Trailing heat shimmers from the hull, the Moose and its accompanying ships fell into slow-space seven days outside Earth.

Ironically, during the mad dash to make sure all engineering departments and their systems could keep up with demand, multiple actual leaks were found, caused by damage during the fighting over XJ-1.

This led to the reports and overwhelming urgency of the small fleet to be factual, and Sparkle Otter's once falsified letter turning into a celebrated early warning message.

The Helper Aligned AI citizens accepted the appreciation and laudations gracefully… though they were frankly too confused to ask why they were getting such gratifications for something they had no records of. Nonetheless, it did much in bringing the Helper Aligned AI citizens and the Humans of Earth into a more tightly fitting alliance, and the Helper Aligned made sure to plug extra dedicated citizens into the ships to make sure no other leaks happened without the same kind of warning.

To say Sparkle Otter was sweating binary bullets the entire time would be putting it lightly, and the AI agent nearly took a digital sabbatical to collect herself.

Rhidi on the other hand was looking forward to arriving on Earth again and taking some time to herself, as Morris was going to see his family for a while when they got back.

Their time together on the Wild Hunt had passed too quickly, their little mini-dates on the Moose being some of the happiest times that Rhidi could remember when it didn't come to the Army. Between learning the intricacy of mini-golf and their many movie nights, Rhidi found herself more firmly attached to the Human man than she had really expected.

She had never been much of a romantic, more due to Kafyan "romance" than anything, but she had no idea that her soul could feel as light as it did when she was with Morris. She didn't mind, and took some small pleasure in removing her yellow strands from his brown hair after spending the night together, fussing over him as he sat and smiled at her.

Some things were easy to kill, but Rhidi's grooming standards held firm.

Rhidi however had no qualms with keeping Morris's parents at arms length for a while; Both she and Morris had discussed the idea at length, and figured that his mother, most of all, may not gel well with her son dating a fur-covered alien.

She wanted grandchildren, after all, and that was a sub-nill chance due to the many barriers between their two species.

When their struggling, overheated, and internally battered ships arrived at the shipyards orbiting Earth, Rhidi gathered her gear and other such things into her rucksack and got in line with the rest of the crew aboard the Wild Hunt. They were going to be issued new gear down below, as XJ-1 had done a number on nearly everything they owned.

The ship itself was going to get a major scrub down from top to bottom, as well as a total refit, which meant that anyone not of pertinent skill level were to piss off back to Earth while they did their thing.

Rhidi was fine with it, as she was looking forward to a lot of down time to herself while Morris visited his family.

Well, "herself" was going to be made up with a lot of female Kafya orbiting around her, but that was just another thing she was going to have to deal with this time around.

To her honest surprise, Rhidi had been absent from Earth for nearly eight months while out on patrol, fighting on XJ-1, and floating about in space in her giant tin can that she called home. The sight of Earth outside the viewport windows made her heart leap into her chest with glee, and she could already smell that crisp air in her nostrils.

She spied Morris behind her in the reflection of the viewport glass, as outside the shuttles began to stage themselves for passengers, so she turned around, a smile playing across her lips.

"Hi, Morris."

Morris grinned, opening his arms. "Hello, Rhidi."

"Hi, Morris." Rhidi purred, slipping into the Human's arms and nuzzling into his chest.

At this point, it was going to be one of her final hugs for a time, so she didn't care who saw or what their opinions may be.

"I'm just gonna be gone for a month, and I'll be back." Morris muttered into her ears, just low enough that only she heard. "I'm gonna talk things over with mom in the meantime. If I get back to our unit missing an entire ass cheek, things didn't go well."

Rhidi giggled, leaning on her tippy toes to whisper back up at him. "We should be lucky my own mother isn't here, she would probably rip my head off if she found out I was canoodling with a Human."

"Canoodling?" Morris breathed out in mock shock. "How scandalous…"

Both Rhidi and Morris chuckled to themselves, then Rhidi leaned up as far as she could to kiss Morris on his lips.

The quick peck turned into a far longer affair as Morris wrapped his arms around Rhidi's waist, pulling her off the ground and closer to his chest. The toes of Rhidi's paw boots curled as she tilted her head, but a Void-Navyman cleared his throat near the door, looking pointedly at Morris.

"Stick 7 is boarding, Private Morris." He said, nodding his head towards the shuttle attached to the gackcan. "Detach yourself from the Lycan, Hellsing."

Morris let out an unhappy rumble in his throat as he and Rhidi broke at the lips with a soft smack of flesh, then touched his nose to hers. "Message and call."

"Of course." Rhidi said lowly, giving him one more quick kiss before he set her down on the deck of the Wild Hunt.

Rhidi watched him step through the gackcan towards his shuttle, her heart giving soft, sad little flutters as she watched him start to float away from her, but she let out a sigh instead, crossing her arms.

Intrikit stepped up beside Rhidi, blinking her blue eyes at Morris and the rest of the troopers floating towards their shuttle, then looked up at Rhidi. "You gonna be okay boss?"

"Yeah." Rhidi said sadly, losing sight of Morris as all the Droppers around him propelled themselves and their bags towards the hatch of the shuttle.

Intrikit, trying to find some kind of tie between this current situation, looked back towards the gackcan as she resettled her rucksack on her shoulders. "You know, its kinda funny, Humans believe that the Tyrannosaurus were highly advanced hunters that had extremely tactile courtship behaviors-"

"You better be going somewhere with more of your dinosaur nonsense." Rhidi said while glancing sideways and down at the shorter, red furred Kafya.

Intrikit held up a finger. "I'm going somewhere, I'm going somewhere." She said, then pointed towards the general direction of Morris. "You two are highly developed predators that are courting each other, it is only a matter of time before you are back together to rub noses again."

"Because Tyrannosaurus-" Rhidi began, as Intriki nodded and continued her sentence.

"-Rub their noses together with only those who they intend to see again." Intrikit said grandly, smiling broadly as the rest of their stick assembled around them.

Rhidi smiled at the thought, then narrowed her eyes. "There's no way Humans would be able to figure that out without actually making those giant lizards."

"It's from fossil records." Intrikit said, though her lips did give a happy twitch. "Allegedly…"

Before Rhidi could question what the hell the little red Kafya was talking about, they were ushered forward into the gackcan, walking and then floating towards the shuttle that would ship them back down to Earth.

Utilizing the "floaty" method, as the shuttles were far too small for proper slam-generators that would allow them to pummel their way through Earth's atmosphere at speed.

Instead they "floated" down, their speed so slow that even their minute slam-generators could keep them nice and cool as they fell down to Earth. The drawback to such a method was that it was boringly slow, a single trip down to Earth taking nearly an hour. After the shuttle, nicknamed "space twinkies" due to their shape, was free and clear of the outer atmosphere and could gain lift, the pilot would fire up the regular engines and redeploy the wings, flying to their destination.

It took a bit of math and can-do attitude, but the trips were far safer this way.

Rhidi looked out along the Earth's surface, her smile growing as the trees of Fort Benning began to grow larger and larger in her window. She breathed in deep, as if trying to catch the scent of the loblolly pines through the skin of the shuttle.

This was, after all, the place where she had been rebirthed as a Dropper, broken and molded by the warriors of Earth, and she felt a closer love to this planet than she did the one she had been born on.

When the shuttle landed on the air strip and taxied to their offloading location, the shuttle door was cracked open by a Void-Navyman and the April air of Earth flooded into the shuttle.

Rhidi and the rest of the Kafya present on the boat breathed in deep, closing their eyes as the scents of their military alma mater flooded their brains. While male and female Kafya took a moment to welcome themselves home, the Humans, Pwah, and Lilgara disembarked, happily sighing out as they, too, found themselves back on beloved soil.

Shaksho walked up beside Rhidi, his green furred tail swaying back and forth as he looked at her. "Well, let's go then."

"Make sure you don't trip on the stairs." Rhidi said with a wink at Shaksho, the green furred male laughing cheerfully as they both made their way out the door.

—

Their barracks, set up as the land quarters for their ship in particular, were next to the drop towers, a ceremonial barracks location for Droppers who had seen combat. They were nothing special, six-man rooms with a pair of private showers, and offices down below for the NCOs.

After finding their rooms, storing their gear, and checking in with their respective NCOs, Rhidi and the rest of the Wild Hunt's 1st Company set themselves upon Fort Benning with the hungers that only soldiers could know.

While others headed to bars or off to the mall to while the afternoon away, Rhidi hopped in a tarry-lift. Her AI driver was a cheerful sort who asked her all about her journeys abroad, a male voiced AI that was more a listener than a talker, and drove her smoothly to the place she had been dreaming of since she had left Earth.

The comforting and vibrant El Sabueso Salado.

Stepping out of the tarry-lift and waving goodbye to the AI watching her on the cameras, she smiled up at the colorful, carnival-like nature of the restaurant. When she opened the door, it was the older Human woman who spotted her first, having been walking by the hostess stand and dusting off her hands.

"Firulais! Mija! You are back!" The older woman said, her skin still as tan and leathery as before, and flour dusted about her arms and hair.

Rhidi opened her arms as the elder Spanish woman hobbled forward and wrapped her in a curiously strong hug, patting her on the back. "You have been gone for so long, Firulais! Where are your amigas?"

"They are either sleeping or getting hamburgers, judging by the jackjaw." Rhidi said cheerfully. "But I knew exactly where I needed to go as soon as I was able!"

The older woman cackled happily, clapping her hands together. "Wonderful! Come, come, let's get you something to eat!"

As Rhidi was sat down without a menu, she pulled up her data-slate.

The jackjaw, a type of internet chatroom-esque system set up by Humans through friend requests, was set up with the entire Company as long as those with data-slates opted into it. From here Rhidi was able to keep an eye on her female Kafya, as well as catch wind of any rumors.

Scrolling through the pictures, Saffi, Anfilid, Inthur, and Intrikit were at the mall, though the image of Intrikit losing her mind over a stuffed animal in the shape of a stegosaurus seemed to be the current popular picture.

Saffi had snapped an additional image of Intrikit trapping a cashier by Southern social conventions, likely pulling out her "best dinosaur facts" judging by the lack of hope in the cashier's eyes.

Rhidi snorted in a laugh, scrolling further through the jackjaw logs.

Uppil and Oin were eating more seafood, bibs adorned with "shrimpin' ain't easy" as their image tagline. Quinnit and Pobilo were getting massages at some parlor on base, while Dimili, Enflia, Imridit, and the more loners of the female Kafya were out running around with female Pwah and Humans of their unit, as they were all going out for pizza.

Rhidi didn't mind pizza, but there was something that the ship cooks just could not get right, as blessed as their hearts may be.

As she chewed on her chips and sipped her prickly pear margarita, the smells from the kitchen were heady enough to nearly make her float out of the chair. After just ten minutes, the old woman came hobbling out of the kitchen with a large platter.

Heaped upon the large plate was enchiladas suizas, rice, beans, a tamale, and a piping hot empanada.

It may have looked like a lot to most folk, but Rhidi's stomach gave a low, greedy rumble as she spied the feast.

"I still talk about the first time you came here!" The old woman laughed out, setting the plate down in front of Rhidi. "I say to them, 'we were invaded by aliens!', and we always laugh!"

She smoothed Rhidi's yellow locks away from her fuzzy forehead, then placed a flour-dusted kiss right there, pausing for effect as the older woman's daughters giggled.

"Eat up Mija, before it gets cold." She said, then pulled out a chair as Rhidi picked up her knife and fork eagerly. "And tell me of your adventures!"

While Rhidi ate, savouring the tang and warm hug of spices she had missed for all those months in space, she told the older Human woman of her adventures.

She told her of the space moths and their mantid helpers, of the odd one-eyed folk and their battles, of the men and women she killed, of the broken Human who had scared her down to her bones deep underground, and she told her of Morris, the Human who currently stood claim over her heart.

"A gringo?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "Always so pale, you should find a nice Spanish man! They have tans all year round, you know."

Rhidi giggled, scooping up the last of her beans as the tequila worked its way through her system. "There's nothing wrong with Morris! He's quite good to me, and he looks pretty tan next to my fur when we're laying together."

The older woman and her daughters laughed, as they had been eavesdropping the entire time from around the restaurant.

"Are you sure? Güero men are so fickle sometimes." The older woman said, clicking her tongue against her teeth. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised one latched onto you, they are far more adventurous…"

"Mama, our father was a Güero." One of her daughters said, and the old woman threw up her hands.

"And look what he did!" She called out, though she was smiling and laughing all the while. "He gave me six beautiful daughters, then died at just seventy seven years old! They're so inconsiderate!"

Rhidi laughed along with everyone else within hearing distance, and soon the meal was finished, paid for despite the reluctance of the restaurant to charge Rhidi, and ending with her waiting outside for the tarry-lift.

As the lift pulled around and the door opened, the older woman took Rhidi's hand, patting it as she gestured for the Kafya to bend down towards her.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Firulais." She began, smiling warmly and patting Rhidi's hand again. "Find happiness while you can out there."

The other hand of the woman came up, and she tapped Rhidi on the chest near her heart. "The galaxy may be so very large, and the stars uncountable, but the heart is so much smaller. If this green eyed man fills you with love, and makes you feel weightless, hold onto it so it doesn't float away."

She then pulled Rhidi down a little farther, and kissed her on her fuzzy yellow cheek. "Time passes by quickly, Mija, even faster for a soldier. Do your best to fill it with as much love as you can, while you can."

Rhidi didn't know why, but giving the older woman one more hug made something hard appear in her throat, and she wondered, just for a merest second, what it would have been like to have a mother like her.

A mother that encouraged her to find the love she wanted, instead of the love she was assigned.

The older woman held Rhidi by the cheeks with both her hands, patted her palms against her softly a few times, then bid her farewell.

Rhidi climbed into the seat of the tarry-lift, closed the door, and waved out the window to both the older woman and the workers that had joined her outside. The lift pulled away, entered the road, then slowly came to speed.

The drive was silent for a while as Rhidi looked out the window towards the late day sun, and perked up her bent forward ears as the AI spoke.

"Wonderful beings, aren't they?" He said, his voice easy and smooth.

Rhidi nodded once, blinking as she tried to work past the odd hardness in her throat. "They catch you flat footed sometimes, don't they?"

"They feel so deeply that even we, beings of digital power and electrical minds, can bask in the warmth." The AI said, following the long bend in the road. "Might I recommend the scenic route, Miss Rhidi? We should catch the sunset at the perfect time, just as the trees begin to glow."

Rhidi smiled out the window, then glanced towards the dashboard of the AI driven car. "As long as we can have the windows down, so I can smell the trees."

"Smell them for us both, Miss Rhidi." The AI said back, a smile audible on his voice, and the windows slowly came down, letting the cool Georgian air wash over Rhidi and flutter her hair about her face. As Rhidi closed her eyes against the wind, one thought crossed her mind as the tarry-lift picked up speed.

It was good to be home.

—

The feelings of being home faded once she came face to face with her first time dealing with CIF. Central issue facilities were normally dealt with when changing bases or ending one's military career, but it appeared that Droppers had to deal with them every time they had to drop onto a planet.

Not even Sergeant Flores seemed sure of what was to come, and was glowering down at her data-slate as if it had spat in her face.

"What's her problem, Alias?" Rhidi asked the Pwah, both she, Alias, and Shasta sitting around each other on their massive rucksacks.

Alias looked a little unsteady in the eyes at the question, turning his head an inch to look sideways at Rhidi. "How am I supposed to know? She doesn't tell me anything. I don't know anything."

Shasta let out a hissing laugh. "Sssteady on, Alias, she didn't mean anything by it."

"Yeah, why so jumpy?" Rhidi asked him with a grin, punching the Pwah on the shoulder.

It was no mystery that every Kafya and Lilgara knew his dirty little secret, as their olfactory senses were far more in tune to catch the faint whiffs of shared, mingled sweat that he had borne the first day after the wild hunt.

"I'm not jumpy!" Alias growled out, swatting at both Rhidi and Shasta as they poked and prodded at him while giggling. "Leave me be, you space beasts!"

Rhidi and Shasta shared another laugh at Alias' expense before settling down, all while Alias was suddenly rather sweaty at the temple and smoothing down his uniform top.

"Anyway, she's probably just worried about the new CIF workers, they're Regs out of the S-Shops." Alias said lowly in an annoyed twinge. "There is someone known as the 'white devil' that has been gaining quite the reputation for her record keeping. I'm talking running people down while out in the field levels of dedication. I even heard she chased a Human nearly twice her height during a live fire exercise just because his signature was a squiggle."

Shasta nodded his head, his hood flaring a little out of curiosity. "White devil? Mussst be one of those paler Humans from the North."

"Not quite what I've heard." Alias said with a flare of the eyes. "I've actually been meaning to ask Rhidi about it."

Rhidi's ears perked up, still as bent at the tips as all the other Kafya. "Ask Rhidi about what?"

"The whites." Alias stated, gesturing about him. "Where the hell are they?"

Rhidi shrugged. "Beats me. I was more surprised to see that purple around for as long as we did."

"The one that fell out during the long ruck and refusssed to get back up?" Shasta asked, remembering the purple furred female Kafya eating a face full of asphalt. "Ssshe was a cunt."

Rhidi let out a belly laugh, along with a few other close by Kafya, then turned to Shasta. "Yeah, well, purples tend to be in leadership positions and aren't used to doing things themselves, not too surprising she fell out."

"Still doesn't answer the question about the white ones." Alias asked patiently. "Why are none of them here?"

Rhidi thought about it for a moment, though she failed to come up with a satisfying answer. "Well… they're rare, I suppose. They're the lowest on the ladder in terms of the Kafyan colors, and tend to stick to the outer planets."

"Why is that?" Shasta asked.

Rhidi said the answer automatically, rote into her brain by her father. "For their own safety, of course."

There was a long pause between Alias and Shasta looking to each other. Rhidi felt her ears falter, as hearing the answer out loud made it sound… a little more sinister than she had first thought.

"For their own safety?" Alias asked, his hands slowly reaching down to grab his data-slate. "The hell does that mean, Rhidi?"

"W-... Well…" Rhidi began, suddenly scrambling for an answer. "I… I don't… I don't actually know."

Shasta hummed in his throat, while Alias started taking down notes.

"It's just something that my dad always told me." Rhidi said quickly. "He never actually told me why, just that they were in danger, and lived on the outer planets for their own safety, usually in secret."

The discussion was cut short by the CIF front door opening, and Rhidi turned around on her rucksack to see who had stepped out.

Standing in the doorway was the shortest Kafya she had ever seen by far… and her fur was white.

The Kafya was so small that her paw boots must have been the smallest size available, possibly smaller than Intrikit's.

"Sergeant Flores, Sergeant Armadi." The white furred Kafya said loudly and clearly, her accent neutral and perfectly inflected as she pressed her eyeglasses up her nose with her middle finger. "I am ready for your Sections."

Rhidi turned to look at the fearless Human warrioress… and felt a twinge of fear as Sergeant Flores looked mildly worried.

"Of course, I'll get them rousted, Amili." Sergeant Flores called back, then turned around as she gave the command. "On your feet! Form up in front of the Specialist!"

"Specialist?" Rhidi asked, turning to look at Alias as she hefted her rucksack.

Alias nodded. "If she is a Specialist, she must be rather outstanding in what she does, seeing as to how she must have gotten here way after you."

"Ssshe seems so…" Shasta said, then spoke out the word along with Rhidi and Alias as they said it together.

"Small."

As if summoned from the force of three voices uttering the word, Private Intrikit came running along with Saffi and Imridit, the three of them wide eyed.

"She's tiny!" Intrikit said, leaning from side to side to try and get another view of the white furred Kafya. "She makes me look tall! She's like a comp-"

Saffi wrapped her free arm around Intrikit's head, muffling whatever dinosaur fact was about to escape her maw. "Enough with the giant lizards, Intrikit!"

"A white? Here?" Imridit said, lacing her fingers together. "Wow, I didn't know there were any still alive to even come this way and join the UAA army."

Alias turned around, his eyebrows furrowed. "You do know how genetics work, right? White furred Kafya shouldn't be any more rare than those fancy purples that Rhidi was talking about."

The Kafya tilted their heads at Alias, even Intrikit, and he clicked his teeth in annoyance.

"Honestly." Alias muttered as the line started moving forward. "What the fuck is going on with your planets?"

As they all got into line, the white furred Kafya named Amili steadily brought them inside the CIF building to go over their gear.

It was going smoothly… until Specialist Amili got eyes on Rhidi.

"Stop." Amili said loudly, looking up at Rhidi as if she had smelled a turd that had gotten smeared on the bottom of her paw boots.

Sergeant Flores appeared out of nowhere as if she had stepped out of a portal, instantly hovering around Rhidi. "What? What happened?"

"Private Rhidi." Specialist Amili mused, tilting her head up at Rhidi and peering at her with tired, professional eyes. "I hear you are the Kholihl on this base, the elite Dropper who wears the Skógarskera armor."

Rhidi swallowed, and was rather frightened to find that the Kafya's tone had made her throat dry. "Um… yes."

"Yet still a Private." Amili said, then clicked her tongue as she made a mark on her data-slate.

The room suddenly became rather cold, as if they had been sucked out into vacuum, and Rhidi felt her anger slowly bubbling into her blood.

"Looks like you did a number on your gear while on duty." Amili said, looking down through her spectacles as she read over Rhidi's records. "My my, I should check you over myself."

"Amili-" Sergeant Flores started, raising a finger, but Amili turned her head and looked at the Human NCO, her tired, daggerish eyes causing Flores's voice to die away.

"I insist." Amili said coldly, then gestured to a nearby gear-table with her data-slate. "After you, Private."

"Ooooh Rhidi." Saffi whispered as quietly as she could. "Don't kill her."

Rhidi, angry enough that her ivory eyes were nearly glowing, trudged after the shorter, white furred Kafya. Once at the table she laid out her gear, every piece that she had brought down onto XJ-1.

As her gear was laid out, everything but her armor and the revolver she had gotten from the Vet, the white furred Kafya made a clicking noise with her teeth.

"Dirty… dirty… torn… dirty…" Amili went on, marking down notes on her data-slate with a stylus as Rhidi fumed. "I would expect better of a yellow. Usually you Anili Hass are sticklers on perfection."

Rhidi had to bite her bottom lip to keep from growling, and laid out the rest of her gear.

Specialist Amili did not let up her side-slipping assault. "All of your uniforms are ragged and ill-kept, same with your paw boots, patrol caps, and your field gear looks as if it was attacked by giant bugs."

"It was attacked by giant bugs…" Rhidi muttered fiercely, remembering back to the odd little critters of XJ-1.

"I'm sure." Anili replied dryly, then whistled over to a far taller Human Reg. "Smythe, this clumsy Kafya has ruined her gear, trash all of this while I have her draw out a fresh restart."

Rhidi leaned forward from where she stood, her face outraged. "Clumsy? Ruined?! I was in combat!"

"Ruined and spent." Amili muttered as Private Smythe gathered the gear with a slight smirk, hauling it off to the recycling section of the CIF building. She took a seat on the bench near the gear-table, crossing her legs prettily as she motioned for Rhidi to do the same. "Sit, Private."

Rhidi's hands were balled into fists and her tail was starting to fray out from the rage inside of her, but she sat on the bench that lay on her side of the table.

"Completely new set of uniforms, paw boots, and field equipment. Requiring a full restart due to negligence and or combat actions in gear." Amili murmured as she pulled up the digital forms on her data-slate, then sent them over to Rhidi's. "Sign for them please, acknowledging that you ruined your gear while on deployment and new ones were required."

"Combat actions only." Rhidi said tersely, her tail swishing back and forth in annoyance as she pulled up the forms and started to quickly sign them with her finger.

To her sudden shock, her signature evaporated from the screen.

"Hey!" Rhidi shouted, pointing her hand to her data-slate. "The hell was that?"

"Your signature was illegible." Amili said, this time the smirk open on her lips as she eyed Rhidi. "Did you lose your fine schooling when you joined up to be a Dropper, Anili Hass?"

Rhidi leaned forward over her data-slate, gripping the side of the table as her muscles flexed. "What the fuck is your damage, Nediti?"

"My damage?" Amili said in an innocent tone of voice, her fluffy white tail swaying behind her. She pushed her eyeglasses back up her nose, as the under-ear hooks were still a work in progress. "I don't have any damage, Private. I just need you to properly sign your forms."

Rhidi openly growled in her throat, then thrust out her hand. "Then give me your stylus."

"My stylus?" Amili replied cooly, holding up the black pen and looking at it. "I quite like this one, and everything you touch seems to break. If you can do that," she waggled the data-slate at Rhidi, showing her armor damage, "to Skógarskera, I would fear for my poor pen's life if I placed it in your fingers."

Rhidi drew in a deep breath through her nose as the rest of the Sections toiled around her at their own gear tables, and she looked back down at her data-slate. She took her time, dragging the pad of her finger around until her full name was signed, then submitted it by tapping the correct box.

"Ah, see, was that so hard?" Amili asked, leaning forward to rest an elbow on her crossed knee.

Rhidi glowered at the far shorter, white furred Kafya, knowing that if they were to duel it wouldn't last more than a couple of seconds.

Amili grinned, pointing her stylus at Rhidi. "You want to hurt me, don't you? Only natural for a yellow fur who has to deal with looking up at a white like me."

Rhidi blinked, raising her head a smidge.

Did she just read my mind? Rhidi asked herself in thought, and the slowly growing smile on Amili's lips made her suddenly rather uncomfortable.

"Forms to sign, Private Rhidi." Amili murmured, waggling her stylus. "Off you go."

Rhidi quickly signed another box, this one for her rucksack, and the signature disappeared as soon as she stopped writing it. She let out an aggravated breath through her nose, the white fur's voice grating at this point.

"Illegible." Amili mused. "Try again."

By the time Rhidi had finished the forms, it had taken her far, far longer than what would have been normal. She had lost count of the amount of times Amili had said "Again" or "Illegible", followed by her signature getting whisked away from her screen.

In the end, Rhidi came away with a fresh compliment of uniforms, upgraded paw boots, updated patrol caps that better fit her ears and velcroed around them, along with new field gear.

"Since you destroyed all of your old gear," Amili began, watching Rhidi angrily shove her new uniforms into her fresh rucksack, "You are being placed on an advisory. I will be dropping by your unit from time to time while you are here in order to check in on the restart items you have been given."

"Yippee…" Rhidi muttered under her breath, shoving the extra paw boots down in with her uniforms.

Amili's grin grew, exposing her white canines. "As well, since you nearly destroyed a very expensive suit of armor, your repaired combat armor has been fitted with a GPS tracker as per my advisory."

"A tracker?!" Rhidi spat, holding a new mess kit in her hand.

Amili nodded. "Why yes, you got lost and it took the technicians quite a while to find all the pieces."

"I fell through a crack in the ground!" Rhidi said while rounding on the white fur. "I didn't get lost!"

Amili wafted her pen with a bent wrist. "Semantics."

"Seman-?!" Rhidi began, but quietened down as the white furred Kafya uncrossed her legs and stood.

"Due to your restart, any further gear that is destroyed and requiring replacement will be done under further advisory, and negligent damage of gear may require you to pay out of pocket to replace it, just like all the other troopers." Amili said, plucking a small tuft of fluff off her sleeve. "I'm afraid you will be getting no more free rides from this unit with me around, Private Rhidi. Your current uniform and boots are good enough for you to leave in, you are dismissed."

If someone had poured rocket fuel around her feet, Rhidi would have bet that her toe nails could have ignited it. She snatched the bulging rucksack and stomped away, not gracing the white furred Kafya with a backward glance as she pushed past the exit door like it slighted her.

While the Sections licked their wounds after the vicious ass-chewing they all received, Rhidi glowered down at her old paw boots. She was the only Dropper to receive a full restart, which had caused Sergeant Flores to go nuclear.

"A full restart?! I saw your uniforms, they were fine!" Sergeant Flores had yelled, pulling at Rhidi's uniform top to inspect it. "They replaced all of it?! Hijo de perra, I'm going to get nothing but grief over thi-"

Her data-slate lit up with a command message, and Sergeant Flores hung her head back with a soul weary, open-mouthed growl. "Que carajo, it's already starting!"

Rhidi was still smarting over being the point of contention with Sergeant Flores and being the only restart for gear, sitting on her rucksack as Imridit came skipping out of the CIF building with a smile on her face.

Rhidi glowered at the pink furred Kafya, as while they were one of the few military occupational specialties that got cleared for new gear quickly and without paying for it, they still got an earful from those who supplied said gear.

That rarely meant it was a happy time.

"What are you smiling about?" Rhidi called out to Imridit, Alias grumbling beside her as he pulled on his new boots.

Imridit skipped to a stop beside Rhidi, beaming down at her. "That went by rather quickly! I got that little white fur and she had me in and out in a matter of minutes!"

Rhidi stared up at Imiridit with wide, outraged eyes, then stood to her feet. "Minutes?!"

"Well, maybe ten." Imridit said, unshouldering her new rucksack. "We talked for a little bit about our families, then she gave me a bunch of the new uniforms and stuff like the rest of the Kafya! Did you know she popped out of two red furs? My mother was a red fur you know, my dad was a white though."

Before Rhidi could launch the first syllable of the curse that was building pressure in her mouth, Oin leaned backwards into view from the throng. "Rhidi, remember where pinks come from. It's obvious the White Devil would treat her better than the rest of us."

"It's favoritism!" Rhidi shouted out, pointing to Imridit. "I had to fill out those forms so many times that it became personal!"

Oin lowered her eyelids, the "Really?" unspoken but still heard.

"I'm not like the others!" Rhidi rebutted. "Even Quinnit is better than the other yellows!"

Quinnit looked up from her bag, having been checking through them, and jabbed a thumb over her shoulder towards the CIF building. "Fuck that, that uppity little white fur can suck my ass."

"Solid slang." Private Avlov said, high fiving the Kafya with a giggle. "You've been studying."

Quinnit shrugged. "Rather expressive language, English."

"You're not helping my point, Quinnit!" Rhidi barked out as she pelted her fellow yellow fur with a pair of bundled socks.

"I thought she was a sweetie." Imridit said with a shrug as more Droppers slowly filed out of the CIF building. "She came here on a special visa and joined up with the UAA Army as soon as she realized she could, and has been working with supply ever since."

Dimili nodded. "White furs were never allowed to join the Kafyan military, but even then they aren't really the warring type."

"Never heard of it myself either." Anfilid mused, looking over at her fellow brown fur. "The warrior clans always spoke of white furs as more gentle souls."

Rhidi bared her teeth. "There's nothing gentle about that one. All her missing height must have gone into her attitude!"

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