The remaining soldier looked up in fear at the two women. "I-I w-won't s-say a-anything," They stammered.

Alex and June exchanged glances. "Well you aren't off to a good start," Alex commented.

June pointed her vibrosword at the soldier, pricking his throat with the tip. "Just translate for us and nothing will happen to you."

Alex pointed to the terminal glowing with the strange script. The soldier glanced at the computer and then back at his fallen comrades. "V-varnoss will never succumb to the likes of you! D-do what you will." His voice steadied slightly and resolve flashed in his eyes.

"Chonkers, be a dear and help me out a little," Alex cooed at her cat.

Chonkers sauntered over and looked up at Alex expectantly. "His leg first I think," She said.

Nodding, the nanocat plodded over to the soldier's leg and climbed on top. At first, the soldier looked confused, they wondered what this animal was doing. Then Chonkers grew heavier, pushing the leg to the ground. The soldier grunted in surprise.

"I wonder how much the leg can take," Alex purred. Chonkers grew heavier again, the pressure growing. The soldier's resolve faltered. It felt as if his leg was pinned under a heavy rock.

Alex grinned at the soldier's discomfort, spooking both the soldier and June. "Alex?" The woman asked. Alex's senses had sharpened in the fight and she still saw prey.

"Augh!" The soldier cried out. Chonkers now weighed enough to slowly crush the soldier's leg. Jim-Jam and Rocket had let go of the alien's arms and the soldier now brought them to bear against the nanocat. Arms desperately tried to push Chonkers away but the cat was too heavy. "Okay!" The soldier cried out.

Alex felt her instincts sharpen. The alien was prey and she had to make sure the prey couldn't fight back. It warred with her sensibilities that told her the alien was a thinking being.

"Chonkers," She growled out. "You can get off him."

The nanocat rolled off the soldier's leg, causing a slight whimper from the soldier. Alex took a deep breath.

"You okay?" June asked.

Alex nodded. "Yeah. The cat senses take over in a fight. It's fine now, I'm good." She said it more to reassure herself than June.

June gave Alex a searching look but said no more. Instead, she turned to the wounded soldier. "We need you to point out the command center on the map there." She leveled her vibrosword for emphasis.

The soldier nodded in agreement and Alex sent Jim-Jam over to pull the wounded enemy over. The alien winced as their leg bumped along the cold metal of the floor. The Palug dropped the soldier next to the terminal.

"Alright, point it out," June demanded.

The soldier raised a weary hand up and placed it on a room in the middle of the map. "The command center is there," The alien said.

"And where are we?" June demanded again.

The soldier placed a hand on a hallway closer to the edge of the map. "Here," They said.

Alex clicked her tongue. It looked like the distance between them and the command center was too far for a stealth mission. They'd already gotten caught once, chances were trekking through another ten rooms and two floors would get them caught again. And the two couldn't afford to face the entire station on their home turf.

"What about a communications hub?" Alex asked. "Or some sort of archives."

The soldier looked back at the map. "Here," They pointed.

The new location was much closer to their current position, which meant they could probably grab the data they needed and leave. Alex turned to June, "I say we go for the closer one."

"Agreed," The woman said.

Alex looked back over at the soldier. "Jim-Jam, pick them up," She commanded.

Meowing, Jim-Jam pawed over to the wounded soldier and grabbed them once again by the collar of their uniform.

"Wait!" The soldier screamed. "Please don't!"

"Oh I'm not making Jim-Jam kill you," Alex said. "No, that only happens if you lied to us. So you're coming along."

The soldier gulped.

"You sure?" June said to Alex. "Means we can't stealth anymore."

"We probably lost the element of surprise after we fought this squad," Alex said.

June looked over at the bodies. "Yeah, probably," She admitted.

Something glinted on the floor, catching June's eye. Walking over to the glitter, June reached down and pulled up the spear used by the leader. Testing it, she tossed it across the room. It landed on the ground and then melted away only to appear in June's hand again.

"Oh I am going to like this," June said. "Come on, let's go."

Alex made Jim-Jam toss the soldier on his back and had him follow behind as they went towards what was hopefully a data center.

They didn't go quietly, despite the silent footfalls of Alex and Jim-Jam. They sprinted down corridors and past hallway doors, Alex trusting her new skill to help guide her. She took turn after turn, matching the map in her mind to the surrounding area. Periodically, an alien or two would appear in front of them but a quick throw from June's new spear prevented any encounters.

Finally, Alex found the room the soldier had pointed out. Opening the door, she was greeted by another squadron of soldiers with a group of robed aliens huddled behind them. Behind that group lay a terminal with rows of shelves next to it. Every so often an insectoid robot would scale the shelves and deposit a stick into a socket. Other aliens would remove the data sticks and scurry out of the room on some programmed mission.

One of the aliens barked out an order and the squad formed up into a shield wall, tan light surrounding them. Alex steeled herself for another bout of fighting, crouching low with hands extended like claws. June readied her spear and prepared to launch it at the commander. This fight would be more difficult, they couldn't afford to knock the soldiers into the shelves. Who knew how delicate the data was.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

But as June prepared to throw her spear, the light surrounding the soldiers winked out. At the same time, each of the aliens in the room wailed with a combination of joy, anger, and sadness. Some fell to their knees, others made to rush at Alex and June, and a few jumped up in excitement.

Without their protection, the aliens fell quickly under Jim-Jam's paws and June's weapons. A good third of the squad fell under the two's assault. June made to charge at the remaining aliens who hadn't succumbed to rage but stopped when she saw the troops recovering.

Whatever stopped the alien's powers hadn't lasted long and the rest of the enemy was already readying themselves for a fight. Except in their emotional fit, some soldiers had thrown away their weapons, including the commander. With no shields, Alex could bring out Rocket and Jim-Jam for a tag team smackdown. Claws swiped soldiers aside as the bowled over the remaining soldiers.

June weaved her way through the chaos towards the commander desperately trying to rally his troops. The alien was making their way towards the sword and shield tossed aside earlier. June met them as they reached the weapons together.

With a grunt of effort the soldier dove for the sword. June stabbed forward with her spear, catching the soldier on the hand. The tan protection prevented a wound but it knocked the soldier off course and put them off balance. June pressed her advantage, striking out with her vibrosword. This time she caught the soldier on the arm, knocking it away. The tan protection glowed again, fainter this time.

Seeing they wouldn't be able to grab their weapon, the soldier stood and raised their fists. But June had better reach with her spear and cornered the commander on the wall. Stuck between the corridor wall and the spear, the soldier made a desperate lunge at the weapon in an attempt to grab it. June allowed him to grab it and used her power on the spear right before it was grabbed.

The spear refused to budge when the soldier grabbed it. It would move, but later. Maybe after it was done with the nice relaxing nap in the air. June stepped forward while the guard was distracted and swung down with her sword. This time, the protection failed and she scored a long gash onto the soldier's side. He fell down in writhing pain.

With the leader down, June was free to focus her power over the group of soldiers without worry. Soldiers looking to grab their weapons stopped, saying they'd get to it in a bit and the aliens cowering behind the desk decided now was a good time to put off their worries and just chill. Rocket and Jim-Jam dove forward into the crowd, batting the aliens left and right with their paws. Soon all the aliens were on the ground in pain.

With the enemy eliminated, Alex and June were free to head to the terminal. June sat down her pack and opened it up, searching for the piece of tech given to her earlier. After a second she pulled out what looked to be a USB drive. However, when June set it down on the terminal small legs sprouted from the plastic casing. The drive stood on all fours and then shook like a dog shaking off water. Two small ears popped up above the USB's metal head.

Alex looked away, she wasn't about to ruin the mission because her instincts had her kill the dog-like contraption. June knelt down next to the drive and asked, "We need to find information on the Varnoss homeworld. Can you sniff it out for us?"

The little contraption jumped up and then scurried off, USB head to the ground as it sniffed around. It meandered through stacks of data sticks and around shelves. The other robots in the area paid it no mind as it sniffed around for the needed information.

"Still can't believe how dang powerful Rover is," Alex said, a little upset that the dog was upstaging her cute little cats.

"Three Cities was near one of those airport factories," June said. "So there were quite a few engineers. Add in the crazy physics breaking powers everyone got and it's no wonder we found a way to make an AI."

"Yeah but it’s a dog AI," Alex grumbled.

June rolled her eyes. She was about to comment on Alex's hatred for dogs but was interrupted by the little USB drive tapping her shoe. She looked down and the contraption ran off towards a shelf in the back. June went to follow. "Keep watch," She said back to Alex. The woman nodded and brought Kit out to scout outside.

The USB brought June over to a line of data sticks covered in a thin tarp. Holographic script ran around the tarp in the unreadable language of the Varnoss. "You sure? This looks more like a restricted section," June said.

The little USB nodded in assent and tried to make its way under the tarp but couldn't get through. So that was why the little thing had called her over. June bent down to the pile and lifted the tarp off the data sticks. Jumping happily, the USB scurried forward to a stick on top of the pile.

The little contraptions head unfolded like paper and rearranged itself into a port matching that of the data stick. With a

quick motion, the little machine plugged in and downloaded everything stored inside. Bits and bytes of data rushed into the USB. After a few seconds, the stick unplugged and scurried back over to June where it climbed up her pants leg and into her hand. From there it folded back into an unassuming USB.

"Got it!" June yelled.

"Good!" Alex yelled back. "Let's get out of here."