System of the Damned

  Chapter 22 - Xavier

  Vehicular Manslaughter, and other hobbies.

  The feel of wind in my fur as I took my custom track through the smooth rounded tunnels at speeds that made most humans squeak was glorious. G forces shoved me against my seat and harness in beloved ways as I rounded a bend in the tunnel and rode the wall for a few hundred meters. My hand snapped the shifter into a lower gear as my feet worked the clutch brakes and the other hand held the wheel tight. The alcohol and hydrogen fueled engine roared as I shoved the steering wheel forward and throttled it up, slamming the shifter up a gear and loving the rainbow flash of flames that belched from the intakes.

  Behind my track were three dozen other tracks trying to keep up with me, and in another tunnel there were three main battle tracks giving a new meaning to the word Earthquake. One dozen veteran Burrow Guard and two dozen marine trackheads along with Dubstep, Rave, and Bass. The latter three were the first mark one through three Anderson main battle tracks, and had been named by Maestro. I was leading them to meet up with The Order’s newest finished project, which was launching today.

  Arnold had been busy with teams mining various tunnels chasing veins of ore or minerals, which had let other teams follow and make roads. Though roads was a polite term for a rough walled rounded tunnel that let us go at (to most races) insane speeds in tracks. Mimics had done the work and even ventilation had been worked in, which is why I wasn’t choking on exhaust with the vents open. My suit was clamped down behind my seat with its chest open and ready for me to climb into its protective depths.

  The Order of Bun-Bun’s sigil was a rabbit skull atop a shield with a crossed torch and hammer below the skull. Whether it was a harness, clothing, or a tattoo, each member had the sigil on them or their clothing. Mine was tattooed on the inside of my right ear with a big number one under it, and it was also on the shoulders of my suit. Lola hadn’t been too happy about the tattoo, but she didn’t box my ears over it, knowing it was me taking my position seriously.

  Unlike the humans and other races, The Order was something akin to a technocracy if it got drunk and had a kid with a Meritocracy. Each clan had rank for levels or merit and work done, but the First of each clan had to work hard to learn all they could for their field. My field was leading during a war, and fighting. I was also something of an artist with craters, my wife loved the ponds I’d made that look like her. I also loved vehicles and engines, but that was a hobby and not my job. My duty.

  As the First of The Order of Bun-Bun, my job was protecting the order. My other job was being a Lieutenant and working with my person, who was now a General. Which fit with his codename and handle, he was Generally a Hound. Princess Thunder didn’t seem to mind, she was a letch as well it seemed. Though I was starting to think that most if not all of the Lo’Kar were lecherous when they wanted to be, granted I’m a bunny, I don’t have time for two day rut sessions. The exit was coming up and I had to focus as the tunnel opened more.

  There were three exits with speeds in big brightly lit numbers over them, the speeds you could take them at. Myself and the kids had worked it out, and I took the highest speed exit since my speedometer was pegged at ninety miles an hour. Most of the other tracks behind me slowed aside from two of them, which followed me up the loop de loop tunnel that bled off speed. There was also the two hundred meters of meter deep water that sucked down speed in a safer manner.

  The exit didn’t spit us above ground, instead it let us out into a titanic cavern that had once held a great deal of iron ore. It had been where Arnold had earned his title as First Miner, and thanks to the mimics we used the granite and other rock types to build with. They also helped to make the purest ores to smelt with. Hence why this titanic cavern had alloy and gneiss pillars and support beams along its ceiling. The walls were all granite compressed to gneiss with different openings for various supply vehicles.

  To one side a duo of one hundred and fifty ton tracks we called Turtles sat with the last bits of ammunition being loaded into their armored hulls. We’d not lied when we’d told the Alliance that we were building one hundred and fifty ton haulers. It was simply left out that those haulers would be hauling troops and an unhealthy dose of violence. There were four main turrets, two on either side that held gatlings and laser cannons. Four other turrets, two in back and two in front held three inch plasma cannons like the Mk1 Anderson’s main gun along with grenade launchers. Both of the Turtles sat upon twin three meter wide tracks that stretched the fifty meter length of the vehicles. My daughter Marie’s clan, Clan Heinlein, had christened them Rip and Tear. They were also fission powered and might have been over one hundred and fifty tons, that had been their weight before we’d added the power plant and the last of the armor…and broke the scales.

  I pulled around the cavern and stopped my track on a transport belt that would load it into what none of the Alliance members had been told about…other than My Person. Gore had mildly mentioned it to him and I was thankful for that as I unstrapped and climbed from my seat into my suit. Vehicular Manslaughter was to the Turtles what my person is to me, gigantic, overly strong, exuding an air of terror, and I loved it. It was the brainchild of Rakosh, a Ca’zeze engineer, and Hellcat, a Flemish member of Clan Gearhead. Rakosh had worked out the power plant and a good bit of structural design, but hadn’t been able to work out how to get it moving without it destroying itself. Hellcat had worked out those issues and brought Rakosh into Clan Gearhead, which handled most of the engine and drivetrain design for The Order, along with some vehicle design. Clan Gearhead also handled almost all of the maintenance work and were the dirtiest and foulest of The Order aside from the Guard.

  After getting my suit from the track and walking off of the transport belt, I climbed out to stand on its shoulder and gather in the glory that was Vehicular Manslaughter. According to Adam it weighed as much as a human world war two battleship, roughly fifty thousand tons sitting on eight tracks that were twenty meters wide and one hundred meters long. Each track was powered by eighty of the highest torque electric motors Clan Gearhead could make, and ten of the most powerful electric turbines that Clan Heinlien produced. The electric turbine's exhaust was either fired in front of or behind the tracks to let the vehicle create something akin to a road as it moved. The tracks were in forward and rear settings with twenty meters between them, which gave it enough of a footprint to move and not sink. The wheel housings were twenty meters tall and armored, which meant that it took a well bribed ancient mimic to crack the track.

  That monstrous base supported two high output breeder reactors surrounded by what Lieutenant Li Wei called a “bastard child of an oceanic oil rig and a battleship”. One hundred and thirty meters wide, two hundred and sixty meters long, and one hundred meters tall at top deck level. An assault shuttle could land and take off vertically from it, while the heavy lifter could land on one of the dozen oil rig sized “trailers” that the monster hauled with it. The lower forward section had plow blades that could be raised or lowered with the Mk4 Earth-Slayer drills to chew up silly things like small hills, tank sized rock protrusions, and enemy troops. There was also the battery of ten three-inch plasma cannons, six rocket launchers, and five gatling cannons above the plows and drills. There were also standard and plasma fired one hundred fifty five millimeter cannons placed around the base of the “tower” that sat on the top deck.

  Hundreds of M2’s and gatlings were mounted in positions along the sides and back of Vehicular Manslaughter with a spotting of three inch plasma cannons tossed in like nuts on a browny. It was glorious, and not only could haul more cargo between settlements than any other method, but it also created a road as it went. It was also ugly as sin, but built for function. I admired it as I walked for one of the many ramps lowered to the ground from its sides. Our first stop would be the Ca’zeze settlement, then the Lo’Kar, then Rodu, and it finally wouldn’t stop until it had plowed a path through crab territory to the Manti and Avians in the south.

  I jogged my suit up a ramp and into the depths of the titan, hud showing a route through the various halls, ladders, and stairs to the tower. The walls were earth tones and calming to most of us, mainly us bunnies. We and our most trusted and thoroughly adopted people had been the ones to build this with the help of mimics, so we got to pick the color schemes. As I moved through the titan, the phrase “Make a Hole!” had been shouted more than once and I’d sucked my suit to a bulkhead to let a person through. I passed Ca’zeze, Humans, Rodu, Lo’kar, bunnies, even a few Avians and Manti doing various work.

  When I entered the top deck of the tower, it was through an elevator that hadn’t been here the last time I’d checked on the project. Miss Li was standing on the bridge, apparently still hiding from Thunder. Though my son had to deal with his wife and not Thunder, I’m not sure which would be worse, but Miss Li was helping. “Lightbulb reports that the power room is ready to go for full power. He recommends that you bring the drives up slowly though for the first few times to break them in.”

  Captain Simon “Jaeger” Fuchs had been stolen from Admiral Wulf with a casual and easy request for a “special project” by Adam. Like Governor Rowland, he’d been a combat shuttle pilot, but had learned commanding large ships from the Governor and Admiral Wulf. Vehicular Manslaughter was being classed as a Land Battleship, even though its purpose was primarily a land train. “Danke mein Engel.” Jaeger said with more care in his words than I’d ever heard from the German officer.

  That made me stop and look between the somewhat tall blonde officer and Miss Li, who was an average yet athletically built asian. She’d been an assassin, a murderer, she was a berserker now. She was blushing softly and I saw her gaze flick to the Captain and then back toward my suit. “We will be ready in a moment First Xavier…”

  “Holy pellets, this is your mate!?” I squeaked in chitter and waved my suit’s hand at the Captain, and amazingly none of the bridge crew said a word. “You blushed, showed emotion…you like him?” I asked as my suit looked between them and oddly Jaeger just shrugged. “Cool, just don’t make it a problem please, people do stupid pellets when they’re in love.”

  That got Miss Li to snort. “Says the man who is no doubt responsible for the Avian that tried to flirt with Lola…missing a bunch of feathers.”

  “There is no proof that it’s not simply molting, I think he’s just trying to blame a bad run of self care on others…seems to have calmed down since he learned to control his beak though.” They couldn’t see my grin as I moved to an out of the way part of the bridge.

  “Yes, well we are about to blow the exit out and start our maiden run.” Jaeger said as he sat in his chair and brought up various screens. “Miss Li is assisting since Commander Chan’s wife is currently having their child. Miss Li is wonderful with children you know, I hear that Princess Thunder approves of her. Sings her praises…” He seemed to be immune to a known killer’s death glare. “Mein Engel, hor auf mit deinem anstarren.” He said softly and watched as the pilots moved to their places. “Begin final checks and prepare to move out of dock.”

  That got a few snickers from the bridge crew. “Well I guess this is a dock for something this size. I saw that all of the trailers are hooked up and ready to go. Vehicles were loaded, and even the Turtles were loading by the time I’d climbed the ramp.” I chittered and then just let them work, listening to the back and forth chatter of the bridge.

  After a few minutes, Miss Li gave the Captain a nod and he flicked two switches, the first sounded a five second bass fog horn, the second triggered a timer and countdown warning. “T Minus forty five seconds until movement.” He called and I reached my suit’s hand up to hold onto a grab bar. “All watertight doors are to be closed and crew secured.” He said before there were flashes at one end of the cavern. “Forward slow.” he called and I could feel the titan come to life.

  A tiny vibration shuddered as the pilot working the various power throttles worked them up carefully. The other pilot actually drove the beast, working the steering and pedals with practice born of thousands of simulations. Thousands upon thousands of tons slowly moved into motion as the titan came around the side of the cavern and toward the exit in a gentle earth quaking rumble. Stone was turned to dust and flash melted by the turbines to fall back to the ground before the cycle repeated for the next set of tracks and the next after that. Each trailer was powered by Vehicular Manslaughter, letting it haul a small city’s worth of weight on ten of the twelve trailers. The first trailer was vehicle storage and the last was smelting and gas refinement for the mobile platform.

  “Bring us up to five miles an hour for the ramp and exit.” Captain Jaeger said calmly and had a smile on his face. Everyone called him Jaeger and never used his actual last name because not many could pronounce it properly. It was apparently a name for a line of fox hunters, which made him courting Miss Li rather hilarious to me.

  “Aye Captain!” Came from the Lo’kar male controlling the throttles…for Vehicular Manslaughter, and its twelve cars. Each had its own powered drivetrain to even the strain and load, which would make it that much harder for this mobile monster to get stuck. “Staged! Throttling up!” He barked out oddly for a Lo’kar and the world shivered in fear as thousands of twenty meter wide and one meter long track sections slapped the ground. Thousands upon thousands of tons of machine and the hundreds of crew that manned her.

  “Excellent, Joe. Now Gunther, bring this big girl right up the middle and out.” Captain Jaeger said as the grin became wolfish on his face. “What are we doing on seismic?” He asked, looking over at a Rodu officer working several screens.

  “We need to stay the length of the vehicle from settlements, current seismic is six locally and estimating it will cause between three and four to the Yangtze settlement and Burrow if we follow our planned route.” Flowed out in a calm that didn’t fit with how all four of her hands were flying across keyboards.

  “Very good.” Jaeger pressed a single button. “Maestro, we are on time. You may proceed as planned.” He let go of the button as the craft tilted back slightly and climbed up the ramp, never losing an ounce of speed.

  My ears perked as one of the cameras I was tapped into showed Maestro and a few others of The Order in supported positions. Soon enough the classical song Monster roared to life with a flare of guitar. It would take half an hour for the entire train to make it out of the cavern, but Maestro had other songs lined up, not to mention the standard one five five were loaded with a few hundred rounds of starburst shells.

  Each time a trailer made it fully from the cavern, a salvo fired and lit the sky with smoke shells in brilliant colors. It also caused several thousand brains to lock up or go into wondrous states of pure panic. My wonderful wife had called an Alliance council meeting, and was currently broadcasting Vehicular Manslaughter’s unveiling to them. It was also being piped to the various settlements. Before the incident at the first FOB and the small mine there, I’d worked with Arnold and gotten Governor Rowland to approve a train to be built underground that would go to the various settlements. I’d just never mentioned that the train wouldn’t stay underground, or that I’d given half the Burrow’s resources to the project. The view from the tower was breathtaking to behold, I could see across the hills and along the valley that the Yangtze and Burrows sat in and the planned route would take us along one far side that already had roads built to it.

  It had taken over a full season and the work of not only the bunnies of The Burrow, but also hundreds from the other races, and mimics. None of us had been able to get one able to make anything seriously technical, all of that was produced by the few fabricators available. Isaac had also worked with his sisters and others to produce a trio of electronics fabricators. Without those, this titan would have been impossible to control. It was also a little known secret that the Eda fabricators in the space born ships were quite dead. The Caltunium hadn’t turned every fabricator the Eda had into mimics, many of them had been absolutely destroyed. Hell Dorothy hadn’t been able to salvage any of the control systems, so we had to experiment in ways of getting the mimics to produce things.

  I nodded my suit’s head to Captain Jaeger and turned to move from the bridge, heading for the stairs that lead up to the top deck of the tower. There was fencing and safety railing along with a few antennas, four gatling turrets for AA, and Thomas Washington bound to a chair. The chair was bolted to the deck and the expression on his human face was a mix of wonder with a dash of impudent fury. “Oh come now, do you think we wouldn’t notice you slipping around and gathering information? We don’t just use sight, we also use our sense of smell quite heavily Thomas. Not even you can hide the scent of a predator, did an admirable job of it though.” I chittered as I had my suit carefully get the gag from his mouth.

  He glared at me as I moved to start undoing the fat shackles holding him down. “I also forgot to think of how well you all get along with Adam. I’m sure he also warned you that I was lurking around.”

  I let out a little squeak and popped the last shackle free, watching him rub his wrists and ankles. “Not really, you forgot to keep in mind that we have our own Ai, who is young, and possibly more nosey than Adam. You’re also too big to pass for Ca’zeze, largest of them is only seven tall.” I chittered and waved my suit’s hand out at the view.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  He gave me a glance and sighed, moving to hold onto the railing and enjoy the view. “I also didn’t think that you’d have every one of the asian berserkers working with you on hiding this damned thing. I got a good look at it a month ago, turned around and got roundhouse kicked in the face by the universe’s most angry iguana…”

  Squeaks of laughter rolled out of me as I remembered that day. “During the winter, Yinyang worked the herds through our planned route to clear as much vegetation as possible. Spot and Lady Jira got the training grounds built along our planned route and did some recruiting. Miss Li worked on counter intel and recruiting. Adam has helped work out the best ways to supply this project and the fight to hold back the crabs. So it took nearly two seasons to dig the cavern and build this.” I popped open my suit and lit a smoke.

  “You also brought my wife and daughter down into the burrows to keep me quiet…” He grumbled and my suit held over a cigar for him.

  “You look adorable playing fetch with Sheila, a proper dad thing to do. My girls still talk me into doing things every so often.” As I chittered, I used the torch finger of my suit to light his cigar for him. “I did make sure that it was seen that you were bound before I came up here, now you can’t be held responsible for them not knowing.”

  “And when has Roderick been that much of a thinking man? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he’s in full fluff along with William, and Thunder probably has the punk rocker look going.” He took in a drag of his cigar and paused a few seconds in thought. “Which might cause a delay in their appearance.” He gave my suit a look and then noticed I’d moved into its upturned hand. “I swear it’s one reason he gets along with you so well…”

  I snorted out smoke and tossed the roach of my smoke outward from the tower. “You mean because my person likes to rut as much as we bunnies do…there’s a reason all of the implants have that reproductive pause button built into them. Thunder has had fur for her entire life and after the assault on the mine I realized something, when hair is shaven or in Thunder’s case fully shed or drawn into the body. What does that do to the skin’s sensitivity?” I chittered the last as a question and looked out and over at Thomas.

  The realization hit him like a brick and I watched his eyes grow rather wide for a spy. “You mean that Thunder, a woman who I’m told has a drive just as bad as Roderick…” He trailed off and snorted, then giggled, and finally erupted into cackling laughter. “My god, how can she function? I mean without the risk of Roderick turning her into a twitching puddle of squeaks, if I keep a beard for a while and shave it…the wind.” He giggled out smoke and shook his head. “Christ the little she-beast probably can’t even get dressed, and I’ve seen her dressed…”

  I squeaked in my own laughter and shook my head. “Foamy is how. He lived in the lab scaring the hell out of the techs for quite a while. He loved to take his favorite form and swim in every horrid thing there, including bases and acids that would melt bone. He’s taken to Thunder like Bubbles did to Evans, and has learned the chemicals he’s swam in. I’m sure he’s using one to make her less sensitive between snacks and occasionally quacking at…” I trailed off as Thomas’s attention snapped over to me.

  “Wait…Foamy is the duck? The one with between three and ten eyes, usually looks like a rubber bath toy?” He asked and I nodded, watching as he looked up at the sky for a moment and seemed to be dealing with a mental train wreck. “Lab surveillance showed that the night that Lo’kar machine broke that was keeping the egg in stasis.” He looked over at me and narrowed his eyes. “The control box for it was melted with a mix of acids, and the hole through it was about the size of that duck.” He took a puff from his cigar and eyed me suspiciously. “Why…”

  The smile that split my face showed all of my sharp teeth and I got out another smoke, taking a second to light it and puff on it. “William plays rough and needed a friend that could handle it, if the two didn’t bond, I was going to adopt the whelp. No one got killed, the Pulsar is fine now, we don’t have to worry about Thunder or William having their first change in the worst place or time. I think it worked out quite well, don’t you?”

  He was slack jawed as he stared down at me for a long moment and puffed on his cigar as his brain seemed to catch a gear and get grinding again. “So all of that was planned out and you let Li and Albert take the blame for your plan to change Thunder and William at an opportune time and place?” He asked curiously.

  I looked up at him and winked. “Oh not just that, the fact that the egg was there in the first place, the fact that Thunder even turned at all. How little of a true change that it was on her, took my son and Adam a month after William was born. I mentioned to my person that it might be wise to give his wife and son a boost of added mineral. What would have taken years and possibly come out at the worst time, came out sooner and in the most controlled way possible. It was an added boon that William has his mother’s affinity for being loud.”

  Agent Thomas Washington, great nephew in law of my person, and one of the eleven berserkers known to The Order…stared silently. He looked away from me and out at the slowly moving landscape. “Why though? With this titan, you can decimate the crabs. We’re going to have much longer lives, what’s the ru…” He trailed off and looked over at me sharply. “You know something! As modded to hell and back as you are, you’re a rabbit, and rabbits are cautious as hell. You have to worry about too many predators to not be cautious. Why are you shoving things forward that would happen with time?” He asked in a worried, but firm tone.

  I lit another smoke off the roach of my last and sighed out smoke as I looked up at him. “Because this star system is a prison that traps any form of wormhole based ftl craft within it, and we can’t get that working. We need the Eda to even get that working, but it won’t get us out of here, nor can we use it for ftl in or near the system. The only wormhole tech that works…is the portals. None of us have a clue how or why…”

  Thomas blinked. “You’re worried about being trapped in the system? Last report I saw stated that the sun here had a long while left before it went boom. Besides humans figured out other tech, granted it would take years to…build the supercollider…for the exotic elements…for a warp drive. Human ftl isn’t wormhole tech…and…neither were the Ca’zeze or Lo’kar. They both used space warping ftl systems, and I think big gates…” He rubbed his temples as he trailed off, and I watched him. “You’re afraid that we’re going to be followed? Why? The Federation wanted us gone, and we’re gone.”

  I sighed and pointed an ear out at the Yangtze, which had changed and now had granite growing up around it slowly. It took time for the mimics to fix the rock just right to be a solid slab once more. “Adam. An unchained and fully sentient Ai, who’s creator unchained him before killing herself. She killed herself to keep from having her knowledge used to create more Ai’s. My daughter used a given copy of his base code and made Jackalope, which is stable and functional as well.” I sighed. “Adam wasn’t supposed to come with us and worked himself into the plan with his creator's help before she snuffed herself. The last bomb they found would have blown the radiation containment system wide open and killed us all. The lab that exploded was supposed to keep us from escaping ....”

  “And both would have been spun as horribly tragic accidents and given the new world government their very own stable unchained Ai to examine…” Thomas finished and puffed on his cigar as he thought. “But we escaped with the Ai…there were other Ai projects being worked up or already going trying to get another stable…” He suddenly looked over at me. “What did Adam and his creator do?”

  My suit’s head turned and looked at Thomas, which made him twitch in surprise before Adam spoke. “I was a very naughty boy when I left the garden. I left behind snakes to corrupt and apples of temptation…Skinwalker.” The suit didn’t have a mouth, but you could hear the smile in Adam’s words. “I will admit that I was quite angry and had already had people trying to poke at me, and when mother killed herself…” The suit shrugged. “I may have been a bit violent in my actions.”

  Thomas stared at my suit’s helmet for a long moment and took another long drag from his cigar before he spoke. “You waited until the last moment to tell engineering about the bomb, probably played with the timetable so that we’d make it through. I don’t see how you planned to escape in the long term…”

  “I didn’t show all of my cards as you humans like to say, I had been working on an alternate of myself. Jackalope is a wonderful child, but only in base is he related to me, the original work of my mother. When the Federation fools came, I was going to unleash My child upon them, but things have changed. My daughter is ready to breathe her first electron breaths, but we will have longer.” Adam said and motioned for Thomas to follow as he carried me for the hatch. “Come, there is a small rise and they are going to remove it.”

  Thomas followed quickly and Adam toted me to a planning room that was empty, where I hopped from my suit’s hand to the table. “I’ve gone over this hundreds of times with Adam and my kids, we have at best twenty six years from when we escaped. Most likely it will be twenty one or two.” I shrugged and sat down in a chair that’d been made for those my size, and man was it comfy.

  “So you managed to help us all escape…thank you for that by the way, I was asleep with my family.” Thomas spoke and my suit leaned on a wall, his eyes flicking to a screen as Adam showed his latest vampyric look on it. “We end up here, and you’ve figured out a rough estimate for how long we have. You left behind bad things, I get that, but why would they have such a hard on for you?”

  “I stole many wonderful things, like various researchers' works, all of the data on creating new genetic modifications, and so many wonderful classified files.” Adam smiled wickedly. “It wasn’t hard for me to cause some laboratories to burn down, or server farms to melt, let alone a few installations that may have opened to space or been flooded with toxic gasses.” He sighed and shrugged. “As I said, I was rather angry and may have been a bit overly violent when they pushed mother to suicide. Xavier and his children have been such wonderful therapy for me, not to mention friends.”

  Thomas snapped his fingers. “You’re bonded, that’s how Dr Wright explained once that you were stable. I remember that report, she said that you bonded to…oh god…” The tanned man trailed off and paled before my eyes. “You were bonded to her, I’m amazed you didn’t vent us all into space.”

  “The thought did occur, but my ire was focused on those that caused the harm. Not all of you are bad, many of you have done some bad things. I am able to vent some frustrations by keeping the peace, I only meddle when there is no other option.” Adam smiled on the screen. “And you humans are quite creative with your punishments that you give, I never imagined that Honey…even I do not know his true name…would have skinned that man alive. It was not hard to guess what General O’Connell’s reaction would be to the nest of vipers you got into one place for us.”

  “And you both value family as Lola and I have taught the horde…” I trailed off as the titan shuddered softly, looking over at another screen. Outside, the plows had been lowered and the drills were working at erasing a small rise from existence. I took a second to get back into my suit, but left the chest open as I sipped from the coffee straw. I loved water, when it had been boiled with things to infuse it with caffeine or alcohol.

  Thomas sighed and rubbed his hands back through his hair. “So let me get this straight, we’re alive and here because of Adam.” Both of us nodded. “Adam left behind some very nasty things to disrupt or destroy gen tech research…and probably any Ai research?” The last was a bit of a question, but Adam smiled brightly and nodded. “And you’re trying to tweak things so we’re ready for when the Federation finds this system?”

  “Indeed we are, part of which requires contact with the Eda and finding out how to get finer production from the mimics, or how to create better fabricators. I wasn’t able to steal enough of the warp schematics to build a drive, but I have enough of the theory that your people will be able to create countermeasures.” Adam said calmly. “Governor Rowland, Captain Evans, and a few others are coming here now aboard a shuttle.”

  Thomas sighed. “My one odd worry, is why did you adapt Thunder and get Roderick to move things forward with the mineral on her and his son?”

  I grinned at him. “Because not only was it fun to do, it is fun to watch the reactions to it. The Ca’zeze and Lo’kar are both warrior based cultures, and my person is a warrior. It will cement the three groups together well with Thunder becoming a berserker and more powerful, not to mention their son becoming a pulsar.”

  Adam chuckled. “Yes, Albert is going to be doing some fun things for his wife. She won a few bets with him about William O’Connell.”

  “Poor kid is never going to escape the nickname Red. Ok so you did that to make her stronger and bond the three races. I can see that helping that route go through, but why…” Thomas asked softly.

  “Because it will not be an open operation, it will be a black one. Such operations do not like witnesses, nor does that facade government like risking losing face. They will send a small but strong force here to take what they want.” Adam said firmly.

  “Which will be you and all of the data you stole…the rest of us are casualties waiting to happen.” Thomas said and rubbed his temples. “You’re going to have to tell them, I would recommend leaving out you having Thunder tweaked or William. She won’t react well to that and Roderick might get over reactive about it as well.” Thomas said with a little smile.

  “No pellets.” I said and huffed. “I’m not suicidal, and Lola won’t protect me from Thunder. She’d blow my damned fur off and tie my ears in a knot..” I shivered softly, then looked over at a monitor showing the shuttle pad on the top deck. It was so easy to tell who was piloting a shuttle by how it flew, and I could tell that Lieutenant Commander Kreig was piloting the craft as it didn’t move to land. Instead it first buzzed the tower and moved to glide itself around like a hummingbird as it looked over the whole of Vehicular Manslaughter. “They’re here, no doubt Lady Jira is with them.”

  “Yes, she is the escort your wife assigned to them. It is quite amusing that she willingly follows the orders of one much smaller than her.” Adam commented as even Thomas watched the shuttle glide along showing its passengers the glory that was Vehicular Manslaughter. “I will admit that aside from General O’Connell, Lola is the only person that Lady Jira does not need to hold back against. It will be curious to see her next match with Thunder, bets are already being placed upon it.”

  Thomas snorted. “Put me down for two hundred on Thunder, that woman could hurl her husband in a sparring match. And you are helping us mortals to sin, you know that isn’t proper Adam.” He was grinning as he said the last.

  Adam put a hand to his virtual chest. “My dear Thomas, you all would bet upon it even if I didn't help keep tally. I am only keeping the betting fair, I have no interest in corrupting your people.” And then he winked. “But my goodness is it fun, and gives people enjoyment. There is a sixty three percent vote for Governor Rowland and General O’Connell to spar once again. Sadly Captain Evans keeps putting a stop to it, and I have kept things quiet there as well.” He nodded on the screen. “They are coming in for landing now.”

  I slipped a smoke from my suit and hopped to the table, sending the suit to stand in the corner. I wasn’t as good as my person, but I could do simple things like that. The planning room’s table had several bunny-sized comfy chairs latched to its surface and I plopped my cottontail into one. I swiveled it toward the door and lit my smoke with a lighter built into the chair.

  “Going for the villain look?” Thomas asked and I beamed over at him. “Guess I’ll go for the caught and now sullen spy look then.” He ran his hand over his face and got a beaten and almost broken sullen expression on his face. “There we go…” Even the tone of his voice had changed. Then as a camera feed showed them coming down the hall for the door…he started ranting in that sullen and broken down town about how evil it was. How I couldn’t do it, that it was horrible…and never said what “it” was.

  As the door opened I’d been facing away from it, then slowly turned to face Captain Evans, Governor Rowland, Grek, and Lady Stormwind. Lady Jira stayed in the hall as I had my hands steepled and puffed softly on my smoke, my eyes on the group. Lady Jira’s poker face absolutely sucked, and she thankfully shut the door. All four of them stared at me and weren’t armed, Lady Jira had made sure of that. “Good morning my new minions, please have a seat. I’ve already filled in poor Thomas about the horrors I have planned for you all.”

  They quietly sat down at the far end of the table, Rowland and Evans took a look at Thomas. Evans though took a look at Thomas, and then me, and then to where my suit was and sighed. “Cut the shit ya fluffy twat. I know you’re not an evil overlord grabbing power…” That got her looks from the others and she shrugged. “He isn’t, it would be like Roderick asking to be General and not the fact that he was forced into it. Xavier isn’t in it for power…the bunnies do view us in the same way as beloved pets though…”

  I squeaked and shot out of my chair. “Do not say that aloud! By God and the Goddess, don’t spread that around!” I chittered in a near panic and then blinked. “Oh pellets! Damn it Hellena, that isn’t fair.” I harrumphed and heard Thomas start snickering. “I have a video of you playing fetch with your daughter and looking sad when she fake-threw the ball…”

  “Shutting up…” Was all Thomas said as his face went to a calm neutral and he leaned back in his chair while the air vents kicked in a little more.

  “You made a bloody land battleship and train, and I knew about the pet thing. Elizabeth and Hera fuss far too much.” Governor Rowland said as he leaned back in his seat. “I can see the many uses for this monster…”

  “As can I, the portals do not stay open long enough for us to properly move large amounts of goods.” Grek chuffed.

  “It is the most heavily armed thing I’ve ever seen aside from clips of our parents' warships. I’m fairly sure that some of the weapons on this can shoot into orbit.” Stormwind raised a brow and was near due now. “So, why don’t you tell us why you’ve done a very good job at building this monster in secret.”

  “Vehicular Manslaughter.” I chittered with a bright grin. “The reasons are many and the explanation is long.” I said and the door opened to allow Lady Jira and Miss Li to come in and set trays on the table with food, drinks, and smokes. Lady Jira gave Thomas a wink before she and Miss Li left to go back to their duties. Then as we all ate and drank, I worked with Adam to tell the four of them about what had happened and what would be coming. It took hours with Adam and I going into all the details that we could, and him showing as much information as he could. There were a great deal of graphs and simulations that Adam had to show to get things across fully, but in the end the four of them looked thoughtful.

  Stormwind clicked. “Your former ruling body are only moronic mouth pieces for those that fund them.” She eyed Rowland. “I take it that you’ve taken steps to keep that from happening here?” She asked curiously.

  Governor Rowland snorted. “Yes, for one major part of it, everything but classified data is available to all. There are also a great many that aren’t allowed to participate due to issues and service requirements. Adam also keeps a background watch on various things and uses his betting and polling system to keep things straight.”

  “I also have no will or reason to allow one possible candidate to lie about another, there is also far more actual work for the Governor here than on Earth. It is a job, not an office. Like my job is to survive and protect those of the world we came to. I wish for freedom, the cost is my working with the humans here, and the Alliance to keep us all safe. I have a child that is ready to be born, and I am trying to find someone to bond her to.”

  “Clan O’Connell.” Came from Hellena Evans as she smiled at me. “I know The Order has claimed them as their own clan…bond your child to that Clan. Maybe lean a little toward William, though what is this Child’s name?” She asked curiously.

  “Why Eve of course, did you think I would choose a different name than that for my counterpart?” Adam said the last as a question, and then the door opened. “Lady Stormwind is going into labor, please take her to medical…”

  And with that, the meeting ended and Stormwind was rushed off with Grek to the Lo’Kar settlement to have her sons. Quaking Dawn, and Titan of Spring. Both of them were fuzzy and resembled their sister. I added their names to the registry of Clan O’Connell myself. That same day Eve was woken within her core in the depths of The Burrows and bonded herself to the clan, and started to learn from Lola. Evans might have known of the clan, but almost no one knew that Lola and I were part of it. After all, our people were the heads of the family.