Rhidi found the next hour after breakfast a rather annoying affair.

  Before she could go and retrieve her sister and her little friends, she had to deal with two of the Reg Kafya who had an issue with each other.

  Rhidi, in layman’s terms, “mogged” the two smaller female Kafya as she stood between them, the red and black hurling insults at each other with accusatory points of padded fingers.

  With her hands firmly planted on her hips and an annoyed furrow to her brows, Rhidi came to understand that this whole thing was over something to do with their fridge.

  “Hold on a second here.” Rhidi said forcefully, holding out a pawed hand between the two while Anfilid and Oin chuckled behind her. “This is about your fridge?”

  The black furred female, ears pierced on both sides with short hoops, looked up at Rhidi with eyes that threatened to fill with tears. “She’s been doing it all week! I buy a certain kind of soda I like, expensive ones! Do you have any idea how much Bundabergs cost?!”

  “You said whatever was in the fridge could be shared!” The red furred female screeched, fists balled at her side as her long braid flowed down her shoulder.

  The black fur stamped a foot, her voice warbling. “B-but you drank nearly a-all of them! I bought a pack of sixteen and I only got to drink three! Three!”

  Rhidi dragged her free hand down her face, dragging at her eyes while Oin hummed behind her, and Anfilid let out a quiet snicker.

  “Heavy is the head.” Oin murmured, making Anfilid bark out a giggle.

  “Stop.” Rhidi shouted, planting a hand onto the face of the red furred Kafya as she made to lunge. “Just stop.”

  The red furred female moved her snout around Rhidi’s hand, snarling at the black fur. “I can’t believe you got the Kholihl involved in this!”

  “You’ve been taking my things forever, a-a-and I’m, s-sick of it!” The black furred female said, her emotions getting the best of her as she began to cry. “F-First it was my socks, then my snacks, and now it’s my f-favorite soda!”

  The red went to shout something back at the black again, but immediately shrank away when Rhidi snarled open-mouthed at her, letting her fangs show and nose wrinkle.

  The red fur avoided her eyes, looking down and away towards the grass that ran behind the barracks, while the black sniffled and wiped at her eyes.

  “Stop. Taking. Her. Things.” Rhidi growled at the red furred Reg, grabbing her by the ear with a strong hand and making the smaller female wince. “Pay her back for the soda you took and stop being a little cunt. If she comes back to me again about you, you’re going to catch a wall-to-wall, understand me?”

  “Y-yes, Kholihl!” The red furred female Reg whined out, letting out a pained hiss when Rhidi let go of her ear.

  Rhidi turned to the black fur while pulling out her data-slate, tapping it on before tapping it to the black fur’s. “Go to supply and draw out more socks. Any more issues, go to Oin, she’ll sort you out.”

  “Thank you, Kholihl.” The black fur said with a bow, then bared her teeth at the red before trotting off towards supply.

  The red fur slinked away, rubbing at her ear while kicking at the grass with her paw boots.

  “Eventfull morning.” Anfilid said with an airy laugh. “First we get to watch First Sergeant Lower crash out in the unit office over Sergeant First Class Bloodmourne bringing a Skalathir to breakfast, and now we get to see the inner-unit conflicts of the Regs.”

  Rhidi looked over her shoulder at Anfilid, who just smiled prettily at her and wagged her tail. She rolled her eyes, putting her data-slate back into her belt. “They were young, notice that?”

  “Still growing into their fur.” Oin agreed, crossing her arms. “They still have a few inches to grow, likely barely old enough to join. Makes me wonder if that’s why they are engineers.”

  Anfilid shrugged, walking off after Rhidi. “Probably imports from the fringe planets. It’s getting harder and harder to get Kafya off world, and a lot of them live up on the station above Earth.”

  “Low thousands, wasn’t it?” Rhidi asked as Oin and Anfilid came up on either of her shoulders.

  “Estimations are fifty thousand either up on the station, or living down here.” Oin replied, already knowing the numbers as Anfilid went for her own data-slate. “Scattered tens of thousands on other stations and the farming worlds, while roughly a hundred thousand are on Goldilocks.”

  Anfilid slid her data-slate back into its pouch, squinting her eyes. “Barely a drop in the bucket knowing how many of us are in the Elder Council’s empire. Our smallest fringe world has two billion alone.”

  “Even smaller slice that joins the Human service.” Rhidi agreed, rubbing at the spots just below her ears to soothe her growing headache. “Why did we have to get so many Dohwin down here?”

  Oin chuckled. “Because all of the adult volunteers joined at the very beginning with us. We’re the role models, you know.”

  “I need to grab a second in the Regs, a Dandiwin that can take care of this small shit without it coming to bother me.”

  Anfilid shrugged. “Can always pick one out during the meeting tomorrow. I know a few of the older female Regs wouldn’t mind, like that purple fur.”

  “There’s a purple fur in the Regs?” Oin asked in shock, with Rhidi’s raised brows matching the energy.

  Anfilid nodded. “Lower council’s daughter from a fringe world, she skipped out after she found out she was being groomed for a role in the interior offices. She joined up with the Regs as an infantryman to prove she wasn’t a Pouffwin.”

  “High chance that a purple fur could manage the Regs for me.” Rhidi said, running her hand along her ear in thought. “At least the small stuff like this fridge nonsense.”

  Oin checked her data-slate, then nudged Rhidi with an elbow. “Didn’t you say you were going to grab your sister and take her to the museum?

  “Yeah, I’m already late.” Rhidi muttered, pulling out her data-slate and calling up a tarry-lift to meet her nearby. “I’ll see you two later, let me know if anything crops up.”

  Waving Anfilid and Oin off, Rhidi jumped into the tarry-lift as it pulled up, giving it the location of her father’s ship dock.

  When she arrived, she was surprised by what she saw waiting by the offloading ramp.

  Standing next to her sister, who looked less prim than she remembered, was a brown furred Kafya with a litany of piercings, her father, and…

  “What the hell is a white fur doing with her?” Rhidi whispered to herself as the tarry-lift came to a stop, opening the door for her.

  “Namaria!” Tyllia cried out, running towards her sister and colliding with her before she had fully stood from the tarry-lift.

  Well that’s also new. Rhidi thought to herself as she hugged her sister.

  Tyllia had never been the most… affectionate sister, as far as memory served, and having the little yellow fur crash into her with a hug was something that caught her off guard.

  “Namaria!” Tyllia giggled out, despite the tears in her eyes, and she released her sister to get a look at her and wipe away at her cloudy eyes. “Oh my gosh, you’re huge!”

  Rhidi let out a cackle, picking up her sister under her armpits and holding her aloft. “And you are so skinny! What have you been eating up at the station? Diet cubes?”

  “Ice cream and chicken nuggets mostly.” The white fur said, and Rhidi slowly lowered her sister, squinting her eyes at the white furred Kafya from just over her sister’s head.

  “I see.” Rhidi said lowly, her eyes never straying from the quickly, visibly panicking white furred Kafya.

  She looked like she had seen rough living, with multiple scars visible within her fur, damaged ears, along with a few deep grooves along her face.

  Her father caught her with a look she knew well, and Rhidi made a pointed effort to fix her face.

  “Who are your friends?” Rhidi asked, setting her giggling sister back down onto the ground.

  Tyllia spun around, Rhidi’s hand in hers as she dragged her taller sister towards her friends. “I met them up on the station during lessons!”

  “I see.” Rhidi murmured, still eyeballing the white fur so hard that she looked like she was going to cry, and was edging more and more behind the taller brown fur.

  Her father eyed her in a manner she knew all too well, and she once again blinked her eyes rapidly and looked around towards her sister.

  “This is Mohki!” Tyllia began, gesturing towards the woman with an open hand. “She works in the docks!”

  Mohki bowed her head forward and bent a few inches at the waist, a warrior’s greeting to a superior force. Rhidi bowed back, and guessed that this “Mohki” was connected to one of the fringe clans, likely the Blackmoons judging from the piercings.

  “And this is Lirya!” Tyllia called out, having to reach around Mohki and haul the white furred Kafya into sight. “She’s a refugee!”

  “Tyllia.” Kohan murmured, lightly scratching at his cheek, just below his eye. “We talked about this.”

  “Oh.” Tyllia said, looking from her father to the shaking Lirya, then wiggled her friend back and forth with a smile. “She’s a political refugee!”

  Kohan sighed out, having discussed with Tyllia to call Lirya a “Sanctuary Subject”, but it seems only one part of that talk stuck.

  “Political refugee, huh?” Rhidi said, stepping before the far smaller white fur and tilting her head at her imperiously.

  Lirya, knowing who Rhidi was and the amount of respect she commanded, was actually shaking at the knees, wide eyed as she looked up at Rhidi. “Y-Y-Yes…”

  “Hm.” Rhidi grunted down at her, then turned to her father, her eyes and face brightening instantly. “Hi papa.”

  “Namaria.” Kohan said with a shake of the head and a quiet laugh, opening his arms as his daughter fell into them.

  Kohan hugged Rhidi tight to him and sighed out happily, finally able to hold his eldest daughter after such a long time apart. He let out another chuckle as he saw Lirya being steadied by Mohki, while Tyllia calmed her down by rubbing her palms along the white fur’s cheeks.

  “You’ve grown.” Kohan said as his daughter nuzzled into his neck, masking the laugh with the comment.

  To be fair, Rhidi had not grown any taller per say, but she had grown in muscle and strength. He wagered she could likely pound any regular Kafyan male into the dirt with her muscle alone, not counting her training.

  Rhidi chuckled into his neck fur, keeping a tight hold of her father. “Human food will do that to you.”

  “Does it also bend your ears?”

  “Just the helmets.”

  “Aaah, I see.”

  Kohan nuzzled his daughter’s face, then broke their hug to get a look at her.

  She had scars along her face and her body, as well as the odd numbers along her forearm… but she was the same little, wild girl he raised.

  “Your mother is in jail, but she should be back on the ship in a few days.” Kohan said, pressing his lips together. “Appears your meeting with her went a different way.”

  Rhidi shrugged. “I gave her a nice, relaxing mud bath. Human mud is good for the fur you know.”

  Kohan laughed a raspy, fatherly laugh, then tousled his daughter’s hair. “Not when you’re slammed into it, my dear.”

  Rhidi giggled, then turned with her father to look at her little sister and her gaggle of friends. “Not the usual company I’ve known my sister to keep.”

  “She has been growing in her own ways.” Kohan said, while Tyllia spun around with a still rather nervous looking Lirya and Mohki in her arms. “I can remember a time where she only hung around with other yellow furs.”

  Rhidi hooked her padded thumbs into the pockets of her uniform pants, then looked towards the ship. “Your staff is staying here, right?”

  “Oh yes.” Kohan replied, walking towards the tarry-lift. “I fear they do not want to risk the wrath of the Drop Pod Lycan.”

  Tyllia looked up at that phrase, guiding her two friends towards the tarry-lift. “What the heck is a drop pod lycan?”

  “Absolutely nothing.” Rhidi said loudly as her father began to chuckle to himself, then clapped her hands. “Alright, into the tarry-lift with you, it’s a big museum with lots to see.”

  After the tarry-lifts doors were closed and everyone had found a seat, the AI driver set off towards the museum. The ride was quiet for a moment as everyone got settled, but it was Kohan that first broke it.

  “You have been quite busy, daughter of mine.” Kohan said quietly as he gazed idly out the window. “From what I hear, you are rather close to a promotion.”

  Rhidi let out a gruff laugh. “Hardly. If I’m lucky I may make Specialist within the next year, but I’m not exactly holding out any hopes for that.”

  “It may come sooner than you think.” Kohan said faintly under his breath, something that caught Rhidi’s attention and made her perk up her ears.

  “Yeah!” Tyllia piped up, leaning forward from her middle seat. “We got to read about your little battle on XJ-1! Is it true that you dropped in from space and immediately got into a gunfight?”

  Rhidi blinked as she looked ahead, her eyes going slightly out of focus as she remembered the rumble of the drop pod under her feet, the slam, and then the sight of the tracers flying across the battlefield as she came out into the air.

  “Yeah.” Rhidi replied with a nod. “Came right out of the doors into an already evolving fire fight.”

  Mohki leaned to the side, chipping in her own thoughts. “I’ve ready about those drop pods, the ride down must be fucking awesome.”

  “You don’t forget it.” Rhidi said as she turned to smile at the brown fur, but then caught the eyes of Lirya. “It kind of makes you want to ride them again.”

  Lirya blinked at Rhidi rapidly, then tilted her head. “Have you been to a Human temple recently?”

  The car got quiet as everyone looked around to Rhidi, then to Lirya.

  Rhidi’s face turned from smile to serious, her bright ivory eyes boring into the black pools of Lirya. “And where, exactly, did you read that?”

  “No where.” Lirya said, breaking eye contact and hunching her shoulders. “Just… a feeling I suppose?”

  Rhidi flicked her eyes from Lirya to her father’s, who raised his brows just a few scant inches in response.

  “How does a white fur find company with my sister, exactly?” Rhidi asked, turning back around to look out the front windshield. “I would have never imagined her straying from the fellowship of yellow furs.”

  Tyllia growled and gave her sister’s shoulder a shove. “Oh come on, don’t be like that!”

  “It is odd though.” Mohki mused, which made Lirya laugh quietly as Tyllia rolled her eyes.

  “We had classes together, and your sister told me how I could get money back to my parents!” Lirya piped up, smiling brightly at Tyllia. “We started hanging out more and more after Tyllia got brain zapped by our teacher, she asked me to ask a weird question during class.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Rhidi let out a long giggle as Kohan shook his head, both of them knowing automatically that Tyllia was guilty before she could open her mouth in her defense.

  “That sounds like my sister alright.” Rhidi said airily. “She always liked getting others to do her dirty work.”

  Tyllia spluttered out a few short, angry words, then gestured towards Lirya. “That Skalathir woman dotes on her! If she asked the question she was less likely to get in trouble!”

  “She knew it was you before I even had a chance to speak.” Lirya giggled out, while Tyllia let out an annoyed click of her tongue against her teeth.

  “I helped Lirya pick out her first Human clothes.” Mohki said, leaning back against the seat. “After that I started hanging out with her more when I wasn’t working, and by proxy that meant your sister. She was quite rude at first but she warmed up to us.”

  Kohan nodded his head forward. “That definitely sounds like my daughter…”

  “You people are the worst.” Tyllia grumped, crossing her arms as Mohki and Lirya bumped her back and forth while laughing.

  Rhidi looked up at Lirya through the rearview mirror, then let out a long exhale as she looked back forward. “You had a rough time in the bush, didn’t you? On your planet.”

  “You know full well the white furs don’t get an even shake on any Kafyan planet.” Kohan said sternly. “I taught you more than that.”

  Lirya’s smile faded from her face as she looked down at her paw boots, but she managed the courage to look back up at Rhidi. “I… it was a hard time for my parents and I.”

  “How did your ears get all cut up?” Rhidi asked.

  It was a question that Tyllia and Mohki also wanted to know, but it was something that they had been rather reluctant to ask.

  Lirya looked up as if she could see her ears, then gave them a flick as she remembered. “Mean kids, mostly.”

  “Mean kids did that to your ears?” Rhidi asked, crossing her arms across her uniformed chest.

  Lirya shrugged. “Well, mean kids did as mean kids do.”

  “And your scars?”

  “... Well. It wasn’t mean kids.”

  Rhidi looked over at her dad, he let out a weary sigh and rubbed at his cheek.

  “I see.” Rhidi replied, and tilted her head towards Lirya. “You won’t have to deal with that here, there are far bigger bullies that don’t stand for that kind of stuff.”

  Mohki let out a chuckle. “Yeah, judging by the video your sister recorded of what you did to your mother.”

  “Video?” Rhidi and Kohan asked at the same time, turning in their seats to look at Tyllia.

  Tyllia shrank back into the seat, smiling nervously. “W-Well… I mean, I was recording for… you know, evidence?”

  Rhidi and Kohan looked at each other, then back to Tyllia.

  “I haven’t posted it anywhere, I promise!” Tyllia whined, while this time Lirya and Mohki shared a knowing glance.

  “I haven't!" Tyllia cried out, but Rhidi and Kohan’s gaze told her that they already knew the truth.

  —

  After Rhidi watched the video of her slamming her mother into the mud in stunning 4k quality, the whole tarry-lift wanted to watch it for themselves.

  Kohan, looking out the windshield with a world weary gaze, could not believe the views for the video had mounted over four million, and climbing.

  Worst were the meme compilations, with ancient Human meme sound bytes finding their feet again within the video.

  Tyllia, knowing that Rhidi and her father were probably mad at her, knew it was going to be worse when her mother found out… but how could she not post it?

  After the video was closed and Tyllia’s data-slate put away, the car ride was quiet until Rhidi couldn’t help herself.

  “Our table.” Rhidi said quietly, ripping a snort out of Mohki’s nose while Lirya had to cover her mouth to avoid shouting out a laugh.

  “It’s broken.” Kohan muttered in a false, high pitched voice, in which the dam of Lirya was broken, and even Tyllia had to let out a laugh.

  Rhidi and Kohan joined in with their own quiet chuckles, but everyone in the vehicle let out more loud laughter as the AI driver played a bass-boosted slam effect.

  This was more well known for being played during someone slamming a ball into a hoop while wearing ice skates, but the effect still rang true.

  When the tarry-lift pulled up outside the museum, Rhidi and everyone else in the vehicle departed into the museum proper.

  The Fort Benning Infantry Museum, once looted and once rebuilt, had an odd place in Earth’s history.

  All museums on military bases had been emptied, weapons brought back to life, engines of war restarted, and aircraft made fit to be airborne again. After the war against The Pactless, the museums had to fight and track down their exhibits to once again put them into place, or rebuild parts of the museum that had turned into actual places of combat.

  The museum at Fort Leonardwood was infamous for becoming an actual start of a trench network, then expanded out after the war to capture the relics and keep them for historical records.

  The same was said for the infantry museum, still bearing the pock marks of munitions on the walls.

  Rifles, aircraft, tanks, vehicles, weapons, and gear were looted from the museum only to fight down the road against the Pactless, and by some miracle a good number of them made it back to their exhibits in mostly one piece.

  Old Stuart tanks sat on displays, marred with alien munition marks. Shermans, Pattons, Sheridans, and others sat parked on false rubble, still bearing the black scorches from lasers, plasma throwers, and other stolen weapons of war.

  Lirya stood wide eyed with Tyllia and Mohki, while Rhidi looked around idly with her father.

  “They fought in these things?” Lirya asked, pointing to the old battered Stuart that had welded-on recoilless rifles on its turret. “This thing is barely the size of a shuttle!”

  A Bradley, bristling with handmade scythes down the sides of its armor and mocked up with melee weapon bearing passengers, gloomed on its own pad, the false bodies of Pactless warriors laying dead around it.

  “Unreal.” Mohki breathed out, peeking around the back to see the still blood-stained interior of the passenger area. “This hole runs through both sides of the damn thing! Were people inside it when this happened?”

  Kohan, reading the plaque, nodded. “Seems they were hit by a strong form of railgun, and the passengers were sucked out the other side by the force of the shot.”

  “The Humans called them ‘blood plumes’.” Rhidi murmured, pointing out the other side of the Bradley. “A lot of their armor became unfortunate victims of high tech weapons, but they still carried on their mission.”

  Tyllia tilted her head at the vehicle, then glanced up at the Human mockups wearing scattered forms of armor, and wielding weapons that ranged from ornate maces, to shards of street signs formed into blades. “Well… I guess they had to. If you’re down to the wire, you don’t really have time to stop and lick your wounds.”

  The group continued on their little jaunt around the museum, looking at the exhibits as they marked the progress through the years of Human conflict. Things started out with the customary musket, then slowly escalated through time into the modern world.

  When Rhidi came upon a model of her drop pod, sitting on a raised display with suits of OBP running out of the doors, she found herself stopping and gazing up at it for a long while.

  “Beats our old suits of armor, doesn’t it?” Kohan said quietly behind her, Rhidi turned slowly to see him with his hands in his pockets.

  Rhidi smiled at him, then turned to look back at the drop pod. “It certainly makes you feel a particular kind of way…” Rhidi then turned fully to her dad, her eyes changing to one of suspicion. “Dad… what are you doing here?”

  Kohan shrugged. “I came to see you, of course.”

  Rhidi and Kohan stared at each other for a long time, Tyllia, Lirya, and Mohki talking back and forth about a mock battle between a Sherman tank and an emplaced section of Pactless fighters.

  After a long minute passed, Rhidi took a few steps forward, standing before her father.

  “I thought we agreed to not lie to each other, father.” Rhidi said quietly.

  Kohan smiled. “You mean after the day you found out I wasn’t just some old, plain accountant.”

  “An accountant does not make enough money to buy his wife a new ship every three years.” Rhidi said lowly, crossing her arms below her chest. “It was not hard to deduce, and became ever more clear when I got into the unit I wanted.”

  Kohan let out a quiet, raspy laugh, then took another step closer towards his eldest daughter, so they were only a step away from each other. “You never came home, and that was creating issues.”

  “How could I go back after being here?” Rhidi asked him earnestly. “After being known for my true potential?”

  Kohan reached forward, taking Rhidi by the shoulders and running his thumbs along her unit and deployment patches. “Oh, darling, I knew you were never coming back, and I knew the Elder Councils were going to start leveraging me in due time.”

  “So you sent Tyllia to study on the station.” Rhidi said.

  Kohan nodded. “And came here after they threatened me.” He placed an arm behind Rhidi’s back, slowly walking her after the others as they dove further into the displays. “I told them that, to get back into their good graces, I would come here and bring you home.”

  “I’m sure they also believed it.” Rhidi murmured, spotting Lirya pointing up excitedly at a display of the Ashen Templars.

  Kohan shrugged. “I took my plans with me, and got my fill of ornamental funding-slates along the way to get what money I could with me.”

  “You always were the more clever of my parents.” Rhidi chuckled. “I bet that drove mom nuts.”

  “She believed I was being swindled.” Kohan agreed with a smile. “But it allowed me to get a few million credits out of Kafyan space before they locked my accounts. I was just made aware of my expulsion this morning, and have a rather flattering bounty on my head now.”

  Rhidi barked out a laugh. “How on earth did they manage to find you out so quickly?”

  “Because of your armor.” Kohan said wistfully, then enjoyed the spread of realization that slowly crawled across Rhidi’s face. “Oh yes, I dare say it was a rather fun project.”

  “You?!” Rhidi cried out in a strangled voice, but went quiet as Kohan held his fist in front of his short snout, the Kafyan way of saying ‘hush’.

  “My daughter was never coming home, and was running around in combat armor that did not have my hand in it.” Kohan said easily, guiding his eldest daughter after his youngest. “How could I remain home, and not come here to make her life a little safer and easier?”

  Rhidi blinked rapidly to herself as it all came rushing to her, the thoughts pounding through her brain like a herd of stampeding horses. “But… but father! This goes far and beyond being a Kuwai! They could send people here to kill you!”

  “Will be rather hard to kill me living on a military base.” Kohan said idly. “And with my wife likely to be on house arrest… would be quite hard indeed.”

  Rhidi made an angry, frustrated noise in her throat, but her father merely patted her on the small of her back. “Relax, I’ve already made contracts with the Human military, we’ll be quite comfortable here.”

  “You were never supposed to come here.” Rhidi hissed out, but all that did was make Kohan laugh.

  “Yes, well, here we are anyway.” Kohan said with a soft smile, watching Rhidi as they walked along behind Tyllia, Lirya, and Mohki.

  Rhidi turned to say something else to Kohan, but paused when she saw the look on his face. “What?”

  “I’m proud of you.” Kohan said quietly, moving his hand from her back to her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “What do you remember me telling you, all the way back when I used to clean the mud from your feet, or sneak your dust covered suits into the wash?”

  Rhidi drew in a slow breath, knowing that her father was deflecting, but still smiled as she spoke. “‘If anyone could forge their way through these stars, it is this little yellow Kafya with mud between her pads’.”

  “A statement that rang rather true, considering how your mother found you.” Kohan chuckled, Rhidi hiding her face behind a hand as she let out a low chortle. “And here you are, an elite soldier of the Human military, Kholihl of every female Kafya on this base, and likely the most famous Kafya on this world.”

  Kohan stopped his eldest daughter and turned to face her, his pale eyes glowing yellow as they soaked in Rhidi’s face, taking her in.

  No matter how different she may have looked, she would always be the wild, muddy footed daughter that always bucked expectations.

  “You stood tall in the sunshine and pushed past the clouds. You paved your own way through the stars, Namaria.” Kohan said proudly, running a hand down her short, messy hair and cupping her cheek. “I couldn’t ask for anything greater from the heavens, than to rest in the shade you cast.”

  Rhidi smiled at her father, leaning into his hand for a moment, though her eyes snapped open at his next comment.

  “It makes me wonder how your own children are going to be.” Kohan said with a laugh, giving her cheek a few pats before turning to follow after his youngest daughter. “Probably just as wild as you.”

  Rhidi let out a few “ums” and “ers” as she trotted after her dad, though he seemed to be on a different track, seeking after his youngest daughter.

  He found Tyllia and her friends admiring a long display of Pactless weaponry, ones that Kohan took a fair amount of interest in.

  Rhidi was still trying to get her father’s attention, clearly frazzled, but she became secondary to the weaponry around her.

  “Weapons and arms from dead civilizations.” Kohan said, spotting Tyllia, Lirya, and Mohki leaning over what appeared to be some kind of eclectic plasma caster cannon. “The Pactless consumed whom they conquered, folding in weaponry, technology, and ships into their people while consuming the flesh of their victims. These weapons are all that remains of once great civilizations.”

  Mohki looked around at an odd looking pistol, the top riddled with little slots and a display crystal cartridge sitting next to it. “It’s a wonder that Humans ever made it out alive of the invasion, facing off against stuff like this.”

  “There were many factors.” Kohan said, bending at the waist to peer down at a complicated looking grenade while Rhidi was panicking next to him still, prodding at his shoulder with little hisses to try and get his attention. “The Pactless were half starved after finding too few prey on their travels across the void, putting themselves into a deep sleep and not having enough food for their birthing cycle. When they arrived on Earth, they were starving, not enough meat to go around but enough weaponry to mount an invasion.”

  “But how did Humans manage to survive, even with The Pactless weakened like they were?” Lirya asked, pointing to the many weapons around them. “These were hundreds of years ahead of Humans, maybe even thousands!”

  Kohan shrugged, then chuckled as he messed up Rhidi’s hair with a hand to shush her. “The Pactless nearly had their victory after landing on the major landmass of Asia. Tyllia, you learned about those, right?”

  “Asia is the big one to the East.” Tyllia replied, picking up an old Pactless toy on display via a tether, and fiddling with it. “Below it are a bunch of islands, and two more land masses to the West. Africa and…”

  “Europe.” Lirya piped up, also poking at another toy on display.

  Kohan nodded sagely. “Yes. You see, they had avoided the American land masses because they desired food more than anything, and having so much landmass connected in one spot made it the prime target for their invasion. After making landfall in Asia, they consumed much of the populace rapidly. China, lower Russia, India, and the Arabian countries fell quickly despite launching a stiff defense, but they were simply overwhelmed by the arrival of a space-born foe.”

  “Dad!” Rhidi hissed by Kohan’s shoulder, but he simply waved her away and pointed at something for her to look at.

  “Now despite the heavy losses to Humans, The Pactless consumption of nearly thirty percent of Earth’s population in one go brought them into a kind of…” Kohan snapped his fingers, trying to find the phrase. “Oh… what is the Human term for this, they have one, I’ve heard it before.”

  Mohki grinned, and after a short huff of a laugh, she stood up straight and nodded towards Kohan. “Food coma.”

  “Food coma!” Kohan laughed out with a clap of his pawed hands. “That’s the one! Food coma. Despite the heavy losses to Humans, The Pactless consumption of nearly thirty percent of Earth’s population in one go brought them into a kind of food coma. They slowed down in their advances out of pure, caloric lethargy, and it bought time for Europe, The more westerly parts of Africa, and the Americas to rally.”

  Lirya pointed up at a map that was on the wall, showing the timeline of events in the war against The Pactless. “It says here that some Pactless ships had landed all over the place though.”

  “Well yes, but not in the numbers that they did in Asia. The fighting was fierce, of course, but not at the same levels. The ‘great food coma’ bought Humans months of time to rally themselves and prepare to make their final stand, including ripping every single weapon on Earth to be made useful again.”

  Mohki placed her hands on her hips, looking up on a separate map, her ears perked as she read while speaking. “I still don’t understand how they lost the war though. The Pactless were billions in number, outnumbering the Humans nearly two to one.”

  “That comes from Human sacrifices.” Kohan replied, pointing to another display room connected to the one they were currently in. “Come, I’ll show you.”

  “Dad! Please I have to-” Rhidi began, pulling on her father’s shirt with a pinch of finger and thumb, but there was no getting Kohan Rhidi off a tear when it came to Human history.

  “Later, darling, later.” Kohan replied, kissing Rhidi on the cheek as she let out a long, frustrated groan. As he and the others entered the room, he pointed at the preserved top of a Human ICBM. “First, The Pactless disabled their greatest weapons of fusion and fission. This was a shrewd choice by The Pactless, as it kept all the meat from getting irradiated and ruined.”

  Lirya clapped her hands together. “Oh, we learned about this! The Pactless preserved little robots called mesh-sils! They were released and caused all the massive missiles and stuff to be rendered inert!”

  “I still don’t understand.” Tyllia piped up. “I thought The Pactless wanted the planet for resources, but you kept saying they wanted meat.”

  Kohan shrugged. “Oh sure, they wanted Earth for its resources, but not many understand that The Pactless were starving after wandering so far away from their rogue stations, or lost moons. It’s kind of downplayed, really, but it is one of the reasons why the Humans were so particularly violent during the war against the Ur.”

  “The Ur processed living beings into slurry, while The Pactless tended to just eat them whole.” Mohki said quietly, causing Kohan to lift an eyebrow in curiosity. “The Pactless were also extremely over confident in their stolen weaponry, and believed that the Humans were too primitive to mount any kind of actual offense.”

  “Their complacency proved to be their undoing.” Kohan agreed, pointing to multiple photos around the display room. “Humans understood the strength in having ships orbiting around their planet and the ability to provide fire support, so they mounted the greatest space boarding in record.”

  Kohan moved to another larger display that showed small, scale models of odd looking machines that looked like giant syringes, drills, or knives. “The Humans launched a desperate surprise attack from Earth, all nations that could making boarding craft filled with Human fighters. These were one-way trips, and the Humans inside the boarding craft knew that. Sitting cozy and complacent, Pactless crews found their ships shuddering from the impacts of boarding vessels, and Humans poured into them.”

  “With ships under their command, and The Pactless having the blunderous methods of making ship buttons simplified, the Humans eradicated any enemy ship orbiting their planet. This did include suicide runs, as ships lacking munitions were instead used as the weapon with all hands on board lost.” Kohan intoned, gesturing to the many pictures around them. “The Pactless were caught off guard, and now found themselves stranded on the planet with nothing more than carriers and all varieties of attack ships. This wasn’t helped by Human boarding parties ramming their ships into anything that dared move, including some long-dead race’s attack corsair being used as a makeshift orbital bomb, howling out of Earth’s blue sky and landing right smack dab into Asia’s main landing area of The Pactless.”

  Mohki tucked her hands into the pockets of her pants, looking up at pictures of the massive crater that now made up China’s westerly provinces. “Just how much crazy shit went down during that war, do you think?”

  “Too much to read about in a single day.” Kohan replied airily. “Pactless warriors being hunted by Humans and animals alike in Africa, the close combat paratroopers, the vehicle knights of Australia, the bush engagements of South America, the great melee battles of the American North once The Pactless ran out of ammunition… it almost makes you wonder if they had sent out a warning to other remnants of The Pactless.”

  Tyllia looked away from a screen playing small, curated scenes of the war, and she blinked at her father. “What do you mean?”

  “The Pactless left Earth in some smaller ships, sprinting as fast as they could to avoid joining the billions of their dead brethren on the planet.” Kohan replied, slowly walking out of the room towards another display of how Humans crafted their first ships after the war. “Word got out, I’m sure, and Earth was heavily weakened after they won their right to live… yet, no other Pactless colonies came calling. It almost makes you wonder if they warned everyone that only death will find you, on the blue planet of water and grass.”

  Lirya, watching a small recording of a pack of motorcycle warriors warring in the interior of Australia, tilted her head at it. One Human had a long lance, conical cone guarding his hand, and leaned from the side of his motorcycle to impale a Pactless right in the chest.

  In the recording he let go of the lance and pulled out a mace, the motorcycle behind him filming the strike that turned another Pactless’s head to a spray of bone and blood.

  “I think that warning may have been quite true.” Lirya mused, then let out a squeak as she turned to find Rhidi standing right beside her, the yellow furred Kafya chewing on her bottom lip worriedly. “Oh! R-Rhidi, hello!”

  Rhidi looked down at Lirya, and that same feeling came over her, a kind of skin crawl that wormed its way under Lirya’s fur and made it feel like she was writhing.

  She couldn’t explain it, but deep in her mind, two simple words poured across her thoughts, a feeling that she did not fully understand as she looked up into those bright, ivory eyes.

  Not. Yours.

  “Come on.” Rhidi said, patting Lirya on the asscheek and making her bark out a squeak of panic as she was sent forward. “Let’s not fall behind the others, or they might make you an exhibit.”