Alwen pulled on the metal grieves, the armor automatically sealing and a foam layer inflating to push against her legs. The new marine space ready combat suite was supposedly an improvement in every sense of the word to the old armor.

Still themed along the lines of Japanese armor from the Edo period, the new armor was sleeker and far more advanced than the previous iteration. The same synthetic muscle like fibers and ligaments the Hellworlders used inside their own bodies was applied to the layers of armor to assist with movement and make the armor feel almost weightless.

The foam sealing layer pressing against the wearers body prevented depressurization when the outer shell pierced and even helped clot the wound.

While the base armor was sleeker than the last iteration the new hard point connectors and straps allowed for additional modules to better handle a variety of missions. From consumables for life support, to glider wings for orbital insertion and deployment, the amor had it all.

The one issue was that it was much, much harder to remove, which meant instead of being able to remove pieces for ‘waste removal’, Alwen and the others now had a tube to handle that for them.

The marines were used to the indignities of combat gear, and Alwen could grit her teeth and bare it, but the other medical staff that were supposed to be assisting her on this mission couldn’t handle it. Menda and Kana had refused to put the armor on, and Foru was the only one fully trained on the auto lab for identifying the effects of Unity-79 so he had to stay behind.

So it was just Vira and Alwen suiting up for the possibly dangerous mission of tracking down the gang of Chimps carrying Unity-79.

Temperance and Charity were also suiting up next to them, as well as Freya team from the Lucifer.

“I still don’t see why I need to wear this cumbersome thing” Vira complained as a marine helped her with the chest piece. It locked in with a “KERCHUNK” and wirred as the seals sucked out the air.

“Just be glad you don’t have fur.” A grease slicked Alice mumbled. Apparently the fur of Mammaloids needed to heavily slicked down with a petroleum jelly to get a good seal and prevent chaffing. “I’m just glad this thing regulates temperature better than the last one.”

“But, we’re doctors, not combat-shooty people.” Vira muttered.

Alwen quirked an eyebrow. “Combat-shooty people?” she teased.

Vira huffed “I forgot the word.”

“Marine, or soldier?” Izzy asked.

“That last one, I always confuse that last one with solder. And it frustrates me to no end that neither word are pronounced the way they’re spelled.”

“Blame the French” Limey said behind Alwen. “They’re the ones that buggered English in the ass when old Willian the bastard conquered England.”

Gabe’s head shot up. “That was actually correct,.” He said in surprise.

“Course it was” Limey said with pride. “Ole’ Billy the bastard got tired of eating snails and only bathing once a week and decided to conquer England so that he could experience proper culture. Like footy and spotted dick.”

“That last one has to be fake.” Vira stated confidently.

“Nope” Alwen said, “Its real, and before you ask, it isn’t actually made of dick. That’s just a weird British name.”

“I will never understand you humans” Vira muttered morosely.

“I don’t think they understand themselves either.” Alwen consoled. “And we’re wearing armor because A; we’re certified combat medics. And B; we’re heading into dangerous situation, and we might need the armor to prevent getting infected by the primary carriers.”

Vira sulked as the marine helped with the helmet. They had needed to modify on to accommodate Vira’s horns, which resulted in a Kabuto that was formed around her horns.

Alwen’s was much simpler, and she just needed Limey to help push it over her ears.

After that it was just the mission specific modules they picked out from the armory and Alwen’s own portable equipment that she would be needing.

After their meeting with the two human SS officers it had been decided that both ships would be deploying teams and gear to locations all around Unity to prevent a situation where their combat forces were bottled up if shit hit the fan.

It would complicate extraction, and they may need to operate with little to no contact with command. But the usefulness of having forces embedded across Unity was too great to turn down.

Alwen’s team had a slightly different mission. Her team, and she really did mean her team as she had strategic command over their unit.

“Alright” Alice said over comms as the last person got their helmet on. “Our ride will be back from its run in four minutes, I want asses in chair’s the moment it lands, Incubus has a busy day ahead of it.”

“Anyone else think its strange we can just land and take off with no concerns over being tracked?” Gabe said.

“The air traffic control here is only designed to direct air travel, not detect stealth ship’s. all they’ll see is our drop ship coming and going with no idea where we went.” Alice explained. “Bones is the strategic command on this mission, her word is law. But the moment bullets start to fly you will defer to me as tactical command. Bones.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Alwen stood up “Thank you Ghost. Our mission is to track down a chimp gang called the Black Fangs, who we strongly believe are carriers of the bioweapon Unity-79, otherwise known as the murder boner virus.” There was some snickering, but Alwen kept a straight face. “We are hoping to find clues about its long-term effects from the Black Fangs, and maybe even find out where it came from. If it’s truly a Bioweapon like we suspect then it’ll likely have cure. Helmets and armor stay on at all times to prevent exposure, and we will be regularly replacing air filters. Understood”

She got a loud “Yes Sir!” in response, and Alwen mused at how well she adjusted to command.

There was a ringing sound as Incubus signaled it’s arrival. They moved with mechanical efficiency as they stormed across the connector port and into the drop-ship.

~~~*~~~

Vira stared at Alwen through confines of her helmet visor. In less than a single day they went from a developing plague with Unity-79 coming to light, receiving and healing the captain and her heavily injured companion, to meeting with the station’s chief of Security, to gearing up and deploying for a combat mission. And Alwen didn’t even bat an eye at any of it.

She took it all in stride as if it were just another day, she even joked around with the Marines as they were being fitted into the cumbersome space armor they wore.

The shy, timid girl Vira had once known, took command of the boisterous and intimidating Marines the same way she took command of a surgery. And they listened reverently.

There she sat, relaxed, rifle in her lap, swords at her hip.

No one else was half as relaxed as Alwen was, everyone else was tapping their feet, shifting in their seats, and reflexively checking their guns.

Vira was so tense with anxiety that she felt sick. They had shoved a gun into her hands and ignored her protests of not knowing how to shoot.

“This is the end the bullets come out, don’t point it at anyone unless you want them dead. This is the trigger, keep your finger off it unless your going to shoot.”

And that was it.

She had never killed before, never been in anything worse than a bar fight where she was half blind and stumbling. And now she was goi-

A marine bumped her shoulder. “Hey Red.” One of the Marines said over a private coms channel. Isabela, Vira thought. Though it was hard to tell with the tinted visor. “You alright?”

“No” Vira answered honestly. “I don’t know how Alwen is so calm.”

“Calm huh, yeah it looks that way doesn’t it.” Isabela said. “But I’ll tell you right now, you never really get used to it. Everyone’s always tense as shit before every mission, it’ll get better once the bullets start flying.”

“I doubt that.”

Isabela shrugged. “And your free to do so, but trust me, the pre-battle tension is much worse than the actual thing.” She paused, “Usually.” She added.

“I just, I don’t understand why we’re going along, or why we need guns. We’re doctors not solders.”

“Soldier.” Isabela corrected and Vira winced, she just couldn’t get used to that hard D/J sound in that word. “But you get guns just in case the worst happens, us Marines are just going to clear the way and secure your test subjects. And we’re pretty damn good at our jobs. But that never stopped Murphey, that bastard.”

Vira looked around, trying to remember which one of these aliens was named Murphey. He would be the one to watch out for.

Isabela laughed. “No, Murphey’s law. That any that can go wrong will go wrong, eventually. Its like, an immutable law of reality. Nothings disaster proof, so we try to build in as many redundancies as possible.”

“So… me holding a gun is a redundancy?” Vira asked.

“Yep. One of like, twenty.”

“Somehow that’s less comforting.” Vira murmured.

The Marine put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry too much about it. You knew Bones before she came to us right, what was she like back then.”

“What was she like…before she left home?”

“Yeah. I remember her being shy and way out of her depth at the beginning, but that’s not always an indicator for how they really were before joining up. People don’t exactly join pirate crews in their right minds.”

Vira frowned though the Marine couldn’t see it. “That says a lot about this whole crew.”

“Hey, if you thought we weren’t all bat-shit insane that’s on you. We are very upfront with who and what we are.” She accused.

Vira chuckled nervously to herself. “No, you’re right, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

She paused to gather her thoughts. Menda always claimed to be Alwen’s best friend since they had been adjoined at the hip since the start of med-school. But Vira often found that Menda took Alwen’s presence and support for granted, and never really knew the troubled girl under it all.

Vira wasn’t sure if she had seen under all her layers either, but she felt like she had a better idea of who she was than Menda. “She was always, quiet. She never really spoke her mind, never took charge of a conversation. In school we all knew that she was a genius, excelling in just about anything she put her mind to, but since she never seemed to take pride in her achievements we always forgot that she was way smarter than us. Even now she’s still like that. She prevented someone from being a lifelong cripple, diagnosed a newly discovered bioweapon, and patched up horrific burn wounds, and she made it all seem trivial.”

“Bones always says that with the equipment available miracles are a dime a dozen.”

Vira snorted. “Maybe if I had another decade to train with such things I might say the same. She makes the difficult seem easy and unimportant. Which is very frustrating when you’re still struggling with the core concepts.”

Isabela nodded. “What about out of school. Was she still a lousy drunk back in school?”

“Oh Gods yes. Two drinks in and she would swing between tears to trying to sing on the bar. I think it might have something to do with repressed emotions.” Vira felt her smile fade. “She always bottled in all her emotions. And no one ever seemed to notice.”

The Marine turned to regard her. “But you did.” She said pointedly.

Vira nodded. “Whenever Menda and Kana snuck off to get frisky I was the one who had to deal with a drunk and emotional Alwen. I think I got to see under the mask more than most.”

It was hard to tell, but she felt that Isabela was giving her a strange look from under that helmet. “You had a crush on her.” Isabela eventually said, no uncertainty in her voice.

“Maybe I did. But the girl I had a crush on is gone. And I don’t really know this one.”

“You sound sad about that.” Isabela said insightfully.

“Maybe. Menda and Kana are sort of blind, they don’t really see the changes. And I don’t think Foru really knew her to begin with. But I kind of miss the old Alwen, not this Bones person.”

“Hmm, you’re a lot more observant than I gave you credit for.” Isabela said.

“Yeah, well, a lot of people underestimate me.” Vira said softly.

“There’s a story there.” Isabela stated.

“It’s a, it’s a Torweni thing.” Vira tried to deflect.

“Oh no, you’re not getting out of this. Come on, spill.”

“Its just, I have the skin of a southerner, but I spent my whole life on the northern continent. And they have certain views about southerners.”

“Views like-”

“Views like we’re slutty for lack of a better word. They expect us to always be thinking about sex, a new partner everyday.”

“Not to sound racist, but I think I’ve met a few southerners, and that isn’t exactly untrue.” Isabela pointed out.

“No its not. They cover less skin on average, and are definitely more open about their relationships than northerners. Kana and Menda are practically married at this point, and they still pretend they’re both virgins.”

“Yeah, I always got the impression that the Torweni were pretty conservative from Alwen. Guess that was just a northern thing.”

“Yes, and she seems to have really opened up about that since meeting you humans.”

“Terrans.” Isabela corrected. “Its kinda racist to simply say humans or humanity since it leaves out like two hundred other species of Terrans.”

Vira winced “Right, sorry. But yeah, they’re very conservative about that stuff, and I’m not. But when I act a little more open and accepting they just assume its my flirty southern blood. Sakuru Saxen.” She finished.

Isabela’s head quirked to the side. “I take it that was some sort of derogatory term.”

“It basically means ‘unfaithful south’. Anyway I often get dismissed out of hand, not a northerner, not a southerner. Means I get to watch both with less biasis’.”

She leaned back. “Yeah, I get that.”

“You do?” Vira asked in surprise.

“Yep. My family were immigrants from down south of where I was raised. They were from a southern base that had to close down due to a declining population, so they transferred to another base with a large Latin presence. But it wasn’t the same, the people there had been there for centuries and were more Americans than they were Latino. My parents had trouble fitting in. And my brother and I got to grow up sandwiched between three different worlds.”

“Sounds rough.”

She shrugged “It was just how I grew up. Can’t exactly change or fix it. But it was hard for a while.”

“Did it get better?”

“Yup, it got better the moment we joined this crew. We’re a blend of like-all of Earth’s cultures here, no one really knows what to expect from each other. It means less pretending and more being, ya’know.”

Vira frowned, she wanted to say more, but the lurch in her stomach told her they were making their approach. And as the dropship descended she realized something. “You’ve been distracting me.” She accused to the relaxed looking marine.

Isabela snorted “Of course I was. The dread and anticipation are always the worst part of a mission. You can’t tell because everyone’s on a private channel, but we’ve all been talking to blow off steam. And it looked like you needed it.”

Vira looked at her lap. “Thank you, Isabela.” She said softly.

The Marine punched her in the shoulder plate. “None of that Isabela crap. My friends call me Izzy.”

Vira chuckled. “Right. Thank you, Izzy.”