“Okay I can see it in your faces… you really want to know huh.”

“You knew I did.” Deag said.

“I am curious as well.” Ton’et mirrored their captain.

“Me as well.” Thwilll piped up once more.

“I don’t care… at all.” Gareth turned his back and began grooming his frills.

Penelope looked from one to the next. After a long pause, she finally spoke.

“Fine. Why the hell not, I’ll only be here another day-ish anyway right?”

“So…” Deag lead on, waiting.

“So… what? I’m not writing a biography here, you ask and I’ll answer. Anything. Just a warning though, it’s not as insanely interesting as you’re imagining.”

“Have you killed someone?!” Thwilll suddenly blurted out, nearly dropping his bread.

There was a slight pause.

“I think that goes without saying, yes.”

Thwilll opened his mouth to speak but Penelope guessed the follow up question and gave an answer before he could ask.

“Many. More than enough.”

Gareth scoffed audibly.

“How’d you end up with us? We met you already outside Terran space …” Deag asked.

“I retired. I want to settle down someplace quiet… Someplace without many humans sounded nice. You mentioned earlier that my service sounded like a long one. It was and it wasn’t. For what I did yea. There are those who serve far longer but they climb the chain of command. Your generals, admirals, or ship captains.”

“I thought you were a captain…” Ton’et remembered how the turret had addressed her.

“A captain yes, but not in the navy. I was the captain of a special operations group. Fireteam Cerberus. We were a unit of six. Special operations worked outside the Army and Navy for the most part, kind of a smaller unique branch of the military.”

“I’m guessing special forces means you were more than the common soldier?”

“We would fight right alongside them often but yes. We had more training and more experience. We got the expensive gear and such. To be clear special forces candidates were picked from the general forces. It’s how I was picked. I showed promise and I got the chance to prove myself. The regulars loved us though. Cerberus especially had made a name for itself long before I was Captain.”

“You weren’t always Captain?”

“Oh, no, not at all. Cerberus is an older squad. In all honesty I’m probably the shortest serving captain of the team. I only served as captain for two years or so before I left. Before me was my Captain, the one who picked me to join the team. Captain Alvarez. I know Alvarez served on the team under another Captain. Beyond that, you could probably go back a few more.”

“So how does one become a Captain?”

“… You prove to your superiors that your worthy of it. Have the experience, leadership skills, and what not. When the previous Captain retires or is promoted or whatever, you are their successor. It’s why my command was so short. I have skills but leading isn’t my thing. I left Cerberus in good hands though. Proper hands.”

“You say the regular fighters loved your team, what exactly would you do?” Deag asked.

“We covered a lot of things. As the name suggests, special forces operate under special circumstances. Someone important needs to die, sabotage this or that, quietly board a ship and set off its reactor… that kind of thing. Cerberus made a name for itself as the guys who pull you out of it when you’re in deep shit. Plenty of times we would drop into the worst of the worst.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Drop in?” Thwilll turned his furry head.

“Yes," Pen chuckled, "Deag has seen this because a full set is somehow sitting in our cargo hold but yes, our most common means of entering a fight was as paratroopers. In one of those crates is what’s known as a Hawk system. It’s a set of thrusters that attaches to our armor. We would jump out of a dropship at high altitude and skydive into a location. As you near the ground you slow your descent and land.”

The entire room had stopped eating at this point. Flabbergasted faces all looking at Penelope.

“You would leap out ships and fly into a warzone…”

“Well… I wouldn’t call it flying. You can’t fly with them, they’re just for slowing down. But they’re far less noticeable than a parachute if you want stealth. It’s easier to manage landings if you’re fighting right off the bat. Also, it is way more difficult to shoot a hole in a tiny thruster than a big open parachute. They generally did come with an emergency chute just in case, but I never had any issues.”

“I don’t think the logistics was the part we’re getting hung up on Pen,” Ton’et started, “More the part where you said you would freefall from high altitude and land in the midst of a battle.”

“Would you land with people shooting at you?” Thwilll asked.

“Often times, yes.”

“And what would you do?”

“…Move? Shoot back? I mean it’s not like I would land right in the middle of a group. We would land in cover and as a unit. Assess the situation, act, repeat.”

“What if you get hurt?” Thwilll was getting anxious on Penelope’s behalf.

“Well, you hope your armor does its job obviously but it’s not impervious and it can’t cover everything. There are people whose job is rendering medical aid to the injured. Our medic’s name was Awali but we all called him Nurse.”

“… you called him ‘medical professional’?” Deag asked.

“No, she didn’t.” Thwilll looked confused.

“It makes sense to me.” Ton’et said.

“No, no. His name was Nurse.”

“Yes… we’ve just said the same thing…” Deag looked around.

“No, you haven’t, it’s your translator being finicky,” Gareth turned to the rest of them, “They have multiple words for various kinds of medical professionals. Your translator recognizes the words but is translating them all into the same one. Watch. Doctor, doctor, medical professional, medical professional, medical practitioner. I’m guessing those all were about the same?”

“…Yea just about.” Deag set his plate down and started messing with his neck.

“Don’t worry I’ll fix it later.”

“You can mess with the translators?” Pen looked at the first officer.

“My people invented them and I’m quite well versed. Don’t act so surprised.”

“I’m not surprised, it’s just interesting. I suppose it makes sense though.”

“Yes, I suppose it does.” Gareth’s frills twitched with sarcasm.

“Half decent cook, good with communication, and a steady job. You’d be a catch by human standards if you weren’t such a jackass.” Penelope shot back.

“Please, being a ‘catch’ by human standards is tantamount to an insult. Besides I’m sure I’m missing the head of a slain enemy presented as a trophy or something no?”

“You wound me Gareth.” Penelope held a hand to her chest and feigned insult.

Gareth simply scoffed and turned away from her.

“Anyway… we were talking about your friend.” Deag moved between the two.

“Right. Nurse was a medic. If you were hurt, he would come and make sure you didn’t die. Now a battlefield isn’t exactly conducive to fixing up anything major so his job was mostly ‘keep injured idiot alive’ until they could be treated properly.”

“It surprises me that there are so many instances in a battle where you’re not either just uninjured or dead.” Deag spoke.

“I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before,” Ton’et’s special interests had been piqued, “but humans actually have quite a remarkable ability to suffer injury but remain alive.”

“I’m not too sure on that Ton” Penelope interjected.

“No but you do. I’ve read that your people have a skeletal structure like Deag’s or Thwilll’s, but a breakage of those bones can heal and heal back just as strong as they were before! Such an injury would be life changing if not fatal to either of them.” They pointed to Thwilll and the Captain.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised… I thought that the injury to your face was severe but you said it would be gone in short order. I’m not sure how hard you were hit but-” Deag started only to be cut off by Ton’et leaping from their seat.

“Precisely! Your ability to shrug off blunt force trauma is frankly incredible!”

“Look… I’m not so sure. I guess, sure, in certain circumstances we're pretty tough but a bullet is a bullet.”

“The rest of the galaxy doesn’t have bullets Penelope.” Deag looked to her.

“Exactly! We use energy-based weaponry when we use it at all. Heat. Which your people are, again, very good at enduring. The energy beam you shrugged off on your first day here would have practically immolated me, Pen.”

“No way.”

“Yea Pen, that thing would have done serious damage to any of us without a personal shield.” Deag had finished his plate.

“…Hm”

“But that’s enough of grim topics,” Deag moved to fill his plate with seconds, “You’ve mentioned two of your team of six. Your captain Alvarez and your ‘medical professional' Awali. Then there’s you. Who were the other three?”

“Martin Alvarez and Joshua Awali were their full names. Then we had Jane Ashara, Dunny Mac, and Lei Hinakari.” Each of their faces flashed in her mind.

Penelope thought of the bottle in her quarters, she felt as if she should be making a toast.