Jaho, with Ree happily in tow, rushed into the laborer’s breakroom on his way out to make sure that there were no stragglers.

“Hey!” he shouted at the three contract workers sitting there, “You need to run! The humans killed the Feds! They are coming! Endwar! Run! Run!”

“What?” a shabby morglin asked.

“The fleet! The humans killed the fleet! All of it!”

“No shit?”

“No shit! No shit at all! All shit gone! So are we!” Jaho yelled and then dragged Ree down the corridor towards the exit.

“Hey!” the Vulxeen level three shouted at Jaho as he rushed up. “Are you the one who is spreading panic among the workers?”

Jaho started to rush past him when the vulxeen grabbed his shoulder.

“Hey! I’m talking to-”

Hissss… SNAP

“Aaaaaaa!” the Vulxeen screeched grasping his now bleeding arm “That’s assault, you animal” he yelled after Jaho.

Ree looked back, smiled proudly, and gave him a human “one finger salute” with her free hand as they fled.

***

Jaho ran outside and past the gate, then stopped in disbelief. There, all of them gathered around the bus stop, were the workers.

“What are you doing?” he yelled in their native tongue as he ran up.

“Waiting for bus, dummy,” one of the Aat replied.

“No wait! You go! Run!” Jaho yelled.

“But we take bus home.”

“The bus won’t come, dummy!”

“No it will, dumber!”

“You stupid?” Jaho snapped. “Think! Endwar! Is bus driver going to come here or go to his kin?”

Jaho waited impatiently as the light of comprehension slowly started to shine in the Aat’s eyes.

“But how we go home?” the aat asked.

“Use map!”

One of the Aat pulled out their phone.

“Map thingy broke!”

Jaho sighed in exasperation.

“Back home we no use map thingy!” he said trying to be patient. “We use map! No map thingy back home. Use map! Look!” he exclaimed as he grabbed the phone. “We here!” he said scrolling over to the command center. “See! Now this bus route!” He said as a blue line appeared on the map. “Just follow line you star-soft dumb dumb!”

“Me no star-soft, butt licker!”

“Then don’t be star-soft you butt butt!” Jaho yelled. “Split up! Small groups! Follow line! Stay off main road!”

Then Jaho ran down the street with Ree sprinting along behind him.

“I’m not star-soft,” the Aat grumbled. “You star-soft...”

The Aat then looked at the map and then up at the sun and then down at the shadows it cast. “Hmm sun different here… If sun there and we here… Ha! Got it!”

The Aat grabbed two others.

“You two, with me!” he shouted as he started to jog.

The other Aat started quickly dispersing.

***

Jaho and Ree scurried from alleyway to alleyway. Jaho took a moment to scan the street.

Nearby gunshots had them both darting back into the alley and diving behind some recycling collection dumpsters.

“Those Terran.” Jaho whispered in surprise. “Are the Terrans here too?”

“Terrans?” Ree asked in terror.

“No...” Jaho muttered to himself. “Just guns. Badmen sell them to anyone. That what happened to fleet! They bought tubes!”

“How… How do you know?” Ree asked in confused awe.

“Uh… Just me talking dumb stuff. Just guess,” he said with a shrug and a tiny little wince.

A loud explosion could be heard coming from the direction of the command center shortly followed by another.

“Mortars!” Jaho shouted. “No more run! We hide now!” he said as he slid open the metal door of one of the dumpsters. “In here! Now!”

He shoved Ree into the dumpster and dove in behind her, pulling the door closed behind him.

***

Jessica Morgan glanced over at the multiple strategic displays on the monitors in her war-room with a wicked smile.

“Nice...” she purred.

It was… perfection… The Feds were slaughtered in all major engagement areas and all holy hell was breaking loose in virtually every other single human enclave. The influx of (ugh) Terran arms had them outnumbering and outgunning local law enforcement and even the SDF of most areas, completely unused to a real fight, were in complete disarray…

And every rifle dropped by the foe added one more combatant. They were actually experiencing net gains, not losses. They were going to complete this first engagement with more forces than what they started with.

Even if they were mostly untrained irregular troops, they wouldn’t be for long. She called it a win.

General Archer appeared on a monitor.

“Devil!” he exclaimed with a respectful nod. “The SDF has secured all main targets here on Raylesh. We still have cleanup to do but the planet is ours!”

“Excellent, Wardog… Sorry. I mean General,” Jessica said saluting him with her mug of tea. “And their arms and supplies?”

“Captured with very few losses,” he replied. “It’s going to take a few days to pick up all the rifles, though,” he said with a grin.

“And the (ahem) Penitent?”

“I fucking love those guys!” the general laughed. “I had no idea those old suits can fly. We have flying nuns all over the fucking place!”

“Yes, many of the old suits had reactionless thrusters,” Jessica smiled. “It pissed us off to no end when Salvatore and the rest of that eurotrash nabbed them. Can you imagine if we had managed to capture them back in the day? Sol could have been ours!”

“Oh well we have them with us now!” the General replied. “They are fucking brutal… and those swords! They can hack through an APC!”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Fantastic!” Jessica replied. “Keep an eye on them though and make sure you have… ‘solutions’ in place should they prove troublesome.”

“Will do!” the general said smartly. “Oh, I meant to ask. What do we do with the Feds we capture?”

“Well, whatever you want, General,” Jessica said with a cold gleam in her eyes. “I have little use for them.”

“Heh-heh… Do you want to ‘place an order’? I understand that the Kreneel in particular are-”

“I’ll pass,” Jessica laughed. “Now if you come across any ribeyes...beef ribeyes...”

“I’ll keep an eye out! Later!”

“Later, General,” Jessica said as his image disappeared.

Colonel Reese appeared on another monitor.

“Colonel!” Jessica said brightly. “How are things in Zaran?”

“Going almost too well, ma’am,” he replied. “The SDF is abiding by our agreement. They have assumed defensive positions protecting high-value civilian targets and that’s it. We own the streets.”

“What about the Feds?”

“That’s why I’m calling, ma’am,” the colonel replied. “I was just contacted, on my personal phone no less, by their commander.”

“Oh?”

“He wishes to surrender.”

“Well that’s certainly convenient,” she said sipping her tea. “That’s what? A thousand troopers along with an armored column and aircraft?”

“That have assumed some very good defensive positions,” the colonel said. “Somehow he has managed to effectively command despite disruption of all channels.”

“Impressive,” Jessica replied.

“Naturally I will accept the surrender,” the colonel replied “but...”

“Ah, yes,” Jessica smiled, “the thousand man question...”

“Yes, ma’am,” the colonel replied.

“Your thoughts?”

“I want to actually honor the terms of their surrender.”

“Of course you would,” Jessica grinned malevolently. “It just so happens that I agree completely.”

“You do?”

“Don’t look so surprised, Colonel,” Jessica laughed. “A massacre would be more trouble than it would be worth, be surprisingly difficult to actually implement with no casualties, and just plain look bad. Raylesh is one thing. Here, we wish to send a certain message. Zaran is a completely different matter. We have independent Federation news crews and their SDF commander is teetering on the edge as it is. She’s already bitching about our guys engaging in a little impromptu ‘target practice’. We slaughter those Feds and we risk losing her. That would be quite inconvenient.”

The colonel looked very relieved. He had come to respect their commander a great deal in the short time he had dealt with him. He was a good “man”.

“We will seize their equipment, supplies and arms and then turn them over to the SDF,” the colonel replied. “Let the good general feed and shelter them. Now I just have to go rein in some assholes who have decided to start lobbing shells at them… Fucking irregulars...”

“I will leave it to you then,” Jessica said with a wave of her mug.

The colonel chuckled.

“I’m still having to get used to you without a crystal goblet in your hand and powder on your nose, ma’am.”

“I’m still having to get used to actually having to do this bullshit again,” Jessica laughed.

***

Ree squealed and gripped Jaho tight as they huddled among a pile of plastic bottles as explosion after explosion rocked the area.

Jaho just petted her reassuringly as he twitched his whiskers in disapproval. Those mortar crews weren’t very good. They were all over the place.

He hoped that they were far enough away that one wouldn’t hit them by accident.

Ree started softly crying.

“Hey… hey… is ok...” he said quietly as he stroked her fur and held her. “Is ok...”

“Those damn fairies,” she quietly sobbed. “Those damn damn fairies. They got me.”

“What you mean?” Jaho asked hoping to distract her.

Another shell detonated entirely too close. Ree squealed and buried her face in his jumpsuit.

They are getting closer, Jaho thought. Are they targeting something besides the command building? Fairy piss! Are we about to be in the middle of a firefight?

“The fairies promised if I flew to the stars I would find someone special,” Ree wept. “The bones said so! They promised!”

“Well you are in the stars,” Jaho replied, “maybe you will.”

“No, that’s the fairy curse!” she moaned, “I did! I found someone special! I found someone so super special!”

“Well that’s great!” Jaho said happily.

Another explosion shook the wall of the dumpster. Jaho “swallowed” his fear just as he was taught and comforted Ree as she squealed in terror.

Automatic Terran gunfire rang out entirely too close. Yep, something was definitely up.

“No! It’s fairy curse!” Ree sobbed. “I found him but he doesn’t like me! He doesn’t even know I exist!”

“Well he’s just a big dummy.” Jaho said as he comforted her.

“And now I’m gonna die,” Ree wept. “The fairies let me find him and now they are going to kill me.”

“Hey…” Jaho said as he nuzzled her. “We aren’t dead yet.”

“I’m not a dummy!” Ree sobbed. “They are getting closer! I’m gonna die… unloved… untouched...”

She took a deep breath and looked Jaho in the eyes.

“I don’t want to die a virgin.” she said meaningfully.

...oh...OH! Jaho thought as an electric thrill washed over him.

“I...” Jaho said letting fear creep into his voice for the first time, “I don’t want to die a virgin either.”

Ree started to unzip her jumpsuit…

“I win, you damn fairies,” she said with a smile.

***

“… and then he bit me!” the Vulxeen exclaimed as he confronted the colonel in his office.

“Oh, really,” the colonel said as he rose from his desk. “Let me see.”

“It’s right here! See-”

THWACK

The colonel lashed out with one of his appendages knocking the Vulxeen flat.

“You barge in here over this bullshit?” the colonel yelled. “Do you have ANY idea what is going on? Can you not hear the shells? Get out! OUT!!!” he shouted.

“The Vulxeen liaison is going to hear about this!” the Vulxeen whimpered.

“The fleet has been completely destroyed!”

“W-what?”

“The fleet has been destroyed and the humans control the streets!” the colonel yelled. “Considering your precious liaison decided to take one of his three hour lunches and hasn’t returned he is probably on a fucking spit with one of their apples in his mouth as we speak! Get out and close the door behind you!”

“Aaaaaaaa!” the Vulxeen screamed as he ran, leaving the door wide open.

“Hey! No spreading panic, asshole!” the colonel yelled as he slammed his door.

He smiled for the first time that day. He had been wanting to punch a Vulxeen ever since he got here.

His personal phone rang. He dashed back to his desk.

“Yes?” he asked desperately as he answered.

“Colonel Xx’vkk,” Colonel Reese calmly said, “We intend to avenge every single human that dies as a result of the Federation’s treachery, every single one. However, due to the particular circumstances of this situation your men have been spared. The Forsaken accept the terms of your surrender.”

“Thank the creator!”

Colonel Reese smiled at him.

“I have no desire to fight a thousand troopers to the death if I don’t have to. There are some independent forces that have taken it upon themselves to attack your positions.”

“Yeah, I noticed.”

“I’m sure you have. Once we have reined them in I will contact you with a schedule. Until then as long as your troops do not go on the offensive they will not be attacked by forces under my command. If anyone is attacking you they aren’t mine and they will be… discouraged... from engaging in further hostilities effective immediately. While I am not in direct contact with nor have any influence over Zaran’s SDF I am confident that they will be willing to protect and support your forces until such time as they can be evacuated.”

“How nice of them,” Colonel Xx’vkk replied with a snort.

“We will cease signal jamming effective immediately so that you can properly command your troops.”

“Awfully human of you.”

“Heh,” Colonel Reese snickered. “For the record, Colonel, I’m glad we could work something out. I dislike needless slaughter.”

“Creators,” Colonel Xx’vkk snorted, “If you don’t consider what has doubtlessly happened across the Federation today ‘needless slaughter’ I hope I never find out what meets your definition of the term.”

“Before all of this is over you will.”

***

Three humans draped in smuggler’s net quietly entered an alleyway.

Their leader, an older man, holding a scanner with an AK slung over his shoulder raised his free hand, forming a fist.

The other two, AK’s at the ready, immediately stopped and crouched.

He pointed at a recycling dumpster.

His companions leveled their rifles preparing to shred it.

The old man blinked. He could have sworn that he saw something odd for a split-second there, maybe something shimmering… or fluttering?…

It could be a range finder or maybe a malfunctioning sensor?… Maybe something holographic?… It could be a trap.

He looked at his scanner again, carefully scanning the dumpster again, and did a double-take. Smiling, he waved his extended hand in a cutting motion near his neck.

The other two slightly lowered their rifles.

Drawing an old Earth-tech pistol the old man silently approached the dumpster, as he approached he heard quiet but urgent little squeaks and yelps.

He checked his scanner again, smiled, shook his head, and backed away.

The three disappeared down a side street.

As they turned the corner he raised an ancient tech two-way radio handset.

“We got two little xenos getting their freak on in a dumpster. Leave ‘em be.”

“Damn,” a laughing voice replied. “And the fighting didn’t stop them? You go little dudes!”

***

Later, Jaho and Ree cuddled in the darkness inside their hideaway.

“Ree,” Jaho said softly.

“Hmm?” she murmured happily as she hugged him tighter.

“That big dummy,” he said nuzzling her, “the one you think doesn’t think you exist?”

“Yeah?” she asked curiously.

“He isn’t a dummy… Well he is. He’s a bigger dummy than a dummy. He knows you exist.”

“He does?!?”

“Yeah,” Jaho said, “Every day he looked for you hoping to see you for just a little bit ‘cause you made his day brighter and he thinks you are beautiful and nice and wonderful and really special.”

“Really?!?”

“If that big giant huge dummy is me then yeah.”

“It is! It is you! I think you are super special!”

“But I was dumb and thought I couldn’t do anything for reasons that are so stupid now and don’t matter,” he said as he wrapped his tail around her waist and nipped her firmly on the side of her neck.

“Eeee!” she yelped in surprise and pleasure.

“I claim you, Ree!”

Ree gasped and then wasted no time wrapping her tail around him and nipping him back.

“I claim you too, Jaho!” she exclaimed. “Oh I’m going to give you so many babies!”

“Sounds great!” Jaho smiled. “But first we gotta get out of here.”

“Why hurry?” she smiled as climbed on top of him.

***

On a nearby rooftop a lone smuggler’s net draped human female looked over the city with a powerful scanner scope.

She smirked and picked up her radio handset.

“Those little freaks are at it again.”

“Well somebody drop some rations and water off for them,” an amused older voice replied. “Looks like they are going to be there for awhile.”