The bridge of the ICS Helios was an unintelligible mess of voices, the metallic clicking of switches, and the patter of numerous dragon feet against steel. Pi Mortimer sat on her command dias, overlooking it all, her trained ear dissecting the chatter down into the clear lines of communication of a well oiled crew. “Engineering reports all systems check sat, ready for launch!” Grand Knight McKenzie shouted up to her.

“Very well,” she answered. “Maher, do we have a flight plan from Palace Command?”

“Not yet, Captain,” the Squire said. “Belay that, they just sent it over. Sending nav data to the helmsdrake.”

“Nav data received, Squire Maher,” Pi’s helm acknowledged. “Captain, at your command.”

“Aye, Helm,” she said, toggling to the shipwide intercom. “Helios this is your captain speaking. Secure all unnecessary movement. Initiating launch.” Pi disengaged the com and barked to the bridge, “Release docking clamps.”

“Aye Captain, releasing docking clamps,” McKenzie said. The whole of the starcruiser shuddered as she was released and the buffeting bass tone of her drive engines permeated the air as they engaged to support the ship’s weight in gravity. “Helm, ship is free. I repeat, ship is free.”

“Helm acknowledges ship is free. Taking drive output to A5%.”

“Engineering confirms A5%. Battery discharge rate stable.”

“Com confirms A5%. Palace Command is green light. Flight path has been cleared.” Slowly but surely, the walls of the hangar began to recede outside the transteel windows of the bridge, the Helios vibrating furiously against the power of the magnetic fields generated by her engines. She cleared the hangar, hovering in the void between the central towers of the Palace and its outer rings of spires. The helmsdrake rotated her ever so gently on her z-axis, giving the ship enough room to begin the forward ascent without disturbing the Palace denizens.

“Visual confirmation flight path clear, Captain,” he said.

“Very well,” Pi agreed. “All ahead ⅓, 5 degree angle.”

“Aye, all head ⅓, 5 degree angle. Going to A15%.” The Helios thrust forward notably, tipping back ever so slightly as the rest of the bridge rattled off their positive reports to the helm. The ship spiraled up and around the central cluster of Palace towers until she had well cleared the the upper reaches. She leveled out and the helm gave one final report. “Captain, we have cleared the flight plan, awaiting your order.”

“Very well Helm,” she said. “All ahead full. Take us topside.”

“Aye Captain, all ahead full, going topside. Steady increase from A15% to A65%.” The helm’s talon gripped the accelerator control and his steady, practiced leg moved it forward, the thrum of the ship’s engines transforming into a roar as he did. Helios tilted back yet again, this time more severely, and the glorious blue sky was all to be seen until, without much transition, the bridge was filled with the consuming black of space and its millions of distant stars. “Captain, we are topside, going from A65% to V50%,” the helmsdrake relayed.

“Very well,” Pi acknowledged. “A smooth launch, as always Ghermin. Level her off and get us to jump speed.” She flipped on the intercom again, saying, “Helios secure from launch. Prepare for tachyon jump.” No sooner had the bridge begun to relax from the launch evolution and Pi begin to update her dias viewjectors with confirmed routes to the Chestria system, than the entrance to the bridge hissed open to offer up her brother and Katya. “Helios! Attention!” she barked, and her subordinates swiftly ceased their activities and held themselves stiff in place.

“Thank you, thank you, at ease,” Axis muttered to the relief of the bridge crew. “Sis, I told you this morning that shit wasn’t necessary. It’s just me,” he said to her, tilting his head to the side.

“I’m not going to let my crew get lazy,” Pi stated rather proudly. “Over you least of all.”

“I had some suggestions I wanted to give your navigation Squire,” Katya butted in before Axis could retort.

“By all means Duchess,” Pi said with a conciliatory wave of a wing. “This is your mission after all.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Katya replied, all but pushing Axis down into the bridge work pit before he could spark up a debate with his sister. “It is too early in the morning Axis,” she groaned as they approached the navigation viewjection terminal.

“Morning means a rising sun and - Ow!” Axis began and earned a smack to the back of his head from Katya for the attempt at sarcasm. He barely withheld a snicker and readjusted his feathers with a shuffle of his wings.

“It’s too early for that too,” Katya said before turning her attention to the eagerly waiting Squire Maher. “The exit zoom please,” she asked of him.

“Um… Ma - my lady?” the Squire stuttered nervously, inciting a rumble of amusement from the older drakes including Axis.

“She’s not gonna bite your head off like my sister,” Axis chortled. “C’mon, show ‘er the chart.”

“I’d let her bite somethin’ off,” a nearby drake mumbled from the other sided of the terminal. An involuntary shake rippled in Maher followed by poorly contained sputters from the drake’s neighbor.

“Daniels you are on watch!” Pi rebuked him from her dias, and Axis grimaced for his sake. “Squire Maher, you are also on watch, and I expect an example be set by my officers.”

“Aye Captain!” Maher stiffened, and promptly produced the display of the Helios’s tachyon exit plot. “My lady,” he said to Katya, moving aside and offering his cushion to her.

“Thank you, Squire,” she said, seemingly unperturbed by either’s juvenile behavior. Katya instead focused on the viewjector, expanding and shrinking the plot and generating distance calculations the significance of which Axis hadn’t the slightest idea. Maher watched her intently, and while Axis was certain his intent was only partially academic, his increasingly furrowed brows said Katya was definitely doing something odd. “This exit point was pulled from the last Naval vessel to make a jump into the Chestria system right?” she asked rather suddenly.

Maher jumped but managed not to stutter again in answering, “That’s correct my lady.”

“Their proximity to Chestria IV suggests they exited jump right into a stable orbit,” Katya continued.

“Standard Naval procedure,” Maher affirmed.

“We can’t do that, announcing our arrival loud and clear,” Axis agreed with Katya’s unspoken assessment.

“But jumping too far out would defeat the point of having a Ridley for support,” she said. “Can you make a plot that jumps the ship out right above the planet’s northern pole?”

“I caaaaaannnnn…” Maher said slowly. “But the nav system probably won’t accept the chart. Too much magnetic interference. Positional sensors will be all over the place. And the drives aren’t calibrated for that kind of turbulence.”

“It will,” the helmsdrake said over his shoulder. “Just requires Captain’s override. Captain?”

“Granted,” Pi ordered. “Squire, make the plot with the Duchess’s specifications. Helm, you’ll have to establish orbit manually. Are you confident in doing so?”

“Aye, Captain. It’ll be a tricky bit of flying but I can manage,” the helmsdrake answered.

“Okay great, now, this is how you do it,” Katya explained to Maher, who listened with rapt attention. Axis tried to follow her tutoring, but she quickly moved into complicated equations and the information flowed in one of Axis’ ears and out the other. He was a fair pilot in a Mongoose, but Katya was displaying navigational skills so far beyond the realm of even standard Navy training, Axis could only assume she had at one point worked aboard a trans-Imperial freighter of some kind.

While she instructed Maher, Axis perused the bridge, acutely aware of his sister’s gaze following his every step. Pi had earned a reputation for running a tight ship, and true to that reputation not one thing was out of place. Each of the crew’s uniforms was properly laundered and pressed, their viewjector terminals clean enough to eat off, and each focused on their respective tasks with no apparent distraction from Axis looking over their shoulders. Even their seating cushions appeared fresh out of a supply crate. He stopped short of a complete circle and passing Pi, pausing at the com cluster of viewjectors. He cleared his throat but received not even an inkling of a response. He rolled his eyes and in a false baritone said, “Drake, attention.”

The dragon nearest him immediately bolted to his feet and offered a brisk bow of his neck. “At your service, my lord Duke.”

“Just…” Axis clenched his jaw at the formality, “just tell Lusso Katya and I will be down in hangar one in a sec. I wanna see the stuff he requisitioned for us.”

“Certainly, my lord,” the drake replied, returning to his seat and his work with the same promptness as he had left it. Axis only grumbled and would have made his way back through the command tunnel save that Katya beat him to it. She was notably cheery for having just walloped him for little more than early morning irritation, and Axis made a mental note to never induce a conversation with her about interstellar navigational mathematics.

“All set?” she asked him brightly.

“Yeah, I had them let Lusso know we’re on our way down,” Axis said.

“After you then,” she motioned. “You know your way around Ridleys better than I do.”

“Keep us updated yeah?” Axis said to Pi as they passed her. She nodded and her orders to prepare for the tachyon jump were only just cut off by the passageway door shutting behind them.

The pair stayed quiet for most of the elevator ride down the ship’s main tower, though Axis did detect Katya had something on her mind. He tried to ignore it but like his Sense, the more he pushed it aside, the more prevalent and overbearing it became. “Hey -!” he began, only to stop as Katya had jumped to the same attempt right as he had.

“You first,” she said.

“Way to put me on the spot,” Axis grumbled.

“Just like you were about to do to me?” she asked.

“Yeah fine…” he conceded. He let silence hang in the air, deciding how best to approach the subject at hand before giving up with a blunt, “You alright?”

“Who, me?” Katya said, a bit taken aback.

“Yes, you,” Axis said. “I don’t see anyone else in this tube. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine… why…?” she answered with a lingering note of concern.

“You were all fucked up last night and this morning,” Axis replied. “You didn’t say a word until we got on Sis’s ship.”

“Axis I’m fine,” she said a bit too hastily for his liking. “You just threw me for a loop and it took me a bit to figure it all out.”

“And that’s all?” he chanced a bit of insistence.

“That’s all,” Katya said, and while he was sure she wasn’t being completely honest, Axis didn’t press the issue. “I was gonna ask you the same thing actually,” she added, that same melancholy tone from the night before tinging her voice.

“Peachy,” Axis lied, now beyond sure there was something about being in the slave quarter that she was not telling him and more sure than that he was not going to get it out of her. “Life’s easier when you’re on assignment.” That at least was true, Axis having always found the focus brought on by a mission being the most surefire way to clear a head filled with lingering problems not really within anyone’s power to solve.

“We agree there,” Katya nodded as the elevator doors slid open into the corridors of Helios. Like the bridge, Pi’s ship was an immaculate display of exemplary Naval military standards. Every drake they passed had his uniform pressed, properly fitted, and each one rendered them the necessary honors when they passed. Even the members of the crew already hard at work like the engineers and technicians, who had already forgone their more formal military attire for the more practical pocketed faulds and utility harnesses and who in many cases were already covered in paint chips, dirt, and ionization dust; even they offered Axis and Katya defferent bows of the neck. It was a formality Axis could go without and was eagerly looking forward to the deployment onto Chestria to be rid of. Katya seemed to take it better, often returning the bows and smiling at those who appeared enthusiastic at the honor of having a Duke and Duchess aboard the command.

“All hands, tachyon jump will commence in thirty seconds,” Pi’s voice blared over the intercom as the pair entered Hangar 1. Those ground crews attending their Helephants and Mongooses scurried about, making final checks to secure their craft prior to the jump and their shouts to the crew chief filling the hangar. Whilst Katya observed the activity in what was no doubt fascination at the onslaught of new, Axis searched the space for Grand Knight Lusso. He had never seen the dragon nor had he had the foresight to ask his sister what he looked like, but Grand Knights had a tendency to stand out, usually being quite well decorated and given a wide berth by the enlisted lest they be roped into some task they had little desire to perform. Pi’s voice interrupted his thoughts over the speakers again and he stopped to widen his stance as she said, “Tachyon jump in three… two… one… engage.” The whole of the starcruiser lurched as her tachyon field completed formation and rocketed her forward beyond the speed of light. Axis swayed but managed to stay upright while Katya, for some reason having not braced herself, lost her balance and let slip a rather girlish squeak of surprise as she hit the floor.

Axis raised his brows at her quizzically as she returned her feet and a threatening scowl colored her face when she took notice. “Not a peep out of you,” she said.

“I know that wasn’t your first jump,” Axis replied, holding back a more amusing remark.

“Ridleys are apparently more violent about it,” Katya said.

“Suuuuuure…” Axis drew out, but said no more out of reactive training when Pi’s voice once again came over the ship’s intercom.

“Helios, this is you captain again,” she said. “Secure from launch and jump readiness. Now that we are properly underway, I would like to take a few minutes to fill everyone in regarding the nature of our mission and our guests. This deployment has been given to us directly from the Empress herself. Congratulations to all of you who have worked so hard to make this ship worthy of that honor. To that end however, we are bound to secrecy, something which I’m sure your chiefs and squires have already told you but which I want to reiterate. No one, not even the Admiralty is to know the details of this mission, and you will abide that secrecy under pain of courts martial. I will not hesitate to use my rights to courts martial as a captain against anyone of you who breaks the trust the Empress has so graciously seen fit to give us.

“That being said, our guests are the Duke Axis Mortimer, who many of you will probably have already guessed is my brother, and the Duchess Katya Truminoff. I expect you will treat them with all respect due to their station, and furthermore; will not grumble and complain when they task you with something to fulfill their mission. Helios is to bring her full might to bear to ensure their success, and I will not tolerate any laziness that endangers that success. Now, this doesn’t mean that you can’t tell my brother to shove off if he asks you to do something stupid like bring him a bowl of ahsahchah so he doesn’t have to leave his quarters.” She paused as a rolling chuckle could be heard not only from the gathered crew in the hangar but over the speakers from the bridge as well. Axis rolled his eyes as Pi continued, “But in all seriousness, their mission is our mission and you will carry out their orders as if they were my own. In the meantime, we have a two day voyage to our operating theater. We will be running drills and inspections per the usual schedule. All officers are to meet with me in my stateroom in one hour. May the Progeny and She Who Ate the Soul be with us. Carry on.”

The speakers clicked off, and the shouts of technicians and clang of metal against metal once again filled the hangar. Axis a had a mind to continue right where he had left off with Katya’s graceless fall but his mouth had hardly opened before he found a solitary toe pressing ever so gently against the tip of his snout. “You can keep whatever comment you were about to say to yourself,” Katya said, only withdrawing her talon when his eyes half lidded in unenthused agreement. And a good thing it was too, as not focusing on her gave him a glimpse of a cargo lift rising from the hangar’s lower storage and maintenance deck at the corner of his vision.

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On the lift were two cloth-like tarps covering a substantial amount of whatever contents had been brought up from below, and they were escorted by a dragon who could only be Grand Knight Lusso. His scales were a dirty yellow-brown, feathers of a purer, darker wooden shade while his eyes sparked in a curious magenta. His Naval reds were heavily wrinkled, but it appeared not the result of poor laundering habits, rather they seemed oddly creased from a simple lack of use, living folded lives tucked away in some compartment all but forgotten. Perhaps his most distinguishing feature though, was the hat. Dragons did not wear hats, what with horns and feathers to contend with, but this had apparently been of no concern to Lusso. Clearly intended originally for use by any other species, it was a substantially large accessory made of red dyed leather with an impressively wide upturned brim and silver pins along the band. To make it fit and stay in place, the Grand Knight had merely poked two holes in the back of the brim for his horns, and it was so patently ridiculous that Axis had to blink twice to confirm he was in fact not hallucinating.

He and Katya made their way over as the lift clunked into place, and like a feline hunter locking onto fresh movement in the fields, Lusso made a beeline for them, rushing over with a boundless enthusiasm more appropriate for a growing dragonling than a high ranking Naval officer. “Duke Mortimer, Duchess Truminoff!” he exclaimed, offering only the briefest bows for each of them. “Really great to see ya’ll here. Duchess, yer as beautiful as the drakes were goin’ on and on ‘bout. And I gotta say, Duke Mortimer, yer taste in high quality death dealin’ meat hole makers is, Mm! Exquisite! Real pleasure, real pleasure.” His accent made his Drael ostensibly worse than Axis’, but there was a undeniable charm to it nevertheless.

“Grand Knight Lusso?” Katya guessed, the smile engendered by his admittedly silly appearance and energy self-evident in her voice.

“Grand Knight Jack Lusso at yer service m’lady,” he confirmed with a sweeping bow and fanning of his wings.

“Nice hat,” Axis couldn’t stop himself from snarking.

“Why thank ya, m’lord,” Lusso said, taking the compliment as sincere despite all signs pointing to it being anything but. “Got it from a nice old slave lady after a nasty bit o’ business involvin’ some local drunks and a sugar water machine. That’d be before I worked fer yer sister and made Grand Knight.”

Katya mouthed the words sugar water machine, unsure of how to process so casual yet vague and bizarre a description. “I’m guessing you’re Sis’s weaponeer?” Axis asked, trying to force his mind to not dwell on it.

“Right you are m’lord!” Lusso answered proudly. “And I gotta say again, it’s a real pleasure meetin’ a ‘nother drake who got an eye for a darn good cannon.”

“See now I’m curious,” Katya said.

“Well’en step right this way, m’lady,” the Grand Knight said, striding over to the first tarp. He gripped its corner with a talon and after having dramatically cleared his throat, continued, “Duke, Duchess, I would very much like to present to ya…” He tugged on the tarp and swished it away, revealing stacks and stacks of gear cases large and small all arranged like a pile of prize giveaways. “... the most comprehensive collection of slug shooters, boomsticks, head-poppers, and mince meat makers this side of the Loft. All free of charge, courtesy of yers truly.”

His smile was contagious, and Axis nudged Katya with a wing as he whispered to her, “And I only asked for two.”

“Like a kid in a candy store,” Katya nudged him back with a giggle.

“Aight, Jack,” Axis said, unable to hide his own excitement now, the Grand Knight’s doofy hat notwithstanding. “Show us the goods.”

“M’lord,” Lusso replied, “I thought ya’d never ask.” He removed several of the smaller cases from atop the larger ones and with a hearty grunt, slammed a particularly long one on the grand just in front of Axis and Katya. He popped its clasps with a satisfying click, pausing before lifting the lid to eye both of them. “Ain’t ya love that sound?” he asked.

“Like a good song,” Axis agreed, chuckling.

“And this puppy is yer lead singer,” Lusso said, heaving out the contents of the case to rest on the lip. “Per yer mighty fine request m’lord, this is a Hoissan BLR-8854. Extended length barrel with helix electron discharge shroud to keep ya hidden, eight individual guide rods that are all very happy to dial themselves on, off, or somewhere in the middle for a completely customized shot velocity, top mounted battery pack for easy switch ‘n go, four load points for a variable payload just in case some knuckledragger decides you deserve to get a poundin’ from an armored vehicle, and mah favorite part… a fifty-four density rated bolt. Highest in the business.”

“Wow,” Katya said with a flatness that only served to amplify her awe rather than suppress it.

“I have always wanted to use one of these,” Axis mused, his face inches from the bolt cannon as he confirmed its polymetal construction and the custom stark white powder coat Lusso had no doubt applied himself to great results.

“If ya pardon my frankness, m’lord,” Lusso said, “Ah’m happy just to have touched one. Never thought I’d get a chance with a beauty like this. Ya’ve made mah year I tell ya. Almost brought a tear to my eye when they dropped ‘er off.”

“Woah woah woah, wait a minute,” Katya interrupted the swooning of the two drakes. “Fifty-four rated density?”

“You heard right m’lady,” Lusso preened. “This here bolt cannon got enough power to punch a good ol’ hole right through a Mongoose.”

“Axis, what, in the Progeny’s name, is that gun good for where we’re going?” Katya asked, bewildered. “You don’t even have to hit a dragon to kill them with that kind of bolt! It’d be what… almost a three foot radius of pulverizing kinetic shock to whatever surface you did hit?”

“Uh… yeah I’d say so,” Axis agreed nonchalantly. “Oh, and it doesn’t lose power for like… five miles, I think?”

“Six miles m’lord,” Lusso corrected proudly. “Which is why I went ahead and picked up this neat little doo-dad for ya.” He rummaged through the assortment of cases until he produced a markedly smaller one and pulled out of it what looked like a plain black cube. “Tetra Series 7 Type 91 external visual scanner,” he explained. “Ya mount the fifty-four to one side of yer harness, and this sucker goes on the other side. Link ‘er ta yer HUD and BAM! Ya got 10 miles of zoom, wind speed detection, elevation change down to the sixteenth of an inch, low light compensation, and a long distance aim assist. Like they was made fer each other.”

“Are we trying to cause collateral damage? Cause that’s all I’m seeing here,” Katya said with exasperation. “We’re going to be surrounded, surrounded, by innocents and you both see no problem taking a setup like this along?”

“It doesn’t hurt to have just in case,” Axis tried cooling her off to little avail.

“You just wanted one,” Katya said.

“I… um… yeah, I did,” he admitted with not an ounce of shame or regret.

“M’lady,” Lusso entreated her, “ya wouldn’t deny a dra - I mean, a Duke, his love of big guns would ya?”

“Remind me to tell your sister to keep you two very, very far apart on this trip,” Katya pointed her talon at the both of them even as they gave each other sheepish grins. “Let’s see the rest then,” she gave up.

“Mah pleasure, m’lady,” Lusso said, quickly packing up the sniper rifle and range finder and producing a third case closer the average size of a harness cannon. Rather than remove the weapon from it’s foam, Lusso merely spun it around for Axis and Katya to see. “Also per the Duke’s spec, Daleworth GoreHog DP-32 cannon pair,” he elaborated. “Nuthin’ too special but ah appreciate yer eye for the hardy equipment, m’lord. These sons of bitches are damn near impossible to break. Ya’ll could chuck ‘em in a ocean fer five years and they’d still work just like new after ya fished ‘em up.”

“You got the dual barrel variant?” Axis asked as he pulled one of the armaments from the case to inspect it for himself.

“Ya damn right I did, m’lord,” Lusso nodded firmly. “They’re a lady’s shoppin’ heavier and go through the battery a bit quick, but ya can’t argue a faster fire rate I wager.”

“Nah you’re right,” Axis said. “You usually miss the first few shots if you get jumped so more, faster is better. These have the overclock software on the capacitors?”

“Fer firin’ all four at once?” Lusso asked. “Sorta. We had ta get it aftermarket since ya’ll’s deployment was short notice. It should work but it wasn’t no plug ‘n play like the genuine Daleworth stuff.”

“Good, perfect,” Axis snapped the lid on the case closed. “What’s all the rest of that?” He gestured with his head to the remaining stack of cargo cases.

“Mostly just yer essentials,” Lusso replied. “I got ya rations, heater packs, blizzard goggles… ah…” He paused and titled his head at the pile, resting on his hidequarters as he counted the list on a foretalon, “... harnesses, harness lights, um… plastic explosive, pipe bombs, extra bolts, more extra bolts, even more extra bolts, oh spare batteries, and since the Duchess ain’t really give me anythin’ she wanted for guns, I went and ordered some pretty choice pieces if I do say so myself. Don’t worry, m’lady, I ain’t gonna be upset if ya don’t choose my favorites.”

“Thank you, Grand Knight Lusso,” Katya said slowly and cautiously, “but how about something that doesn’t involve a harness?”

“What?” both he and Axis said at once, leaving the ensuing silence to linger on for far too uncomfortable a time.

“No harness,” Katya reiterated.

“No, no, m’lady I heard ya the first time,” Lusso said, wings rubbing at his eyes in strain.

“I think I need to hear it again,” Axis said unhelpfully.

“I have never worn a harness,” Katya said directly to Axis, her eyes steely in resolution. “And I don’t plan on wearing one ever.”

“And… you…” Axis struggled, “you were an assassin? Ya gotta fill in the blanks here Kat ‘cause I got nothing.”

“There are more ways to kill a dragon than painting the wall with his brain matter,” Katya tisked.

“Chemist!” Lusso shouted excitedly. “M’lady, you’re a chemist! Ah mean I’ll admit I ain’t too fond of yer types with all the devilry and whatsit ya’ll get up to but ya’ll know how ta get the job done. Give Jack a harness and a nice beefy shreddin’ cannon and ain’t no dragon gonna leave the room but me, but if that ain’t yer thing, I guess there ain’t nothin’ I can do to make ya see the light.”

“The hell is a chemist?” Axis asked, still perturbed by Katya’s refusal to wear a combat harness.

“A chemist is…” Lusso started to explain but trailed off before saying, “Sorry m'lady, it ain’t my place.”

“It’s a dig, Axis,” Katya answered, shuffling her feathers with miffed pride. “It’s what the rank and file call dragons like me who prefer to kill our targets quietly. Poison, gas bombs, darts… that sort of thing.”

“Ah…” Axis said. “The whole brain on wall thing is more satisfying though.” Katya said nothing gave him a solid wack in the shoulder with her wing instead, only serving to make Axis that much more pleased with himself.

“M’lord I’d be careful if I were you,” Lusso cautioned. “Them chemists are nasty. They’re cold blooded. Kill ya in yer sleep. Won’t even let ya fight back.”

“You wouldn’t kill me in my sleep would you, Kat?” Axis asked, recovering from snickers at his own previous comment.

“That will be entirely up to you,” Katya answered smoothly, though the glint in her eyes was less serious than she sounded.

“Okay Lusso, watcha got for our favorite chemist then?” Axis asked.

“M’lady, I’d have done and got more fer ya if I’d known,” the Grand Knight seemed to wilt, “but I think I got a couple toys ya might like. Least Ah hope ya like ‘em. I try to only have quality here aboard the Helios.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine Lusso,” Katya said. “If we’re lucky we won’t need to use any of this stuff anyway.”

“Lucky my ass,” Axis mumbled as Lusso dug back into the veritable mountain of cases. “If I don’t kill at least one dragon on this mission I swear I’ll blow my own head off just to make it worth something.”

“We could all be so lucky,” Katya jabbed.

“Here - Here I got what I got, m’lady,” Jack interrupted any further banter between them, dragging what appeared to be more like a home goods storage container than a military lockbox. It was just bigger than most such containers and definitely made of thicker plastic. He snapped off the lid to unveil at least half a dozen much smaller cases more like those storing the rest of the gear save that most of them had a rainbow of warning labels and menagerie of symbols indicating how not to handle the contents at risk of death.

Katya needed no invitation to begin opening them up, her eyes sparkling with anticipatory excitement and her talons deftly unclipping and opening the case lids. To Axis, everything inside was small and rather uninspired. Sets of tiny glass bottles, some rubber ball toys, a pair of plain metal cylinders, and two chintzy looking boxes with leather straps on either end: absolutely none of it warranted all the danger labels to him. So he didn’t exactly blame Katya for simply staring almost blankly at the meager assortment of trinkets. Not when he had the most powerful sniper rifle in the Empire sitting just a few feet away.

Jack seemed to be thinking along the same lines, his drooping head showing his disappointment in himself for not being able to provide for the Duchess what he had given to the Duke. “I ain’t got any excuses, m’lady,” he said with dejected acceptance of his own failure. “Ya wanna recommend my dismissal to the cap’n I ain’t gonna fault ya.” But Katya seemingly ignored him, gingerly removing one of the metal tubes from its foam and turning it over in her talon.

“Kat…” Axis prepared, only for her to suddenly pull his head down even with her own with an aggressive pull of her wing.

“Look!” she said, practically bubbling over with enthusiasm and lifting the cylinder between their snouts.

“What, um… what am I looking at Katya?” Axis asked nervously.

“These!” Katya exclaimed, releasing him to his ruffled relief and grabbing the second cylinder. “These are Ulmion P45s! I used have a set of P30s and always wanted the newer ones!” She promptly and to Axis’s utter bafflement, shoved both metal bits into her mouth, worked them around a moment, then continued with the same eagerness without any distortion of her voice from having two metal tubes in her cheeks, “They’re so much more comfortable than mine were! Lusso these are fantastic!”

“I… ya… m’lady I just wish I coulda gotten ya somethin’ better. More prestigious,” Jack replied, though he did seem relieved she wasn’t upset with him.

“What are they though?” Axis asked. Katya’s response was to give him a nice toothy smile, whereupon the two cylinders poked out from her cheeks and each let off the quietest of clicks. “Okay Kat, I am officially fuckin’ stupid ‘cause I still don’t get it.”

“They eject poison, m’lord,” Lusso elaborated as Katya spat the devices out. “They’re designed to hide in a dragon’s cheek pocket, then only come out when yer dragonness there smiles, and she gets ‘em to spit whatever she got ‘em loaded up with by pushin’ a little trigger with ‘er tongue.”

“That is the most convoluted way to kill someone I’ve ever heard of,” Axis huffed.

Lusso shrugged but turned his attention to Katya as she began lifting out the tiny glass bottles, each filled with what appeared to be innocuous clear liquid. “M’lady, all the stuff I got in them there vials is guaranteed to kill in less than ten seconds. Some ‘er supposed to stay fluid, and some ya gotta atomize to get airborne but them P45s’ll do either once ya get ‘em synced to yer HUD.”

“Grand Knight Lusso,” Katya said with a flush exhale, “You have made this Duchess very happy.”

“I’ll make sure I do better next time m’lady,” he continued to apologize however needless it was.

“What’s under the other tarp?” Axis asked as Katya closed up her container of silent death dealers, patting the lid like it was a favorite pet. Jack’s eyes lingered on Katya just a moment longer, still unsure how she could possibly be pleased with anything but a complete treasure trove of the most deadly implements in the Empire, but he regained much of his bottomless reserves of energy upon following Axis’ nod to the object still covered on the lift.

“Oh, m’lord,” he grinned. “This ‘ere ya’ll gave me a run for mah money. Ya made sense needin’ a puppy like ‘er for where ya’ll’re goin’ but ya made me stretch mah wings a bit tryin’ to find a piece that’d work nice for ya.” Lusso sidled over to the tarp and after unhooking the carabiners holding it in place to the loading elevator, made a single grand tug pulling it away. Underneath was a truck that had clearly seen better days. The paint, which had likely at one point been a bright yellow, was faded into tan and chipped all over. Some body panels, particularly the fender flares and the corners, had visible dents, dings, and scrapes from previous adventures. But, the truck was smaller, being only two doors instead of four, it had been lifted, and the tires looked fresh and new. It was beat to hell and evidence suggested it had survived far worse than what Axis and Katya would be putting it through.

“It’ll definitely blend in on a border world,” Katya said with a note of doubt in her voice.

“Ain’t none too many ICE trucks just hangin’ ‘round the Loft m’lady,” Lusso explained. “Ya shoulda seen the ones I rejected.”

“It runs and drives?” Axis asked.

“M’lord,” the Grand Knight crowed, “this is a Genda Vagabond, four liter X8, 4x4 with drive assisted suspension! Our grandchildren‘ll be dead before this truck decides she ain’t got any more in ‘er.”

“Well it’s a Genda overlander, of course it’ll just refuse to stop,” Axis agreed. “I mean you verified everything actually works and nothing’s shot?”

“Absolutely m’lord,” Lusso said. “Had tha boys give ‘er the once over and replace anythin’ that needed replacin’ once we brought ‘er on board.”

“Checks out to me,” Axis shrugged, looking to Katya.

“I’ll default to the two of you on something like this,” she said. “I don’t know anything about overlanders.”

“You’ve done good Jack,” Axis said with a definitive nod. “I get why Sis keeps you around.”

“If we’re bein’ honest m’lord,” Lusso replied, “ya’ll’s sister ain’t mah biggest fan. She ain’t fond of the hat.”

“But you get results… obviously,” Axis said, tilting his head to the pile of supplies. “That’s the sort of thing she’s always cared more about.”

“It’s mah savin’ grace ain’t it?” Lusso chuckled good naturedly. “I’m guessin’ ya’ll’d like the Genda loaded up with the gear?”

“Yes, please,” Katya said. “Minus the personal effects. Have someone send those to our quarters.”

“Done and done,” Jack nodded, his lenses lighting up no doubt with orders for his drakes to come assist in the task before he himself began the exercise by popping the Genda’s rear hatch.

“I’ll put in a good word for you with Sis,” Axis said as he turned to follow Katya taking a leisurely pace across the rest of the hangar. They moved in silence for a long while, mostly ignoring the bows and stares from the drakes who happened to see them as they glanced up from their work. It became clear to Axis that Katya was wandering to nowhere in particular, as she took no specific routes through the hangar that familiarity with a Ridley would naturally breed over time, and he realized this was likely the first time she had ever actually been aboard one.

“Chow?” he asked as they came to the hangar’s forward end, occupied by an array of spare parts and crates of the same.

“Everything is going to go south once we get to the surface of Chestria, you know that right?” she asked, ignoring his query entirely and staring at the disassembled nose of a Mongoose, bolt cannon systems exposed and half apart.

“I mean, yeah, probably,” Axis agreed. “That’s the way spec ops works usually.” She said nothing, running a talon across the smooth metal of the Mongoose’s armor plating. “It’s sinking in now huh?” Axis guessed.

“Yeah…” she replied. “I didn’t think it’d feel any different from a job but… it does. Very different.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Axis said. “You get out of the funk once you’re in the field. The waiting is always the worst.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I’ll take you up on some food.”

“Avoid the eggs,” Axis cautioned as he led the way toward one of the elevators out of the hangar. “Or don’t. I mean, just depends on how much you like a Ridley restroom really.”

“Noted,” Katya laughed.