we have and what they can have too if they stick with us?”

There was a brief silence then the six in the meeting began discussing other topics in earnest. Blackman resisted the urge to sigh and shake his head; he had passed the point of no return when it came to collaborating with the Galactic Republic. His people’s fate was now tied up with theirs for better or for worse. Hopefully it was going to be for the better.

Crem was in the mess kitchen, splashing a handful of spices into a bubbling pot of Starchshroom stew. Behind her voluminous rear, Ensign Zedd was seated in a chair that was just a shred too tight for his barrel-shaped figure. The equine’s portly belly jutted out past his knees as he looked around the utilitarian kitchen and tried to wiggle to no avail. The kitchen had been successfully converted to a standard Star Corps design; rugged, industrial-sized soup pots bubbling on sturdy stoves set along the walls while the center of the room was kept clear for the immense girths of the Mess Chefs to move about freely. Off in the corner was the human Samuel chopping up starchshrooms. The former black marketer wasn’t even halfway through his punishment yet and already the Mess Chefs had done a considerable job fattening him up and rounding him out. The scrawny man had since grown a considerable gut and started to waddle like a real GalRep citizen. The helmsman had to admit, the Corps knew how to bulk up lightweights.

Zedd didn’t have much time to marvel at the swiftness of the human’s weight gain before Crem had him tasting her cooking as well. The equine sailor gulped and started to chug frantically as he found the mess sergeant pump the container of stew into his belly. Starchshroom broth mixed with chunks of Verm meat and various vegetable supplements flowed down his throat and settled in his stomach like a lead weight as his belly bulged outwards. His black jumpsuit stretched to contain the growing mass within as his midsection ballooned out bigger and bigger, creaking and groaning as it started to slosh with the thick, viscous fluid being pumped into his mouth. His already considerable stomach blossomed out past his knees as it continued to wobble with stew. Finally, when it felt like he could eat no more, Crem relented. The duralloy pot had been drained of soup and she needed to save the rest for evening chow.

Satisfied that her service rival had learned his lesson or at least had been given some literal food for thought, the weighty Bov cow waddled away. Her armored rump bounced from the gravity of her stride as she turned back to preparing dinner with her subordinates. Samuel pulled Zedd out of his chair and helped him back onto his feet. The equine helmsman briefly turned as green as his service collar as he stood up and his bloated stomach nearly pulled him back down on the floor. Steadying himself, Zedd slowly exited the mess hall kitchen with a wobbly, lumbering waddle and made his way back to the Silver Pantry before Sergeant Crem could stuff him full of something else. Hopefully Ensign Cheddah won’t be too upset if he shrank back from a second or third plate at dinner…

The hollowed out asteroid that housed the Wuff breaker yard was eerily empty as the human salvage crew crept through the dark corridors and cavernous storage rooms. Gina led the team of wreckers as they searched from room to room and took stock of what was left behind. Something, the petite field scientist wasn’t sure what, made the Wuffs abandon this facility in a particular hurry and caused them to leave all sorts of equipment and raw materials behind and life support still functional. With a gun in her arms and her shoulder lamp shining bright as she and her compatriots swept their surroundings for hidden threats, Gina Stewart led the group to the control room. The Wuff tools were of dubious quality; the better shipwright equipment was clearly stolen from the Galactic Republic while the inferior gear was obviously cobbled together by Wuff “engineers” if the title even applied. The spare parts on the other hand were an entirely different matter, all universally high quality and all universally GalRep in origin. Most of the components were for starships but some of it could be easily repurposed for station-side equipment. Overall it was a good haul, one that would take a couple weeks to bring back to Lighthouse Station. Which suited Gina just fine; she needed time to herself to think after that latest confession Donka dropped in her lap. She didn’t tell a soul what had happened the night Donka and her husband proposed to marry her, the black-haired woman didn’t dare less someone make the situation more explosive then it already was. In a way she was grateful Blackman continued to stubbornly hold his ground against Major Hopper. “Major Butterblob”, as the wide Star Corps officer was nicknamed by those that supported Blackman’s resistance to the Galactic Republic, had argued in favor of sending some Corps combat mechanics along with the human salvage teams. While the extra firepower would have been nice, it would have invariably meant working alongside Corporal Donka. Which would have probably ended up being more trouble then it was worth even with her current crew.

The tool-laden salvage team Gina had agreed to follow was practically a joke as far as their combat potential was. Sullen Rebecca and peppy BFFs Tammy and Jennifer were all good at the grueling work they would be doing tearing apart the abandoned station but were lousy fighters. The only one who could put up as much of a fight as she could was Anthony, a brutish mountain of a man and survivor of the Wuff asteroid mines. If the rumors were true, Anthony once killed a Gladius privateer with only his bare hands. But if the rumors were also true, he had a thing for burying his face in the cleavage of big-breasted kitty-cats like Commander Longfoot’s science officer. Actually if the rumors were true, Tammy and Jennifer had also both been banged by Longfoot’s cook and Rebecca let herself be torpedoed by the Space Fleet commander’s security officer. A salvage team in pirate-infested territory that was better at getting screwed then fighting… well if worse comes to worse then maybe they could insult the pirates to death by telling them what a better lay GalRep’s finest fatties were.

Smiling and pushing the silly thought out of her head, Gina was just about to motion the others to follow her into the control room when the metal on metal clang of a ship docking on the far side of the darkened station echoed through the abandoned hallways. The entire team looked at one another, Blackman had not told them about any other teams that were coming to assist in the recovery operation. Hurrying inside the cramped control room, Gina and the others shut the door and quickly brought the station’s poorly maintained security system online. A holographic screen displayed the image of several huge female pirates none of the humans immediately recognized; all of the intruders hugely over-muscled and armed with brutish clubs and blunt weapons.

“Gladius privateers?” Anthony asked somewhat rhetorically, gesturing to the fact that the intruders were all female and all extremely muscled.

“Looks like it.” Gina mused as she quickly counted the number of intruders. Seven, unlucky seven was the number they had to deal with it. “Yet the amount of muscle mass appears to be greater then normal for the Matriarchy. The amount of testosterone in their bodies appears to be causing breast shrinkage in several of them. I don’t get what’s with the red and white bodysuits either.” She answered academically, gesturing to the virtually nonexistent curves on the most brutish members and the pirates’ overall “peppy” regalia before the camera flickered and the intruders all disappeared. “We need to leave, now.” Dealing with pirates was not part of the original plan.

No one argued with her as they all made their way through the control room door and back out into the main corridor. Quickly checking her corners, Gina’s heart briefly stopped beating as she looked down the corridor opposite of the way they came, towards where the strangers had arrived, and felt her face turn pale as her light shined on six of the seven pirates. Where did the seventh go? Gina couldn’t see the lizard lady with the big breasts, where did she go? Granted, how a reptile could have breasts was a good question but not as good as where the hell the missing pirate went.

“Oh-ho, look what we have here, some human punks.” Crooned the leader as she stepped forward, a canine morph of mixed breeding and whose body had been so hit hard by the shrinkage that Gina almost mistook her for a male at first. “I bet the Wuffs will give us a nice bounty when we bring you back to the Hearth Star, once we finished having our own fun with you.” The pirate captain smiled a toothy grin, leaving no doubt what their idea of “fun” entailed.

Gina’s hands had already instinctively tightened their grip on her rifle as Anthony drew a giant two-handed Gladius bastard sword that he always wore on his back. “Get going girls.” Stewart intoned gravely without taking her eyes off of her opponents. “GET GOING!” She screamed, raising her rifle and firing a quick burst at the leader.

Rebecca, Tammy, and Jennifer did not need to be told twice, bolting down the corridor towards their ship while Gina and Anthony lingered behind in a more controlled fighting retreat. Charging with a short burst of speed that took Gina briefly by surprise, the red and white pirates rushed the humans’ position, seemingly being only slightly wounded by assault rifle-caliber rounds. Recognizing this, the petite scientist dropped her rifle, letting it hang by the shoulder strap as she drew her laser derringers and started blasting her foes with finally honed beams of searing light. The derringers didn’t have much battery life before she had to juggle them but they had the desired effect, her foes screaming in pain every time she scored a successful hit…

And then the enormous yak-like being closed the gap between Anthony and herself, swatting him aside like a bug and slamming him against the cold alloy wall. The wind knocked out of him, the ex-miner let his sword clatter to the floor as he fell down shortly after his blade in an unconscious heap. Gina saw what she had to do and did it, timing her shots to make sure she had the pirates undivided attention before running through the ruined hallways of the station….

Rebecca ran with the two friends in tow, heart pounding in her chest as they ran closer to the small hanger where their ship had been berthed. Just a few more feet and they’d be able to start up the engines and send out a distress call…. And then she emerged, the missing seventh pirate. The muscled, lime green gecko stepped out from a side corridor twirling a large metal club. “And where do you think you’re running off to my pretties?” She grinned and scattered the three screaming humans, sending them running in separate directions….

Commander Longfoot sipped her coffee as she sat in her command couch back on the Silver Pantry, watching her crew go through their normal duties as they took off on an unexpected assignment. Standing next to her on the bridge was Lt. Jerky, leading his squad and a handful of Combat Mechanics on loan from Hopper’s garrison including one Corporal Donka. The flax-haired engineer was silent as she mentally reviewed what had sent her on this errand. With some prodding from his rival Freeman, Blackman had begrudgingly revealed that the Wuffs had been operating ship breaker yards in the region and at least one of them was cutting open GalRep warships for parts. In addition to explaining how Captain Alyssa may have gotten the firepower to take down the Resolute Forager, it also explained where the humans got some of the raw materials for their construction projects. Two had been found abandoned and stripped of anything worth a single GalRep credit, a third had been found and was in the process of being salvaged but the team that had been dispatched failed to check-in by sublight comm. twice by the time Blackman reluctantly agreed to let Space Fleet look into it and bring a few squads of Troopers with them.

What Blackman wanted was simple; he just wanted his people returned safely if at all possible. But of course the Fleet or the Corps wasn’t going to let a breaker yard sit abandoned when it might be brought back online again. Which is why Longfoot also had the orders to help the humans strip it if possible or destroy it if it wasn’t. While GalRep knew the Wuffs had some industrial capabilities, no one had ever really seen the Wuffs maintain a capital-ship capable shipyard before. The value of having the more technically trained members of the GalRep armed forces go in and analyze an enemy production facility, no matter how crude it turned out to be, was immeasurable.

As the currently empty supply ship went through the familiar lurch of jumping out of hyperspace and the abandoned breaker yard came into view on the display screen, Longfoot silently listened to her crew sound off their positions and status.

“We have arrived Commander. The target station appears to be surrounded by a cloud of debris and abandoned civilian hulls. Nothing that appears to be an immediate danger to the Pantry, I am detecting five human life signs and several varied anthromorph signatures.” Lt. Synth reported from the sensor station.

“What of the human ship?” Longfoot asked as she watched her crew go through the usual motions.

“The human ship is a light hauler that appears inoperable. No exterior signs of damage though.” Synth reported dutifully.

“Probably was sabotaged by the other party, assuming the other group is hostile.” Longfoot mused. “What about this other group, how did they get aboard the station?”

“Scanners detect a second ship docked on the opposite side of the station. Light cruiser class, livery is not showing up in the Fleet database. Let me try cross-referencing Lighthouse Station’s and… the ship is called The Dumbbell.” Synth’s face audibly fell as she began to read what was available on the human database “It’s owned by an independent privateer outfit lead by a female canine morph named Captain Tooley.”

“And?” The blond commander asked expectantly.

“And that’s all they have on her Bael. The data file is an incomplete one stolen from the Hearth Star registry, it’s likely none of the humans at Lighthouse Station met her before now.”

Longfoot exhaled and leaned back into her chair. “Well that still tells us plenty. Bring us in Ensign Zedd. Power up weapons and shields, I want the Dumbbell’s weapons and engines disabled before we send the away team.” She ordered, mentally going through who should be brought aboard with the Troopers.

“Aye-aye, Command-URP!” Zedd replied with a belch, the bloated helmsman was still stuffed to the gills thanks to Sergeant Crem’s cooking. Longfoot merely smiled and resolved to thank the Mess Chef at some point. There was a brief report of the Pantry’s plasma turrets firing on the pirate vessel followed by an ominous silence. Did Captain Tooley take her entire crew aboard the space station with her?

“You’re coming aboard with us?” Lt. Jerky asked as the armed supply ship came in to dock at the abandoned shipyard beside the human vessel.

“Some of us yes. Namely Sil Leflin, Petty Officer Suker, and myself. The rest will stay aboard the Pantry and keep the ship ready to leave in case we encounter heavy resistance. Blackman wants his people back and Command wants us to study this wretched place, I wish to please at least one of them.” She replied while rising to her feet. “Lt. Synth, you have the bridge. Leflin, Suker, with me.” Longfoot ordered her crew as she waddled off the bridge with a sway of her abundant hips. Lt. Jerky followed behind the trio of lumbering Space Fleet sailors with a slight shake of his head.

Out in the main corridor of the ship, the Troopers checked their weapons while the Space Fleet sailors collected pulse rifles from the ship’s locker. Jerky merely checked his rifle and looked at the others he was responsible for until they were safely back at Lighthouse Station. In addition to his squad, Major Hopper had sent Combat Mechanics Corporal Donka and Warrant Officer Buzsaw to help with the mission. The latter was a male Buk that demonstrated an unusual reaction to STOUT and an unwavering desire to protect others that reminded Jerky of Crem. Despite looking like he was struck from the same fat-bottomed mold that produced Longfoot’s galley cook, Jerky did not doubt Buzsaw’s abilities. After all, one did not earn the Buk’s rank on anything but merit in the Star Corps.

The Troopers had been loading and checking their weapons when Jerky arrived and looked up at him when he arrived. As the ship finished docking with the station with an audible metal clang from docking clamps that hadn’t been used in ages, the airlock opened and soon the Pantry’s hallways was filled with the echoes of weapons fire and humans screaming in fear. Jerky nodded and the Troopers ambled out with weapons raised, Longfoot and her away team were immediately behind them.

In the time since they first encountered the privateers and were separated in the chaos that followed, Gina’s band had managed to regroup. The five of them currently hid in a large electronics shop devoted to the disassembly of starship computers. Once they were all safely inside, Gina shut the main door and blocked it by pushing a nearby workbench against it. Hardly a perfect barricade given that the doors didn’t open inward or outward but it would slow the pirates down for a few seconds before the humans had to run again. Stewart wasn’t sure how much longer they could run around for though. She was nearly out of ammo; Anthony was getting some attractive bruises in several places and had clearly broken one of his arms from the impact with the wall, and the other three were clearly going to collapse once their adrenaline ran out. Rebecca in particular looked fairly worse for the wear, nursing a dark black bruise on her shoulder as she wiped the pirate blood from her pry bar. And they had no way out, the lizard lady had ran ahead, snuck aboard their ship, and detonated a small explosive in the engine room. They were trapped.

And it wasn’t long before Captain Mutt and her merry band of psychopaths found them again, the canine’s nose likely had a lot to do with that. Pushing aside the crude barrier Gina had set up like it was made of cardboard as the rest of her crew walked through the other door into the room, the red and white pirates had the five humans surrounded. Raising their weapons and tools for one last stand, the salvage team readied themselves for a fight that didn’t come. One second the privateer captain and her crew of Amazonian brutes had them dead to rights, the next Captain McRapey and her warband were drowned in the familiar report of high power GalRep weaponry. Chests blossomed in explosions of crimson fluid and gore or were singed by bursts of directed energy. In the time it took the pinned humans to breath, it was over. The pirates collapsed to the floor in a lifeless heap and the meaty defenders of the Galactic Republic were stepping over them and filling the room in a wobbly blob of black and olive green. It was over, three hours of being chased around a mercifully empty station by a band of steroid-abusing lunatics was finally over….

Commander Longfoot waited until the humans were safely aboard the Silver Pantry before going back onto the station with Lt. Jerky, the Leflin twins, and the trio of combat mechanics to inspect the station themselves. Gina and her band were rattled, bruised, and exhausted but otherwise all right. Bael noticed that both several of her own crew and Corporal Donka briefly froze up when they saw the members of the human salvage team but chose to put that matter aside for now. Her rank as commander might have been part of a punishment but she didn’t earn her officer commission by being unobservant. The two Vul were unsurprising, as was Lt. Synth once she thought about it, but Ensign Cheddah? No matter, at the moment her inspection of the Wuff facilities weighed more heavily on her mind.

It was a well-known fact that Wuffs tended to scavenge and repurpose technology from other races. The notion that they would have built workshops where this could take place was commonly accepted; no FTL-capable civilization, even one that appeared to have stolen instead of developed the capabilities for interstellar travel, was so backwards that they didn’t have some sort of engineering facilities set up. What was surprising was the quality of the Wuffs tools. While obviously crude, many of them were solidly constructed facsimiles of GalRep machinery and as she gave a cutting torch an experimental squeeze and looked away from the brief blinding burst of plasma, fully functional ones as well.

Waddling along the darkened halls of the station, the portly GalReps took stock of what was left behind by the Wuffs and then inspected the human ship and the now abandoned pirate one. The light hauler would probably never fly again; they were lucky the reactor didn’t melt down when the ship’s engines were sabotaged. Meanwhile The Dumbbell was a mess. Any thoughts Longfoot may have had about letting the humans capture that ship were instantly shot down the moment she walked into the airlock of the privateer vessel and took her first breath of the foul air inside. Turning around on the heel of her Fleet-issue boots, the portly blond rabbit walked right back out of the ship. No, no, no, not happening. Not without an extensive fumigation and decontamination. Captain Tooley would have been instantly demoted down to crewman if she had been caught keeping a Space Fleet vessel in that same sorry state. With everything taken care of, all that was left was to send a report back to the GalRep garrison on Lighthouse Station.

Longfoot and Jerky stood at attention in the ready room as the holographic visages of Bargebottom, Carbloat, Hopper, and Blackman looked back at them. Finally the human governor spoke.

“You found all of them?” He asked and exhaled with relief when they nodded in return. “Best news I had all day. I knew something had gone wrong when they missed check-in twice. Gina has been late before but never missed reporting in entirely.”

“What did happen and what is the current status of the outlaw shipyard?” Bargebottom interjected to move the conversation forward.

“As originally reported, the breaker yard was abruptly abandoned with most of the supplies and equipment left behind. A privateer outfit led by a Captain Tooley had arrived the same time Ms. Stewart’s team did. Likely with the same initial intent but I imagine the standing bounty on runaway slaves made her reconsider what was worth taking back to the Hearth Star. The salvage team is wounded but still alive and the pirates have been dealt with. Material recovery is already underway and we should be ready to destroy the facility within a few hours.” Longfoot replied.

“And what about the other ships, mine and the pirates’?”

Longfoot visibly exhaled. “The light hauler your crew was using was sabotaged to prevent them from escaping. It will not fly again without a complete overhaul of the engines. Meanwhile an air sample from Tooley’s ship suggests a mold infestation in the filtration systems, it would not be safe to operate it without extensive decontamination.”

“So my ship is a brick and theirs might as well be.” Blackman sighed. “Well at least you saved my people.”

“Mold? Are you certain?” Bargebottom asked incredulously as she shifted her immense weight around inside her hover sofa. “What kind of an idiot was in charge of maintenance on that ship?”

“A dead one if Longfoot and Jerky handled her the same way my people would have.” Blackman answered for Bael. “I’m not surprised though, we’ve seen that more then a few times on ships operated by the smaller outfits. Shame I didn’t send Gina’s team with the tools to handle that, they could have that taken care of with no problems.”

The others nodded and the debriefing was concluded a few minutes later, leaving Longfoot and Jerky to oversee the loading of the Silver Pantry. Cargo exoskeletons had been activated and the Troopers were quick to use STOUT-enhanced strength to carry away boxes of components and tools while the Space Fleet sailors operated the exoskeletons and cargo loaders to stack up the heavier objects. Even having only just examined it, Bael was taken a bit aback by the volume and variety of parts and raw materials they were carefully stowing away into the Pantry’s hold. Pallets of hull plating, reactor control rods, coiled conduits, targeting computer systems, shield generator projectors, and boxes upon boxes of all sorts of fasteners and circuits. Some of it looked like it was clearly ripped from the guts of a starship while others looked strangely pristine like it had come straight from the manufacturer. For a while it almost looked like they were going to run out of room before they ran out of supplies to stow away but then Buzsaw came in balancing the last crate on his shoulder with a confident smile on his face. The explosives were wired throughout the station and the other ships were detached from the breaker yard and gently cast adrift shortly afterwards. Once the Space Fleet supply vessel was underway, the explosives were detonated and the Wuff shipyard was scuttled in a satisfying explosion. Seated back on the bridge of her ship, Longfoot oversaw their return home. In a few hours time they’d be back at Lighthouse Station and this will be just another mission successfully under Bael’s elastic belt.

Back aboard the orbital colony several hours later, Commander Longfoot dismissed her crew for a short shore leave once the recovered materials were unloaded and Stewart’s team was being seen to at the station hospital. With all the known ship breaker yards destroyed except for Iron Pecs, Bael and her crew were on standby while Bargebottom worked out a plan with the others on how they wished to attack. The wide Space Fleet engineer didn’t mind the idea of an unscheduled vacation. Granted there were other places she’d rather be spending it then Lighthouse Station but the human colony wasn’t too bad now that they finally brought things up to GalRep standards. The food was good and fairly plentiful, at least the carbohydrates were, there were a few good bars, and most of the station’s population had gradually warmed up to them. Slowly ambling along, she made her way to a particular destination towards the station’s residential district. Given how protective of their surviving culture the humans were, Bael was fairly certain the only reason she able to get this close to her target was that she publicly became friends with the curator in charge of protecting the collection.

The Lighthouse Station’s library was a relatively modest affair. Formerly the office of one of the larger or more important station officials, the humans had been busily building shelving out of scrap and filling them with printed books and manuscripts recovered from their raids on the Wuff strongholds. Little by little, the furless primates were reclaiming their lost culture. Her own part in this was largely accidental; Longfoot had studied book binding and restoring old printed texts as a hobby and managed to chat with the city librarian at length when the two of them accidentally met in a station-side bar one day after her crew had taken a short break from running supplies to the local garrison. The two of them began talking and Bael soon found herself with an interesting opportunity to spend her leisure time, restoring and reading old human books.

The station librarian looked up with a broad smile as the pear-shaped rabbit anthromorph waddled in. “Hello Bael.” He greeted the wide Space Fleet officer warmly as she stopped and inhaled the smell of restored books. Commander Longfoot returned his smile as she set down a restored copy of Gulliver’s Travels then sat down on a nearby love seat. The sturdy furniture creaked slightly as the engineering officer’s broad posterior spread out to consume the entire settee while she talked casually with the human librarian. Hopefully the rest of her crew could avoid getting into too much trouble on their short leave….

Ensign Cheddah smiled as he discreetly met Tammy and Jennifer in their apartment again once they were discharged from the hospital. Their check-in was more of a formality then anything else, the worst they had was fatigue and mental stress; two things he knew how to deal with. As the two of them sat on the bed he previously made love to both of them on, the Rubent galley cook set a pot of water on the crude stove and started to prepare a pot of Starchroom stew enhanced with a few spices and a slim pinch of appetite stimulants he snuck off of the Sliver Pantry, he got to work preparing a full meal for the two of them; all the while happily chatting and flirting over his shoulder as he stood with his back to them. Smiling and with no one else but the two girls watching him, he started to sway his hips and wiggle his butt at them, teasing them as he cooked in their spartan kitchen.

“So sweeties, enjoying the view?” The blond mouse-like alien winked and gently kneaded his prodigious backside with his free hand. His fingers sank into his doughy rump as he started to lean forward against the stove; turning his attention back to his cooking less he burnt himself. Pulling the small nano-crystal vial of spices and stimulants out of his uniform pocket, he gently sprinkled the contents over the bubbling pot as he brought the stew down to a slow simmer. Pouring out three bowls of soup and bending over to pull out a handful of starch cakes, he smiled cheekily as he gave his ample bottom one more wiggle before finishing up dinner. Setting the cast-metal table with the soup and starch cakes, he smiled and beckoned the girls over. Dinner was ready.

Dinner was a happy, laid-back affair. Neither of the human women realized how much they had eaten until they had emptied the entire pot and attempted to get up. Bloated, sloshing abdomens caused them to stagger as they looked at Cheddah with an accusing smirk on their lips. The effeminate Rubent merely smiled and gently caressed their rounded bellies, two sets of eager arms helped him out of his uniform as he was guided to bed. Squished together, the trio warmed up under the covers as the Fleet chef treated them to a most delectable dessert…

Rebecca cried softly as she curled up against the black-furred Vul’s overstuffed belly. Suker merely smiled sadly as they rested in her apartment aboard the station. Rebecca’s quarters aboard Lighthouse Station were very sparse even by the standards of her peers. Most humans decorated their domiciles with little knick-knacks they either made or traded for to give some semblance of personality, Rebecca didn’t even have that much, the diminutive one-room studio flat was barely furnished and even less decorated. Seated on the single-person bed, Suker let his lover curl up in his lap as he rubbed her shoulders. The slender female was still a bit shaken up by her close encounter aboard the abandoned Wuff shipyard, memories of her imprisonment still raw in her mind. From what the Vul sailor could see, she actually put up a proper fight compared to the other two non-combatants. Still, the experience clearly wore her out mentally as she finally started to settle down. Gently running his fingers through her hair as she nuzzled herself to sleep, the undressed security officer flashed a foxy grin as he squished her against his immense belly. Soon he began to drift off to sleep as well, slowly rubbing her bruised body as he tried to nudge her towards more pleasant thoughts. Maybe come morning she’d be up for some more Vul lovemaking…

Gina Stewart had quietly slipped away to the station science laboratory once the opportunity presented itself. She was surprised Blackman was willing to let her study these samples given the conversation they had but given the lack of trained biologists the governor could trust, perhaps she shouldn’t be so surprised. Still, as she carefully took a small test tube out of a crate full of them and slid it into the molecular analyzer and carefully hid the crate back in the cold storage unit, she resolved to ask Blackman just where the hell the expedition team found this particular puzzle for her to work on.

As the analyzer began to do its work and projected preliminary data on the screen, Gina brought up a spreadsheet of various soil readings taken over the past few weeks. In case someone walked in that wasn’t supposed to see what she was working on, she could quickly cover up the genetics data with boring soil chemistry findings. Looking over her shoulder to make sure she had the lab station to herself and the door locked, she watched the readings populate on the display. That was interesting… she mused as the mystery serum was revealed to be a mixture of “blank” genetic material and medical nanites suspended in a solution that kept them inert until injected into a host organism’s blood stream. It was almost like… she had just started to see if she could cross-reference her findings against any GalRep Troopers that had been examined at the station hospital when she heard the sound of someone manually overriding the door lock.

Hastily covering the genetic data with the soil chemistry spreadsheet, Gina spun around on her chair just in time to see Donka waddle in with a reserved smile on her face and a sway in her meaty olive-clad hips. The short Vul vixen looked up at the seated human and gently rubbed the taller female’s hip with her delicate vulpine hand. “I’m off duty Gina, want to have dinner with Donge and me?”

A thought suddenly occurred to Gina, one that was a positively evil betrayal of the trust Donka had shown her since they first met. But it was a thought she briefly considered nonetheless as she looked back down at the tan-furred vixen currently climbing into her lap. Running her hands along the Vul’s legs and gently kneading her expansive backside, she quietly made her decision as she locked lips with Donka and prepared for another evening with the combat mechanic and her husband….