I followed Captain Uwu through the warehouse, dodging between Antrhos and a few humans loading up weapons and supplies with worried looks pstered across their faces. Something was up, they were loading things more erratically now. They were in a hurry. Something had them spooked.

  Uwu whipped the door open. Inside the room were the Meowtw commanders. Yeti stood with his paws firmly on the table, his brows distraught as he gazed at the vid monitor in the front of the room. Azura was at his back, her robot arm folded beneath her fleshy one. Dutch stood in the corner, her rge, fuzzy body imposing and threatening; her splicer slung across her shoulder.

  Noodle waved us in, her hands frantically gesturing us to the table. “Come on, watch.” She pointed to the screen.

  Yeti nodded at Uwu, “Looks like this is going to be harder than we thought.” Yeti grunted at the screen, his paws tightening around the sides of the table.

  I looked over Uwu’s shoulder at the vid screen. The local news channel was on. There was a stage at what looked like the city hall. A grand building with a domed top, and rope like marble carvings around the pilrs in front of the building. On the stage stood a plump cat in a cheap suit. Something I’d seen a dime a dozen at any of the sleezy clubs on the plethora of space stations scattered across the gaxy.

  His cheap red tie fpped in the slight breeze. The City Hall behind him glistened in the morning sunlight, covered in the ir of water that seeped into everything. He was backed by some fancy human suits on his left. Now these guys were the real deal. Corpos, if I’ve ever seen them. Pressed suits, visible robotic enhancements across their heads and hands, and the stern look of constipation across their faces, like they’ve never had an ounce of fun in their lives. To get that high up, they must have sold their souls a long time ago.

  All the corps were here. It seemed like several representations were about the left side of the stage. Red ties, yellow ties, traditional Kimonos with purple patterns, blue-suited androids. They were all there, but what was most unnerving was the people perched up on the right side of the stage.

  Donning the usual bck and white, the Gellical Collective stood on stage with a host of members, including one dignified looking man with blonde, wavy hair, temporal impnt, and a vish set of robes and pins about his right chest. He was surrounded on either side by two Missionaries, a Priest, and a host of Deacons scanning the crowd for sinners willing to risk their life to end their leaders.

  “Saint Admiral, Michael the Pious.” Yeti whispered out into the small room. I looked over to him. Anger was burning in his eyes, “That son of a bitch is the reason for all the chaos out there. All that carnage.” He whipped his head over to us, “You saw it st night. The bodies in the streets. You couldn’t miss it.” He turned back to the vid screen, his jaw clenched and his teeth grinding.

  I looked about the room. All the Anthros were in the same mood. If they could phase through that vid screen and choke the life out of that man, they all certainly would. The vid screen had a banner passing the bottom of the screen, ‘Mayor demands presence of Carpetree for official statement. Anyone caught not in attendance will be punished.” The whole thing screamed a whole lot of Gelly involvement to me.

  “I see what you mean.” Uwu spoke to break the silence. “This got a whole lot harder. We’re going to need a better pn.”

  I slid my arms around Uwu’s shoulders and down his chest, “What do you mean?” I whispered not to upset the Anthros. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife and grill it up with a side of veggies.

  Uwu cocked his head to the side, “The Corpos and Gellys on the same stage means they came to some sort of agreement. They’re working together.”

  “An’ dat means no help fo’ us.” Azura scoffed as she watched the screen, “I’ll keel dem all.”

  “We can’t rely on any outside help, not even Earth government.” Captain Yeti stood and straightened out his uniform. “We need someone at the press release. We need to size this guy up and figure out where we can hit him. There’s no need giving into the dread here. We must fight, or we sink deeper into corpo control. We all end up dying as terrorists, and everyone else becomes even more of a sve.”

  “We still don’t know what the Gellys are doing here. Or what they want.” Uwu stood back, looking his fellow in the eyes.

  “Doesn’t matter.” Yeti waved it off.

  “Sure as shit, it does.” Uwu countered, “The more we know, the better we can fight them.”

  “We just have to kill them.” Yeti stared Uwu dead in his eyes, “We kill them all, blow up their ship and push it into Saturn, where it will never be found again. That’s all we have to do.”

  “And we mop up de Corpo bitches while we at it.” Azura chimed in.

  “Calm down. I know were all pissed here, but Uwu is right.” I spoke up to side with my lover, “We need a pn in pce or a whole lot of your people will die for nothing. I’ve had innocent blood on my hands, we all have…” I looked around and paused for dramatic effect. It was working. “We pn our attack, take what we need, and hit them where it hurts. They are here for a reason, like Uwu said, if we can figure it out, we can force their hand.”

  Yeti sighed, “And they’ll make mistakes, giving us the upper hand.” Yeti scratched his jaw and rexed his shoulders, “You got one hell of a woman, Uwu. Don’t you hurt her, or I’ll cw that dick off. ya hear?”

  “I don’t pn on it.” Uwu smiled at me, “How about we talk logistics and come up with our pn. Vixie,” Uwu spped my ass casually, “I need you at the press release. You’re the best at getting out of things with your hide intact. Take Sucker with you.”

  “Ugh, because…” I awaited his answer like someone awaits a bat to the head.

  “I need her to pick up on that signal from before. It will be there, jamming anything where the Saint Admiral is. If she can crack the code and duplicate it…”

  “We can shove a nuke up those tight, religious assholes.” Yeti barged in, spping Uwu on the shoulder. “I can send some of my own, low-level guys, to assess the situation. Start spreading some rumors about the Meowtw Stars rising and going on the offensive. The people of this moon need some hope, now more than ever, and we’ll be the fire that sparks that hope into rebellion. To the fucking stars!”

  “To the Stars!” The small office broke out into the cheer, followed by the warehouse erupting into the same.

  “Vixie, get ready to head out.” Uwu pulled me out of the office, “And bring the new girl with you. I want you to show her the ropes.”

  I stared Uwu in the eyes with a dead-eyed stare, “Really?” The man was a dense as any other man at times.

  “Yes, she needs the experience of her nerves getting rocked, plus, she may be able to grab some info from other anthros. Make sure she’s dressed appropriate; we don’t need the Gellys dragging her away for immodesty.” He smiled at me, “Plus, I think we need to keep her away from Speck as long as possible. For both their good.”

  “Fine, but you owe me big time, mister” I pointed my finger at Uwu as I slowly backed away, never breaking eye contact. I finally turned and strode over to our little haven of the Yiffin II crew, swaying my ass and shaking my hips as I did so. Uwu was watching, no doubt, and I had to rub it in his face.

  “Sucker, grab whatever you need to go mobile.” I bent down beneath the stairs to look at the small Anthro-gecko.

  “What? I’m in the middle of something.”

  “Better not be watching anime.” I crossed my arms, staring her down.

  Her small hand slowly pressed a button, shutting down her computer, “Where to?”

  “We’re headed to the press release. There should be some good, juicy Gelly data to steal. We need to figure out why they’re here, and what we can do to hurt them the most.”

  “Got it. Say no more.” The gecko began packing up her computer and other gadgets into a small pack, “This is going to be fun.” Her high-pitched, perky voice was cute, I had to give it to her.

  I stood up and twisted to Ash, who was talking with Walter. “You too, bunny ears. Get your things ready, were heading out.”

  “Yay.” She hopped up a little, cpping quickly, “I’m so excited for my first mission. It’s time for payback.” She hopped back and punched Walter in the shoulder.

  “Ow,” He rubbed his skin, “Please don’t do that again.” His gravelly voice nded on deaf ears.

  “We’re not going gung-ho on retribution, just some information gathering. Wear something pin. We don’t want to stand out.”

  “Yessir!” Ash saluted me and ran off to her bag. “So excited!”

  Sucker walked up to my knee. The rge pack on her back was making her wobble back and forth. “I’m ready.” She smiled at me.

  I let out a sigh and rubbed my head. This was going to be a long day.

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