“Mama, you head back with the Meowws. Sorry, but our transport isn’t big enough to fit you.” Uwu shrugged at the big girl, “Take it as an exercise to train up some of the troops. Most of them seem like ordinary citizens. They can take all the training they can get.”

  “Yessir!” Mama saluted at the Captain and turned to join Captain Yeti and his crew, carefully stepping over blood pools and dead bodies.

  By now, most of the civilians had left the club with whatever they could carry. Guns and booze both had been looted from the club and I couldn’t bme them. Who knows what was going to happen in the next few days. There could be a total revolution, resulting in some positive change for once, or we could all get atomized by a religious cult. The future looked bleak.

  “The rest of us will head back to the Yiffin. I just hope they faired better than us. Communications were jammed on invasion, so the only way to find out is to check it out with our own two eyes.” Captain Uwu gnced around, “Where’s Speck?”

  Echo and I gnced at each other and looked about the empty club. There was a high-pitched screeching noise coming from the Missionary’s body. Speck was hunched over, carving something into the metal armor. He stood, chuckling to himself before joining the rest of us.

  “The Gellys are going to have a good time when they discover this mess.” The Anathro-Jaguar smiled, his purr sneaking past his teeth. He nodded at Echo and I, a slight grin on his face.

  The death of the Gellys seemed to bring out some comradery in Speck, who normally gave me some strange stink eye. Maybe killing was some type of medicine for Speck? Getting to kill something must have rexed him somehow. I wasn’t an Anthro-biologist, so your guess is as good as mine. I still kept my guard up around him.

  “Alright, let’s get the hell out of here before they find what we left for them to clean up.” Uwu gestured towards the door. We all began to leave when the sound of gss snapping pulled us all into action mode. Our guns were raised at the stage, just itching to send more Gellys to their god.

  “Please, don’t shoot.” The sweet, innocent voice of Cotton Bun Bun broke the awkward silence in the battle-stricken club. “I just want to ask a question.”

  We eased up, holstering our guns.

  “What’s up?” I took a step forward, being the only one she knew in some sort of personal capacity.

  “Well…” She rubbed her arm nervously. She had a rge red lump on the side of her face from the rifle butt.

  “Spit it out, we don’t have time for this.” Speck snapped as his lips snarled. It didn’t take long, but he was back to his old self.

  Uwu pced a hand on Speck’s shoulder, “Go bring the car around. I’ll handle this.”

  Speck grunted as he left the club, kicking a dead Deacon as he did so.

  “Speak freely,” Uwu joined my side, “We are pressed for time.”

  “I was hoping to join your crew!” Cotton Bun Bun blurted out, “My club is ruined and I want to join the fight. Some of my friends died tonight. I want revenge.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss. The Meowtw Stars could always use more people to join the fight. They’re about to leave, you can catch a ride out with them.” Uwu pointed to the door.

  “I want to join your crew, not the Meowtw Stars.” Cotton Bun Bun hopped off the stage and stood in front of us now.

  Captain Uwu’s eyebrow rose, “And why do you want to join us?”

  Cotton Bun Bun’s eyes darted to me before quickly shooting back to Uwu. “Um,” She chuckled nervously, “The Meowtws are fine and all, but I want to get out of here. Take off into the stars when all this I done. There’s more for me here than just being an exotic dancer. I can do more.”

  “And what can you do?” Captain Uwu sized her up, “I don’t have room for just anyone aboard my ship. Everyone of my crew is a valuable member with skills that suit our line of work. Not one of them is expendable or a drain on resources.”

  Echo smiled and stood tall at the comment. It made me feel good to. The little things coming from Captain were the best. Uwu had a point too. We couldn’t just let anyone join the Yiffin II.

  “I can entertain, I can infiltrate, and I can woo and inspire people.”

  “That’s not enough, I need more…”

  “And I can cook, well. My mother taught me to cook for our whole family. There were dozens of us.”

  Echo stepped in, “We do need a cook. Walter is…less than satisfactory.”

  Uwu held his hand up and Echo shut up. Uwu gnced over at me looking for an answer. I nodded to him. It was his choice after all.

  “Alright, welcome aboard.” He held his fox paw out for her to take, “Grab some clothes quickly and meet us outside. We’ve waisted too much time already.”

  Cotton Bun Bun jumped with excitement and smiled at me, “I’ll be right out.” She took off backstage, humming with excitement.

  “I don’t think Speck will be happy about this.” I joined Uwu’s side as we left the club.

  Captain Uwu chuckled, “Me neither, but it will be refreshing to have another crewmate.”

  “I’m looking forward to some better cooking.” Echo’s raspy voice chimed in.

  Speck pulled around the front of the club with the hover car. It was a hatchback with a pin silver color, something that wouldn’t stand out in a city like this. Uwu sat up front and I climbed in the back seat. Echo opened the trunk and took up residence in the trunk, cradling his shotgun while staring out the back window. Cotton Bun Bun came running out of the club with some short shorts and a crop top, some Gelly boots she must have ripped from a corpse and a Deacons auto-rifle.

  Speck shot Uwu a gre as he grunted. Uwu just smiled out the window as Bun Bun climbed in the back seat next to me.

  “I’m ready. Let’s do this.” She cradled the rifle in her hands, trembling as she tried to put on a professional act.

  “Good to have you.” I nudged her pyfully as Speck hit the power pedal and we sped off towards the spaceport.

  I could tell she was nervous, just as nervous as the rest of us, but we had experience in these things. I just hoped she was good enough to survive and get her wish to travel the stars. To experience true freedom out in the empty void of the gaxy, something I’ve grown to love and cherish.

  The hover-car raced through the streets, passing burned out businesses, some with the fires still ignited and burning in the night air, casting an orange glow out into the streets. Buildings were pocked with blown out windows and craters, debris covered the streets along with fresh bodies left where they were murdered. It looked like the Scratching Post wasn’t the first pce hit in this part of town. The Gellys have been carving a warpath.

  Cotton Bun Bun’s hands tightened on her gun as we passed a pile of dead anthros. She was wringing her hands before she quickly looked away, staring at the floor of the car. Her eyes were on the verge of tears, glistening off the firelight of nearby buildings.

  It must have been her first time dealing with the Gellical Collective in a serious manner. “So, Cotton Bun Bun, do we just keep calling you Cotton Bun Bun?” I tired to distract her with some conversation, but I could tell she was deep in some trauma.

  She blinked a few times before finally answering, “What, uh, no.” Her voice was sweet and innocent. “My real names Ash, Cotton Bun Bun is just my stage name, you know? Something to get all the guys riled up and throwing tips my way. Ash Longhopper, just in case I don’t make it, you can find my family…if they’re still alive…” She trailed off while her gaze shifted out to a pile of dead Anthros burning in the street.

  The car was silent save for a low grumble in Speck’s throat as his eyes scanned the atrocity.

  I’ve seen enough of this in my flights across the gaxy. After a while, the shock fades and it’s repced with anger and hate. I’d forgotten what it was like to see war for the first time. Ash was breathing heavily now, most likely fighting back the tears and anger and frustration of seeing her home like this.

  “Does you family live here on Meowlith?” It was for not now, but I still tried to calm her down.

  “Yes, it was home for all forty-nine of us. We had a big family with a lot of mouths to feed. Antrho-Bunnys still breed rapidly as our primitive counterparts do.” She chuckled nervously, “That’s why I became a dancer. Not because I wanted to, but because it was good money and my family needed it. Mother and Father were working the powerpnts fulltime, my siblings also worked, while the younger ones had to babysit the even younger. It was a hard life with lots of sacrifice, but we at least had each other. But now…what do we have.” Her eyes lingered out the window. “I hope they’re safe. They must be so scared.”

  I pced my hand on her thigh and smiled at her, “Me too.” She shifted over to me and id her head on my shoulder, nuzzling my colr. She shut her eyes and sighed. I grabbed her hand and squeezed tight. I had no clue if her family was safe. They could all be in one of the corpse piles burning on the side of the road.

  Captain Uwu turned to look at me. He gave a halfhearted smile, cloning my own feelings on the matter. We all knew to not have too much hope when dealing with the Gellical Collective. The rest of the ride was silent.

  Hopefully, she could ger her vengeance. Hopefully we could bst these Gellys back to their mother’s cunts and into oblivion. We just had to get the cargo from our ship and overthrow a moon’s government while dodging religious crusaders. Easy.