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"The Dartmouthe has an initial firing solution, captain."

Ilaria stared out the fore windows as a dozen Yangurraar ships twice the size of the Starbreeze rocketed toward the fleet. "I hope it's their momma bear, Samson. Can you confirm? We need to spread that targeting information."

"No... Communications are too spotty for data links. I'm talking with their tactical coordinator."

"Dee, work your magic faster."

Adrian poked his head out of the bowels of a maintenance hatch, bonking his noggin in the process. "Ick... I'm done. We should have proper lasers now. Give it a try."

"Switching to laser comms..." Carmine's paws flew across his console, breaking and rebuilding connections by the hundreds. "The link is stable. Good stuff, Dee."

Samson toggled a few settings himself and gave the Bridge a thumb up. "Data is good. Transferring to other ships with magnetics now."

"What about the others?" Iolvin checked the recorded armaments of the fleet and groaned at the results. "Oh, missiles and auto-guns are pretty close range. What about the enemy, Carbon?"

"Uh..."

Rose spoke up for her sibling, having examined more of her native tech over time. "They should be firing by now. Either their cannons are down or we aren't accounting for a variable."

Phoebe spoke up immediately, a minor concern spiking in priority. "Time dilation? If they shoot, we might not see it coming until it's already upon us."

Yoyo sighed as he tried to grasp the concept. "Pho, I'm not sure about that. We can see them just fine."

"But they aren't headed straight toward us." Themis joined his brother's side and pointed out a detail. "They can come about faster than this, right? Why aren't they turning fast enough to face us? They could be turned already but we just can't see it because the light hasn't reached us yet."

"Shit. They're right." Dee kicked the panel for his hatch closed and darted over to the science station. "Math, don't fail me now."

"Comms are getting weird. We're dropping data packets."

"For fucks sake..." Dee nearly yelled at Samson, but chose to create a nanite robot and hurl it at the maintenance hatch to tweak on his behalf. "Okay... I'm updating the targeting computers with the computed actual locations of those ships as diamonds and the spotted locations as chevrons. If we miss a shot, aim somewhere between them and we'll likely get a hit."

"You're literally saving our asses, Dee. Try to hone the accuracy, but we'll update the fleet for now." Ilaria's expression soured as she noticed a ball of plasma launching from each enemy ship, then her eyes flared open as the bolts moved exponentially faster toward the fleet. "Evasive action! Brace for impact, guys!"

"Keep your emergency masks ready!" Alexandria slewed hard on the yaw axis, the Starbreeze barely juking left of a plasma toroid half as large as her main hull. "That was a coin flip. I don't like coin flips, Ari."

"We won't give them a chance to fire again." As a precaution, Ari placed her helmet over her head and lifted the front visor open. "When the fleet has a new targeting solution, tell them to fire at will. Match the relevant ship to theirs from our formation. The plasma cannons are a priority, if possible."

"Well the cannons are in the main fuselage, so..." Rose checked her own face mask's air supply, then eyeballed the ships outside versus the computer locations. "It's faint, but that plasma fires off something I can see well before it reaches us. Chryssy says it's 'neutrinos' or something. In any case... from that last shot, the ships are actually about ninety-five percent down that targeting line Dee made."

"Really? Samson--"

"Already noted. Dartmouthe has another solution and is syncing with the fleet. They are not firing." Samson curled his lemur tail around his waist as he parsed through the information on his console. "That shining example of efficiency wants to make a hailstorm. If they might see our movements early, they still can't dodge a wall of lead. They're requesting an order override authorization."

"Do it. Overkill isn't a bad idea." Ari gripped her seat arms tightly as she considered something a bit riskier. "In fact, load up one of those slugs we borrowed from the Liberté. Let's see if our rail gun plays nice with more than probes. Give me a light when we're ready."

"Still not quite my flavor of overkill, but it'll still be fun." Sydney cracked her fingers and manned the probe launcher controls. "You sure you want me using this thing? About the only part I understand is the trigger."

"That's about all there is to it. Most of that's to control the probes after launch but this one just goes 'boom' so..." Ari sat forward in her chair and waited for the Starbreeze's nose to align with the enemy. "All yours, Cid. The fleet will fire when you do."

"No pressure at all..."

Carbon crouched beside his wife and added a guiding paw atop hers. "Just breathe. Slow adjustments..."

The probe cannon shifted on its several gimbals, mimicking the motions of Sydney's paw well enough that she could figure out her aim by touch. Trusting a marker Rose added to the tracking vectors, Cid pulled her trigger at precisely the moment her rail gun aligned to the target. A loud series of ratcheting clanks sounded through the hull as capacitors engaged, then the whole starship slowed in recoil for an unseen bolt of death that hurled forward. A second later several dozen naval gauss cannons and smaller rail guns littered the space ahead with a cloudy wall of flickering metal slugs.

"Bombs away." Sydney checked her screen, then stood to look out the window. "Um... Did I miss?"

"As fast as that gun fires, they're still pretty far out and there's the dilation delay... So three... Two..." Ari looked away from her estimated impact timer and watched the fireworks through the windows. "Boom."

The initial impact punched a crack into the enemy flagship, an impressive feat considering it was built from layers of petrified wood. The remaining rounds came soon thereafter like a blast of buckshot, pegging ships left and right as they desperately curved their paths erratically. The majority were already damaged from the alien fleet of white ships trailing them, the Earth fleet's steel pellets further disabling several Yangurraar ships into dead drifts. The flagship and two escorts continued unabated however, the trio charging weapons for another blast.

"Shit. Cid, you hit it dead on! What happened!?"

Sydney had a bit of a countdown going in her own head, the meerkat mouthing out numbers to herself. "Oh, you didn't think I'd fire that plain slug without upgrading it, did you? Watch this." Ilaria sprinted to Sydney's seat and clawed the headrest as the enemy weapons gained a hearty glow. "Three... Two... One."

Oddly, the fully charged plasma cannon on the flagship stopped glowing. Then right as the escorts fired, a massive jet of flame vented out of the punctured hull, soon followed by the cannon exploding with green flames as well. The ship torqued out of control, crashing into an escort hard enough to split it in two and vent part of the crew into vacuum. One bolt of plasma went far to the side, but in the distraction of the enemy foul Trick delayed in her evasion of the second searing blast. The underside of the Starbreeze took a hit as a result, disabling the ship's only converted weapon.

"Fuck. Fuck. Get me a damage report! Check for breaches!" Ilaria hurled herself at the main hologram and examined the reports as they rolled into place. "Cid, what the fuck was that? Why'd you have to play games now of all times?"

"It wasn't a game. Your girls, Rose, and I had a chat about this earlier. Their armor is too tough for slugs or explosives." Sydney groaned as her probe station lit up red with electrical failure warnings and slammed the controls in defeat. "We made a penetrator slug and gave it a second stage--a fuel air bomb. Proper Overkill. Punch though, then crack the spine from inside..."

"You shot a fucking MOAB without telling me? What if it went off in the Starbreeze from the shock? Gods, Cid..." Ari shook her head as cautionary and disabled warnings fed through her terminal. "Shit. But it was to good effect, even if the gas mixture had to fill the ship first."

"Actually, we breathe air that isn't far from explosive already." Rose tapped her air supply with a tilt of her head. "What we fired couldn't have exploded by itself. It just made their own air work against them."

"Smart. Slow, but smart." Ari sighed calmly as the damage reports signaled manageable conditions in affected areas. "Engines are good. Cargo bay is good. We can still do this. At least we took out their flagship."

Rose groaned at that note. "Yeah..."

"I'd have liked to shove a stinger down their leader's throat myself." Carbon scuffed at the thought, then composed himself to join Ari. "But forget it. The galaxy comes before revenge."

"Something I don't know about here?" Ari looked between Carbon, Evelyn, and Rose, the three sharing something they weren't divulging. "You know what? Forget about it. That last ship can still fire."

"But it won't. They just got into long throw torpedo range." Carmine relayed a message with a hefty grin. "Four cruisers ready to fire, Ari."

"Fire at will. Don't stop until they're begging for mercy." Ari watched as a salvo of twenty cruise torpedoes fluttered forward, then snapped her head to an explosion in the corner of her vision. "What was that? No... Girls!"

A text message popped up just in time. <We're fine, mom. This thing is built sturdy.> A few seconds passed as a damage report from the barge spooled onto the screen. <We're down a thruster, which means two since they're balanced. We can't keep up with the fleet at this rate.>

"The real question is what hit them? Lasers?"

Carbon growled as he witnessed one of the cruisers take a puncturing shot from a normally invisible laser. "We just lost the Taiyuan. A laser just popped a hole clean through both sides."

"Confirmed. Several crew still alive in survival suits, but five confirmed lost to vacuum so far." Carmine shivered as he felt a wave of fear through the dying crew. "I-I'll notify the fleet. Ari, how do we...?"

"I hate it, but leave them. We're all dead if we don't push forward. Plus if we null out Xor we can always turn around and pick them up." The captain clutched her hologram controls and gave the scenario a serious moment of contemplation. "Like a freight train comin', huh?... We need to ditch the barge too. If we release the payload, we can intercept and tow it into the Starbreeze via the rear cargo bay doors. Ideas?"

"With the changes in speed here, that's too risky. We can't predict exactly how to intercept such a small target in this super-gravity." Rhyme checked out the side window and shook her head at the idea that came to mind. "EVA. We head over there, hook up a tow line, then reel back. The barge needs to come up with some more juice though, just for long enough."

"We also have our white friends out here to deal with." Sydney made an astute tactical observation. "They aren't attacking outright. The shots have all been to starboard."

"Port. Still, she's right." Carbon noticed a trend forming, then noticed a chunk of debris from the Yangurrar ships as it zipped past. "Dee, pull up the laser tracker you cooked up. Show me all of their shots."

"Sure."

A series of lines filled up the tactical map, showing at least two dozen shots had been fired and missed. "See the trend here? They're not aiming at us. They're aiming at the enemy wreckages." Carbon looked out the window to spot some of the more notable scraps. "What are they thinking? Why risk collateral damage?"

"They can see more than we do from their deeper perspective. What do they see as a threat?" Ilaria walked over to the windows and gazed out the port bow. Precisely as she did this, she noticed a small Yangurrar gunship clamping onto her daughters' barge. "A boarding party. Cid, your bomb didn't quite work." The mother tugged her recurve bow off the edge of her chair and stormed toward the port airlock. "Time for that EVA. Suit up and choose your weapons."

"What about the line...?"

"You're the space cowgirl, Rhy. Wrangle us a ship. We'll clear the deck for you." Ari checked her hybrid revolver and racked the slide. "We have the rest of their smaller fleet to deal with, plus the white knights. Tyr not to engave the unknowns until they engage us for real. Lilly?"

The fluff drake stood from her navigation terminal. "Y-Yeah?"

"Take care of my baby. The fleet is yours for now." The otter slipped her revolver into her rearward belt holster and nocked an arrow into her bowstring. "Keep this party going just another few minutes. I'm going to invite the neighbors."

---

"Shit. This is a lot more intimidating without Rhyme." Ilaria coasted out of the gravity well of the airlock and tethered herself to stand at a tangent to the outer hull. "Cid, I'm counting on you to wrangle stragglers with me."

"Yeah... I ~think~ this switch turns off the taser function?" Sydney smirked through her visor as she genuinely disengaged the current from her grappling gun's hook. "So I'm taking up the rear then?"

"No, Ari and I have the rear. Our suits have thrusters." Carbon nudged his sister out the airlock as he secured his laser shotgun to his back. "Sis, you take Ari's back. She's got a two-paw weapon and might need the support."

"Wait, Rose is here?" Phoebe crawled to follow his wife out the hatch as she passed. "Why? You promised--"

"I know I said I wouldn't fight anymore, but Carbon and I are the only ones that can freely access Yangurraar systems. I'm not sending you two to your deaths if I could have helped."

"Rosey..." Themis followed his twin brother and latched onto him when he started to overshoot a rung on the hull. "Ah... I-I mean, we had the same idea. We can't really complain."

"Well I'll take all the help I can get. Thanks, guys." Iolvin practically launched out the airlock, knowing full well his sister would catch him with her nanite tendrils. "Let's get going, people. We've got a lot of people's lives on the line here."

"Everyone's ready?" Ari checked the boarding party tensely gripping the hull, then latched a tether to the hull and jumped hard against her bungee cable. "Kick off hard like that. Rose and Cid should pull everyone together. Carbon and I will guide the group in the right direction. Got it?"

Yoyo nodded on behalf of the group. "All good, Lulu."

Ari started to kick away, but paused as a pair of missiles rocketed overhead. "Uh... Watch for fire. We do have a battle going. Now follow me."

The boarding party leaped off the hull as requested, but Carbon sighed as he stayed for Sydney's inevitable hesitation. "Don't worry, Meerkitten. I know you don't like zero-G, but it'll only take a minute."

"Y-Yeah... Tell that to my stomach." Cid swallowed her hesitation and kicked hard off the hull, her husband close in tow. "Shit, they moved faster than I thought."

"Use the grapple, honey. You can pull us up to them. Hey Rose? Bunch everyone together."

"Uh... Oh, gotcha. I'm pretty sure what you need."

The party compressed by way of vines and tendrils, with each member grabbing each other's arms to maintain the formation. "See, Sydney? Easy target. There's no gravity though so keep the firing force low."

"Um..." Sydney checked her non-lethal weapon to see if it could be set to even less lethal, but after a second Carbon reached over to flip a switch. "Thanks. Okay, firing this baby. Watch your head, Yoyo."

"Wait, what?" Completely unintentionally, the grappling hook punched into Iolvin's back and started wrapping around his tail. "Hey!"

"You're a big, tough guy. You can take it." With a chuckle the meerkat tugged the line, speeding her and the hybrid tethered to her forward. "I don't even need to reel the cable. Huh."

"Do it anyway. The slack might snag something." Ari stretched a nanite tendril surprisingly far to about ten meters and gave the couple a lifeline. "Good. We're a bit off target, but we're in control."

Carbon latched onto Phoebe to gain a solid anchoring point and then checked the group's rough trajectory. "What's our exact target?"

"Airlock C. We're coming in a bit high and hot."

Evelyn reformed her body from Carbon's ring and propelled herself ahead. "I think we're alright. Just thrust down, ninety degrees off the target. I'll go ahead and open the outer hatch so you have a place to slow down."

"Good thinking, Eve." Ari did just as ordered with her suit thrusters, but her attention wavered when another salvo of missiles silently rushed past from every angle. "Holy shit. We need to get the fuck inside."

"Uh... Damnit, open..." Eve reached the airlock, but even touching a control panel she wasn't able to make the outer hatch budge. "There's... Crap, it's unpowered!"

Ari spun the group around so all hindpaws pointed to the barge's hull. "We're still coming in fast, Eve! Think of something before we break our legs!"

"Everyone hold each other. We can use our queoo as cushions if we don't need to lash everyone together." Carbon took a deep breath as he realized just how fast they were moving compared to the accelerating barge. "It'll still be pretty rough though. You'll need to use your legs."

"That's still fucking crazy. Carbon, I can't... There's no place to Link." Eve started to punch the hatch, but as it began to bow she immediately froze. "Shit, we need it sealed. We can't even bust inside can we?"

Ari pulled her family tight. "Just... hold on. Brace yourselves!" The group flew into the the airlock hatch with the force of a moving car... and then passed right through. Upon coming close to the inner hatch, a portal opened over it and sent the collection of furs into an infinite loop of the same five meters between paired doors. "I... What...?"

Sydney shielded her visor with an arm. "I'm gonna be sick..."

"Bless your fucking girls, Ari!" Carbon watched as a particular pair of stabilizer handles shot past repeatedly and gave it synchronous tugs with his vines. "This will work. Ari, help me here."

"Uh... yeah. I got it." Ari nipped the handles with her tendrils on each pass, and between her and Carbon's efforts the group managed to come to an easy stop. "Fuck. Nice save, girls. Nice save. Now... where's Eve?"

"Ah... I'm still outside..." The portals shut, then a fresh set opened on another wall linked to outside the hull. "I won't blame them. They had to close a portal to open the other one inside."

"You can see those? You might have better eyes than us." Rose fiddled with the innermost door, but found little more than emergency power going to the console. "Think they'll let us in here too?"

"They can't. Making a portal into the ship would shift the pressure too violently. Just be glad they did what the did." Ari led Eve to the inner console and then readied her bow. "Think you can work with this?"

"Well, one way to find out." Eve placed a hand on the console to form a Link, but after a moment came up with a groan of disappointment. "The systems are barely getting the power to form a Link. We need more."

"Move it, sister." Adrian created a small swarm of robots with his nanites and popped open the panel beneath the door controls. "Okay... there isn't enough power for everything at once. We only need to cycle the air though... so we can rewire it all that way..."

"Dee, you do this and I'll blow you for a day." Ilaria smirked for the little guy, driving him to work faster. He still seemed to have something in reserve though. "...while ~Rhyme~ fucks you into the next day."

"Ah, um!... I..." Dee flushed a very visible shade of green as he focused on his bots' tasks, the air system finally cycling to everyone's relief. "I... I got it. Cycling now, so... don't forget what you just said?"

Ari returned Dee's smile with one of her own. "I was gonna have all that fun anyway once this shit was over." A new portal opened on the inner hatch and led just a few inches further into the barge. "That's my girls! Everyone inside. This isn't easy on them."

"Don't need to tell me twice." Sydney hopped through and groaned when the expected gravity of the ship didn't pull her down. "Really? We have to do this floating?"

"Sorry, kitten. I know you didn't sign up for this." Carbon readied his shotgun forward and pulled himself through the portal with his queoo. "Mess Hall is around the corner... Ah, that boarding party was near the warehouse pods, right? That's down this hallway."

"That goes right by the Human refugees, right?" Ari jumped through the portal, then kicked off Carbon's rooted torso to head down the noted hallway. About halfway down she slammed her back into the ceiling with a forced cough. "Good news, we have gravity. Bad news, it's pointed the wrong way."

Carbon grabbed a box of water and threw it down the hallway, shaking his head as it shifted various directions. "Nah, the system is completely bonkers. The gravity isn't consistent."

Sydney flung herself in the same direction. "I'll still take it."

"It'll make things easier, at least." Yoyo followed his sister's lead, keeping a slight distance so he could more effectively aim his rail gun. "Paws on the ground. Not that different except for watching for the lights."

"No, it's crazy different." Carbon used his vines to fling the others down the hall one at a time. "Yangurraa don't have artificial gravity. Their ship teams train without it. With any luck they won't have many gravity-trained fighters, and certainly none that can deal with random gravity."

Zoë shoved herself away from Carbon with a particularly hard push, trying to get ahead of Yoyo due to her rapier's short reach. "Just get me close and it won't matter."

"Don't go looking to die, hon." Dee floated behind his whelps, his submachine gun ready at the group's rear. "Realistically, we're pretty much required to kill these guys sooner or later. The payload comes first though, so stall for time instead."

"Those two points may well be one and the same. Sorry you have to be present to violence with your views, boys." Evelyn gave Pho and Em pats on their backs, but halted herself in place as her brother made his brilliant form known. "What?"

«Stop here. I think you'll all want to hide in these rooms as there's Yangurraa coming up ahead.» The phantom skewed over to a certain room in particular and floated inside. «Plus we seem to have a recruit or two in here.»

"Gotcha. Hey guys, enemies coming. Hide in a room, now." Eve kicked off a wall and tucked herself into the already open doorway her brother highlighted for her. "Hello? Who's in here?"

"Eve! God, I thought you were one of them." Viola pushed out of a nook she used as an impromptu hiding spot and gave the enigma an unusual hug. "You guys came to save us? We--"

Eve politely shushed the girl as Carbon and Sydney shut the door behind them. "They're just outside. Keep your voice down." Eve scanned the rest of the room and found two more warm bodies through a closet wall. "Who else is here? <Are you refugees?>"

Ana pulled herself out the closet looking a tad sick of the gravity scenario. "<Don't attack. It's just me and my brother.>"

Sure enough Iah followed his sister, fully recovered and faring far better with the lack of gravity. "Eve, good. We have enough people to fight now."

"<Yes, we-->" Eve took a moment to understand the Egyptian Human's use of English and familiarity. "Wait... Siamun?"

"Oh, right. I managed to free my priestess' body and save this boy's with the same token. Sadly... not much was retained of his soul, but his memories remain." The timeless body-snatcher spun two kukris and snapped them into a defensive position. "In any case now Iah's fate is linked to my own, and I do not intend either of us to see the underworld this day."

"So... that's really just you in there, Vi?" Carbon hovered closer to the African wild dog and braced her shoulder. "Good. I hated taking you away from your family. We can finally let you get back to them... once we get back to Earth, anyway."

"Shush, fluff for brains!" Cid held Carbon's borrowed 1911 pistol at the ready, yipping as her husband reeled her away from the door with his vines. "What are you--!?"

«Use the Link, honey.» Carbon pointed to his eyes, tapping his visor for emphasis. «They can see your body heat if you're close enough to the walls. If they have armored helmets they won't hear so well, though.»

«So what's the plan? We letting them pass? Won't that just let them surround us?»

«This wouldn't be an issue if Ari's girls would help out.» Carbon's eyes bulged as a pair of Yangurraa passed by the thin door and became briefly clear and visible in their shared visual spectrum. "Oh, shit."

The duo was also bonded with a Link, granting them the same enhanced perception of time. They both craned their weapons around in slow motion once they locked eyes with Carbon. Two more weapons aimed all the same, but being mostly prepared Carbon's laser shotgun came to a rest first. Unfortunately that's precisely when Carbon and Sydney realized there was a door still in the way. Cid readied to fire next, her physical slugs promising more of a result. She slowly pulled the trigger to fire, but out of the blue the enemy sentries slammed their heads into the floor almost magically considering the lack of gravity.

"What the fuck?" Carbon bolted for the door and shoved it open, only to fall to the floor himself. "Gah! N-Need... help...!"

"Girls, enough! You got them!" Ilaria stormed out of the next room with Myolnir drawn in both paws followed closely by her triplets. "Carbon, you okay? They... Hey, who's still doing it so strong?"

"...Sorry, mom. I didn't want them to get away." A young teenage Salt paced over to the enemies and kicked their weapons away... adding a free kick to one's side. "Plus that."

Carbon stood as the gravity upon him returned to normal levels, rolling his shoulder with a click as he pulled Salt away. "They can still sting you, little lady."

"Well ~hello~ there..." Sydney holstered her pistol as she eyed a beefier plasma caster, the meerkat kicking it into her paws from the ground with glee. "So your girls were here? Should I even ask how?"

"Apparently they've secretly been getting along with their older sisters. That explains the gravity traps though." Iolvin picked up the other energy rifle, the design being something newer than they've encountered. "Thanks, asshole. Better than punching a hole in the hull with my sniper."

"That thing might do worse. Be careful with the first few rounds, please." Eve eyed the gravitational shifts around the group as they walked down the hallway, small pools of gravity opening up ahead of them and fizzling behind them. "So these girls can create singularity wells? I've heard rumors of them lifting the orbiter, but now that seems petty in comparison..."

"It may be a bit... wobbly... but anything that saves me from that floaty hell is alright in my book. Thanks, guys." Sydney finally figured out a grip for the three fingered weapon that accommodated her five fingered paws and she wielded it with a subdued squeak of joy. "Now let's go kick some alien ass."

"Actually, this gives us a huge advantage now. I... hate the idea, but I think we need to keep my girls nearby." Ari gave Pepper a rub between the ears as he practically hid beneath her tail. "Keep it clean, guys. No ricochets. No--"

"Lulu, we'll be safe." Yoyo guided Paprika behind him as he held his weapon up... and accidentally discharged a full second worth of particle beam into the next deck up. "Crap... I hope nobody was up there."

"Well that's new. My family is the only one that figured out cascading beam cannons. The neutrino layer is a novel touch. They've ranked up tech, so stay frosty." Carbon took the lead, bounding to the next bulkhead door and using the thick frame for cover. "No time for talk, guys. Let's pick up the pace."

Another stray particle beam melted a hole just above Carbon's head, leading Yoyo to immediately defend himself. "That wasn't me. Someone else is taking fire."

"Then we need to stop them. They have vacuum-grade masks and the civilians here don't." Eve shifted herself to her native non-emissive, black material and poked her head out. "Four soldiers. They're... Oh, the 'M's are just ahead."

"Let's save my girls." Ari swapped her weapon of choice to Gungnir and nocked an arrow at the ready. A quick peek led to a silently loosed arrow into the neck of the one flankable target of the enemy squad. "Move up. They don't know we're here yet and panic is our ally."

Siamun quickly stepped into the open, then in an oddly gesture he gracefully pirouetted half a meter out of the path of an oncoming plasma bolt meant for him. "Isis, I dance in your honor." The possessed human made a few dancing strides, blades rotating with outstretched arms. "Osiris, may you dance with my partners when our dance ends."

"Are you fucking crazy!?" Sydney raised her weapon but couldn't find a clear shot taking her inexperience with the alien rifle into account. She instead chose to fire randomly at one of the three targets that wasn't obscured by Siamun, four out of ten toroids of searing hot plasma cutting right through two Yangurraa and their armor. "Move so we can cover you!"

"Sorry, my partners." In a lengthy, weighted stride Siamun sunk both of his daggers beneath the ribs of his foes. "Osiris is not a patient god." The hooked blades sliced clean to the opposite ribs, eviscerating the Yangurraa beneath their armor. "May your eternal slumber find you soon."

"Well, shit. The kid's not all talk after all." Yoyo smiled and waved for the girls they'd just rescued, then held up his rifle and fired a short blast of neutrinos. "Sorry, girls. We didn't see the fifth one."

"Fifth?" Ari quirked her head as a camouflaged enemy flickered into view, his cloaking system failing along with his lifelessly floating body. "Fifth."

Yoyo tapped near the top of his new weapon, showing a scope he'd created out of nanites. "Figured a thermal sight wouldn't hurt. I got you, Lulu. Go."

"Thanks, Yoyo." Ari sprinted to her older girls and slid on her knees into a hug. "Don't scare me like that! I said to stay in communication!"

<We would, but we had our paws full.> Michelle hugged her mother in earnest, readied her magnetic bow, and hopped over the marred mechanic's cabinet she used as cover. <We need to stop them. Another dozen are searching for the vapor furnaces.>

<They're just a room or two ahead. We keep getting pushed back, but they also keep running out of soldiers.> Mikhaila nuzzled her mother's helmet with hers, then similarly re-threaded her monofilament sword to join her twin sister. <But now we have the numbers to stop them. We also... have gravity, somehow. This will do. Let's go.>

Sydney chuckled at the gung-ho girls, a gesture that soon trailed off when she noticed the dozen or so dead bodies littering the hallway behind them. "Gods... Another reason not to fuck with those two."

"They've got a crew to defend. I'd say they're going above and beyond that call." Carbon jogged up to the twins and forced them to stop for clarification. "Are we going to cut them off, or are we going straight to the payload?"

<One and the same. They're only a room away from that loading bay.> Mik pointed to a wall and her sister nodded in sync, the two opening a portal only to close it a moment later due to oncoming plasma weapons fire. <They've figured out our portals. We need to move.>

"Well that answers my next question." Adrian jogged over to an information console and pulled up a map on its shattered screen. "This is it, I'm guessing? Couldn't we just... choose a room on the far side and portal there, where it's clear?"

<We... never thought of that, what with all the chasing.> Chelle placed the near end of a portal while Mik took a moment to think of an exit location. <No raiders. Let's just hope we can beat them and lock the doors.>

"How do we lock them?" Themis stepped forward and puled Phoebe with him. "We're definitely faster."

"Emmi, that steals precious time from Rosey's--"

"No, fuck that. We won't have long lives together if we don't see this through." Rose shoved her hesitant husband through the portal. "Get going, hero. Save your sexy wife."

"Ah... Yes. That."

<Just get through the large doors first.> Chelle pointed to the heavy doors through the portal, far across a large warehouse. <Once through, hit the emergency vacuum lockdown on the matching set of doors. It's a big, red lever.>

"Got it. We'll hold them back. You guys follow as fast as you can." Em hopped through the portal and tagged his brother, forming a Link so they could share their bearings. «Pretty straightforward. We can't afford to slip up though, so take it easy.»

«Then you take the lead and I'll get our backs. Ready?»

The brothers nodded to each other, then in a flash the world slowed around them. Themis headed out first, jogging around a few cargo pods to get a better view. When his twin caught up he held out an arm though. A pair of scouts were beating against the heavy cargo doors, having damaged the automated opening mechanism with obviously misguided weapons fire. Phoebe pulled his brother back further and forced another Link.

«Well that complicates things. We can outrun these guys, but how do we get through the doors?»

Em scanned the rest of the wall as he waited for his brother's thoughts to reach him, their time dilation proving far faster than the speed of even a Link. «Jeeves? You got any smart ideas?»

«Hm... Quite. You do not realize your own potential, young masters.» The shared veile appeared next to the doors, specifically hovering a paw over the emergency explosive bolt system. «You carry as many times more momentum as the time you stretch. I'd suppose a good bap to the right spots might rummage up a solution.»

«Those explode, Jeeves.»

«And I believe you may move faster than said explosions if you'd only put your backs into it.»

«He has a point, Phebes. Run hard into it and shove away just as hard.» Em sized up the enemies, making note that a fresh bolt of plasma now crawled slowly to the damaged door. «I'll hit the left. On your move, bro.»

Phoebe groaned to himself in disapproval, the sound never reaching his ears by the time he began moving. The otter cleared the corner and bolted for his target, an exposed ignition pad poking out of a melted tear in its metal frame. He took a moment to confirm his brother was still on a similar trajectory, Themis hunching low as he ran to reach a lower explosive bolt on his side. Pho turned back in time to find one of the soldiers' tendrils in his face, causing the otter to juke around the enemy. That took a bit of power out of his final steps, but didn't seem to matter with Pho's more exposed and fragile target component.

Themis hit his bolt first, opting to slide his boot into the paneling surrounding it. Considering the speed he was actually moving, his heel crushed the fragile device with the force of a heavy demolition hammer. A split second later Phoebe hit his mark as well, a solid fist crashing right through the broken metal framing like it was tin foil. A series of hardly-visible explosions ratcheted across the two doors, spitting the twins back a pace. The primary bolts gone, unidentified secondary push charges automatically fired off and sent the heavy metal doors flying off the hinges in zero gravity.

"What!?" The left door cleared Themis and crushed one of the soldiers against a cargo pod. The second door however knocked Phoebe far out of his provided gravity well and soaring quickly toward heavy machinery. "Phoebe! No! Uh... Recall back here!"

"Y-Yeah!" The otter did just that, rewinding the effects of time on himself a few seconds until he once again slammed his fist into the already destroyed door hinge. "Fuck! Ah, damn!"

"Shit, that hurt." Em started speeding himself up again, but watched in horror as a plasma bolt tore directly into his twin brother's chest. It seems the remaining enemy capitalized on the twins' temporary drop in speed, an action that only earned a much hated boot to the face mask. "Phebes!"

"E-Emmi..." The injured brother gurgled blood through a forced smile. "Take c-care... of..."

"No, we both will. Try to recall yourself again, bro. Please, just..." Themis choked on his heart for a moment as his twin's eyes glazed over and stared into infinity. "No. You're not leaving Rosey with just my sorry ass." Em reached for his brother's paw and forced a very faint Link. «Jeeves! Help me out here!»

«Most certainly. Allow me to gather the necessary materials.» What may be Phoebe's final breath slowly exhaled through elongated time, causing so much tension Themis' body started shaking. «Aha! This may be what the moment calls upon, young master! You should have more control now.»

«I better, or you won't exist anymore. As long as you're here though, I know we have a chance.» Themis closed his eyes to focus, then started pulling his brother backwards through the effects of time. Ten seconds was already tough, but aiming for nearly twenty ruptured blood vessels all over Em's face and neck. The rewinding process slowed more and more as memory of the proper molecular states faded. Em shut his eyes and prayed for the best, and upon opening them to extremely blurred vision be found that same caring smile, only in earnest. «Phebes...»

«Emmi... Thank you.» Phoebe helped his brother lay on the floor, but struggled in slowed time with his assigned task. «Stay safe, brother. I... I still have work to do.»

Phoebe severed his Link with Themis and shot upward at the speed of sound. He wobbled a bit as his blood refused to move quite as fast, but nonetheless the otter found good footing. He dashed through the new opening he helped create, bobbing and weaving around quite a few delicate, sharp scientific instruments and experiments scattered about the larger cargo hanger. Pho nodded in approval at the size of the so-called vapor furnaces, taking a few seconds from his perspective to jog clear around. Finally he found his objective, the emergency shutter lever aside a set of doors matching the ones he'd just crossed.

"I see why they didn't want to port here now..." Pho phased back into normal time for a quick survey of his surroundings, complete with hundreds of sharp death tools littering gravity-free air around him. He focused on inspecting the lever, finding it required a pull and twist to toggle. "And with this, I... ah..." Pho stumbled as he newly repaired body betrayed him to the point he had to take a knee. "Shit... The lever..."

"Phebes!?" Themis slowly pulled himself forward with his arms until he found a clear line of sight. "Phebes! Stand up!"

"C-Can't..." Phoebe reached for the lever and yanked it down, then held on with all his strength as he twisted it in the 'close' direction. "I... got it..."

"Talk to me, bro. Don't you dare pass out." Em pulled himself another meter forward before his wife caught up. "Rosey, I'm fine. Help Phebes."

"You sure? Where is he, the door?" On the cue of an acknowledging nod, Rose looked over and found Pho right as he fell unconscious to the floor. Unfortunately this was the same time the enemy boarding party decided to pry open the only partially sealed entrance. "Fuck. Emmi, hide yourself until the others help you. I'm going to drag Phebes out of danger. Let everyone know we have a battle on our hands."

"Y-Yeah..." Themis watched as his alien wife quietly scampered along, cloaking herself a few strides along with her bodysuit's adaptive camouflage. He rolled out of sight as the enemy made a viable breach to fire through, painfully bumping into Ilaria's metal leg as she blocked his path. "Aunt Lulu... Yangurraa. We have enemy Yangurraa."

"Shit, really? You didn't make it in time? That was impressive, too." Ilaria poked her head out for a moment and immediately lost a tuft of hair to the searing fire of enemy plasma. "Well fuck me. They only have a turret hole to fire from, essentially. They could still possibly wreck the payload though. Yoyo, hey."

"Uh, Lulu...!" Iolvin slapped his twin hard on her robotic shoulder, extinguishing part of her sirat that managed to catch fire. "Not sure if that'll hurt in the morning or not. Fuck, sis."

"What's the deal?" Sydney caught up next, her parkour skills making up for a lack of abnormally long legs. "I saw lasers and shit. You need some fire support?"

"Yeah. The enemy is breaking through and we need to hold them back long enough for my kids to open the hanger doors." Ari raised an eyebrow at the gaping hole behind her that used to be a set of airtight doors. "I'm not sure that's a good idea now though. We may have to just kill them, or otherwise find a way to close that door of theirs."

"I think I might be able to hold this shut with a shield or two." Yoyo sized up the doors and created a set of weak replacements out of thin air turned dense. "Yeah, I could probably make that work. We'd need to close off the other side still, but yeah."

Carbon shoved one of the shields aside with his oddly powerful arms. "There's a solution to that. Shove a gun inside, then pull the trigger until there aren't any more screams."

"I nearly got my face shot off and I didn't give them any tells. They aren't bad shots like the rest."

<These are elite guards. They have far more experience than the rest.> Ari's twins moved up with their younger siblings in triple tow. <Let's change up gravity on them as we move closer. We can decide on the method of attack once we have a better position.>

Ari found a gap in the huge machining bench they were using as cover and glanced at the enlarging breach. "I agree. You two have that X-ray vision shit Carbon does, so Link to your sisters to guide their gravity shifting from this safe spot."

Pepper hunched down against the bench and meekly corrected, "B-Brother..."

"Sorry, honey. I'm busy and I forgot." Ari waited for Dee to clear the doors and then prepared to dash to another piece of cover. "Can you focus on giving up gravity to move around, my little man? Your sisters will be busy with the bad guys."

"Y-Yeah."

"Good pup, Pepper." Ari found her moment, a break opening in the enemy fire for some unknown reason. "Go! Scoot up!"

"No need to tell me twice." Sydney rounded their cover into a field of the weightless tools of two scientific madwomen, but only hesitated for a second as the combatant side of her training plotted her a course. "That saw table looks good."

"Agreed." Ari slipped past the meerkat and slid against the short but solid cover. "And it's totally not a saw."

"And I don't give a single shit if I'm still safe." Cid ducked down beside Ari and took a surprisingly safe peek. "What's got their attention? They focusing on the doors?"

"No, they're searching for something nearby from the look of it." Carbon took advantage of the long opening and kicked himself over what was actually a grinding wheel table to hide around the base of a vapor furnace. "Hey, where's my sister? You seen Rose?"

"She ran up ahead." Ari rolled over her cover and joined the hybrid. "I barely saw her when I got here. Is she--?"

"Shit... Is that Pho?" Carbon waited for Yoyo to take his twin's place, then used the extra cover to slip his head out. "Yeah. He's knocked out in the corner there. Fuck, Rose... I know he's your husband, but he'd want you to be safe."

"Rosey!" Themis rolled out of his cover as he spotted his mate. "Don't, Rosey! Get back!"

The Yangurra flickered into view beside an ever-widening gap in the doors. "I'm sorry." Rose grabbed the shutter control lever and cranked it into the closing position to zero effect due to structural damage in the doors themselves. "Fuck."

"<Well what do we have here?>" A creepily familiar voice sent chills through several spines. Then a plasma pistol poked out the gap along with the grinning, aged head of Enthol. "<I know those leaves. So, the bastard had remaining progeny after all.>"

Rose jumped back as a vine lashed out to grab her. "<You!>"

"That idiot is still alive!?" Carbon rushed out to attack Enthol while defenses were lax, but his cascade of lasers absorbed effortlessly into some form of shield over the enemy leader's ornate armor. "<Just die, you weed of a parasite!>"

"<Oh, so the hybrid still lives? I guess the assassination didn't take then. Shame.>" Enthol gave up on his attempt to take a hostage and instead fired his modified pistol straight into Carbon's chest. "<Well, it's done now in any case. Now to find that pesky mutt that dared deny my grand entrance...>"

"<That's my husband, you moldy fungus. You may have killed the rest, but your petty vendetta against my family is over.>" Rose again tried the emergency shutter lever to no effect, then lined up a clear shot of the opening. She stood looking defenseless for a moment, glancing back at her one conscious mate as tears fogged her face mask. "Forgive me when you remember me. I love you."

"_ No! _"

Rose dashed forward as her cloaking system reengaged. She paused a step to throw off the timing, avoiding a dual set of poison stingers lashing at the opening. A moment after their vines retracted Rose leaped through the gap, throwing knives into the throats of the door handlers. She landed into a somersault, but rather than pick up running again she shot her own vines to the ceiling lending additional pull to make up for her short legs. She found herself out of the gravity field she was granted, her cloaking also destroying the triplets' tracking, which led to the Yangurra flipping around to bounce off a ceiling light. The bulbs smashed as she kicked off them, leaving her final floating assault on the universe's worst leader bathed in visual darkness.

"<Kill her!>" Enthol weightlessly spun around at the sound of a hard impact against the wall near him and nervously brandished his weapon. "<Shoot, you fools! I have a shield!>"

"<And I have my knives...>" A flurry of plasma ricocheted from Enthol's armor as he was bombarded by his peers, but soon two more were holding their throats to the gurgling whispers of death. "<Plus I have more than you ever will.>"

"<You dare mock me!?>" Enthol darted his weapon side to side, watching as his men fell in flashes of superheated gas laced with glowing green mist. "<I own everything! You should be begging me for all you have!>"

"<Such as my brother's life back? My father's? My mother's?>" The bloody mist settled, quite visibly lacing Rose's cloaked armor in the reaping of her efforts. She paced forward, not at all concerned with the evil leader's weapon in her face. "<Your men have failed you. Perhaps now is the time you should beg, for your very life.>"

"<You're a whore just like your--!>" A shot fired from Enthol's pistol, searing a green hole in his attacker's illusion. "<How... you...>"

«You leave your foolish mind wide open.» A much more substantial hole punched clean through Enthol's chest, an old stinger similar to Rose's own--but distinctly detached and wielded in her hand--now driving through the Yangurra's heart. «My 'whore' mother gives her regards.» Rose severed her forced Link to take in the last expressions of the failing leader as his life faded from his face. "<This is our house of Ors again.>"

"...--se! Rose! Sp-Speak to me!"

Rose let Enthol float limply and glanced directly into her husband's terrified eyes. She shot her head down to break eye contact, mortally ashamed at allowing her deeply pacifist mate to see any of that vengeful bloodshed. "I'm alright." She checked a few burns from stray shots and sighed. "I just may need a doctor and some rest."

"Fuck, for that little trick I'll get you all the doctors we have." Rose stiffened at the voice of her brother, painfully moving to grasp the edge of the pried doors. "What? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I... am. I'm so... Spirits, you're alive!"

Carbon held a paw to his chest, having taken a similar hit as his wounded sister but not a mortal blow due to some quick thinking and a shield by Sydney. "I should be the one amazed here, sis. You jumped into a room with like six guys and look at you now."

"Eight guys and one supreme asshole, actually." Rose glanced at her husband momentarily, then chose to focus on the other as he floated peacefully in the corner of the hangar. "Take care of the mission, Fibre. I'll only slow you down now, and my mates could use the attention."

"I'd like to be cool and stay here with you, but I think we don't have much wiggle room now. Sorry, sis." Carbon turned back to Themis, helping the disoriented and now crying otter to the other side of the doorway from which they entered. "Get your roots over here before Yoyo seals this place up, and bring Pho with you. We're about to install a screen door on this boat."

"Actually, no. Can you guys take Phebes over there?" Rose took a moment to confirm her end of things within the breach, finding any reason not to face her husbands just yet. "This door isn't closing anytime soon. I'll try closing doors deeper inside so we don't space the whole ship."

"I've got him, sis. He's in good paws." Carbon moved about and lashed two queoo to the otter in question to gently tug his weightless body to safety. "All good. Everyone that's heading back needs to get on this side of that barrier. Ari, you keeping in contact with your wife?"

"Yeah, she's scared to death on the other side of that bulkhead." Ari walked over to the outer door controls and primed the decompression sequence of the hangar. "Ready to heroically save her tail whenever you are."

"Rose? Where we at?"

"I've got these shut, but... I think I'll stay back here and check for leaks... and maybe help with repairs..."

Carbon dropped his voice so it never really left his mask. "They'll forgive you, Rose. Just give them time." The hybrid crossed back into the danger zone with a deep breath. "Yoyo, you sure you got this?"

"If the air vents slow enough, sure." Iolvin formed his final, sturdy barriers and locked them together on his side of the doors. "To play it safe though, maybe have RhyRhy take a crack at a seal?"

"Absolutely. The safety of the passengers is paramount. Now hold tight." Carbon checked again to make sure any of Ari's triplets weren't still on his side, then joined Ilaria by the door controls along with the others. "Okay. I think we're ready here. Remember Sydney, try to keep the party together."

"Got it. I think I've got the hang of it." The meerkat grinned and wrapped an arm around her mate, their shared wife disappearing into ring form on their paws for easier transport. "Still no taser though? Not even a sexy little tingle?"

"Maybe when this is all over, my mate."

Ilaria smiled as the two tapped their visors together with kissing sounds, then chuckled her way through the final controls. "Decompressing now. Looks like it's not too bad, lil' bro. Thirty seconds."

"Impressive for such a large room." Adrian took a moment to type the next bit into a message so the two 'M's could understand him without radios. "Did you guys make any modifications to this warehouse that we should be aware of... lest we suffer an agonizing death in the cold of space?"

<None you don't already see. We're ready to go when you are.> Chelle picked up the slack and signed while her sister handled the text versions. <Just... maybe don't touch any unlabeled buttons. We don't bother with labels.>

"Ah, the plight of the Yangurra around Earth. We can't see color distinction well enough to read anything that isn't size fifty font." Carbon chuckled and rested a paw on each twin's shoulder. "At least we have veilee to remember buttons for us, eh?"

"Well ~you~ don't, mister. Eve isn't inside you anymore." Sydney wrestled with her mate's suit until she was satisfied the damaged section had properly resealed itself. "What?"

"Just thinking you look like a wife fixing her husband's tie." Carbon bumped his mask against Cid's helmet and mimicked a kiss. "Love you, sweetie. Be safe out there."

"U-Um... M-Me...?" Sydney snapped out of her daze of embarrassment as the doors started to open. "Fuck t-that. You stay safe and I'll cling to your tail."

"Deal." The hybrid grinned playfully as he presented his backside. "Rudderbutt deployed, m'lady."

As much as the team wanted to forget about the war silently roaring outside, the fun and games had to be cut off. An explosion nearby highlighted Rhyme clinging to the outer hull for dear life, leading a slew of paws to help her inside. "Rhyme! Are you okay, honey!?"

The tanuki shook feverishly and incessantly in the embrace of her mate. "I-I... I th-thought..." Rhy slammed her uniquely magnetic boots to the grated floor and immediately her breathing calmed. "I thought... I was gonna get hit..."

"It's okay, Rhy. I've got you. You're safe." Ari watched as a slew of missiles rocketed past the open doors. "That's still scary shit out there though. I'm sorry we couldn't get here sooner, but we had issues with visitors."

"I, ah... um..." Finally Rhyme started to regain her sane state of mind, surveying the odd barricade Iolvin had established. "I see that. Gods, this thing is held together with sticks and twine. Need a paw with anything?"

"I'm glad you asked, honey. Could you try to seal some of these breaches? We'll shut the doors behind us, but the safeties are still--"

"Yeah, I see what you mean. One lucky shot hits these outer doors and the whole crew tests if they can breathe in the black. I can likely fix it with the stuff floating around here." Rhyme took a solid breath as she unclipped her tow line from her belt. "Hook this up fast. The slack is almost gone and you don't want to be the only thing attached to it when that happens."

"Yeah, I'm sure the physicists here do know. Let's clip that onto the payload and get it outside." Ari took the line and broke free of the group just long enough to place it on a good anchor. "So how do we get this thing moving?"

<We never got that far, mom.>

"Well you get to thank your pups again. Go ahead, girls." Yoyo's voice cut out to static for a moment, a heavy gravitational distortion field pulling the massive launch craft out into open space. "...moving? Hello?"

"We're reading you again, Yoyo. Good call on using their abilities for this."

"Come again, Lulu? I was saying we didn't do that. It just started moving on its own."

Ilaria craned her head when she noticed the tow line was still slack as well. "What the actual fuck?"

"I have come to aid you, friends." Gimbal hovered into view just ahead of the vapor furnace, a strong beam of ultraviolet shifted energy flowing from her substantially more upgraded humanoid body. "Apologetically:. I don't know if my manipulation of your communication frequencies is working properly."

"We... We can definitely hear you, Gimbal. It's nice hearing your voice." Ari latched onto the payload and offered Carbon a nanite tendril so he could reel the others. "Can you understand me like this?"

"Your language is so primitive it took me longer to decipher than expected." The spaceborne automaton adjusted her stance, with what could likely be described as a blank face turning to Ilaria. "Acutely apologetic: I did not mean ill toward your culture. My understanding of your langu--"

"It's alright, Gimbal. You think differently than we do." Ari pulled herself closer to the large rocket's surface, effectively buckling in for a short ride. "Hey, can you close the gap to the Starbreeze like this?"

"Stupefied: 'Starbreeze'..." Gimbal measured the distance and returned her gaze to the otter. "Your vessel. That would be impractical. We would be consumed by the approaching dark matter of this singularity before we closed the distance under my power alone."

"A simple 'No.' would suffice, Gimbal." Ari watched as the barge shrank into the distance, along with the majority of the fighting ships. "We're definitely going too fast for our own good. Thank the gods physics is relative. We can reel this baby in from the ship."

"I follow, but I'm not sure Sydney will approve." Carbon nudged his helmet to the Starbreeze. "Think of these as two stationary objects, hon. We can jump and glide past the gap just like before... only moving way faster."

"Fuck. Well at least the heavy weapons fire is mostly gon--" Cid held her tongue as a large burst of plasma rushed between the vapor furnace and the Starbreeze. "How the holy hell are they still able to aim at us? I thought you said the black hole screws with your sight."

"It does, but if you're close enough you can see occlusions... sort of like reverse 'god-rays'." Carbon looked back at the ongoing battle and found no ships closing on their location. "Not seeing anything though. Luck shot?"

Gimbal immediately debunked that in the most mechanical manner. "The statistical probability of intersecting a target with our small radial size within even a generous five degree cone of fire is still one in two hundred ninety five million--"

"So that's not random luck. Got it." Ari gave the area behind them another survey, this time noticing another burst of bright light headed their way. "That's coming from the barge. The enemy boarding ship must still be functional."

"And we need to make sure it isn't. If they hit this payload, all hope is lost." Carbon looked back as well and easily found the plasma headed their direction. "Eve, is that going to hit us?"

"Hard to tell, but it looks more like a miss." Eve reformed her body from her two ring forms and gave the projectile a more accurate assessment. "Yeah, about a hundred meters to our... uh, starboard? Does this even have sides?"

"That's still closer than the last shot. Assuming the rate of fire is the same... I think that might be a class four cannon. We're definitely staying in range a while." Carbon pulled up his shotgun while his vines anchored him into a standing position. "Lasers won't so much against that stone hull. Think a few slugs might make a dent. Maybe with a bit of extra zing, honey?"

"Not like we have much to lose from trying as opposed to not." Sydney focused enough to form a kinetic field ahead of her husband's weapon. "Ready when you are."

Carbon yanked out the two capacitor cells he was using for laser shot and replaced them with heavy deer slugs. "Hold on tight. The kick will probably shake the whole rocket we're riding." The hybrid aimed the first shot, not thinking too much as the kinetic boost would effectively make trajectory calculation moot. "I'll dump both at once. Think you can assist two?"

"Not a clue. Just shoot, otter."

Carbon did just that, clamping both triggers and hoping for the best. The twin shells already carried enough power to destroy most of anything they touched in the infantry scale, but upon crossing the kinetic assist barrier they practically became untraceable. Without an atmosphere to slow them the slugs soared at nearly seven times the speed of sound, though on the other paw the lack of air kept them as stealthy as possible. In about a second the slugs found their target, smacking the already damaged hull of the enemy boarding craft. For as much force as they carried however the deer slugs might as well have been marshmallows, denting the petrified wood of the hull with a slight spark and nothing more.

Carbon huffed in defeat, cracking his shotgun open to let the spent shells fly free. "Fuck. They didn't even slow down."

"We have to find something stronger." Ilaria looked to the probe cannon beneath her ship, but frowned when she realized the Starbreeze would need to stop accelerating to rotate for a shot, and that was even supposing they could fix th thing. "Hm... Can we somehow call another ship for an assist?"

Gimbal stopped her boosting of the vapor furnace and freed herself for a more important task. "Easily. I may not understand your English much, but your radio devices are far more my tune. Enthusiastically: Pick a vessel. I'd love to relay the messages."

"The barge. They've got to be the closest behind us and they can coordinate trajectories for the fleet." Ari gave Gimbal a moment to re-tune her radio, a whine eventually clearing to the tune of her brother's voice. "Yoyo, can you hear this?"

"Oh, shit. They didn't catch up to you already, did they?"

"Crap, that really is that gunship crew."

"No, it's that fucking crazy one that shot Carbon!" There was a bit of commotion on the line as Iolvin apparently shifted things around for repairs. "That guy isn't dead yet. Watch your tail, Lulu."

A fire immediately flared in Carbon's eyes. "You mother fucker! I told you to die!"

"Carbon... calm down. We'll get him." Sydney looked to the Starbreeze and nodded to herself. "Let's get back inside and find something to throw his way. Out here we're--"

"Sydney, he won't just keep shooting." Carbon stared at the enemy craft as he reloaded his weapon. "That guy's crazy. He'd mad enough to think he's a living god. That level of dedication means he'd rather ram us to pieces than see his legacy tainted."

"He needs to be stopped. I agree." Ari grabbed Sydney and tossed her toward the Starbreeze. "And I agree with Cid too. Help her get back and I'll guide my girls. Deal?"

"Like you gave me a choice." Carbon unlatched his queoo from the rocket and jumped behind his mate. "I've got you, Sydney. No need to freak out."

"That may not be true. There is a closer signal, a concerning one." Gimbal pointed an arm to the oncoming ship. "Relaying now..."

Carbon jerked around until he could see the enemy ship again. "A closer one? You mean on that thing?"

"Carbon?" Rose whispered back into her radio, obviously in a scenario warranting discrepancy. "I have Enthol in my sights. He's trying something and I need to stop him before he accomplishes it."

"He's trying to ram us into oblivion, sis! Get the fuck off there!"

"Crap. Well that explains a lot. Ah, a console. One second." The line went to static for a few seconds before Rose returned with a growl. "At least he has no clue how to aim his cannons. Let me see what I can do about him. What's the status of the payload?"

Ari hooked each of her girls beneath her arms and fired her thrusters for the Aft Cargo Bay doors. "It's floating helplessly. We're getting back to the ship to reel it in. We we going to shoot down that ship too, but..."

"Give me exactly one minute. If I'm not done by then... take us out of the picture. The galaxy comes first." Again the line went flat, save a slight scraping of a knife as it exited its sheath. "I love you guys. Wish me luck."

"No... Fuck. Five minutes, you idiot." Carbon took a few deep breaths, then fired up his own thrusters to follow Ilaria. "Don't end your Path here, Rose. Both of ours have only just met."

"She'll... be fine, I think. She's got your blood in her at least." Sydney reached out her grapple and shot it to hook a crate in the Cargo Bay. "All we can do now is prepare for the worst. Let's find a big gun and I'll make it bigger."

"I don't want to think about shooting my own sister, Sydney."

"And you won't need to. We'll do it." Ari set her hindpaws down on solid flooring, setting her girls down in the gravity field of the ship. "Think, girls. What do we have on board that holds a candle to that thing?"

<Conventional weapons aren't large enough, except for Uncle Yoyo's rifle maybe.> Mikhaila finished her signing with a hint of defeat, but her sister took up the mantle with more enthusiasm. <But Uncle Yoyo took Mik's launcher away after we lost our paws. He gave it to Sydney.>

"Launcher? You mean that explosive rifle thing? Yeah, Yoyo was thinking right." Cid set boots on deck again and walked over to her makeshift firing range across the room. "I put it here, in this weapon locker. You think that thing would work? It fires explosives, but a hard shell I've amped up has more oumph to it."

<It doesn't need to fire explosives. We designed it as a clone of Uncle Yoyo's rifle.>

"Well in that case, let's break that bad boy out of jail." Sydney typed a code into the digital lock and freed the weapon from it's confinement. "Here you go. What's the plan?"

<The batteries could use a charge. We also need a a slug of some kind.> Mik checked her weapon over and readied it for firing while her twin checked the shelves nearby. <Length doesn't really matter, only diameter. It needs to be round and no wider than fourty-four millimeters.>

"Well don't even bother looking. I've got just the thing." Cid opened another locker and rummaged around, eventually producing a grenade launcher attachment from a rifle. "I was fixing the bore on this forty and left the template slug in there. Does the material matter much? It's just steel I think."

"It might be nickel-plated brass. Depends on if it's a rifling rod or a forming plug." Carbon pulled the plug free of the sliding breach and tossed it with a satisfying heft in his paw. "Yep, a plug. That's hardened carbide steel. I think this should do just fine."

<Definitely. This will work perfectly.> Chelle took the solid slug and gave it to Mik, who in turn popped open the lever-action breach of her weapon and loaded her weapon. <That's one down. Now we need power, and lots of it. We can hook it up to some nodes in the grip if need be.>

"Power is available. The reactor is just above us, so pretty much all the wires in these bulkheads will burn you to a crisp. The hard part is limiting the juice so you don't catch fire." Ilaria smirked as she removed a maintenance panel near the open gates of the Cargo Bay. "There isn't a cooling system in that thing, is there? Nothing's going to explode if it gets too much juice?"

<Ah... No? No...? No.> The twins used their Link to come to a conclusion in the unique design. <The firing system is solid state, aside from the replaceable power components, toggle switch, and the gunpowder firing system. We won't be using the latter though.>

"Then hook that baby up directly to this power conduit." Ari offered a disconnected set of leads she'd yanked from the wall, a layer of ice barely insulating her paws. "I'll provide the cooling. With any luck we'll kill that fucker before we kill ourselves."

"If it comes to that. Hook that thing up. I'm going to check on Rose. Gimbal, you're with me." Carbon walked over to the edge of the gates and hopped out of the Starbreeze's gravity field, his queoo anchoring him just outside. "Rose? Rose, please... Please answer me, sis..."

"Fibre... Shit." The oncoming spacecraft jerked a few degrees to the side, a charged blast of plasma spitting barely out of the vapor furnace's path. "I... I got him. He's paid for all of this now. Crap..."

"Rose?" Carbon quirked his head as he noticed the ship make two more small course corrections. "Rose, what's wrong? You sound like you're struggling with something."

"Well, aside from the empty victory and bleeding all over myself? Yeah, I think we have another issue." The small ship once again juked to a new angle, but this time an autopilot system made itself known as it slowly returned back to the original course. "He set this thing up so it would fly even if he died. How is that even possible?"

"It might be like the standing orders I give to Ex. I think that's one of dad's old specialties, and he made most of Enthol's tech." Carbon tapped his wedding ring a few times in thought, then conjured his wife's advice. "Eve, can you still tap into my vision? Maybe give me an idea where this thing is aiming?"

"I... haven't tried, actually. Let's see." That ring lost it's faux metal color and dropped to bitch black as the enigma focused. "There? Maybe?"

"Yeah, I see it. So the path is... shit, directly through the payload. He's got that shit seeking out the prize. Rose, get out of there if you can. Try not to bleed out on me." The hybrid looked back to the others. "Where are we with the death ray?"

"I think we're good. It looks like I can cool it properly after all." Ari helped her girls carefully pulled the power leads out of the wall enough that they could aim the weapon clear of the aft gates. "Cid, you sure you have another good buff in you?"

"No, but I'll make it happen. You're not the only one with kids you'd die over." The meerkat stepped up to the plate and began forming a kinetic acceleration field. "Just make sure you do this before I pass out or something."

"We won't embarrass you too much, sweetie." Carbon finally smiled when he spotted Rose leaping from the enemy ship. "Rose is free. Fire at will. Punch a big-ass hole in that fucker's coffin. Make sure he never comes back."

"Do it, girls!"

The twins hefted the modified launcher and steadied it facing the target ship. The main bolt and ejector port were lit up white hot, the lack of air preventing heat dissipation by any other method. <Mom! Get yourself together!>

"Ah! Sorry!" Ari placed her frosty paws near the weapon's glowing core and commanded her nanites to cool the critical components. "This isn't a small amount of heat. It's... making me dizzy fighting it, girls."

<We only need another second. Tie yourself down.>

The 'M's put Sydney's kinetic field between them and the target then pulled the trigger. There was a heavy clack and a thud felt through three suits as overheated components seized, followed by a grinding series of clicks signaling the trigger parts snapping back under heavy spring compression. The electric switch plate cracked into place and let the electricity fly, energizing the magnetic coils of the rifle with a quarter of a nuclear reactor's raw output. Finally a flare of molten metal and sparks exploded out the launcher's barrel, the metal slug firing so fast not one of those present even noticed it as they flew backward in recoil.

"Holy shit!" Cid fell onto her back to avoid being showered in slag. "Wha... What went wrong?"

"Not a thing." Carbon yanked himself back into the Cargo Bay, immediately pulling his wife off the floor once his hindpaws set down. "That's the finest damned shooting I've ever seen. Good work, ladies."

"That actually worked?" Ilaria shoved herself onto her boots and inspected the damage, the enemy landing craft split down the center and distinctly replacing its cockpit with a twinkling field of debris. "Well fuck me. It worked."

<That's a huge load off our chests.> The twins grinned to each other as they watched the starship split further and further apart. <Now we just have the one issue left to fix. We won't have much time to reel in the payload and program it.>

"Girls... get inside."

<We'll work better from here, though. Besides, the winch-->

"No! Girls, get inside!" Ilaria snagged Sydney with her prosthetic arm and dashed as fast as possible to the Central Cargo Bay. " Move!"

"Why?" His spine shivered as Carbon checked out the rear gates, finding one of the enemy lander's halves hurtling toward the Starbreeze at a surprising clip. Carbon didn't even bother running, a hard impact due in mere seconds. "Girls! Portal!"

<Y-Yeah!> A hole in space stretched open on the floor, allowing the three to transpose into the dead center of the Cargo level. <What do we do now!?>

"Tie down to something! It isn't the crash that kills you--!"

"Gah!" Ari flew snout-first into the central area, flipping around with her thrusters so Sydney rested atop her and her false leg took the skid damage. "Fuck!"

The whole of the Starbreeze lurched from beneath the group as the impact shoved it faster than gravity could correct. Carbon slammed into the elevator shaft guide rails on the far side of the room, yet fared a bit better than the rest in the end with his vines for support. "Gods damn. Is everyone okay?"

A secondary impact kept everyone silent in fear for a moment, but Sydney scrambled to her hindpaws once things had settled. "I think so. We have air tanks though. What about the crew?"

"Damnit." Ari switched her radio transmission frequency and polled the line. "Lilly? Alex? Anyone there?"

"We're still here, barely." Carmine groaned as he quite audibly shuffled some kind of debris from his station. "Fuck. I cut myself... and others need the first aid kit more, I'm guessing."

"Car, what happened? Why didn't Alex swerve out the way?"

"Blind spot, maybe?"

"Oh, I saw it coming." The poison dart frog croaked with anger as the half of the gunship rolled ahead of the Starbreeze. "I couldn't dodge it without snapping the payload free. Not that it matters now, with the engines down."

"Fuck. Fucking fuck. Fucking freight train." Ari pulled herself into a sitting position, her prosthetic leg having detached and lost itself in the collision. "We can still launch the payload from here and hope. Girls, are you okay? You're quiet."

<We're deaf. Of course we're quiet.>

"Good, same old whelps. Okay, let's figure out the programming or whatever and we'll get that baby flyi--"

"Wait... where's Eve?" Carbon held up his paw, inspecting a glove and nothing more. He reached for Sydney's paw and froze at a similar barren finger. "Eve? What are you doing, Eve!?"

"What needs to be done." A flash of radiation aft of the ship caught the hybrid's attention, Evelyn reforming her body near the vapor furnace. "We both knew this had to end this way. Just... don't dwell on it. Rescue your sister."

"Evelyn, no. No." Carbon stormed toward the rear gates, the power and gravity failing after his first few steps. "We need you, Eve. We can't lose you."

"I love you, Carbon. I love Sydney. I love our daughters. That's why I have to save all of you. And if I don't return... Well, just promise me you'll take care of them in my place."

Sydney joined her mates, the meerkat ignoring her weak stomach in focusing on Evelyn's commitment. "We couldn't stop you if we tried. I know that dedication. You need to fix a wrong for those you care about." Cid snagged the edge of the Cargo Bay and held out an arm to limit the losses to just the one love. "Save your sister, Carbon. Let Eve save the rest. She's earned that right."

"Well we need to help save my ship or we'll never survive any of this." Ari drifted to a broken pipe running the ceiling and closed an emergency valve. "Need I remind you we have not only a nuclear bomb powering this baby, but also an experimental fusion bomb welded to it?"

"But I--"

Evelyn fired up the engines of the vapor furnace and slowly overtook the Starbreeze. "Carbon, I'll always be here for you. There's some of me in you, and even more in our girls. Sydney, raise them well... and love Carbon double for me."

"Eve..." Sydney fought against a pit in her stomach and turned her stunned husband back on task. "Carbon, go fetch Rose."

"Rose... Yeah. There's still weapons fire." Carbon went limp and let his vines push and pull him around for a toss into open space. "You still there, sis?"

"I have located your sister." Gimbal launched herself out into open space to help retrieve her. "I will seal her wounds from vacuum."

"I... I'm so sorry, Fibre." Rose gave her sibling a moment, then returned to her own survival instincts by setting her cloaking suit to strobe random colors. "Can you... um...?"

"Yeah. I'll pick you up." Carbon hurled himself out the back of the Starbreeze and fired up his maneuvering jets to correct his path. "I'm on my way, sis. Stay calm."

"Carbon, you don't need to hold it back. That's your wife--your veile even."

"I'll cry later. We have work to do. Besides... there's a chance she'll return, however small. Trust the goddess she represents."

"Don't talk about me like I'm gone." Eve's voice flooded the line in crystal clarity. "I'm the strongest radio antenna ever, honey. I can probably still speak most of the way. I'd... like that, actually."

Carbon grabbed his sister upon intersection and blasted his jets to reverse their direction with Gimbal's aid. "Shit... that damaged us more than I thought. Eve, how's the Starbreeze look from the light side?"

"She's pretty much missing a thruster wing. Don't let them fire up the engines; that's definitely needing a tow."

"Yeah, I hear that." Ari groaned over an open line for a moment as she pulled herself around her ship. "We only have fission power anyway. The steam engines need the fusion reactor."

"Ari, I don't see any leaks. You need us to check or seal anything while we're out here?"

"Looks like the damage was entirely in the vectored thrust wing. A few internal systems shook loose too, but no breaches or key structural damage it seems."

Evelyn finally started sounding like the rest of the gang, a hint of static in her voice. "I think I can confirm that. It's getting -arder to see you though."

Rose snagged the edge of a tailgate, but Carbon just kept floating past the ship as he focused on the small dot that was now the vapor furnace. "Evelyn, I love you."

Sydney sucked up her distaste for space and leaped out behind her mate. "We all love you. We're proud to love you."

"I love you too, my -ates. I'm so glad I g-t to... -amily with you. ...happy..."

Carbon stopped his thruster jets and began slowing himself down when Evelyn's voice faded to static. "Eve... Paths guide you to a new home, my love. We won't be far behind."

Sydney bumped into her husband and uncharacteristically cuddled him from behind. "She's choosing her own fate for the sake of everyone else's. That opportunity is once in a lifetime, and she gets a second one. That's an amazing legacy, if nothing else."

"It still hurts." The vapor furnace flashed as it reached whatever critical horizon it needed, leading Carbon to grip his wife's paws tightly. "It feels like I just killed a part of myself."

"Cut off the leg to save the patient..." Xor's black core grew, warping the surrounding space and sending the explosions of fleet combat apparent lightyears away. "Do you think she did it?"

"I know she did. Eve's amazing." The large core slowly started to shrink in size, reducing and concentrating far smaller than before and bringing the fleet closer as well. "I don't mind dying without her here now. I can rot away in peace knowing our girls will be safe."

"Don't... make me think about that right now, Carbon." Xor finally reached a pinpoint, then flashed a bright baby blue. "I just lost my wife. Don't remind me it's a package deal."

"Back home, I've got enough saved up for ten lifetimes. You and the girls can live comfortably after--"

Sydney squeezed her mate to shush him, instead pointing to a new star forming in Xor's remains. "Look. It's a fitting memorial for someone so brilliant."

"She changed her stars... all of our stars." Carbon pulled his wife's paw to his chest and took a breath of relief, basking in the warmth of radiation perfectly in the center of his odd vision. "She made a new star for us. Eve's star."