My girlfriend's announcent about potentially going after General Sidex on her own led to another sowhat heated discussion, mostly between her and Lady Magniveen.
I'd have almost called it an argunt, except the young noblewoman wouldn't actually argue with her princess. She ca pretty close though, as she did her absolute best to dissuade Rebecca from putting herself in mortal danger. Again.
anwhile the VDF officers and the Deveronian officials gradually backed away. Lieutenant Maguine busied herself with a datapad and Sergeant Brogan quietly excused himself to attend his other duties, while the local governnt and military people had their own little conversation about last night's attack. Including what sort of cleanup effort Ganvis was facing, and what could be done about Sidex and his private army to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.
I did my best not to get dragged into any of it, but I stayed close enough to my girlfriend that she'd know I was there for her if and when she needed . And that mont turned out to be not too far off, as she finally reached the point where she'd had enough.
Rebecca suddenly snapped, "Damn it Gwen just cut the passive-aggressive bullshit ok?! I already know you how you feel about going into combat, you're not going to change my mind by whining about decorum and regulations and all that shit!"
"People died here last night!" she added angrily. "Innocent people! Folks just trying to get by. And so folks who were trying to help them!"
Her voice rose in pitch and volu as she continued, "Twenty minutes ago my girlfriend was comforting a child who's whole family was injured by those fuckers! And last night I watched an old friend die in her husband's arms because of those bastards! I'm not going to stand by and let that happen again. Not here, not anywhere else!"
By that point everyone in the area had gone silent, and all of them were staring at Rebecca. Both the local governnt officials and the VDF soldiers and dics were all looking on at my girlfriend as she glared at the startled noblewoman.
It took another couple seconds before Rebecca cald down again. Then she apologized, "Gwen I'm sorry for losing my temper. I know you're just doing your job, and I promise my anger isn't directed at you."
"I just want to help these people," she sighed as her shoulders slumped. "They've already been through years of drought and hardship, not to ntion a civil war. They don't deserve this."
Gwen nodded once, "I understand your highness. Perhaps I can help you when you speak with Captain Magoda?"
"Thanks," Rebecca replied. "I'm also going to need to talk with President Arun."
She glanced at the two generals as she continued, "I know your resources are stretched thin, but this is an issue that needs Deveronian involvent. Sitting on your hands and hoping it goes away on its own isn't going to cut it."
General Kimble nodded, "I'll get on the comm. The president's going to want to know what's going on here, and I'm sure he'll agree with you ma'am. The Sidex situation's gone on long enough."
"Your highness?" Lieutenant Maguine spoke up next. "If Captain Magoda permits it, I'd like to volunteer for the mission. It would be an honour to help you bring this criminal to justice."
The security chief was followed by at least a dozen more volunteers, and those were followed by still more. In fact it seed like most of the VDF troops were ready and willing to follow their princess into battle.
"Thank you," Rebecca said as she looked around at the defence forces who were beginning to rally around her.
Then we were all distracted when a gruff old voice spoke up from a few ters back, by the row of empty shipping containers.
"Those were so real pretty words," Preston Wheeler stated as he approached the group of soldiers and governnt people.
He looked like he'd put on his best clothes, with a white buttoned down shirt and a thin black bolo tie. There was no sign of Jaycee though, which worried a little.
anwhile the older man continued, "Unless folks got a problem with it I'm gonna take over for my wife, at least until Ganvis picks soone else to be mayor. In the anti sobody's gotta stand up and speak for the local folks here."
"You there," he pointed at one of the VDF dics, "Y'all look like a doctor. Does that an you can tell what folks here got killed last night, and which ones was wounded?"
Corporal Sheehan glanced at Rebecca, and my girlfriend nodded.
Then to make sure everyone understood she gestured towards the older man and announced, "That's Preston Wheeler. Ella Wheeler was his wife, and mayor of this community. And like he said, until the town can organize an election it sounds like he's taking over for Ella. So let's make sure to give him all the help he needs."
There were a few more introductions, so Mr. Wheeler knew who everyone else was that he'd be talking to. Then a few of the recent conversations were repeated, to bring the old man up to speed. Finally Rebecca and I followed him and Corporal Sheehan back into the field hospital so he could et with the wounded townsfolk still in there, and find out who else had been hurt during the fighting.
That's when we learned that Finn was among the fatalities last night, and I knew that was going to be another blow to the residents of Ganvis. Mr. Wheeler took a mont to process the news, before he spent so ti speaking to a couple of the wounded locals, including Troy.
After that Mr. Wheeler and Rebecca borrowed the corporal's datapad so they could review the rest of the casualty list. Preston grumbled a few comnts to nobody in particular when he realized that the local militia had been all but wiped out in last night's fighting. The only two who weren't killed were recovering there in the field hospital.
The acting mayor grumbled so more about the injured prisoners being kept in the sa hospital tent as the injured locals. And that led to a longer discussion about what to do with the prisoners in general.
Ganvis didn't have anywhere to put them, and no resources to guard them. The dic turned that whole thing over to Lt. Maguine, and she explained that her troops were guarding the prisoners for now but she knew Captain Magoda wouldn't want that to beco a long-term thing. And they didn't have facilities on the Tullrohane to house the prisoners either. That ant turning them over to the local governnt.
The lieutenant suggested transporting the captured bandits to the Deveronian capital, but General Kimble wasn't sure about that. Then Myers initiated a brief discussion about just shipping them to Marshal's World then forgetting about them entirely, but Rebecca shot that idea down imdiately.
She reminded everyone that so of those attackers didn't have any choice in the matter, that they were victims themselves. Which led to another argunt, but eventually the Deveronian generals agreed to take responsibility for the prisoners. They'd probably end up using one of the captured troop carriers to ship them all to the capital, but for now the captured bandits would stay here under VDF guard.
By that point I could tell the stress was getting to my girlfriend, so I slipped an arm around her waist and my tail around her thighs and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Co on Rebecca," I whispered. "It's ti for a break. Let's head back to the ship, I'll make us sothing nice for lunch."
She hesitated for a second or two, like she was going to protest. So I tilted my head up and gave her a firm look, and that did the trick.
Her shoulders slumped but she wrapped an arm around my shoulders and nodded, "Ok Amanda. Thanks for looking after ."
"You're a good emotional support floof," she added as a whisper in my ear.
My cheeks coloured but I smiled and whispered back, "I know. Now c'mon, let's get back to the Deter."
We were only about halfway back to the ship when we spotted Cammie and Jenna and Jaycee on their way back as well, so we stopped and waited for them.
The catgirl's ears were drooping a bit while her tail flicked back and forth down low behind her ankles. Jaycee looked to be in a sombre mood as well, although I noticed they'd gotten changed out of those generic grey coveralls at so point.
Their new outfit didn't fit any better, but it was probably more comfortable on them. Or if nothing else, it might have been more familiar. The brunette was wearing a pair of knee-length cut-off work pants, which were being held up by a belt that obviously had a few new holes punched in it. They wore a plain white undershirt on top, and that was covered by an oversized short sleeve plaid shirt that they were wearing loose and open like a jacket. They still had the generic slip-on shoes though, so odds were they hadn't found any footwear that fit them yet.
As the three of them got closer I also noticed they all had so grey dust clinging to their clothes. After a second or two I realized it had to cent dust. Which made sense, they were probably all digging through the rubble of the catgirl's workshop to see if anything could be salvaged.
"How'd it go Cammie?" Rebecca asked as they joined us.
I already figured the news wasn't going to be good, and sure enough our catgirl's tail drooped down along with her ears while she shook her head.
"Ain't nothing left," she sighed. "The whole thing collapsed, it's all just busted concrete and twisted tal. Might be so of the tools and parts and stuff is still good? But it'd be a whole heap of trouble to dig through that ss just to find so bits and pieces. Even my old loader looks like it's had it."
"Jenna helped dig around the ss, and Miss Jaycee pitched in a bit too. But it really ain't worth it," she added with another sigh.
My own ears dipped down as I asked, "How are you feeling about that Cammie? Are you doing ok?"
"Yeah it's fine," the catgirl shrugged. Her tail swished from side to side as her ears perked up, "It's too bad about the old loader? And all them spare parts and tools and such. I'm sure Ganvis could have used all that, once they find another chanic to take over for ? But I'm sticking with my girlfriends, and the Deter. So it ain't like I was ever planning on moving back in there."
I gave her a sympathetic look as I replied, "I'm glad you're not too upset about it Cammie."
Then Rebecca looked to the brunette as she asked, "How about you Jaycee? How are you doing?"
"We were just speaking with your dad a few minutes ago," she added. "He's taking over as temporary mayor for now."
They replied in a sad voice, "I'm not surprised. He probably needs to keep himself busy, to keep his mind off things. Losing my mom hit him really hard, you know? Then there's my situation, that's not helping his mood any."
"We had a bit of an argunt when I got ho earlier," they admitted, "And it got heated for a spell. He said so things I think he already regrets. I'm pretty sure I got my ssage across though, that this was my choice and I'm ok with it."
Cammie's ears and tail drooped again as she responded sadly, "I'm sorry Miss Jaycee. I sure hope your pa cos around soon."
"I'm sure he will," Jaycee replied with a weak smile. Then as we all started slowly moving towards the ship they added, "Anyways the biggest problem I've got right now is clothes. Nothing I own fits right anymore. All my trousers are too long and too loose. I had to cut the legs off this pair, and even at that they're not very comfortable."
Then they frowned, "The other disappointnt is losing my favourite gun. I went rooting around that alley where mom and I got hit, to see if I could find it? I was hoping it'd still be there under all that rubble."
"It wasn't there?" Cammie asked as they tilted their head to one side. "Do you reckon soone walked off with it?"
Jaycee grimaced, "Nah it was there alright. What was left of it anyways, still held tight in what was left of my right hand. I found that ss waiting for under a big old hunk of concrete and rebar."
"In fact the whole town's a hell of a ss right now," they shook their head. "I hate to think how much work it's going to take to clean up and start putting things back together again. Not just buildings, but lives too."
Cam nodded slowly, "It won't be easy Miss Jaycee, but it'll happen. You know as well as I do, folks here is tough, and they been through worse. I reckon we'll all pitch in and help out. My shipmates is all good people."
"I know," Jaycee smiled. "And I'm sorry I didn't say this so much back before I shipped out to see the stars, but you're good people too Cammie."
"She sure is," Jenna agreed. Then the android pulled the blushing catgirl into a tight hug, which got her even more flustered. anwhile the ship's ramp had already co down, and the main airlock opened up to reveal Sarah waiting there for us.
I wasn't sure if she'd been up in the cockpit watching for us to co back, or maybe Jenna signalled the ship to let the cute engineer know we were coming. Either way it was good to see her, and she greeted all five of us as we headed up the ramp and into the ship.
"Welco back," Sarah said with a smile. She followed that up by pulling both Rebecca and I into a tight hug as she asked, "How'd it go out there?"
I shook my head, "It's going to take a long ti for Ganvis to bounce back from this."
"The cleanup effort will take a while," Rebecca agreed. "But we found out who's behind the attacks, and where their base of operations is located. So we'll be addressing that particular problem soti soon."
While my girlfriends and I were talking Jenna reached out to the ramp controls and sealed up the ship behind us. Then we all continued aft towards the lift in engineering. We only got as far as the secondary hold though, when Jaycee paused by Jenny's Re/Gen capsule.
"I guess Nyssa's still got a ways to go yet?" they asked.
I glanced at the little panel on the end of the pod then replied, "It's under four hours now. Three hours, thirty-seven minutes to be exact."
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