The group resumed their journey passing by the crude huts of the wastelanders. Kashi flicked her tail and sighed as she looked upon one dwelling. Once she had lived in such a place, just her and her father.

Those were simple days, till her home was destroyed by a falling aircraft. She’d lost everything but had gained a new life, high in the sky. She didn’t like dwelling on the past so Kashi forced herself to smile again, doing what she always did: hiding her pain behind a facade of carefreeness.

Finally the party reached its destination. A very cross woman with rabbit ears and graying brown hair greeted them.

“About time you arrived!”

“Mail!” Kashi said, shoving a dozen parcels into the scientist's arms.

“We brought food, water, and mail,” Lenzar stated.

“So I see, but no technicians! ...Again! How am I supposed to extract ancient tech? I need more than diggers and people that shoot things.”

“Not my problem,” Lenzar replied. “Take it up with the baron.”

The trooper already didn’t like the scientist and was looking forward to getting back, just as another group of house troopers moved over.

“Ah, good, our relief is here.”

“What?’ Lenzar asked.

The scientist held up one of the letters marked with the baron’s seal: Official orders.

“You’re stuck with me for a few months.”

Lenzar cursed up a storm. Kashi flicked her tail at the situation.

Yato approached Kashi hesitantly as she prepared to leave. “Hey, Kashi - I now know why you’re the best courier... Even if you are nuts.”

Kashikoi smiled. “Aww! It’s because I’m so awesome. Don’t get shot down here!”

“I’ll do my best,” Yato replied.

“No,” Kashi corrected. “Bestest.”

Yato chuckled. “Okay, Kashi.”

As Kashi readied to leave, the woman with the rabbit ears approached her.

“Hey!”

“Yeeeees?” Kashi replied.

“You’re that courier, yes?” The woman asked.

Kashi nodded, unsure of what she meant by ‘that’ courier. “Yup, uh huh, that’s me.”

The woman’s rabbit ears twitched. “Then, can I trust you to deliver a parcel? It’s of the utmost importance and for the Baron’s eyes only.”

Kashi got up from her bike and bowed theatrically. “But of course. Fear not! For I shall deliver.”

The woman blinked, she seemed to be considering her choices before she sighed and held up a small metal box. “For the baron only. Do not open it. Leave it by the rear of the palace and ensure it is taken inside before leaving. Understand?”

Kashikoi flicked her tail. “Yes, I understand completely. The box if you please.”

The scientist sighed as she handed over the box. “Don’t make me regret this.”

“Your box is safe with me,” Kashi gave a lopsided salute before acting like she was about to drop the box.

“Careful!”

Kashi chuckled. “Just checking that it isn’t an explosive device or something like that. I’m used to weird instructions, but just wondering.”

“You really think I want to jeopardize my position here? I don’t trust the staff inside: it will be collected by a wolf-ear in a black trenchcoat thirty minutes after you deliver it outside the staff entrance.”

“I really don’t care,” Kashi yawned, “but I do charge extra for weird delivery instructions.”

The rabbit earred girl mumbled and clinked a few coins into Kashi’s paw. “No further questions! It’s legitimate, I swear!”

“You’re the first person I’ve ever delivered a package for that told me it was ‘legitimate,’” the neko said, smiling and counting the coins.

“I’ll check on it in a week, and if it hasn’t been delivered, I’ll know - and so will the baron!”

Kashi waved as she kept the box teetering on her lap as she drove back to the squad - just to give the rabbit a little thrill: Her sensitive cat ears could hear her yelling in the background as she peeled off.

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The small squad made its way back through the wasteland. The return trip was hardly as eventful as the first. There were no raiders lying in wait, no rogue mechanical creations to harass them - just the blasted surface and the bodies of their former enemies merging into the sand drifts.

“Let’s head for a lift,” Kashikoi suggested. “No need to fly right? Right?”

The troopers and water driver didn’t respond to her. At that moment, a flying machine descended from the skies in a swirl of dust.

“Oh, no!” She whined.

It had two fan-like devices set within the wings that rotated and made the horrid noise that Kashikoi hated. A pair of thrusters were to the rear. The cockpit was set just forward of the wings ending in a long nose.

“Nope, nope, nope!” Kashikoi shouted. “I am not getting on!”

The housetroopers all collectively rolled their eyes as they all manhandled the protesting neko into the craft and strapped her into a seat.

“Nyah! You bastards!” Kashi protested.

The human pilot looked back at the unfolding scene in the crew cabin.

“Yeah, I thought that was you, Kashi.”

“Lyle!” Kashikoi hissed.

The human waved at her. “Hey, you remember me!”

Kashi flattened her ears. “Of course, I do! Always trying to get me killed by these contraptions!”

Lyle ignored her. It wasn’t the first time he’d flown her, and despite the verbal abuse, she flung his way he knew she probably didn’t mean it. She had some kind of phobia regarding aircraft, and she had saved him from death at least once before.

When all passengers and equipment were aboard and secured, Lyle lifted off from the dusty surface and laid in a course for Aerios. Kahikoi screamed and hyperventilated the whole time - fortunately the engines mostly drowned her out.

By the time Kashi was hoarse, the aircraft made its approach to land at Aerios. The citystate hovered far above the scorched lands, the glistening lightbridges branching off to the other artificial floating islands. It was a bustling hive of commerce.

Lyle expertly landed the craft on the landing pad reserved for official business. The housetroopers quickly disembarked followed by Kashikoi who threw herself on the ground where she knelt, arms raised above her head as if in prayer.

“Oh, by the ancients! I’m safe.”

Lyle looked like he wanted to strike up a conversation with the neko, but she was soon on her hoverbike, tail twitching as she revved the engine. She was in no mood to stick around. The neko was already counting the payment she would receive in her mind.

Kashikoi was already planning her night at home when she remembered the parcel she was to deliver at the rear of the palace.

“Right,” she sighed out loud to herself. “Gotta do that first.”

Kashikoi knew the way to the palace; she had been there many times in the course of her job as a courier. The palace was the largest most imposing building in all of Aerios. The outer walls were always patrolled by housetroopers, and it loomed over the populace as a not-so-subtle reminder of who was in charge.

The rear of the building - as was to be expected - was where the kitchens and servant entrances were: A cargo area and a small door for personnel. The scientist on the surface had instructed her to leave it at the rear and ensure it made it inside. Dismounting her hoverbike, the courier approached the loading door, rang the buzzer, and set the box down in front of it.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to bring it in directly? Especially if it's for the baron.”

She debated taking the package in but she had already been paid to watch it enter: weird instructions were commonplace with some of her deliveries. The whole area appeared to be unguarded, but Kashikoi knew from experience that wasn’t true: Even now, she was likely being watched from within by hidden cameras somewhere.

She then strode back to her bike and sat down expecting to see some servant or trooper exit and take the box in. She looked down at her nails for a moment: she definitely needed a pedicure. When she looked up, a rodent-eared woman in a long coat snatching up the package instead.

Where had she come from?

“Hey!” Kashi called.

The woman looked over her shoulder and started running away from the palace, down the loading docks. Kashi revved up her hoverbike’s engine and gave chase, the courier was quickly gaining on the package thief, when the nimble lady suddenly turned into a narrow alley that was far too narrow for Kashi’s hoverbike.

“Awww, shoot,” Kashi sighed, she killed the engine and leapt off of her hoverbike, giving chase. “Give that back, it’s not yours!”

The rodent eared woman turned and scowled as she kept running down the alley, Kashi right behind her. The thief turned left as the alley ended in a sidewalk where a few pedestrians were out at that time of day - and all gave shouts of surprise to see the ongoing chase burst out from a tiny alleyway.

“Geeze, what did you eat for lunch? You just keep running!” Kashi called after the rodent eared woman.

“Stay away from me!” The woman called back as she leapt onto the hood of a parked vehicle and then leapt again to the rungs of a fire escape.

“That’s impressive - using one arm!” Kashi growled as she too leapt onto the vehicle. A thought came to her: “Maybe I should just shoot her? ...Nah, I don’t know what she’s carrying. Might damage the goods.”

Kashi scrambled up after the woman, reaching the flat roof of the loft. With a growl, Kashi grabbed the woman’s coat. There was a grunt of protest and then Kashi found herself with just the coat in her hands.

She got a kick to her torso and doubled over.

“Hey-Oooof!”

In that tiny instant, though, the neko saw the woman’s features more clearly as her coat ripped off: dark hair with a red streak, a pink rat tail, a dark tank top and pants.

Kashi groaned as she watched her quarry: The woman had a knife out which she waved threateningly.

“Last warning, back off! Stay down, or I’ll gut you!”

Kashi regained her strength, holding her abdomen as it healed. “Oooh, temper...” Kashi grunted as the rodent woman ran off leaping to the next building. Again, Kashi considered shooting her, but again the same reasoning stayed her hand. Kashikoi sighed, her cat ears flattening against her head.

“Damn - this isn’t good.”

She had lost the package to the thief - and a rat-woman, at that. Kashi’s entire torso still ached from the kick. She needed to go home, do some catnip, take a soaking bath and get some sleep... Anything to erase the sting of failure.

Suddenly, her ears moved up on the alert: she still had the mysterious rat-woman’s coat. Rifling through the pockets she found a small coin with a symbol upon it of a large and regal bird.

“Wait, I know this symbol,” she said to herself as she turned it over in her claws. “Isn’t this Talon, Aerios’ rival citystate?” Her tail twitched. “Oh, this is bad. If she was an agent of Talon, then whatever was in that box…”

Kashi made her way back down to the street level. “I have to get that back, but how?” A few passerbyers gave the neko puzzled looks as she kept murmuring to herself.

Her ears flattened as she continued thinking out loud. “I’ll tell the palace! No, they’ll punish me for losing it in the first place. Wait, it’s not my fault! I delivered it! But I saw it happen… Oh shoot.