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Carbon slammed the side door and made it fully known that he was back from a fruitless excursion. "Fucker tries to kill us in the worst way I've ever imagined, then he ~sabotages our ride~!? Ashe, get your ass over here and bring that damned laptop so we can fix this."

The Arctic wolf perked up from the sofa a room over. "Carbon? What's wrong?"

"He fucked with the navigation computer and the whole thing won't start unless all the systems pass checks." The hybrid growled and slammed the nearby kitchen counter. "Fuck. We need to get going before they can reach Lambda Tower."

"I'll do what I can, then. Little help though?" Elliot stood from right next to Ashe and silently offered his arm, the otter slowly getting the hang of his etiquette regarding the blind. "Thanks, honey. Let's go get this sorted out. Okay?"

Ellie smiled as he made himself useful. "It sounds serious, so I'll help where I can. Maybe we should get Robyn too?"

Carbon nodded and grabbed Ilaria. "Where'd you leave her? Your bedroom?"

"Yeah. I'll check upstairs."

"She went into our bedroom with that human Iolvin left with us." Vasily walked out of his study, a large rifle still comfortable in his paws, and hinted towards the master bedroom. "Your mother's in there too. I'd wager they're doing something ~inappropriate~ in there."

"With Zoë around?" Yoyo frowned and stomped over to the bedroom, with his sister and Carbon in tow. "I ordered her to stay and guard Robyn for a reason. There'd better be a good reason if she isn't focused on doing that."

"Actually... your mother can sort of give her orders too. She's bound to the whole family, remember?" Carbon nudged to the door first and paused to listen before opening it. "Sounds innocent enough..."

Yoyo rolled his eyes in frustration and pushed the door open. "Zoë?" The human sat against the far side of the bed next to Robyn, but didn't look back to her patron when he called. "Oh, you're just here with Robyn?"

Robyn giggled and answered for the girl, who for an unknown reason was preoccupied with something in her lap. "Might try back later, Yoyo. We're a tad busy here."

"Well we need to get out of here and--" The otter quirked his head as he noticed something out of place. "Wait... Zoë, are you wearing a sirat?"

"Mum rummaged one up for her, alright." Still, Robyn spoke on the human's behalf. "Could we steal a minute now, Yoyo? I promise I'll bring her back in one piece."

"We need you, actually." Carbon walked over to Robyn, then halted to stare at something for a moment. "Uhg... Whatever. We just need Robyn for now. Ship's broke."

"Well I still like the idea of keeping the kids safe. Zoë, we're going with them so get your head back--" Yoyo made his way deeper into the room and his eyes settled to the same spot as Carbon's, right on his mother's muzzle jammed between the human's thighs. "Mom! What the fuck!"

The older otter pulled her head back to look at her son, licking her chops clean before she spoke. "I wanted to give you a little gift, but she was too cute to resist..."

Iolvin wanted to reach out and pull his mother away when she started right back up. "Well stop it! Zoë, how could you even let her do this to you?"

"Sh-She as-sked me~e~e~ t-to..."

Everyone watched in astonishment as the human girl came, copious volumes of her juices audibly gulping down Catherine's throat as she spasmed about. "Mom... Damn it." Yoyo waited for Zoë to calm down before he pulled her away and settled the sirat"s drapes to cover her better. "You don't have to abuse our relationship with her, Mom. I'd like to keep it more or less innocent."

"Bit late for that, isn't it? She told me all about how you fucked her good and hard." Cat stood up and straightened out her own sirat, then picked up some folded cloth by the head of the bed. "I made one for you too, by the way. We were just wasting time since you took a while to come back."

"Just clean up and meet us outside. We can bang out the ground rules regarding intra-familial sex later." Carbon groaned and offered a helping paw to Robyn to slide her off the bed. "And Cat, I know you're starved for pussy and all, but try not to upset your son. I need him in top shape."

"Aww..."

Carbon paused before he left the room. "We can arrange to share a bed later if Vasily's up for it." She waved around one of her tendrils, then grabbed the door with it to close off the room when she left. "I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve I recently learned, and I'll have to show you guys..."

"Eww." Yoyo took the red sirat cloth, only one piece due to his lack of breasts to support and cover, and unfolded it for inspection. "Look, I'm not really... well, ~that~ mad anyway. Just don't do stuff like that without passing it by me first. I'm responsible for Zoë after all."

"I can respect that, honey." Cathy reached for her son's belt and yanked it open, but backed away when he fought her. "I just want to see how handsome you'd look in that. I haven't seen you in an adult one since... your high school graduation."

"Yeah, and I had clothes on beneath it." Yoyo re-latched his belt and softly tugged on Zoë's arm. "I'll show you later. Carbon isn't kidding about us needing to go. It's pretty serious."

"Are you...?" Cat's expression quickly lost its luster when she eyed the pistol on her son's hip. "If Carbon has you running around with guns, it really ~must~ be serious. Fine, we'll wait until later." She gestured for Ari to come in from the hallway as she peeked through a cracked door, then roped the twins into a hug. "Be careful, my whelps. I love the both of you to death, and I'll be praying for you."

"You? Praying?" Ilaria thought about the few times she'd ever seen her mother pray and lunged for another hug. "We'll make the most of every blessing. I love you, mom."

Iolvin leaned in and gave Cat a kiss on the forehead. "We both love you, and we'll be careful for you."

"Good." Cathy gave both her children sobbing kisses to the cheeks, then forced herself to back away. "Now go make me proud."

Even before the rear gate touched the deck, Carbon had squirreled her way onto the landing pad and began pointing around. "Lilly, Adem... hell, Car too. You guys take the express freight up to the main docking hub and make absolutely sure nothing gets on my tower. I know you hate zero-G, Car, but suck it up. Radio interval of ten minutes once combat starts. Got it?"

Carmine ducked his head as he found his compact rifle. "Aww..."

Adem took the weapon from him and helped carry it to the mentioned elevator column. "You've got this, little buddy."

"Thanks..."

Lilith eased out of the orbiter and hesitated before she went off. "But... what about Vorak? Maybe I should--"

"Lilly, he's as good as dead. Best to sever those ties best you can before it happens. We'll work out the genetic reprogramming crap later." Carbon shot the drake a stern look and she continued to the freight lift, but not without looking conflicted about her orders. "Lilly... He knows what I'd normally do, and securing the space decks is unusual for me. I figure if there's a shot he'd keep up the trend, it's best you're there to stop him." Lilly smiled as she heard that, bounding behind the others more readily. "Use... whatever force is necessary, as long as he's no longer a threat."

Ilaria hopped out of the orbiter from the side hatch, landing rather smoothly and proving she was getting quite skilled with her new prosthesis. "So what about us? Where can we help?"

"You can--" Without notice, a queo tendril reached out and grabbed one of Carbon's, sending her into a very unexpected Link with the other party. «What the fuck?»

«Sorry about that, Carbon.» Just by the connection's flavor alone Carbon could tell it was Rose Linking with her, but they slowly turned to face each other out of politeness. «We needed to talk quickly and this was the best option.»

«So what's so important? I sort of have--»

«Vorak is returning? Interesting.» Rose nodded to Evelyn. «Thanks for the update.»

Carbon looked to Eve with a hint of confusion in her eyes, which the plant girl eradicated soon enough. «What? She was going to find out I was more than a normal symbiont sooner or later. At least this way we don't need to explain everything.»

«So the rumors ~are~ true. So this is the first truly intelligent companion of our kind...»

Eve sighed and rolled her eyes. «I'm alive, you know. My name's Evelyn, and I'm not some thing.»

«Whatever. She didn't mean anything by it.» Carbon checked the horizon idly as she talked, not wanting to be counterproductive. «We have an attack coming, Rose, so if you would...»

«Uh... right. Here...» A surge of genetic information flooded Carbon's body and Evelyn dissipated to better process it. «That'll make more sense later, but the important part is about Sentra. I knew I saw him somewhere before, so I asked around... more or less»

«So, you forced a Link on some poor guy then.»

«Well what else was I supposed to do?» Rose sighed and got to her point. «Look, he's a big shot. The big shot. He's the current head of the Sect on Earth, Carbon.»

«That doesn't make sense. Why would he come out here alone then?»

«Because he wanted to get close and fool you into thinking he was defenseless.» Rose checked around for Eve so she could explain but found no trace of the girl. «Ugh, you need to get faster at this... Sentra worked his way up as an assassin. He's currently the covert operations head for the Sect and that means--»

Eve finally reappeared, holding up a few images she'd drawn from the stolen memories. «He's got a damn fleet, Carbon. Twelve terrestrial ships and two orbital, if this information is correct. If they were attacking a water-borne base, it would have to be by sea or by air...»

Carbon locked his eyes on his robotic exoskeleton standing on the main deck and forcibly broke the Link. "We're checking this out. Give me a minute."

Rose skillfully hopped off the edge of the landing platform and used her vines on nearby structuring struts so she'd land softly. "Does that thing even work? I thought the last of those fiir were produced before I was born."

"Oh, he works alright. One of the latest and greatest commander-class golems, courtesy of the late sixties." The hybrid landed a bit rougher but hurried over to her mech all the same. "Now let's just hope that imitation aeti was enough to get him back to full charge. We don't have months to do it the slow way."

"Slow way?" Rose found an energy core placed to the side of the mechanical beast, then spotted a brand new one that Carbon had crafted sticking out the back of the golem. "Oh, so you created an adapter? I thought your fii foundry was out of commission..."

"Not exactly important now, Rose." The Major touched the machine and the cockpit popped open, allowing her to slip inside. "Oh yeah. That new cell works like a charm. Eve, position the satellites to your best guess."

"Sure thing. One moment while they fire into place..." Eve showed a map of the globe and placed some simple icons representing the satellite cameras as they shifted nearly a quarter of the way around Earth. "Alright. Let's see if there's anything but water and fish out there."

"Oh, that was something for a second..." Carbon shifted the cameras so they pointed more to the west and her heart sank into her boots. "Well fuck. That's not good."

Rose tried to interface with the fir, but settled for leaning into the cockpit when her genetic pattern was rejected. "What's the matter? Is it a big carrier or something? A lot of them? What?"

"Yes, and yes." Carbon grabbed Rose gently with Ex's hand and placed her on the mech's back, freeing her to walk the group back to the others. "A freighter and a dozen technical landers. We'll definitely need those weapons powered up, Eve."

"On it. Checking the last of the ammo too."

"Wait, there's a dozen of them?" Rose almost choked on her own spit after hearing that. "The fuck are we gonna do!? That's a damned fleet!"

Carbon checked a set of thrusters in the lower back and calves of Ex's frame and then propelled into a jump, landing awkwardly on the landing deck. "Yoyo, grab that rifle of yours. We need you to try taking out pilots before they can get in firing range. Set up on the northwest corner, fast. Ari, you're good with weapons so try to make something big and explosive we can--"

"The ship..." Robyn stepped forward, pointing below her hindpaws. "The frigate has a probe launcher attached to the lower hull."

"We don't need to probe them; we need to blow them to hell and back."

Ilaria stood behind her wife, both figuratively and literally. "No, she's got a point. You mentioned a freighter, right? Nothing we've got that's infantry-deployed will take that down." She took a moment to think about the supplies they had laying around, then looked over to the armory. "I could rig up some plastic explosives inside a metal sabot pretty easily. The launcher's a magnetic system, right?"

"The specs said it was a rail cannon, whatever that means."

Ari hugged her wife and almost squeaked as her plan came together. "Perfect. We'll set a delayed impact cap, like on grenade launcher rounds. The rest should be point and shoot."

"Uh, I don't mean to burst your bubble but..." Adrian stomped on the landing deck to emphasize his point. "How will we fire that if the ship's still in dry dock and has no engines?"

Robyn didn't waste any time, already moving to the small gantry lift leading to the frigate. "I'll just have to get them working. They're inherently simple, and we've got most of the work done already."

"Well you've got about eight minutes. The landers are coming in fast now." Carbon groaned at the lack of preparation time she'd been granted. "Twenty-two for the big ship. I'm guessing we want that thing downed a few minutes out of range though. You'd better hurry. Ari and Ashe, you two go help."

"Only eight!?" Robyn snagged her wife and hopped on the lift. "Ellie, I'll send the car back up. Meet us with Ashe in the command center up front. That's where we'll need her."

"You got it."

"What about us?" Rose hopped off Ex's back and stared at Carbon. "I'm not really a fighter, you know. What should I--?"

A small explosion shook the northern edge of the main deck, sending some civilians into an uproar. "Well I hope you're good with people!" Carbon picked Rose up and pulled her inside the cockpit, ignoring the cramped space in favor of the girl's safety. "We need to get those people on their ships or up that sturdy central shaft."

"Ah!..." Rose settled into place around Carbon, her legs wrapped around the mustelid's waist. "I can't see a thing, you know. How's this supposed to work?"

The mech slowly started into a jog. "Well I'm dropping you off in a minute..."

Ex fired his jets again and landed on the main deck, still sprinting to the site of the explosion. "So you're taking me into the danger zone and leaving me there? Not very..." Rose quirked her head as something hardened into her crotch ever so slowly. "...~gentlemanly~ of you."

"So you caught me in the middle of changing genders. It's a normal response. Don't get used to it." Carbon slowed Ex down and popped open the cockpit, allowing Rose to disembark. "Try to guide them to safety. I'll shoot down what I can and cover you."

"Oh, I get it now. You got it." Rose hopped out the cockpit and threw up her arms, calling out to the citizens nearby. "Everybody, it's safe up high! Keep calm and follow me!"

With a satisfied nod Carbon sealed the cockpit and flipped up her mask. "Eve, highlight everything heading our way sorted by incoming velocity, with intercept paths and angular velocities too."

"Will do. Red is fastest, alright?"

Carbon simply nodded as the enemies lit up in her external views. The landers were encroaching faster than expected, meaning they had sped up for an attack run prior to dropping off troops. The real problems were the various rockets and missiles being fired toward the deck, some too fast to predict. However this is where Eve really shined, placing a bracket ahead of each rocket that represented the aiming vector to shoot it out the sky. Carbon pulled up an ion pelter on Ex's right arm and the intercepts shifted to accommodate the fast-traveling projectile.

Carbon tested her aim with a shot to the nearest rocket, the ionizing particle beam contacting it smack-dab in the center. A few milliseconds later a bolt of lightning shot out from the end of Ex's arm and catastrophically superheated the rocket's payload. With one rocket down and several dozen to go, the hybrid swept the beam over a few pawfuls of projectiles and chained the electric arc over all of them at once. The ion pelter reported itself uncharged however, so Carbon raised up a much slower plasma caster.

Just as Carbon fired off a volley of shots, one of the ships caught flame and ducked painfully hard into the sea. "They hell was that? Eve?"

Iolvin fired up his radio as another of the vessels started to swerve to its demise. "This thing punches right through them, engine and all! Fuck me, we might be able to do this."

"Can you keep up that pace?"

"Uh... no." Another shot visibly broke off a piece of hull plating from a lander, but otherwise had basically deflected due to the oblique impact angle. "That's it for a few. I can fire normal rounds, but the battery-thingy needs to charge."

Carbon braced as two untouched rockets exploded nearby, one just above the water and the other on deck. "Just do what you can to buy some time." She pulled up her recharged ion pelter and targeted the next wave of rockets, clearing all but four this time with her previous practice aiding her. "I'm charging again too."

A normal powder-powered shot luckily busted out the engine intake of another lander. "Well I'm not hurting for ammo. Keep shooting something at them."

The plasma caster snagged three of the remaining rockets and damaged the fourth, though the stray still flew randomly into the side of the main elevator shaft. "Shit. Rose, you have a radio? You alright?"

"Yeah. And that didn't break the lift, thank the goddess."

Carbon spied the pelter was ready again and readied it. "Where are we with the civilians?"

"Getting there." Evelyn pulled up a view of behind Ex and showed that most of the dock workers and travelers had already gone up, leaving only about a dozen for one last load. "Give me another minute or two and we'll be clear."

Another shot from Yoyo, electrically propelled this time, took down another lander in an immediate fireball explosion. "Will do. They're almost here though, so ride up with the last group."

"What? No."

Carbon paused to destroy the next, much smaller wave of rockets in a single bound of energy. "It's too dangerous down here. The only reason they would have for lugging that huge freighter here is to ram the elevator. It's probably loaded with explosives, too."

"Explosives?" Rose sent up the last of the civilians, but stayed to confirm something with Carbon. "How big is that thing? What can it carry?"

"The size?" Evelyn pulled up the satellite view and measured for Carbon. "About thirty, maybe thirty-five cubic meters. Why?"

"Oh goddess..." Rose fell to her knees as her information proved deadlier than she wanted. "They've got a low-yield nuclear device on that thing, Carbon. A dirty bomb. We're all fucked if it gets here, not just the surface crew."

"Girls!" Carbon lost her focus as she tried the radio, her eyes bulging as another salvo of armaments both of the propelled and slug variety made it past her defenses. "Robyn, you better have some good news for us!"

It took a moment, but Ashe clicked on a radio in calm reply. "They're on task, Carbon. If nothing goes wrong we should make it with a few minutes to spare."

"Good. Keep me informed." Carbon cringed as a fluttering hail of lead pocked the area Iolvin was using as a sniping nest. "Yoyo!? Are you okay!?"

The debris and dust cleared to reveal the otter had raised one of his shield barriers, which while heavily cracked had held long enough. "Don't worry about me, Carbon. Those guys are too close for me to aim properly. You're the best thing we've got right now."

"I hear that." Now that they were in reliable range, Carbon armed the last two volleys of Ex's rockets she owned and locked them onto four enemy aircraft with laser designators. "I hope you've studied how to recreate those, Eve. Can't hold onto them any longer."

"We'll just make something that works. You need those now more than later, Carbon."

With a sigh as the last of that ammunition in existence finally readied, Carbon launched the salvo and practically cremated the targets with fiery plasma. "And that's my favorite toy gone. Suggestions, Eve?"

"Uh... The lightning will arc into the metal in the deck this close..." The plant girl pointed to a weapon she readied and groaned. "All we've got's the wide spread diffuser for the plasma caster. Shotgun range, which isn't exactly ideal..."

Carbon fired a few shots, but only singed her target from her range. "Yeah, it's not holding up. Everyone, get ready. We're probably about to be boarded."

The radio fired back a familiar voice. "Carbon? Cid. I'm sending you everyone I've got." There was a delay as a few beeps were heard over the air before Cid came back. "I'm planning something you might not like, so don't wait up for me."

"Cid, why don't I like the sound of that?"

"Well, it's a necessary evil." The meerkat paused again, this time with a ratcheting noise, and came back a bit out of breath. "But trust me, you'll understand if I get the chance to put it to action."

"Seriously?" Carbon crouched her mech as a slew of bullets pelted her area, more to protect the joints than the rock-hard armor. "I know that tone of voice and what it means, Cid. Sure you shouldn't take it easy?"

"No, I can't. Too late now, anyway." There was another pause as Sydney audibly jogged to a new location. "I'm on the water-level deck, about three below you... Had a hunch and I was right. Shit, you've got incoming from below!"

"What?" Carbon checked around a bit between flurries of bullets but didn't notice anything. "What are you talking about? Details, Cid."

"That guy we caught the other day? He's back and in one of those suits of yours I think. Oh, shit. Going silent..."

"Cid? Fuck." Carbon found one of the landers was finally in range and focused on that, firing a wall of plasma bolts into it and disabling it with raw fire. "Damn. Eve, what can we do about our stray cat?"

"I'll up the sensor accuracy but--" Evelyn spun around and pointed to a blur in a rear view. "He's here, Carbon!"

"What--?" The hybrid didn't have time to react as an explosion of sorts sapped her mech of all primary power. "Not good, Eve! Kick in the backup!"

"It's too slow!"

Carbon got a sudden bout of déjà vu as she reached for her shotgun in the dark, then was rocked forward by another explosion. "We've got to bail, Eve. I need your help on this one since I can't see him."

"Got it. Ready when you are."

Carbon forced open the cockpit seal with a manual lever and immediately jumped out into a roll across the deck. She spun mid-roll and flipped into a prone position, reducing her silhouette while allowing her a steady, aimed shot on her target. Eve found Sentra's outline, barely, and commandeered Carbon's arms to line up a proper shot. Then with an echoing 'chock!' the shotgun blew away the alien's cloaking.

Sadly the hit only stunned the Yangurran, a small kinetic barrier emitter flickering as it recharged. "Not bad, Terran. I have never needed to use this protection before."

Carbon desperately cocked her shotgun to fire before the shield recharged, but the last shell casing jammed in the return. Sentra held up a small explosive-launching pistol, but it was painfully shot along with one of his three fingers by a large-caliber sniper round. "And I've learned to embrace what help I can get. Friends come in handy." Carbon eased up to a crouch and cleared her jam. "That's something us ~Terrans~ are good at, asshole."

"Wait! We can--!"

Carbon purposefully fired just as the barrier replenished, sending the Yangurran reeling painfully across the ground. "Nah, I think not. You tried to suffocate me. That's a death you suffer through. So..." Carbon cocked her rifle and shot into Sentra's unprotected leg. "Guess what's on the menu now, pal."

Sentra held his leg, but even through his pain he managed to laugh. "At least you have no future now. My bombs will bring us glory."

"Not as long as I'm still breathing." Carbon raised her shotgun to the alien's head with a cock and pulled the trigger. "Eve, he said 'bombs', plural."

"And that wouldn't matter if the one ship counted as a big bomb, no matter the contents." Evelyn jerked her host's upper body back in time to barely dodge a passing bullet. "We can't search and fight off these guys at once. Cid, maybe?"

"Cid? Fuck, no. Radio silence." Carbon spied the reinforcements arriving via a stairwell and smirked. "Well she saved the day anyway. Hey girls? You got an update for me?"

"Barely." Ashe once again returned the call. "They're running around the whole ship, but I'm getting positive checks in the computer now. Only a few more core systems to go."

"Good." The Major turned her attention back to Ex, but the exoskeleton's legs had been severely damaged. "Alright... Well a shotgun isn't going to take out dropships."

"No, but it'll take out the squishy contents." Evelyn pointed to one of the landers as it slowed to a hover over the deck and then deployed fast-drop ropes. "They can't fire straight down, so we can let Yoyo drop the ships when they go out for another pass."

"And we'll be able to kill the soldiers easily enough if they're Yangurran. Those face masks don't hold up well to--" Carbon groaned as the troops that boarded the top deck were decked out in advanced Yangurran combat gear, but had fluffy tails of various styles poking out their backs. "So they're turning our own against us still. Fuck me."

One of Cid's men jogged over and gave a stifled salute, not knowing how to address the Major. "Sir, uh... O-Orders?"

"They're not rooting for out planet anymore... Ken, was it?" Carbon took a hesitant nod from the ocelot as an affirmative and held up her weapon. "Kill them all. They'll most certainly do the same to you."

"B-But... we don't normally..."

"We're going back to basics." The hybrid frowned and took the feline's borrowed rifle by the forward grip, pointing it to the enemy. "Kill or be killed. Now shoot, soldier."

"Oh shit. Going silent..."

Cid clicked off the speaker in her radio and routed it to her throat mic system. She ducked down behind some pipes rounding a corner and stared at a specific patch of darkened hallway, her paws clamming intently over a remote device. The meerkat peered down further as a hulking figure stomped down the dim path, the occasional flicker of a broken light revealing the way.

"That's it..."

"No, not this way..." The brute spun around and practically hissed out some orders, the soldiers behind him changing direction with some sort of large case in tow. "We'll meet at the rendezvous. Now then, Cid... I know you're around here..."

"Shit." Sydney stood up and revealed herself, then slid into another shadowed area. "Well it was worth a try, asshole."

"Aw, don't run away." The rogue fluff drake took another few confident steps forward, chuckling to himself in his foiling of Cid's plan. "I've always ~wanted~ to smash your head in, runt."

"Well not if I get my gun up your scaled ass first, you won't."

"You're not baiting me over there, Cid. I'm not ~that~ dumb." The drake took one last step, backwards this time, and landed his boot on something crunchy. Then he looked down and saw a blinking green light. "Oh, fuck me."

"You were saying, asshole?" Cid jumped backward and slammed her paws together on the detonator she was holding, barely escaping the resulting blast of two claymores and a block of compound C-4. "Holy shit!"

The meerkat groaned in pain as she stood herself up. As the dust settled she swept her suit clean and straightened her tie. Then she strutted over debris and busted metal piping to stand over her rubble-coated former enemy.

"You're ~fired~, mother fucker." Cid kicked the drake's side and managed a surprising laugh. "Now I'm glad I went for overkill. I'm surprised you didn't go splat."

"...Bastard..."

Cid's eyes bulged as a large paw clamped down on her ankle hard enough she swore she heard bones snap. "_ Son of a bitch _..."