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"Sergeant Nox Virga, step forward and make your case."

The low murmur of conversation in the well-lit courtroom dropped almost immediately at the words of the well dressed cougar who sat behind the judge's bench. His dress uniform was a stark contrast to that of the feline greymuzzle's who slowly rose to his feet at the back of the room. Nox made his way to a table parallel to the mahogany pedestal which passed as a military court's bench these days. The panther was nude, yet despite this he carried himself with the pride of a distinguished war hero rather than a prisoner. His cock was hard, as though mocking the attempt to humiliate him as the chains which bound his wrists and looped around his neck filled the silent air with their jangling song.

"Be seated" the judge ordered as Nox reached the pair of chairs which had been left for him and his lawyer, one of them already filled by the fox who was to be his advocate. The crisp navy whites the fox wore looked as though they had been pressed just for this occasion; Nox couldn't help but turn his lips up in a sneer at the thought. He sat as he had been told to but only because the weight of the chains made it hard to much else. If he moved his arms too far apart, the chain tightened against his throat and cut off his air.

The stately cougar peered from his towering seat, looking the panther over as if a cursory glance could determine the male's guilt or innocence. "You stand accused of murdering your squad, including a superior officer, disobeying a direct order and conduct unbefitting a member of this military force. How do you plead?"

Nox wasn't listening.

"Not guilty, your honour." It was the fox who spoke, rising from his seat for only a second to address the judge before seating himself once more.

"Very well. I'm sure I'm not alone in eagerly awaiting an explanation of how your defendant was not responsible for this heinous act, counsel." The answer brought a familiar murmur from the assembled furs in the courtroom's gallery. There was little surprise amongst the spectators, all had come expecting to see Nox sentenced to death; such a breach of military protocol almost demanded it, and the evidence was overwhelming. Four bodies, a transmission log of the altercation and only Nox still standing at the end of it.

"Well your honour," began the fox, "I would like to begin by..."

Nox's mind drifted as he looked away from the judge to instead look out one of the tinted panel windows which lined the western wall of the courtroom. Beyond it lay a garden the panther had always been too busy to notice as he'd lived and worked on the base that had so recently become his prison.

_ It had been sunny. The water had lapped at the panther's feet as he sat on the side of the small troop transport which swayed in the gentle waves that roiled against its' bow. The calm was deceptive, he'd known that then; his age may have been a source of ridicule amongst the younger recruits but he'd still outlive the majority of them. Why? Experience. It honed his every decision and gave him an edge that all of their youthful confidence put together couldn't match. The black lycra briefs he wore were too tight, they always were and he'd known he'd have to have another talk with the equipment guys back at the base. Four other males sat ready to dive into the clear blue waters, each had worn the same black briefs as the panther as well as the same yellow air tanks and clear plastic regulators._

"You ready, Corporal?" A well-toned badger asked the question as he'd looked towards the panther; Nox had simply nodded. "Then take them in."

"Yes, sir" the feline had replied curtly before he'd looked towards the other furs waiting for orders:. A young Dalmatian, fresh out of boot camp, a thin framed hyena whose fur had glistened with water from his earlier scouting run, an otter native to the area who had been contracted as a guide, and the badger. None of them had impressed the panther at the time. He had been transferred to this unit three days before the mission and had yet to work in the field with any of them; they seemed sloppy, too familiar with each other. "Dip in, boys." Nox had slipped from the edge of the craft, vanishing into the water with a rush of bubbles which had tickled at his cheeks and streamed against the curved plastic face-mask he'd worn.

"Is that true, Sergeant?" The judge's question snapped Nox back to the present and he looked to the fox seated beside him. The todd raised his brow at the look he received and hinted at the answer with a slight nod.

"Yes. It is." The answer was instant, the panther as good a soldier as they came and following orders was second nature... except...

"I don't care if you think it's a good idea or not, Corporal. It's what I say we're doing, so we're doing it."

That had been it, hadn't it? The turning point, the reason he was now sitting here naked before his peers and his life in the hands of a judge who clearly thought him guilty. Regret didn't enter the aged male's mind however, he was here and had he been in the same situation he'd have made the same choices. The fox was deep into his jargon-filled defense of the panther's actions, they had gone over his story at length and now it was in the smooth-talking vulpine's paws.

"Sir, a direct assault..." Nox's voice crackled in the ears of his squadmates, there was no room for private discussion in a situation like this and the open mic built into their masks disallowed the option of whispering.

"Is the best course of action, Corporal. Now shut up and take the rear." The dismissive answer from the badger had infuriated the panther, though he hadn't let it show on either his face, or in his voice.

"Roger, sir." He wanted to spit out that last word but held himself in check, if they were going to do this, he'd known that he couldn't afford to get angry. The small network of caves, which had been blasted from the very rock of a crevice in the ocean floor, stared at them like the hollow sockets of a skull, each promising danger, death but possible glory. Sonar beacons in the area had detected activity in the seemingly calm waters over the past several weeks, and they were to find it and stop it. Gun runners, terrorists, or an oddly territorial pod of dolphins, there was no knowing what they would find.

"So tell me, what happened after your squad began their assault on the cave system, Sergeant?" The judge leaned forward once more, directing the question directly to Nox this time. "We have the transmissions that attest to your disagreement with the commander's orders, a disagreement which... allegedly... led to his death at your hands."

Nox didn't take the bait, they wanted an excuse to cut this trial short, to throw him back in the stockade and forget about him until they could assemble a firing squad detail. "The caves were occupied, as intelligence had believed them to be. They were well armed, gun runners we believed at the time, and they knew we were coming. They must have set up motion detectors at the cave entrance. Our guide, the otter, was killed before we even knew they were there.

Thrashing. The sudden movement had stolen the panther's attention as they'd swum into the darkness of the cave. He could see the otter from the corner of his eye as they'd made their entry, and it was hard to miss the lean male's sudden flurry of movement. A spear was embedded in his belly, how it had gotten there had been beyond the panther at the time. The otter squealed into his mask, the sound filling the ears of the other males as the otter tugged on the embedded projectile in a futile attempt to remove it.

More spears had zipped past Nox's head, though even as their guide fell still, floating listlessly in the water, the marines had returned fire.

"It was too dark to see who was attacking, how many, or where they were. They must have had a bead on us as soon as we'd crossed the threshold of the cave entrance. The infrared sensors in our diving masks were being scrambled; we were sitting ducks for them." Nox continued emotionlessly. He had been through enough battles to know that getting emotional didn't help, and wasn't he in the midst of a battle right now? The judge was looking for an opening, like a fencer waiting for his chance to strike.

"So what happened then?" The judge's simple question carried with it the implicit understanding that it was, in fact, an order to continue.

The fight.

"We pulled out." Nox answered bluntly.

"You pulled out?"

THE FIGHT!.

"Yes sir" Nox replied.

"Sergeant" began the judge, "Need I remind you that it is standard protocol to monitor, and record all transmissions during field operations in order to review squad competency during de-briefing?"

"Yes sir" Nox repeated. He looked to the fox beside him; they had anticipated this move, who wouldn't? A good soldier read the battlefield long before the first shot was to be fired. The judge didn't bother rebuke the panther this time, simply gesturing towards a cheetah seated at a nearby table. A press of a button and the speakers in the courtroom buzzed to life. A brief second of silence followed before the air filled with the sound of Nox's former commander.

* * *

"Fuck. Ambush! Cover!"

"I can't see 'em!" It was the dalmation youth, his voice edged with panic.

"Take cover, Private, rocks, to the side!" The badger again. His voice was ribbed with a sudden rush of adrenaline, fear heavy beneath his words. Despite the frantic voices buzzing over their mics, there was no hint of the events leading to those tones. The mics couldn't pick up the sounds of spears streaking through the water. A single gurgled rasping wheeze was the only sign that the otter had just died, a poor marker for a life cut short.

"Great fucking idea, commander." It was Nox speaking this time. He was panting from the exertion of whatever battle the marines had been locked in. "How about next time we ring the goddamn doorbell!"

"Stow that shit, Corporal! Now's not the fucking time!"

"When is the time then, after we're fucking fish food?" There was no sound from the other two divers.

There was no immediate reply this time. Only the grunts of exertion and strain as whatever was transpiring around them played out.

Two minutes of this passed, the court gallery beginning to squirm as they listened to the tape being played. Finally, the relative silence was broken by the sound of a blast. The tape clicked to a stop.

* * *

"And what was that?" The judge's tone was smug. He had him in a lie, and now it was time for the final thrust.

"A rear-guard action, sir. I attached the small reserve of Semtex we had been issued for the mission to the body of our guide. We then propelled his body deeper into the cave and detonated. It was a necessary aspect of our withdrawl as we would have been targeted easily had we not provided ourselves some cover" the panther paused briefly, looking to the judge intently, "sir. We then withdraw as I said previously." The scowl from the judge was all the satisfaction Nox needed; parry.

"We can only assume enemy casualties, but there were fewer shots being fired following the explosion, so we headed for the extraction transport before potential hostile reinforcements could arrive."

_ The rush of pressure against his skin as the concussive blast of the explosion washed over him was enough to draw a gasp from the startled panther. Even at his age he could still be surprised it seemed, the explosion slightly... miscalculated, perhaps._

"Fall back!" He'd cried over the ringing in his own ears. There'd been a garbled reply, he figured from the badger, but the transmission was fragmented badly. He could see the dalmation and hyena already heading away from the fray but as he'd moved to join them the weight of the badger was smothering him. A heavy paw had closed around the panther's air tube as another gripped him by the throat and began to squeeze. Even as he felt that grip tighten, they were moving, the badger's legs propelling them after the other two. Spears still darted through the water, but they were wild and unaimed; anyone still in that particular cave entrance would had been thoroughly rung by that explosion after all.

"Fucking little shit!" growled out the badger as he continued to squeeze the panther's regulator hose. That tightness manifested itself in the feline's lungs as they soon found themselves sucking in whatever oxygen they could find. The badger had blood on his mind, "First you question my orders, now this!?" The panther struggled helplessly against the larger male's grip, the two wrestling in the water as if they weren't about to be overrun by pissed off gun-runners! It was only by chance that Nox's weakening paws stumbled across the short knife strapped to his thigh. His brain was already revelling in the starbursts of colour that filled his darkening vision but when his fingers curled around that handle they knew what to do.

* * *

A low moaning gurgle that reeked of death and despair rumbled from the courtroom's speakers. Immediately after it, a shorter, higher pitched cry filled the ears of the gathered spectators. Silence followed for nearly a minute before a single ripple of noise, like the intake of breath before a scream, marked the end of the tape.

* * *

"As I see it, Sergeant, you were unhappy with the command decisions of your superior officer and after questioning them, attacked the commander. You murdered him, why? Because of a single decision he'd made? Whatever the reason, the consequences will be the same.

'You've got me pegged pretty good' thought Nox smugly. He allowed the judge to take a moment to bask in his own killing stroke; riposte.

"The commander was in the midst of a killing frenzy, sir. It's well known that badgers, when injured, lash out at anything around them. He was too close to the explosive blast and came at me. I was forced to defend myself. Both Pvt. Santiago and Lance Corporal Marshall were killed by enemy fire as they swam away, I hid amongst some rocks and later made for the extraction point.

_ The feel of the badger's body jerking against him was enough to draw a low moan from the panther. Oxygen once more filled his lungs as the badger's grip loosened. His cock was rock hard in his briefs, almost as rigid as the knife which now rested in the dying badger's throat. Blood filled the water almost immediately as it gushed from the large male, his body detaching from Nox's as the feline made to swim to safety. His paw grabbed the speargun from the large corpse's belt, turning and firing it at the hyena who had stopped to see what was going on. It entered the surprised male's chest in a splatter of red as his body rolled backwards. The panther didn't falter for a second. The dalmation would have to die too, he'd tell them what had really happened and then the panther was as good as hung. He'd looked back once as he'd swum after the fleeing canine, spotting the commander's form drifting towards the sandy ocean floor._

He passed the dead hyena only a few seconds later. The male was already gone, eyes wide behind his mask and his cock stiff In his uniform as if mirroring the feline's own needy dick. The dalmation was easy to catch, the boy was in a panic from the sudden clusterfuck that had erupted around him. When the feline's paws looped around the younger male, he couldn't help but grind his hips against the taut stomach of the captured soldier. He hadn't said a word, he'd known they'd be recording it. Instead, he simply curled his legs around the boy's waist, cinching them tightly as his paws gave one stroke of the boy's ears before pulling the younger male's mask clean off. The canine only had a second to draw in a breath to scream before the mask was ripped from his face. His air supply suddenly gone, the boy could only scream out a stream of bubbles which floated past Nox and towards the surface.

The boy's panic only helped Nox's curled legs to deplete whatever oxygen still resided in those lungs. It wasn't long before the lean teenage boy's struggles began to wane, and as they did the panther could only relish the sensation. He still couldn't talk, he couldn't even utter a moan as he came. Warm cream pulsed from his tip, misting slightly through his tight briefs as the dalmation expired; it felt like heaven. When the legs unwound from the dalmation's corpse, it floated facedown back towards the darkness of the ocean floor.

Forms had finally begun to appear from the cave entrance they had just retreated from, however. The reinforcements had arrived and as they began to fan out, the panther turned and swam away.

"It was unfortunate, sir... but I had to retreat alone" Nox concluded. The judge looked silently furious.

"You expect me to believe that!?" The judge erupted, his anger spilling forth like verbal lava looking to burn the very flesh from Nox's bones.

"The tape corroborates my story, sir."

The judge simply stared at the panther and fox. "That's disgusting. That you would lie--"

A voice cried out from the rear of the court, "Leave 'im alone, 'e's a 'ero!", a diminutive mouse, a spectator who had come into this courtroom expecting to see the panther die and instead found himself believing in the cat's innocence. Another voice piped up, and another. Though only a quarter of the spectators had begun to demand the judge to reconsider, it was enough to bring the proceedings to a stand-still. Nox simply smirked as an M.P officer rushed forward to grab his chains and escort him from the room. Even if he died now, at least he'd put on a show.

It was two days before they put him back in front of the judge. The cougar looked sullen and resentful as he seated himself, the rest of the court following suit. "After careful consideration of testimony, and evidence, the council of judges has ruled that Nox Virga shall be stripped of all rank and privilege for conduct unbecoming a Navy Marine. By wilfully desecrating the corpse of a Navy ally, he has brought disgrace on the uniform. In regards to the deaths of his fellow soldiers, and commanding officer..." the judge paused, frowning; whatever decision had been reached had clearly not been to his liking. "it has been decided that Nox Virga shall henceforth be transferred to the custody of The Silver Spears. Nox Virga is too valuable a combat resource to be simply discarded, and shall instead atone for his failings by this service, and his death in combat. That is all."

Nox sat in the same stunned silence which had gripped the spectators of the court. This was unexpected, and Nox could only smile at the judge as the baliff moved forward to once again remove him from the courtroom.

'Perfect', the panther thought. He didn't have much use for all the rules over here anyway. The courtroom door closed behind him but Nox didn't look back, he allowed himself to be led back to the cell where he would await the transport from the Merc company he'd been sold to.

A rare smile creased the old cat's muzzle as he sat back on his bunk and waited. 'What comes next?' he wondered. Outside, the first errant drops of a cool spring rain began to patter against the asphalt landscape that made up the navy base. Those who weren't on duty scrambled for the cover of the nearest building as at the gate, a small personal carrier driven by a battle-scarred German Shepherd pulled up for inspection.

"Orders, sir?" asked a young recruit, looking up at the stern looking Shepherd nervously.

"Let me in, kid. I have a new toy to pick up." He slipped a hardcopy of his orders into the paws of the young meercat smoothly before looking towards the yellow and black striped arm preventing his entry. "A damn fine new toy, indeed."