Selenia supposed she should have gotten used to people trying to kill her, expected it, really. The Selenar family had a history dating back millennia of flirting with danger and bodily harm.

  Her older brother Cesevial always said to her that people trying to kill you made life interesting. He took after their mother in that respect. He had no fear of anything. If anything, he always laughed off the threat of death and gladly embraced their family’s long history of anything and anyone trying to kill them. It had been one of the reasons why her brother joined the Settlement Front Alliance’s military to begin with. One, to face their family’s propensity for danger head-on. And two, because he had wanted to avoid a boring life.

  Selenia could still remember her older brother’s laughing voice; In life, you need at least one person trying to kill you. Otherwise, what kind of boring life are you trying to live?

  That was where Selenia disagreed with him. Why did you need someone trying to kill you to make life interesting? It could be interesting enough without anyone or anything trying to do you bodily harm.

  Selenia sighed as she quietly sat with Saphie and Fafapan, all of them listening to the cacophony around them. Garrod had gone to work, speedily and silently slipping amidst different groups of AXIS soldiers busy making their way through the forest, trying to find and kill her.

  She felt anxious as she carefully readjusted her circlet on top of her head. Unlike her, Saphie and Fafapan didn’t look worried at all.

  Selenia silently moved towards the edge of the foliage of her small hiding spot. She quietly peered out a small opening in her refuge that allowed her to see brief glimpses of Garrod fighting those coming after her. As she watched him skillfully dispatch his foes, she couldn’t help but be reminded of her brother. She recognized the movements, the styles, the training of Garrod’s skillful hand-to-hand combat techniques. Though she never took well to her combat lessons growing up from her tutors, she recognized them all the same.

  In the Selenar Union, which governed the Triplet Moons that orbited Gaia, the nobility and aristocracy held no formal political power. Any formal title was in effect a fancy badge. As a political entity, it was a constitutional monarchy that put political power in the hands of the people. But the nobility and aristocracy had immense soft power in the form of social and economic influence, which itself translated to political power. As such, the best upbringing and education were a given to those of this class.

  The kind of combat training that Garrod displayed in his expert movements was the same as that taught to those of the nobility and aristocracy of the Selenar Union. It wasn’t as if the soldiers of the Gaia Sphere Federation’s AXIS organization weren’t skilled. Garrod was simply head and shoulders above them as a hand-to-hand fighter. He easily predicted their movements and defeated them in single combat and in groups.

  Selenia could admire the way that Garrod fought, and though she never took well to her combat tutoring, the knowledge from it stuck with her. There were no fancy movements or flourishes. He relied on sheer simplicity and power. Simple and quick dodges and counters. Straight punches. Sharp kicks. Heavy elbows. It was a style and way of fighting that reminded her of someone who learned to fight more from the streets than from formal training. It didn’t fit his appearance of a refined, elegant gentleman with long silver hair and purple eyes.

  Well, if there was any key sign that he was someone from the Selenar Union, it was that. Silver hair and purple eyes were common among the nobility and aristocracy

  Above all, Garrod had a kind of casual disregard for bodily harm as he went about fighting with others, with his life in possible danger, which reminded her a lot of her older brother. He treated it with a lackadaisical ease, with a faint, easy-going smile on his face. It was like seeing her older brother again. He often did get into street fights, a bit more than she would have liked.

  Her dead older brother, she reminded herself.

  She felt a pang of sadness strike her heart.

  Then, Selenia felt someone to her side, and she turned her head. Saphie was there, a mere inch away from her. She stilled. How did Saphie move so stealthily? Saphie snapped her head towards her with a speed that made Selenia flinch. Did she not know anything about personal space? This close to Saphie, Selenia could swear she could see the whirling mass of nightmarish flesh underneath the thin veneer of her saintly appearance behind those golden eyes.

  Fafapan squeezed between them, her tiny pixie form making its way between their heads.

  “Alright, melon butt,” Fafapan said. “That’s enough watching.”

  Selenia glowered at her. “Don’t call me a melon butt.”

  “I’ll call you whatever I want,” Fafapan retorted. “Since Saphie and I may have to put ourselves in harm's way to protect you. You ain’t on the moons anymore, princess. You’re down here on Gaia with us.”

  Selenia glowered at Fafapan. It wasn’t as if the little pixie was wrong. She sighed and quietly withdrew back within the small clearing of her hiding spot, followed by both Saphie and Fafapan. The little pixie sighed, annoyed as she sat on Saphie’s shoulder. “Damn moon fly,” Fafapan grumbled. “Why do I have to look over this stupid moon princess from the moon? In the first place, she isn’t a moon fairy. I’m an actual moon fairy, damn it!”

  “Is that why you’re angry with me?” Selenia said. Because you're jealous?”

  “Yes! Because of that too,” Fafapan said as she crossed her arms.

  “But didn’t you say to me that you didn’t want to be called a fairy?” Selenia said.

  “T-that’s different!” Fafanpan stammered as she turned her head away, slightly embarrassed.

  Saphie watched them both with a faint smile. Then, the flesh mimic reached into her body, withdrew a package of potato chips, and popped it open.

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  Selenia went quiet as she stared at Saphie as she did so. She had to keep reminding herself that Saphie was a monster in disguise as a human. And that under that saintly appearance of golden hair and eyes was a nightmarish creature from the depths of Gaia.

  Saphie caught Selenia looking at her and suddenly thrust her head straight in Selenia’s face without a moment’s hesitation. Selenia, taken off guard, flinched, nearly hitting her head on the tree behind her.

  “Did anyone not teach you about personal space?” Selenia asked, staring right into Saphie’s eyes.

  Saphie tilted her head.

  “Saphie’s still learning. She’s essentially still just a child,” Fafapan answered on Saphie’s behalf.

  “A-Ah,” Selenia responded as she maintained her stare with Saphie, who disturbed her with her non-blinking eyes and lack of breathing. Her outer appearance was essentially just a flesh suit. She imagined Saphie suddenly unzipping her skin, splitting it apart, revealing what was underneath, and devouring her all in one go. A shudder went down her spine.

  “That’s how flesh mimics are,” Fafapan said.

  Then, faster than Selenia could blink, Saphie stuck a potato chip in her mouth. It took her by surprise to the point that she could do nothing but chew on it. And the fried morsel tasted good.

  Saphie merely gave her a faint smile as she quickly shoved another potato chip in her mouth.

  Selenia chewed again, and before Saphie could feed her another one, she put a hand up between them.

  “T-that’s enough,” Selenia said. “Thanks…”

  Saphie just smiled widely at her in response as she dumped some potato chips into her mouth that opened wider than any human’s mouth could open.

  “And not much sense in how things work between others,’ Fafapan said as she grabbed a potato chip out of the bag. It looked huge in her tiny arms. And it didn’t help that she got one of the biggest ones she could. The tiny pixie took a bite out of it.

  Selenia looked between both Saphie and Fafapan. “Are both of you not worried?”

  “I’m cloaking our presence. We pixies naturally have good detection avoidance. It’s going to be really hard for them to find us unless they literally trip over us,” Fafapan said. “Literally, bump into us, I mean.”

  Fafapan took more bites out of the potato chip in her arms. “And both Saphie and I can take care of ourselves in a fight well enough. Saphie is… well, Saphie’s Saphie. Flesh mimics are crazy tough monsters. And don’t underestimate us pixies. Just because we’re small, doesn’t mean we’re not dangerous.”

  “I didn’t say anything about you being small,” Selenia said.

  “You were thinking about it,” Fafapan said, pointing a finger at her. “I just know it.”

  Well… the pixie was rather small…

  Fafapan sighed. “Really, though, we should be safe here. You aren’t as dumb as you look. I mean, I thought a princess like you would have been running around like a headless chicken. That would have been hilarious. You would have—”

  Then a group of AXIS soldiers crashed into them. Selenia stumbled backwards in surprise as they grumbled and moaned from their injuries. Her eye met one of them, a human, and she punched him in the nose by reflex, before he could recover, knocking him out.

  Saphie simply stared at several of the AXIS soldiers before grinning wider than any human could do, revealing lots of sharp teeth. Her arm unfurled into tendrils of flesh that wrapped around several of the soldiers and choked them. Then enveloped another one's head as her chest opened up and swallowed it whole. They fell unconscious from the lack of air. Selenia tried not to think about how Saphie could easily chomp the soldier’s head off.

  Fafapan moved about, smashing a large aracana-reinforced rock into the heads of several other AXSIS soldiers. She took advantage of her small form, moving in a blur as she delivered swift, critical blows before the soldiers could respond.

  Then Garrod appeared, quickly dispatching the rest of them. “Sorry about that,” he chuckled. “I meant to knock them away in the other direction.”

  Fafapan sighed as she tossed her large rock aside. “Great. Thanks. Though the rank and file AXIS soldiers aren’t really that strong.”

  “Well, that’s because you're just too strong, right, pipsqueak?” Garrod said.

  “Garrod!” Fafanpan said. “Stop calling me pipsqueak!”

  “Well, we’re all pretty fortunate that all the strong ones are occupied with the rest of SETI,” Garrod concluded.

  Selenia stared at him.

  Garrod noticed her staring at him out of the corner of her eye. “Hm? What is it?” Garrod asked. “Doesn’t a princess know it’s rude to stare?”

  Selenia broke out of her stare. “A-Ah! It’s nothing. Sorry. It’s just you remind me a lot of my older brother.”

  “You mean Cesevial?” Garrod laughed. “We always did get along.”

  “You know my older brother!?” Selenia said.

  “Know him? He was a friend of mine. We always did get along. Peas in a pod, as they said,” Garrod smiled.

  Selenia tilted her head. That was strange. If Garrod had been a good friend of her older brother, then why couldn’t she remember him? Or anything about him. “From when?” she said.

  “From when we were in the Settlement Front Alliance’s military. Your brother and I were in the same unit together,” Garrod said. He looked at her in confusion. “Hm? I thought you would have remembered me? We did see each other a few times. You’re older brother Cesevial never could stop talking about you. The little princess who always enjoyed eating melons.”

  Selenia opened her mouth, then closed it after being unable to recall anything. That was weird. She couldn’t remember anything.

  Garrod chuckled. “Well, I suppose you can’t remember everything. You were simply a child after all, practically an infant still.” He approached her, sparing a glance at unconscious AXIS soldiers. He got a good look at her, a mumbling smile on his face that looked totally off on him. “You were like a little melon, so small and cute. I remember holding you up like a little ball.”

  Selenia flushed with embarrassment as the thought of it flashed through her mind, even if the memory didn’t come back to her.

  Then, they could hear a steady rumbling approach them, followed by a loud and sudden thud that shook the ground.

  Garrod suddenly became serious. “Move, quickly!” He grabbed her, suddenly, leaping back from where they were, Saphie and Fafapan following him without a moment’s hesitation.

  In the blink of an eye, the ground where they once were disappeared in an explosion. And the sound of a kinetic shell moments afterwards. As the dust cleared, they could see that the remnants of a large kinetic shell had cratered the ground where they once stood. Several more kinetic shells followed in a burst, as they dodged further still, barely escaping being hit as dust and debris flew around them.

  Through the openings made by the kinetic shells, they could see a giant mechanical humanoid machine. It towered above even the tallest of the trees and had a large rifle in its hand. It began walking towards them, each footstep sending the ground trembling. It reoriented its aim as it saw them, pointing the barrel of the rifle straight at them.

  “T-That’s a m-mobile frame!” Selenia said.