Thankfully it turned out that after a couple of hours the pilots managed to find the harmony of their tunnel through jump space. It was far from perfect, but the major lurches dropped from happening every few minutes to only once or twice an hour. Enough to get almost passable sleep.

  And resting was important, since they apparently had three days ahead of them to reach the target star system. Time that would be used to prepare for the upcoming mission. Which meant they needed a pn.

  Everyone but the pilots was crammed into the small mess as I’phyl pressed Vahr on details of their destination. The pnet itself was a small rock, really a dwarf pnet, sitting about four AU from a close bck hole-white dwarf binary. Every so often the duo would belch exotic forms of matter and radiation that the Zumuults were apparently harvesting for military uses. They suspected there would be a full stelr battle group present, and the name of one of the ship csses deeply concerned most of the Earthlings present.

  “A star breaker?” Tessa asked, the least militarily disciplined human present.

  “Yes. There’s usually one in-system,” Vahr replied.

  “Is the name... poetic?” Auguste asked, raising one of her eyebrows.

  “No. Causing a star to go nova is a useful denial strategy,” I’phyl expined. “Such a major explosion sends ripples of instability through jump space for dozens of lightyears, throwing supply lines into chaos.”

  “And Zumuults have the power to blow up whole stars?” one of Agent Lee’s personnel asked, a South Asian woman named Bhramari asked.

  “Blowing up stars is not actually that difficult,” Agent Lee said. “They have a habit of exploding on their own. Eventually.”

  “Indeed,” O’tmyil added. “With proper aim and understanding of stelr dynamics it’s actually much easier to blow up a star than it is to blow up a pnet as rge as the Earth. Since pnets do not tend to blow up on their own.”

  “Moving on,” I’phyl said. “M’tethon, are you ready for battle with a full battle group or will we need to drop out at a nearby system for you to charge up a bit?”

  “I’m not fighting a battle group,” Garcelle replied with a shrug as it floated in a corner.

  “P-pardon!?” I’phyl hissed, his antennae going rigid as his ears stuck up with rage. “You are here to defeat the Zumuult forces so that we can rescue the empress!”

  “Non. I am here to rescue Svetna, but not to fight a war. If I destroy a fleet I am sure you generals and admirals will decide that the Zumuult are weakened now and it is time to strike. Then there will be a war. I will not start a war. I am here to help my friends Agent Lee and Svetna Fujikawa only.”

  “But... but...” I’phyl stammered in rage.

  “It is true. The agreement I made with it was to assist on a personal level,” Agent Lee expined. “Major military actions are against any deals we have made. It is inadvisable to push Ms. Lefévre on such matters.”

  “It might also lose itself in a battle that big,” Tessa added. “I don’t want to lose Garcelle like that. She’s too important to me.”

  “This is a stealth ship,” Thisbe said. “We were pnning to sneak in anyway. We’ll simply bring Garcelle in the infiltration party instead of leaving it out to fight the fleet. It’s not like they’ll bombard their own base. Not with Svetna, Houyu, and Vahr on the base. Especially if Ouzzhen is still there too.”

  “Ouzzhen will be,” Vahr said. “Space is dark, but it cks shadows, and we are creatures of shadows. We prefer to be on pnets.”

  The head of the Imperial Guard’s change bracelet flipped colours, A’khaun taking over. “Very well. We can still work with this... having the M’tethon serve as an on base distraction may even work better. There will be more confusion for base personnel.”

  From there the pn slowly coalesced. Most of the strike force would stay with their nding ship, since losing that meant the entire mission was a wash. Garcelle and Tessa would travel together to serve as a distraction, the tter woman apparently stronger than she looked due to how she’d been rebuilt, though her main duty was to keep the M’tethon from losing itself and destroying the dwarf pnet while everyone was still on it. Since that would also be a mission failure. A second group would head for the central power rey to try to take down the security system. Vahr, Plynx, and Auguste would be part of that group. Finally the group to be sent to rescue Svetna and Houyu were Thisbe, O’tmyil, and the tall horned Usha woman. Well, and O’myinis, of course.

  It struck Thisbe as interesting to send two supernaturals and two AIs to rescue the empress, all biases considered.

  Maybe it would be a good thing. If the gaxy at rge ever actually found out.

  In the meantime, though, she needed to gather her strength, which meant heading down to the mess and getting help to ensure the one liquid dispenser eventually produced some fresh blood for her (she still only half understood the controls). Filling up the rgest bottle she could find she chugged one round, then refilled it before sitting down to drink that at a more rexed pace. This was probably the best fed she’d have been since the war, able to chug blood without any worry of any authorities.

  By her third refill Tessa sat down across from her, some beef, carrots, and cabbage on her pte. After a jerk of the ship caused the poor woman’s pte to nearly fall off the table the pair then got talking. Initially about the upcoming mission, but then to more general topics. Thisbe had to admit to being slightly surprised to learn that Tessa’s family had lived in Nova Scotia since the 1700s, without any Caribbean heritage.

  “When folks from the Caribbean provinces started moving north in the 50s the Atntic provinces weren’t really a popur pce to move... heck, people were moving out to Ontario and the West from them almost as much as folks were moving north,” Tessa said with a shrug. “It’s changed now, but... that’s mostly just let me learn I can’t handle the spice levels you all use down there. Corned beef and lobster sandwiches for me.”

  “Fair enough... now that I’m a vampire it’s actually European food that I find really has the spice,” Thisbe said with a grin.

  “... really?” Tessa asked.

  “All the garlic,” Thisbe replied. “Hits the spot like a proper pepperpot used to.”

  That drew a half-stifled ugh from the other woman, until she realised Thisbe was serious. At which point the pair exchanged a full ugh.

  They then went back to their mutual meals, Tessa clearly doing her best to ignore the fact that Thisbe’s drink was blood. Which was fair. Most non-vampires did.

  Just as Tessa was finishing up and about to leave Usha sat a short distance from them, a rge steak on her pte. That seemed like a good start to Thisbe, but the tall woman was going to be a part of her mission team. She needed her at top form.

  So, getting up, Thisbe walked over to the other supernatural. Even if she felt nervous about talking to someone she didn’t really know... it was like the war. She had to be ready to give orders. However much of an introvert she was.

  “Have you tried the blood?” she asked.

  The redheaded woman swallowed nervously, looking slightly put off by the idea. “My... my mother was human. She raised me not to feed on humans. Even if it’s just blood.”

  “I suppose that’s fair... I mean, my parents were both fine with it as long as I was going after the right sort of terrible people, but... either way, this stuff is basically vegan,” Thisbe said, shaking her bottle. “It’s all produced on ship artificially, but somehow hits the spot. At least for me. I’m sure it will also work for a rakshasi. And we need you in tip-top shape.”

  “Uhh... well... if it’s b grown...” the tall woman said, biting her lip and showing off fangs that put even Thisbe’s to shame.

  The woman was still locked in thought when the other consultant agent, Bhramari, plunked a bottle in front of her. “I’ve got zero issues with you chugging this stuff. I want you alive at the end of this mission.”

  “Y-yes dear,” Usha said, grabbing the bottle.

  It took her mere seconds to chug it, which made sense. She was the better part of twice Thisbe’s height and probably at least three times her mass.

  And then they lurched out of jump space.

  The ship stealthed immediately, diving towards the system’s elliptic from an odd approach angle in the hopes that it would reduce detection risks. Actually crossing the void from where they jumped out would take two agonizing hours, testing whether Commonwealth stealth was better than Zumuult scanners the whole time... but entering normal space any closer would have definitely been detected.

  Finally, though, the dwarf pnet target came into view. It took only a few minutes of passive scans to find the fortress that Vahr said housed Svetna and the empere. Auguste did her best to trust them, but couldn’t shake her worry.

  Or maybe the off feeling was just dysphoria, the military vessel not having any gender-bender rays to let her flip back and forth. She’d make a comment about that to someone in future, as there were surely genderfluid folks in the Gactic Commonwealth’s armed forces who would also benefit.

  The ship finally slipped past a st array of orbital defenses while everyone held their breaths, then descended towards a secondary nding bay of the rge and ominous fortress they were approaching. Much like everything else the Zumuults built it looked perfect for a supervilin.

  She tried to ignore the monitors dispying the flotil a few light minutes away, those massive ships armed to the teeth and apparently ready to destroy an entire star system. Everyone said they wouldn’t engage in orbital bombardment and she needed to believe that.

  “This time you-Auguste get to be part of the rescue mission. That is better, right?” Plynx said, interrupting her worries.

  “... Yes, I suppose it is,” she replied, wiggling shoulders that felt a little too broad.

  As she did she felt O’dypol shifting his armoured form, shrinking the shoulder armoud slightly and increase the hip and chest area.

  “Thank you,” she muttered.

  It didn’t fix her body, but she could feel the armour as a second skin overtop and the shift helped.

  “Anything for my queen,” he replied with a sort of casual tone that left her smiling.

  How in the world had she ended up so easy to give feminine gender euphoria to after having believed herself to be a cis woman most of her life?

  “Docking complete,” the pilot called out. “The door will open in forty ticks.”

  That was a reminder to focus on the mission. Grabbing a high power stun rifle off of one of the Imperial Guard soldiers, she then worked to slow her breathing.

  “Well,” Garcelle said beside her. “A prochaine.”

  “Au revoir,” Auguste replied.

  The door then opened, Garcelle strolling out, hands in pockets, with an armoured Tessa following her closely. The pair were to be given 100 ticks, or about 140 seconds, head start before the sabotage team would follow. Which was really only enough time to worry before heading out.

  Entering the Zumuult base she was unsurprised to see that the walls were a polished bck, looking rather like obsidian. The actual architecture reminded her of some concrete brutalist hallways she’d seen, but sharper. The lighting also leaned to the red, though O’dypol corrected that for her, nudging infrared into the visible. It only helped so much.

  Moving carefully through the halls, which were empty in this outer stretch, they followed Vahr’s advice on how best to avoid any security cameras. It was all requiring enough focus for her to take a few minutes to realise Bhramari was carrying a sword in pce of a stun bster. Even Plynx had a sword in one hand and a stun pistol in the other.

  “I realise we’re indoors, but there are many long straightaways... is a sword without at least a side arm truly wise?”

  “Don’t worry,” Bhramari replied. “It’s a magic sword.”

  “Oh,” Auguste said, realising she had no idea how to process that.

  Two years ago she’d have likely found the idea absurd, but she had since entered into a retionship with a two hundred year old vampire and met the child of Cupid. So who was she to doubt the ability of magic swords?

  Moving out of the ship themselves Thisbe let O’myinis handle shifting to an active camoufge mode. The guardian armour units weren’t designed for stealth, but they could still manage to match the background colours passably well. Enough to not stick out like a sore thumb, at least. Especially when one had cover. Which Thisbe did, thanks to both O’tmyil and Usha shifting their appearances to look like Zumuults, letting her hurry about between their legs.

  Sure, it wasn’t the most original pn, but what worked worked. Especially when the ws of warfare were different out in the gaxy.

  It seemed to be working fairly well at first, though the halls were also empty in that part of the fortress. It was why they’d chosen to nd there. Nothing but currently empty storage rooms.

  After a few minutes, however, they rounded a corner to find a lone Zumuult soldier with a couple of drones guarding an intersection of hallways. Thisbe ducked back around the corner for cover.

  “Time to act natural,” Usha said with a shrug. “We’ll distract them while you sneak around behind.

  “Or over,” Thisbe said, “can you expose my hands and feet, O’myinis?”

  “I can,” the suit AI chimed in. “Though the walls seem generally too smooth to grip.”

  “Mhm, for most,” Thisbe said with a small smile, before pressing her palm against the polished wall.

  Feeling a stick she scurried up until she was about eye level with the other two. “Tadah! Vampire power...”

  “A useful skill,” O’tmyil said, still looking like herself despite projecting as a different species yet again.

  Matching the pace of the other two was easy enough even with Thisbe crawling along the ceiling. They were moving slowly, to appear casual.

  O’tmyil said something in the Zumuult nguage with what Thisbe guessed was a friendly tone, the guard sneering briefly and matching her rexed voice. Except then they must have asked for some sort of clearance or ID or the like, because O’tmyil stammered slightly and seemed to try to wave the concern off. The guard then turned to Usha and asked her a question. The Rakshasi woman stared for a brief moment.

  “Yeah, no,” Usha said, bringing a hand to her ear and then producing a massive metallic club a split second ter.

  Fshing back to her natural horned and fanged form, Usha smmed her club into the guard’s gut before they had a chance to respond. Shifting her feet, she then smashed one of the drones.

  Thisbe decided she might as well join the fray and dropped down, sinking her fangs into the guard’s throat. There was far too much of that thick inky liquid within them for her to drain, but she could still weaken them, allowing her suggestive abilities to fre through their alien brain with the order to sleep.

  By the time the Zumuult fell Usha had smashed the other drone and O’tmyil had shifted to a Kobaroian form and drawn her bster.

  The choice caused Thisbe to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

  “I did not feel comfortable in that form,” O’tmyil said. “But it seemed best to remain rge.”

  The other two nodded, Usha rolling her muscur shoulders.

  “Well, it looks like they’re more stubborn about protocol than we hoped... let’s do this the fun way,” Usha said, spinning her massive gada mace around like a baton.

  “I don’t know that I would call it fun,” O’tmyil said. “It may be quicker, though. Come on, we have to cross about five kilometres before we reach where Svetna is being held according to the schematics Vahr provided.”

  With that they began to run down the hallway. They only made it about 100m before the entire facility shook as if a bomb had gone off.

  “Garcelle must be starting its part of the mission,” Thisbe said, doing her best to keep up with the other two’s long legs.

  With Vahr guiding them the sabotage group managed to avoid any major combat on their way to the central power rey. There had needed to be a few well pced stun shots from the one Imperial Guard sniper to take out a few guards (non-lethal force was the order of the day, in an effort to avoid starting a war... mostly on Garcelle’s request, it having promised to provide any lethal force needed if it became necessary), but they had avoided detection.

  Once in the actual central rey Vahr, O’dypol, and O’trayj took the lead on handling the actual hacking process to try to shut down the fortress’ power systems. Especially the security systems, though being able to lock the defenders out of life support would probably also be good.

  It was very weird for Plynx to be sitting passively within while O’trayj took over movements. Watching the screen flit by in a nguage she could not read (though she knew to associate those letters with oppression and viliny) she wondered what specific commands her fingers were ghosting the typing of. Was that simir to how O’trayj and the others always felt?

  Perhaps she would talk to Svetna and O’tmyil about it, as they had both been on both sides of the experience.

  That curiosity was cut off by the doors, which Vahr had insisted they’d locked, sliding open. Everyone gathered their weapons when three more doors opened out of what had seemed to be walls, Zumuult combat drones pouring in from every direction. Even opening fire with all the weapons they had did little to stem the tide and the squad slowed their firing, realising it was useless.

  Once they did they were all rather annoyed to see a grinning Ouzzhen stroll casually into the room.

  “I must say, dear Vahr, I didn’t know if you actually had it in you,” they said, spreading their long arms into what could almost have been an invitation to a hug.

  “You lured me in...” Vahr muttered.

  “Of course, little sibling. I wanted you to come home. It was embarrassing to have you wandering around out there in the Commonwealth, even if I have no pns to die for the foreseeable future,” Ouzzhen said. “I was slightly worried the Commonwealth folks might be too cowardly to try a rescue mission, but I’m gd to see that they’ve grown a little bit of a spine with their new empress.”

  Ouzzhen then produced a rge remote, with a single red button on it. As anyone would have expected, they pushed the button.

  “Well, now none of you are going anywhere. A tractor beam is holding your getaway ship in pce and bst doors are closing throughout the base. Each of your little infiltration parties will be rounded up,” Ouzzhen expined with pride.

  They then watched the group for a few moments in silence.

  A distant rumble shook the base, but that seemed to not worry them.

  “This is the part where you surrender, if you were confused,” Ouzzhen said, waving their hand to prompt action from the group.

  “You-empere have locked the doors, but I do not think you know what has been locked in here,” Plynx said.

  That drew a raised eyebrow from the empere. “Brave words for a cornered princess, but--”

  They stopped speaking, bringing two fingers to their ear to receive a transmission of some sort. Confusion and annoyance danced across their face as a Zumuult officer stepped into the room.

  “So it’s some sort of Earthling supernatural? Just kill it,” they hissed into the microphone.

  The words were in the Zumuult tongue, but O’trayj ran a subtitled transtion for Plynx’s sake.

  “Empere, the readings we’re receiving--” the officer began, only to be shushed by an offhanded gesture by Ouzzhen.

  “Sure, maybe it’s an Earthling god, but we are gods too,” Ouzzhen hissed at their radio. “So you’d better--”

  They then winced, pulling the small bck earbud from their ear as a single harsh tone erupted from it.

  “What is that? Interference?” they said, turning to their officer with fury.

  “N-no, empere. It’s a time lock. The radio will continue transmitting that until the lock ends,” the officer expined.

  “A time lock?” they said, before turning, successfully picking out Auguste to gre at. “What sort of deity did you bring?”

  “If Garcelle’s a deity I guess it’s one of death?” Auguste said with a shrug. “I get the impression the M’tethon isn’t a supernatural, though. Somehow.”

  The empere’s already pale grey skin slipped to fully white as their eyes went wide. “The...”

  Whipping about, they then shouted at their officer. “We know what can hurt it! Get every time-crystal carbine and dark energy rifle we have out of the armouries! NOW!”

  The officer nodded quickly, before turning and scrambling out of the room. Several of the combat drones also hurried from the room, apparently set to be deployed elsewhere. The necessity of moving them was underscored by the room shaking once again, the explosions either closer or simply stronger.

  In the shaking Bhramari caught Plynx’s eye, offering a quick nod. Plynx replied with the same gesture, before whispering for O’trayj to tell O’dypol and Auguste to ready themselves on a private channel.

  Then, with a flick of her wrist, Bhramari drew her sword, the wide bde surprisingly thin and quick, releasing an arc of electricity from its tip that hit Ouzzhen square in the chest, causing the empere to fall backwards, sprawling across the floor. Before the drones could respond Plynx and Auguste were both in the middle of them, slicing, firing, and using other drones as shields. The two Imperial Guards in the group were caught on a back footing but managed to drop to avoid fire and responded with their own weapons in short order. Vahr, for their part, scrambled behind the command consoles for safety.

  With so many of the drones having left and no new ones able to arrive as reinforcements the small group were able to use the confusion to slice and bst their way through those in the room in perhaps a minute or two.

  Unfortunately, that was also the time it took Ouzzhen to recover from the electric bst, returning to their feet as the group were distracted. Their torso was already covered in an ominous bck armour which was crawling down their limbs and over their face in an uncomfortably more organic analogue to how O’trayj and the other guardian suits spread across their wearers.

  “Time to get my hands dirty, I suppose,” they said, their grin audible even through the intimidating bck helmet they now wore.

  AnnouncementI have now finished writing. There's two chapters and an epilogue on patreon. And I've started doing the illustrations for the commercial release. So, the st bit will be on a bit of a slower release schedule... also got to write a silly short about three 'straight' women fighting over a dashing butch they thought was a guy for a bundle this month. It'll be on patreon, if that interests anyone. Oh, and ko-fi. I'm going to be using that more now.