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Necron402: Since I always put mini updates in my stories I might as well do one here, sorry it took so long but here is the second last member of the Black Star team! Now with 20% more CSA marines!

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[Milky Way Galaxy; Inner Worlds, VALOR Controlled, Pegasus Cluster, A-Class World, Outer Skirts of ; Harth Estate, Althea's bedroom Year 3,588 A.D, July 15th, 8:30AM]

A beam of warm sunlight broke through the window and brightened the occupied bed where a pink furred creature slept soundly, her long ears poked out from under the blanket that was made from the finest silks imported from all over the colonies. Her eyes started to bat open as she began to waken from the welcoming source of light, she slowly widen her eyes and with a tired yawn she sat up and stretched out her arms and fingers.

"It is July fifteenth, eight thirty in the morning...good morning Althea. Would you like me to download and tell you the morning news?" her personal butler stated

Althea made one last yawn before her favourite pet jumped onto her soft bed to greet her for the day. The pink furred, overweight, kangaroo-esque female laughed as her puppy ran up to her and stood up on his hind legs and licked her small black nose. "Yes please, Stross." Althea answered politely as she rubbed noses with her small brown puppy.

The android butler bowed graciously using the same movements he was programmed with to mimic Althea's people that were the macrial race, the butler's holographic skin kept true to look completely flesh and bone. "VALOR officials were dispatched to another bombing on Genria; one marine was killed in the explosion with dozens wounded."

Althea stretched out her arms again and let out a small yawn causing Stross to stop speaking as he raised his left eyebrow at the moderately rude interruption.

"I'm sorry, please continue." She apologized.

"Very well..." Stross answered, "Authorities believe the attack was the work of the terrorist organization known as the 'Crimson Separatist Alliance'." The butler shook his head when he had enough of the news himself.

"Do you think they would ever come here?" Althea asked nervously.

"You do not need to get your self worried about that, those ruffians would never attack us here, Genria was also the closet world to the border of the outer colonies and they always had a history of pirate problems." Stross reassured her before moving onto the next order of business. "Breakfast will be served at nine-thirty in the dining hall as usual of course"

Althea laughed as her pet bounced away from her arms and sat near her large feet with his tail wagging playfully. She shifted her large red bra and adjusted her breasts with both her hands to make sure everything was fine before she took the multiple blankets and bed sheets with one hand before she slowly moved the comforters away.

"What's today's schedule like?" Althea asked as she slowly walked over to her carved wood dresser where her clothes of the day had already been laid out for her.

"You have received another dozen offers from the universities on Venus and a handful from the Saturn Station in the Sol Cluster. I have taken the liberty of uploading them to your personal data assistant, I have also allocated enough time after breakfast for you to go through the offers yourself." The android answered. Althea pulled a large green turtle neck sweater over her body and sat down near the edge of her bed to begin to pull on her pants to cover her fatty thighs.

"Thank you Stross." Althea answered

"Now, I'm also going to tell you for the thousandth time to delete those god awful modifications off your data assistant; they can cause more harm than good not to mention completely illegal, I'm surprised VALOR hasn't already caught on." Stross asked with his arms crossed.

"Don't worry Stross; I've been keeping a low key with it. It's not like the government is going to send in a full marine team." Althea joked.

"If they do send in a squad of VALOR marines, you can count on no punishment they will give will even compare to the fury I will have for you when they burst it and wreck all the cleaning the servants and I do." Stross answered half serious.

Althea laughed, "Ok Stross, I'll make sure to greet the soldiers outside the estate."

Stross smiled, "Now I'm serious Althea, you may have designed them and I encourage scientific advancement...considering I'm the product of the same ingenuity but the ability to hack into almost any software is... concerning to say the least."

"Don't worry Stross, I promise I'll get rid of them by today, anyway... will Jasper be joining me at any point?" she asked hopefully

The head butler nodded before answering as he adjusted the tuxedo over his brown holographic fur. "Master Jasper does have an opening; your brother will be joining you on his break after his etiquette class and we all know the boy needs it."

Althea shook her head too disagree with her artificial caretaker as she laid on her backside to help fit into her pants better. "How many classes does he need, I haven't seen him for months now...." Althea commented

"I would be lying if I where too say he did not make any improvement but trying to teach manners to one such as him is like teaching art to a rock."

Althea stood up straight now fully dressed as her weight problem showed through despite her best attempts to wear the thick clothing. "You don't have to be so mean about it, he is doing his best, and it's hard for him to fit in."

"Which is why my classes with him are so important; I turned you in the well mannered and respected woman you are today, Althea, I raised you from a mere infant but Jasper...as the humans say you can't teach an old dog new tricks."

"Jasper wants to learn believe me, you just have to give him the special help he needs, you are a good teacher," Althea complimented.

"Well thank you Althea, I'll just have to take this as a challenge to my great expertise. If anyone is going to have to teach that boy how to act like a decent member of macrial society then it will have to be me." The android stated

Althea put the last one of her socks over her large left foot before following her artificial caretaker to the dinning hall in the large mansion.

[Milky Way Galaxy; Inner Worlds, VALOR Government, Pegasus Cluster, A-Class World, Outer Skirts of; Harth Estate, Main Dining Hall Year 3,588 A.D, July 15th, 9:23AM]

Althea took her place at the large rectangular table where she politely gestured towards the many house servants that she could pull out her own chair next to her parents. Both her mother and father took the napkins from the large expensive plates before them and placed them on their laps where their seats had been pulled out for them.

"How was your sleep, daughter?" her mother asked with half of her attention while she was also ordering back one of her servants to get her a cleaner spoon.

"I slept fin-"Althea answered when her mother had cut her off with a rude interruption to the same servant.

"And this time I want to be able to see my face clearly in the reflection!" the red furred mother demanded to the incredibly tried out servant girl whose yellow short fur was stained in kitchen greases.

"Yes Ms. Harth..." the humanoid platypus like creature said with a sad sigh

"And watch your tone with me girl." She snapped at

Althea leaned towards her mother in her chair, "Mom I think she could deserve a little more respect than that." She whispered quietly

Her mother grabbed her daughter's out stretched left arm, with her sharp nails now digging into her pink fur and flesh that caused Althea too shed a tear of pain as she looked at her mother's eyes. "Need I not remind you, daughter, that these...workers, are at the bottom of their lives and we have opened our doors to them." Althea's mother answered before taking a breath to continue, "I have shown these otherwise homeless citizens more respect than they deserve."

Althea pulled her arm free from her mother's grasp and rubbed at her sore spots while she watch the red furred macrial toss the spoon to the ground where the poor servant girl bent over to pick it up before walking back to the kitchen where more house servants came out carrying the Harth family's breakfast. Althea stood up from her chair to help one of the waiters with the heavy plates of food in his small arms, the young macrial waiter gave a weak smile as he was no older than she was.

"Thank you...Althea" the macrial waiter whispered trying to keep a low profile from her parents who bickered with his fellow servants.

Althea took the metal top off from the fancy silver plate and smelled the delicious large stack of chocolate pancakes, the many pieces pf buttered toast all warm to the touch, the large bowl of grease covered sausages that dripped with their delectable juices as they still sizzled, and finally Althea took in a good whiff of the many sunny side up prepared eggs that were always her personal favourite. She took the large and heavy tray from the greased stained waiter so he wouldn't have to set it in front of her before taking her place back at the long dinning table with the large tray in front of her.

"Mom...dad....I was wondering for at least once, maybe we can have Jasper eat with us? At the table I mean..." Althea asked hesitantly as the last of the house servants quickly fled back to the kitchen to escape her parents.

"Jasper?" her father said as he laughed to himself at the request, "He is still a wild animal and to mention dangerous, that is why he is kept away from us."

"He is your son!" Althea shouted

"A lady of your age should never yell." Her mom scolded before drinking her imported tea

"Yes mother..."Althea apologized softly.

The brown furred macrial that was her father sat his mug down on the coaster near him before turning his attention back to his outspoken daughter. "Adopted son." He corrected her

"Does it matter? He still deserves the same love you show me." Althea argued

"We showed him love by giving him a home and three meals a day and that is all the hospitality he will get from us until he shows us he can be normal." Her father countered before placing a hard boil egg into his mouth with a small fork.

"He never harmed me or Stross during his etiquette classes, the only thing he hurt where the security androids you used to punish him when he broke one of your many arbitrary rules." Althea said as her stomach growled

"Don't let your food go cold." Her mother interrupted briefly

Althea stuck her fork into several sausages before placing the stack in her mouth where she chewed them quickly before swallowing as her morning hunger was already taking hold of her. "And maybe if you sat down with him and treated him like a real member of this family he wouldn't have his outbursts."

"Althea...we all know that brutes such as him only understand violence as they are savage animals." Her father answered with his fork in hand

"He is not a brute! He is one of the most kind and gentle souls that I know!" Althea argued back as she stood up with her metal tray in her hands

"Where do you think you are going?" her father asked before drinking his morning coffee.

"I'm going to share my breakfast with my brother."

The overweight macrial that was Althea walked away from the long dining table with her long thick fuzzy tail dragging along the ground behind her.

[Milky Way Galaxy; Inner Worlds, VALOR Government, Pegasus Cluster, A-Class World, Outer Skirts of; Harth Estate, Jasper's room, Year 3,588 A.D, July 15th, 9:23AM]

Althea walked through the last of the security choke points to her brother's room which acted more like a prison than an actual bedroom. Several of her parents' combat androids that were fully equipped to go to war at a moments notice patted her down before she was made to wear a heavy security vest for her own protection that weighed her down. With one slow step after the other Althea made her way into her brother's room where she could already hear Stross in the faint distance trying to get him to say a single world properly.

"No that is not right master Jasper! Let's take it from the top, again..." Stross said with a tired sigh.

Althea passed a squad of combat androids who were also armed to the teeth in military grade equipment that were standing by to step in and put down her brother if he ever tried to attack his tutor. The security team watched the much shorter female waddle her way through the well decorated hallway when she stopped out of exhaustion as she was sweating and panting heavily from wearing the military vest over her large sweater while still holding the tray of warm food that had been warming the short fur on her face.

"Do you require assistance young Althea?" One of the closer combat androids asked as its body was made to look like that of the human species.

Althea leaned to the ground so she could gently drop the metal tray to the floor and pull the heavy security armour from over her body but it was much too heavy for her to do by herself, so the short and stocky girl was left to the mercy of the security guard who helped her carry the breakfast tray further down the hallway while she lagged behind sluggishly trying to move forward in the heavy gear.

Stross turned his head towards his two new guests and quickly walked over to Althea with a stern look on his face. He easily saw she couldn't go on anymore with the heavy security vest where eventually she collapsed to the ground. The plump macrial struggled to get up but the extra pounds weighed her down too much for her too move on, she was sweating heavily, short of breath and her chest pained her great as she reached out weakly to Stross who quickly kneeled in front of her and pulled the large security vest from her tired form.

"Thank...you." Althea said as she leaned against her caretaker when he pulled her so she could regain her regular breathing pattern.

"You are supposed to be having breakfast." Stross said sternly

"I am, just... going to have it with my... brother." Althea answered out of breath.

"Your not suppose to be here."

"It won't be long I promise, please Stross?" Althea asked wide eyed.

Stross looked down at the young macrial before him and shook his head. "No means no Althea, now go back to reviewing your scholarships." He ordered.

As Stross began to turn around he was completely caught off guard when Althea had her second wind and pushed past him to make quick headway into Jasper's room. She entered through the massive door that was needed for Jasper to leave his room. As she went more into the incredibly bare room she could make out the large scratch marks that were no doubt made from his acts of frustration, the room also was in a sorry state of repair as the wall paper was ripped and torn, some of the floor boards were missing, and several scorch marks that blackened several spots around the room.

"Jasper?" Althea asked to let her brother know it was her that was entering his room who was still out of sight of her, "it's me."

Althea followed the scratch marks where they became more and more frequent the farther she went into the dirty living quarters until she came up to a young black dragon that laid quietly at the back of the room who slowly sat up when he saw the overweight macrial approach him.

"What are...you doing here?" the drake asked trying to put together his sentence to the best of his abilities.

"I thought you could use the grub." Althea answered as she took the tray from the combat android.

"Althea, please leave, now." Stross demanded of her as he walked closer to Jasper as he was not intimidated by the adolescent dragon.

Jasper slowly walked towards the many foods that were laid down before him as he licked his jaws with his long red tongue. The hungry drake sat down in front of the tray of the many breakfast foods with his wings folded and kept tightly to his very weak backside, the black drake took the bowl of greasy sausages and dumped the contents into his opened maw where he devoured it all in a single gulp. Althea sat down beside her adopted brother who gorged himself upon the many foods as he was clearly starving from the hastily way he was eating.

"Stross, when was the last time Jasper ate?" Althea asked worriedly as she placed her left hand on her brother's side feeling his rib cage from how malnourished he was.

"Your parents have a strict schedule for his diet I think it would be wi-"Stross answered before he was cut off by the stocky pink female.

"Stross, when was the last time he ate?" repeated Althea now a little more stern in her tone.

"Four days." Stross answered regretfully.

Althea looked up at Jasper who returned her look with his own sorry expression of depression before he let out a soft whimper then finished everything the tray had to offer. Jasper sat back onto the ground with his long thin tail curled up to his almost anorexic body before he closed his eyes and let out a weak smile of happiness when his much smaller and fatter sister wrapped her arms around his fragile neck and hugged him lovingly.

"Oh Jasper..." Althea whispered to the starving drake. The young macrial released her hug from her brother and quickly walked over the closet security android that stood in full body armour with a handgun attacked to its thigh by a holster.

"How can I help you Althea?" The android asked that was made to look like a member of her race.

"My brother is very hungry, can you please get him something to eat?" she asked politely

The security guard looked forward at the dragon that was now on his side clutching at his stomach as the hunger pains stabbed at him immensely causing him to let out his quiet snivels. "I'm sorry Althea but your parents have forbidden Jasper's breakfast, lunch, and dinner until he can show improvements in his behaviour." The android guard answered.

Althea turned around to see Stross shaking his head knowing that if he didn't have the strict programming set on him he would have intervened on this heinous treatment of the adopted son of the Harth family long ago. Stross started to pat Jasper gently on his forehead trying to comfort the poor drake before he looked back to Althea and sighed softly.

"He will die if this keeps up for any longer!" Althea shouted after she turned back to the security guard.

"I'm sorry but your parents have given specific orders." The guard replied.

Althea became angrily frustrated with the combat android before a brilliant idea popped into her head. The young macrial pulled out her small Personal Data Assistant from her right pocket and aimed the front of it towards the security guard as she began entering a series of codes to bypass the countless anti-virus programs put in place to stop hackers such as herself but not before too long she easily passed her parent's top-of-the-line security programs and accessed the android's programming.

"Bring my brother Jasper something to eat!" Althea demanded

"Right away!" the reprogrammed android answered before he walked off

Althea turned back to joined Stross who patted Jasper gently along his neck who still was crying out in pain and holding his stomach with his scrawny arms. She placed her hand on his gaunt face that weakly nuzzled into her soft touch before she closed her eyes and began to cry on the drake's maw allowing for her many tears to soak into his dry mottling scales that only showed his unhealthy state.

"I'm sorry Althea; I would never allow this to happen but because of your parent's high security protection on me I had to force master Jasper to end up like this...and I wish your own computer prowess would able to overcome my much higher security." Stross said with growing anger.

Althea shook her head as she wiped her now red eyes with her arm to clean of her tears, "I don't blame you Stross; I wanted to believe my parents were telling the truth on his state but I should have known better..." Althea answered.

The overweight macrial stood up from Jasper and started to storm out of his room before her caretaker called out to her, "Where are you going?" Stross asked puzzled.

"I'm going down to the government building to report my mom and dad about what they are doing..." Althea said before she rubbed her sore red eyes again, "...what they are doing to Jasper!"

Althea walked past the returning security guard who carried a much larger tray than the one she had originally walked in with.

[Milky Way Galaxy; Inner Worlds, VALOR Government, Pegasus Cluster, A-Class World, City of Windsor, VALOR Embassy, Year 3,588 A.D, July 15th, 9:23AM

Althea leaned against the wall of the government building as she was completely out of breath; she looked forward to see the many steps leading up to the structure where numerous VALOR marines stood at the door way in full power armour along with their powerful military grade weapons. The squad of blue and white color coded marines looked almost completely identical if it weren't for the different body types of the different alien species that the squad was made up of.

She placed her arm near her mouth before she coughed into her sleeve. Her heart pounded and the fur on her face was matted with her sweat from the very sunny day that was beating down on her making her regret her decision on wearing such thick heavy clothing to cover up her excess weight from anyone she met in public. Althea gently cleaned her long ears from sweat too look as descent as possible before she talked to what ever government official was at his or her desk that day.

Althea took a final deep breath as she could feel her breathing become more normal and regulated before she started to head for the entrance of the embassy but in a blink of an eye the macrial was thrown back down the steps as the VALOR embassy exploded into an orange fireball. She looked up as her face was bloodied from the debris to see the building was completely levelled and the squad that once was guarding the building were lost in the dust.

In a dazed state the young macrial looked up to see a VALOR cruise ship just appear out of now, was now over the large city metropolis when its stealth field had turned off which Althea found especially odd as she never heard of the government ever utilizing stealth technology on such a large scale. Her distorted vision became slowly clearer and she saw that the VALOR star ship had a red and black paint job instead of the standard blue and white one.

In a matter of moments several squads of combat androids started to teleport into the middle of the busy city streets causing many cars and busses to crash into one another that created a huge pile up. Althea cowered with her arms covering her head as she remained static as the crashing of cars and the cries of innocent people where only suppressed by the booming noise of the attacking force's bombers that were specifically targeting VALOR occupied areas. Althea quickly started to run for her life but was quickly thrown back onto the dusty pavement when a low flying gunship flew past her with its two large rail cannon's under its broad wing span firing on any government soldiers that had came into weapon's range. The red and black painted gun ship opened the hatch on the backside of it allowing for the numerous marine teams to leap out the gun ship into the city streets below.

Althea rose to her feet slowly once more when she became frozen in fear as she felt the nozzle of a gun push up against her neck fur. "Stand up." The combat android ordered who bore the same color patterns as the invading force.

Althea began to tremble as she turned around to find herself looking down the barrel of a modified government issued weapon that was being held by a heavily armoured android that was made to look like a member of her species.

"Please...don't shoot." She quivered in fear as her fat legs trembled and shook.

"Don't move." The android ordered once more.

She saw past the combat android that held her at gun point to see the huge traffic pileup on the streets had only gotten worse, enemy soldiers that wore the red and black painted VALOR power armor were pulling civilians out of their cars by tearing off car doors with their amazing strength and throwing them out onto the road.

Without warning a massive VALOR capitol ship appeared in the atmosphere along side the enemy cruiser which was completely dwarfed in comparison to the government vessel. In a matter of short seconds the two star ships began exchanging fire power above the city with their entire arsenal of rockets, plasma torpedoes, and high powered rail shots.

Althea saw that her captor was distracted from the battle transpiring up above them and quickly pulled out her P.D.A from her pocket where she began to hack into the android's programming while the armoured soldier. Althea quickly panicked when the combat android turned around when it realized what the overweight macrial was doing.

"Alert, unauthorized access detected..." The combat android announced when it reloaded its rifle.

She closed her eyes tightly when she pressed the final sequence to hopefully get inside the artificial soldier's programming before the android would take her head off with a single round from its modified assault rifle. Before the combat android could fully squeeze the trigger it lowered its own weapon and saluted the scared macrial who was sweating bullets and hyperventilating.

"Awaiting orders." The macrial android stated

Althea rubbed her forehead that was damp from her own sweat as she looked at the other enemy soldiers who were still getting reinforcements from several gun ships that hovered just above them that dropped off tanks, marine teams, mechs, and large supply crates that contained medical devices and ammunition. The many families that were being dragged out of their homes onto the streets to be shoved into the same gun ships once they had an empty cargo bay. Althea motioned for the repurposed combat android to follow her as her thoughts quickly became that of Jasper's safety.

[Milky Way Galaxy; Inner Worlds, VALOR Government, Pegasus Cluster, A-Class World, City of Windsor,(Under Siege by Crimson Separatist Alliance forces), , Year 3,588 A.D, July 15th, 9:43AM]

The young macrial covered her head with her arms as she did her best to run back to her home that was in the suburbs of the war torn metropolis but every explosion, every ricocheting round caused her to take two steps back and cower out of fear. She continued to do her best to make pace while at the same time avoid any parts of the city where government marines did battle against the terrorists soldiers as giant humanoid shaped mechs took cover behind officer buildings and marine teams using the huge traffic pile ups as cover as they moved through the city streets.

A C.S.A gunship flew past Althea before it stopped just at the end of the street she was going to turn down to. The repainted aircraft seemed to have dropped something heavy into the street as a small crater was formed the gunship just hovered above and the fact the gunship seemed to haven move even faster when it left the battlefield.

Not before too long a VALOR patrol started to walk past the crater and waved for Althea to join them so they could get her too safety but as she caught her breath to run over, a rocket was launched from the crater as the C.S.A's stealth tank's cloaking emitters turned off. The government soldiers were completely massacred from the ambushed, like a trapdoor spider getting its evening meal where its prey had no warning or chance to retaliate

Althea watched the stealth tank go back into hiding as its form faded away into the background. She saw that yet another VALOR marine team was walking up the same path the previous squad was, the marines didn't wear the standard color that most government soldiers wore which was the blue and white color scheme but instead each member had yellow and black as their primary colors along with their own unique color stripe on their shoulder guards and helmet. She quickly began to panic knowing that these marines will end up like the others if she didn't do something as quick as possible.

Althea pulled out her modified data assistant and began to hack into the terrorist's stealth tank that waited for the oblivious marines to get into killing range. With sweat rolling down from every part of her squat body as she desperately tried to turn off the advance tank's cloaking systems before the marines were nothing more than a bloody smear on the damaged road.

"Come on!" Althea shouted to her data assistant as her reprogrammed combat droid body guard stood with a blank stare on its face.

Althea saw through her hacking that the stealth tank had already began to target the three marines who had just walked past the crater that tank was sitting comfortably in. She looked up from her modified device to see the small team of three was quickly making headway to her position but even with their enhanced speed from the power armour they wore they would not make it out of the weapon's range of the stealth tank by the time it finished reloading the next salvo of rockets.

"Please work, please work!" Althea panicked from the lives of the marines that she was clearly on the line.

She closed her eyes and pressed down on the final button with both of her thumbs and hoped for the best. Althea looked up to see the three man squad quickly turn around when their software picked up the readings of the hidden tank when its cloak failed instantly revealing the black and red painted vehicle that was nestled in its crater.

The largest member of the squad was a creature that Althea had never seen before, the massive white and grey furred badger-like humanoid alien pointed the equally as large chain gun he carried at the C.S.A stealth tank.

"Scatter!" yelled the marksmen in her filtered voice who knew the tank was about to fire.

The stealth tank launched a volley of rockets into the squad's position but the marines had already reacted allowing only the road to be blown to atoms. The tank's main gun quickly began rotating to the left to target the chubby macrial who stood frozen in fear as the tank finished loading its next set of rockets.

"Move dammit!" yelled the sniper once more when the raptor like creature noticed the cowering macrial wasn't moving a muscle.

The powerful grey furred creature charged the red and black painted tank in frenzy. The stealth tank tried quickly turn its main weapon around to meet the much more dangerous target but was unable to destroy him when he leaped onto the sleek vehicle and began tearing at any exposed wiring with his powerful claws.

The third squad member who waited in cover quickly leaped from his spot and ran towards the tank who continued to spin its main gun around in circles to throw the large humanoid badger off of its hull. The grey furred creature jumped off the tank when his team mate got on himself and tore open the hatch to the inside of the tank and jumped in. Althea watched as high powered rail shots fired from the inside of the stealth tank exited its armour plating from the battle inside and then in an instant the orinthor marine jumped out from the hatch and ran towards her before the tank exploded making it into a useless pile of scrap metal.

Althea looked up at the tall government marine that stood before her; he wore an enhanced version of the standard power armour as unlike regular soldiers this one had much thicker armour plating along with extra protection around vital areas and joints. What also set apart this marine and his two squad mates who quickly joined his side is that they all had the same black and yellow paint job on their own uniquely tailored power armour along with a black painted star on their right shoulder guards.

The orinthor marine placed his large, high powered, assault rifle on his back that locked tightly to his back due to the powerful magnets that were there. He kneeled down a bit so he could be at eye level with her as the other two soldiers walked past the reprogrammed separatist combat android, the large badger creature sniffed the android as he did not know what to make of the artificial creature.

"Are you Althea?" The soldier asked.

She nodded back silently when the platypus like creature that was talking to her was pulled aside by the squad's marksmen who pointed down the street with her large sniper rifle to show more than a dozen of the red and black rebel soldiers complete with two bi-pedal walkers for armoured support.

"We have to get you out of the city, stay close and keep your head down." The orange stripped marine ordered to her.

"I can't" Althea answered in disobedience.

The marine turned around with his helmet masking his dumbfounded glare at the stocky alien, "What do you mean, you 'cant'?"

"My brother is still back at the mansion! I have to go back for him!" She answered back

The marine sighed, "A detachment has already been sent to evacuate people of importance, and we are here to get you out of here-"the marine answered when a huge section of the road near them exploded.

The two towering mechs continued firing as they marched upon the squad's location with their infantry support taking cover behind cars and ally ways while barking derogatory slurs at the small team.

"I'm really starting to hate these recruitment missions..." the marine sighed as he grabbed Althea by her hand and threw her behind the cover and he kneeled from the same cover spot and started to pick off the advancing rebels with his assault rifle.

Althea covered her head with both of her arms as bullets whizzed past overhead and the loud noises coming from the orinthor marine who was firing his high powered rifle so close to her. As the orange stripped marine picked off his third kill the left most advancing mech fired a barrage of anti-infantry rounds that punctured several holes in his chest plate sending the VALOR marine to the ground.

"Just my god damn day!" the marine angrily growled as he grasped at his wounds with both hands while lying on his back.

Althea quickly crawled over as she could hear the heavy boots of the approaching rebel marines getting much closer along with the mechanical sounds of the two walking tanks. She placed both her hands over his bullet wounds to stop as much of the bleeding as she could but he pushed her away.

"Its going... it's going to take a lot more than that to bring me down. besides my suit can patch me up." The marine groggily stated

Althea looked past the wounded marine to see his two squad mates were in no shape to help either, the very large, grey furred alien who wielded the powerful minigun was pinned down behind a commercial food truck that had been flipped over on its side from the massive traffic pile up. The two skinny mechs suppressed the alien's field of fire with their barrage of anti-personal rounds that caused the different types of civilian vehicles to explode in orange fireballs when ever they were caught in the cross fire.

"Are those machines piloted?" Althea asked as the heavy boots of the rebel marines became that much closer.

"Nah," The marine nodded in pain "They're drones."

Althea looked at the nearest walker which was only dwarfed by the huge office buildings in the ruined streets it had created; its once blue and white color paint job was now crudely painted over in red and black with the word "VALOR" just as hastily scratched out with a file along side the mech's chassis.

"VALOR dogs!" the rebel shouted when he found both Althea and the orange stripped marine on the ground behind their makeshift cover.

Althea covered her head once more when the wounded marine quickly drew his side arm from the holster on his side and snapped several shots into the human's chest that quickly dropped the terrorist onto the hood of the car. The sweating macrial backed away from the car when she saw the still bleeding corpse of the rebel marine while the orange stripped marine gave a cold laugh as he sat up.

"If they are automated, I should be able to take control of one" Althea said hopefully when the marine looked at her puzzled.

"Using what exactly?"

She took out her personal data assistant from her pocket and showed the government soldier her custom built device with both of her hand, "With this!"

"That can't be legal..." the marine stated.

Althea shifted her eyes away from the marine's visor and began going through the many applications on her PDA as the other two marines in the squad were now completely pinned down as both mechs and their infantry force was marching on their position. She could overhear both of the wounded marine's comrades yelling at him to do something as in a matter of moments both of them would be nothing more than piles of slag.

The right most mech crushed the truck the grey furred marine was hiding behind under its foot and aimed its anti-personal weapon at the government soldier. The large weapon began to spool as at this close range even the heavy armour the powerful creature was wearing would mean nothing, as the first round got ready to fire from the chain gun the chassis of the mech exploded as hundreds of high powered rounds cut through its armour plating like Swiss cheese.

The rebel marines looked up to see one of their mechs had gone rogue and began firing on its own squad mates, instantly the terrorists began running in different directions to find a place of cover but as they ran frantically the three man squad quickly moved from their spots and started to pick off as many as they could.

Althea's attention was focused solely on her newly hacked pet as she made the tall walking tank plough through the entire terrorist force that had attacked them. The mech drew the firepower of the rebel soldiers as countless rounds bounced harmlessly off the walker's heavy armour plating allowing for the three man marine team to push forward with weapons blazing.

Quickly the rebel force in the city street was in full retreat as the combine fire power of the squad and the reprogrammed mech was too much for them to handle. The orange stripped marine gave a victorious laugh when he gave Althea a hard pat on the back when she waddled over to the squad but the orinthor marine under estimated his own strength and pushed the pink furred creature into the torn road by accident.

"Let's get back to the ship." The marine said with a nod as his two squad mates agreed in silence.

[Milky Way Galaxy; Inner Worlds, United Nation Special Forces VALOR Military, Carrier-Destroyer Titan Class cruiser. Year 3,588 A.D, July 15th, 10:50AM]

Althea sat patiently in the small room at a quite well polished table. A one way mirror was directly across from here along with the only way to enter and exit the room was to her right. In what seemed like ages the automatic door quickly opened to allow a single military officer into the room with her where the black armoured took his place at the empty chair opposite of her.

"Ms. Harth, I understand that you have quite the device you designed." The human asked as he adjusted his black officer's cap over his helmet.

"Well...it's not really mine...sir; I mean I built it..." Althea awkwardly admitted

The officer let out a small chuckle as he opened the brown color folder he carried into the room with. With both of his gloved hands he opened the folder to show several files the government had been gathering on her over the years.

"We have always been fully aware of your intelligence ever since we noticed almost all universities were sending you scholarships to participate in however many courses and for as long as you want for free." The black armoured officer responded

"I'm no soldier, why would you want me?" she asked sheepishly.

"The government is prepared to give you an offer of our own; we plan to overlook your device if you were to join a special team as their technician."

Althea shifted in her chair as her large feet hovered off of the floor from being much to short, "I don't think I'm cut out for the military life, I'm sorry sir." She answered before letting her self down.

The officer watched her about to open the door when he answered, "Then that is a shame considering your device is illegal and if it is not in the hands of someone who is a member of the government..."

Althea moved away from the door as she was now shaking in fear before turning to face the imposing military officer who had both of his hands folded together on the table.

"P-p-prison?" she stuttered

"Unless of course you accept our offer then we will be able to overlook it. I do not want wish to threaten you to join in such a manner but as you clearly saw what these terrorists are capable of, VALOR needs you Ms. Harth. We will of course make any accommodations that you might need." The officer answered before the door to the small interview room opened up.

A fully armed VALOR marine stood in the door way in the standard blue and white color power armour, his large assault weapon was attached to his power pack on his back side via magnets.

"Sergeant, would you kindly take Ms. Harth here down to the engineering deck so the staff can make her custom fit power armor?" the officer ordered

"Right away, sir!" the marine replied in the standard filtered voice.

Althea walked towards the much taller human who waited for patiently for her to waddle over already out of breath. She turned around to see the trench coat-wearing officer was watching her on the way out, his helmet masking any emotion he may have had on his face.

"Sir...if there is one thing I can ask of-" Althea spoke before the military officer cut her off.

"Don't worry; both your parents are safe along with most of the staff...although we had to make special arrangements for the ..." the officer coughed before continuing, "...dragon we found, but his papers did check out to be a citizen. He should be in the medical wing being checked for wounds and...malnutrition."

Althea bowed, "Thank you...?" she asked trying to fish for his name.

The officer stood up from his chair before answering, "Call me Charles, Charles Wareman."