There wasn’t much for me to pack up. I wasn’t the sentimental type anyway. Most things from my past were left there. Not much of a family life to remember, at least nothing good. After that was the pirate life. Not much I wanted to remember there, in fact, there was a lot I wanted to forget. Everything I wanted in my new life, the life I chose, was here around me. My crew, my lover. This was all I had now. All I needed to remember.

  I snagged my few power cells left for my skin suit. I didn’t want to run into a situation like in the cargo bay. Running out of power while sneaking through a Gelly compound could spell death for me. Some clothes to change in and out of, and all the ammo I had lying about, and I was on my way out to the cargo bay.

  I stopped at the door to look back into my room. Small and cramped, but it was my home, my sanctuary. The thought that this might be blown to bits was terrifyingly sad. I had made this pce a pce where I belong.

  I rubbed the doorway to get the feel of the metal one st time. I wished it would still be here when we were done taking back Meowlith Prime, but my hopes were little to nothing.

  Mama wasn’t here to grab her things. I was going to raid her room and pack up whatever she might want, pictures, keepsakes, and any cash she had stashed away. She might want to send what she had left to her family.

  Rebellions weren’t our forte, so this was a new line to add to our resumés. It couldn’t be much different from our usual encounters with the Gellical Collective, and we had a small army at our backs, the Meowtw Stars.

  Captain Yeti had quite the reputation, and he was quite effective back on Earth getting the Human government to finally cede rights to the Anthros. Who knew what would happen? This whole thing could be great for the gaxy to finally get its shit together and take on the Corpos and Gellys alike. A woman could hope, no matter how little it might be.

  The door to Mama’s room was open, and I could hear someone inside rummaging about. I stuck my head into the doorway to see what was going on.

  There was a rge duffle bag in the center of Mama’s room, rger than the rest or ours for obvious reasons. Our tech junkie was pulling some pictures off the lockers and carefully pcing them into a folder. I could see Mama and her Husband, some of her kids. I felt sad for the big bear.

  Sucker was oblivious to my presence, as she most often was. “What are you doing Sucker?” I stepped into the room, leaning up against a wall.

  Sucker gnced over at me with her rge bck eyes, “Getting things.”

  “Can I help.” I bent down to look in the duffle bag.

  “I guess.” Sucker turned back to the locker.

  I didn’t have a great retionship with her. We spoke a few times here and there when I was getting my suit outfitted, but besides that, she was reclusive, and I knew she was from Japan originally, but not much besides that and her skill with computers.

  There was an awkward silence as the both of us were just digging around in some lockers and making sure nothing that looked important to Mama was left behind.

  I heard Sucker clear her throat softly, “Mama looks after us to make sure we’re safe, so I decided to grab some of her stuff since she’s not here.”

  “Looks like we had the same idea.” I closed the locker I was looking in and stashed some jewelry into the duffle bag. I paused for a moment, “You worried about the ship? About your computers?”

  Sucker closed her locker and waddled over to the bag, sticking in a stack of cryptocards, “Hmm.” She tilted her head as she sinched the bag shut, “The ship can be repced, along with all my computers, our lives cannot. I’m more worried about the captain and you guys out doing the important stuff, the heavy lifting.” Sucker tried to drag the bag off but wasn’t making much headway, grunting with each jerk towards the door.

  “What you do is probably more important. The rest of us couldn’t send a Gelly signal out to cover our asses, not even if we tried. You’ve done enough lifting for this crew than any of us combined.” I bent down and grabbed the bag, easily hoisting it up over my shoulder, “Let us do the heavy lifting for you. You’ve got your own role to fill.”

  Sucker smiled at me, “Thanks.”

  “Plus, we’re just a couple of dumb dumbs who shoot things. You can repce us with any mercenary off the net.” I strode over to the door.

  “You’re not.” The whisper barely got to my ears.

  I turned around. “What?”

  “You’re not repceable. You’re one of a kind.” The Anthro-Gecko patted my knee as she walked past, “I need to get the rest of my things.”

  “I’ll meet you in the cargo bay.” We nodded at each other as I left her to her own devices. She definitely made my day.

  The Cargo Bay was abuzz with the sounds of grav-lifts loading up transport crates, Captain Uwu shouting orders, and Walter cursing up a storm when someone deviated from the course just one inch. There was no time for fuck ups now. We had to get out before the Gellys realized what’s up.

  Echo was at the arms lockers, loading up Ash with some smaller arms, something she should start with before picking up a bigger boomstick. His pack was loaded up with guns galore. I guess he didn’t want to leave anything behind.

  Slizz opened an empty crate and slid inside. Speck was loading up some crates into one truck, while Walter did the other. I gnced to a now open area of the cargo bay. Redwood was standing about, a small pack on his back, and his usual hard hat atop his head. His eyes were darting around the ceiling as he walked around in circles.

  “G’bye, my beautiful ss. I’ll be a missin’ ya.” Redwood bent down and pat the floor of the Yiffin II. I could swear there was a tear in his eye.

  “Getting emotional?” I swung Mama’s sack over my other shoulder, looking about the ship with Redwood.

  “You’know’it, g’il. This is no regur ship. This here is a work of art, a special beaut’.” He took a deep breath in, “This ship is what drew me to the crew here. If it weren’t for this magnificent metal vessel, I’d be stuck cutting trees, or doin’ basic construction for poo’ wages.” He nodded, “Yup, this ship here, it’s what sparks me to life e’ery day. It’s sad to have to leave her so soon. I figured I’d die on this hunk of metal.”

  “Maybe you will, maybe you won’t.” I looked about as every one of the crates was loaded now and the crew was beginning to assemble at the bay doors. “Something tells me we’ll be back, one way or another.”

  “I do hope you’re right, g’il, I do hope you’re right.” Redwood kissed his hand and patted the ship. “One day, I’ll be back.”

  Redwood and I joined up with everyone at the doors. Speck, Echo, Walter, Ash, Sucker, and Redwood were all gathered in front of Captain Uwu. I gnced over at Ash to see how she was holding up. It was a huge shift for her, and I wanted to size her up. My eyes caught Speck’s, who was standing right behind her. He let out a soft growl, his lip snarling a little.

  I let my face snarl back at him. I was getting tired of his shit. Was I still terrified of him? Hell yes, but I was tired of letting him slide by without repercussions.

  “Sucker, what’s the deets?” Captain Uwu snapped everyone to attention.

  “The signal is sent out. They think we’re confiscating some goods from the ship and that the Gellys moved on to another ship. We should hurry though. Not sure how long we have before they figure this out.” Sucker was tapping around on her tablet while she spoke.

  “Redwood, how’s the ship?” Uwu eyed the small Anthro-Beaver, waiting for a response.

  “Traps are set, defenses are a go. Any Gellys that tries to get in will be soory, a soory puddle o’ goo.” Redwood chuckled.

  “Alright everyone! Let’s get out of here. Say your st goodbye. Sucker, hit the power.” Uwu stepped out of the ship, the rest of us followed. We turned to see the ship in all it’s glory. Sucker tapped away on her tablet and the lights flicked off, resting us in darkness on the runway. The ships hum slowly died off as all the systems shut down, and the ship sat lifeless.

  Everyone let out some sort of emotional goodbye as we boarded the trucks and set a course for the Meowtw warehouse. I climbed up next to Uwu, looking back as he drove off and into the city. Our little oasis was shrinking into the darkness, left to the will of fate.

  The ride to the warehouse was long, quiet, and somber.