MGIS 5 - Gathering Strength - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Sometimes I miss the simplicity of life amongst the gangs on Akkaten. Back there, if someone said the shit about my Little Boss that the bitch tried to spread, I’d just push her teeth down her throat. Here in the military though? They frown on casual violence to solve problems.

Which makes me wonder: does that make the adept honor duels professional ranked violence, since they had no problem with that?

~Raegan Cliffrunner, personal log.

By the time that Desmond was done with the meeting, the approach to the Vigilant Titan was complete and they had rejoined the rest of the Seventh Border Fleet.

He knew that he should make an appearance in the officer’s mess hall to check on the attitude of Tara Windracer, since the trouble-making Uth’ra would likely be back aboard now, if not in the near future. But he was too drained after the holographic meeting, both emotionally and spiritually.

So, like the good partners that they were, his mates were supporting him in their own special ways.

Chloe had him tucked against her left side, one arm draped over his shoulder to wrap protectively around his chest while pulling him such that the side of his face was pressed into her breast as they sat in the conversation pit. 

Raegan had decided it was time for her to return the favor of his constant attention on her mane of thick hair and was seated behind the pit on the ground and alternating pulling a comb through his far less dense hair and running her thick fingers through his short brindle mop to stimulate his scalp as she kneaded in some of the faintly scented oil she used.

Sasha lay with her head on his thigh taking up the side that Chloe wasn’t on, a quiet rumble of purrs emanating from her throat as he gently toyed with her pointed cat ears while she snuggled into him.

Lila sat at his feet, wedged between Desmond’s legs with her back to his right leg so she was facing towards Sasha and was kneading the muscles in Desmond’s calf with dexterous fingers. He wasn’t sure if he was enjoying the massage more, or the fact that Lila was naked from the waist up and each motion sent a shimmer of light reflecting off the sparkling motes that studded her purple-blue skin, outlining her fit form.

“Your people really are divided,” Lila murmured as she worked at a knot in Desmond’s calf.

“Yeah, sadly. You’d think that this sort of thing would bring them together, to benefit the whole of the species. But the only chance that would happen right now is if they thought they could somehow fight off the Hegemony,” Desmond sighed happily as Raegan’s thick fingers ran through his hair lovingly again.

“That’d be a bad choice,” Sasha murmured sleepily between purrs as she shifted on his lap.

“I know that… and I want to believe they know that. But while an individual person is smart, put more than one together and you get a pack of dumb, panicky animals. Who knows what kind of idiocy they’ll perpetrate in their panic,” Desmond sighed.

“Whatever happens out there, you have your place here, Des. The Hegemony won’t turn on their adepts without a very good reason, and you’ve given absolutely none of those that would cause them to doubt you,” Chloe gently murmured, turning to press a kiss to his temple between passes of Raegan’s hands in his hair.

“I know, Precious,” Desmond rubbed his cheek against the soft mountain of her breast, getting a coo of happiness from Chloe and a gentle squeeze from the much larger woman who was doing her best to cuddle every part of him at once.

“Not to mention, as a clan Sire, they can’t just abuse you without very good reasons. Otherwise the Uth’ra Kindred as a whole will get involved. With Throneblood and Skytreader backing you, there’s no way they wouldn’t go off like a solar flare if you were treated unfairly. And then the other clans would have to get involved as it would set a bad precedent,” Lila explained, turning to shoot him a smile, her pearly white teeth glittering against her dark skin as her cyan eyes danced in amusement.

“That’s if they could even get hold of the Little Boss. They’d do it over our bodies,” Raegan said proudly, flicking the comb through his hair gently once more before nodding contentedly. “I want to keep doing this, but I don’t want to overstimulate your hair. The last thing I want to do is give you a bald spot…”

Desmond wasn’t listening. His heart was busy thundering in anger at the idea of anything happening that would occur over his girls’ bodies. A pressure on his crotch broke through the mental loop before it could go too far and he looked down to see Sasha rubbing her cheek over his leg and groin, nuzzling him affectionately through his pants.

The lusty look that Sasha sent him when she opened her slitted eyes caused Desmond’s brain to switch tracks immediately and he smiled down at her as his body began to react to her ministrations.

“Dibs,” Sasha murmured with a wicked smile on her lips as she nuzzled him again.

“I’m second,” Chloe said immediately, a low laugh echoing from her and through Desmond that sent a thrill of arousal through him.

“What?” Raegan asked in confusion, having turned away to pack up her things.

“Third then,” Lila said quickly, her pointed Aelfa ears flicking out to either side in amusement as she reached up to cup Desmond through his pants.

“Damn it, last again?” Raegan whined, pouting while everyone else laughed.

“None of you are last in my books,” Desmond said, rolling his head back to look up at Raegan with such intense desire that the granite-skinned woman blushed darkly.

“I’ll take that, though I would prefer being first in your pants at the moment,” Raegan muttered, getting a giggle of amusement from Sasha who began to toy with the fasteners on Desmond’s pants.

<><><>

After spending some time savoring each other, Desmond was in a much better headspace. While his reminder of the fractious nature of humanity had been jarring, it was officially not his problem. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t help the person whose problem it actually was.

Putting the finishing touches on the report back to Ambassador Steelbender, Desmond hit send and sighed, leaning back into his seat contentedly.

“All done then, Little Boss?” his seat asked, squeezing him around the middle gently.

“Yep, all done. Do you want to join the others?” Desmond patted Raegan’s arms where they crossed over his middle and felt the big woman shake her head in refusal behind him.

“No, I like having you close like this. You smell like me and the girls still, it feels good,” Raegan murmured into his hair and he felt the big woman on whose lap he was sitting, nuzzle the back of his head once more.

“Anything to make my girls happy,” Desmond said with a laugh before he dropped his tablet onto the couch next to him and glanced to his right.

Chloe was seated immediately next to him, but was engaged in an animated discussion with Nadia Radford, who was gesturing at the rotating hologram being projected by the unit she’d set on the small tablet between them.

“If we are going to be printing you new suits, it’ll be better to all go with the same manufacturer. That way the replacement parts are far more likely to be interchangeable,” the Latsu technician was saying while gesturing at the rotating image, her striped tiger tail flicking behind her as she lounged on the other couch, her forelegs crossed over each other while her humanoid torso swayed upright from her mid-shoulders.

“Agreed, the challenge is going to be finding a line that has the variance we need,” Chloe nodded towards the rotating image. “My armor is going to be far different from Des’, which will be different from Lila’s. It’s the downside of variant combat styles.”

“Realistically, you can narrow it down to two styles without too much trouble.” Nadia’s sister Anya said from her spot directly across from Desmond. The tiger-striped Latsu was sprawled on another couch and tapping away at a tablet while she chewed on her bottom lip. “A heavy armor variant for you and Raegan, then mid-weight variants for Desmond, Sasha, and Lila. It’ll be a little heavier armor for Lila, and a little lighter for your adept.”

“I can handle the heavier armor now, as long as we don’t compromise on the flexibility,” Lila replied from her spot to Desmond’s left, sitting with Sasha as the two of them thoughtfully studied the armor schematics hovering in midair. “I’ve been training long enough that the extra weight won’t slow me down appreciably.”

“And I’d feel more comfortable knowing you were better protected,” Desmond interjected from his spot perched on Raegan’s lap.

He felt just a touch ridiculous but his lover wanted more cuddles after their bout of lovemaking and he wasn’t going to refuse Raegan, even if they’d had an appointment to meet with the Radford’s to discuss the more intense use of the ship’s nano-forge.

I need to talk to Sasha about a better interface, Desmond thought when remembering the reason for their meeting got him thinking about the other uses he’d planned to put the ship’s nano-forge to.

He’d been having fun with the modeling software, but using just the tablet was getting annoying as he had to click through a number of different tools and the screen felt so limiting. Desmond knew that his clever Hyreh-Taari lover would have something that could work, he just needed to tap into that cleverness when they had time.

“So that would mean we just need to narrow down the species-specific alterations for specific suits. Like Chloe’s helmet and the tail-ports for her and Sasha,” Nadia said and tapped a quick note out on her tablet before making a swiping motion with her stylus and the image projected by the hologram shifted to a more streamline looking armor suit.

As they began discussing the perks of particular brands, movement behind the group caught Desmond’s eyes as another familiar sight strode into view on the far side of the rec-room common space. 

It occurred to me before, but I never really gave it a thought. Captain Skytreader has a lot of Latsu and Uth’ra on her crew, Desmond thought as he caught the gaze of the new person and waved at them in acknowledgement.

Elle Powell, the ship's security chief, returned the wave and trotted over, her paws nearly silent on the decking as she approached with her tail flicking back and forth. Unlike the Radford sisters, Elle’s feline lower half was patterned with jaguar spots and she was a size smaller than them. Still bigger than Desmond by a good margin though.

“Adept McLaughlin, ladies,” Elle said by way of greeting, bobbing her head politely to each of them. A chorus of greetings were returned with accompanying smiles.

Elle was well liked by the rest of the crew. Despite being an officer, she was informal unless there was something important at hand that needed to be handled, then she would get serious and demand respect.

“Afternoon, Security Chief. What can we do for you? Or are you off-duty at the moment?” Desmond said with a smile, doing his best to remain dignified despite his perch. An attempt that seemed to be doomed to failure by the smirk on the Latsu chief’s lips.

“Sadly, I’m not off-duty. Otherwise I’d be happy to join you all. Where’s the third of you troublemakers?” Elle addressed the last part of her statement to Nadia who shrugged. 

“Katya went to get drinks while we talked, she should be back soon.”

Elle gestured to the hologram again, quirking an eyebrow at it.

“Should I even ask what you are all up to?”

“Nothing bad,” Desmond reassured her. “I and my team are looking to upgrade our armor and since we weren’t able to shop for it on the station, we are weighing having the nano-forge print them.”

“Expensive, but an option,” hummed the smaller Latsu woman, thumbing her chin while she shuffled around to stand between two of the couches in their little corner and looked at the schematic. “Personal experience with the Bersaka Conglomerate is that while they talk a good game in advertising, their gear is less reliable for nonstandard body-types.”

Desmond heard a quiet scraping noise and glanced down at the security chief’s forepaws to see her kneading the decking, the claws concealed in her soft paws extending slightly to scrape on the floor.

That’s… irritation? If she wasn’t using claws it’d be affection, but with claws it’s annoyance. Clearly whatever her experience was with this Bersaka company, it was negative, Desmond thought as he tried to remember the social cues that he’d been working to memorize. There were so many species in the Hegemony space that it was hard at times to keep them all straight.

“But I’m not here to give you opinions on gear,” Elle said after shaking herself out of her thoughts. “Captain wanted me to touch bases with you, Adept McLaughlin.”

“Oh?” Desmond questioned, focusing on Elle once more. Since she’d used his title, he knew it had to be something official so he listened intently, the others in the group growing quiet and listening in too.

“In case you had not already been alerted, Adept Windracer is once more aboard. The inquest into her conduct is complete and she has received her punishment but will continue to serve aboard the Fist for the time being. She’s to walk the line, otherwise she’ll be reassigned and her commission restarted. This is the only concession being given,” Elle explained, an amused twinkle in her eye.

“That doesn’t seem right,” Sasha protested from her seat, her own feline tail lashing behind her in annoyance. “She gets to come back and act like nothing happened and will only get punished if she’s caught?”

“Oh no, she’s being punished. Adept Windracer has been stripped of her seniority and received a penalty to her pay as a result. And restarting her commission means that she’ll be cycled back to the very beginning.” Elle’s wicked smirk got wider as she said that and Desmond tilted his head in confusion.

“Does that mean what I think it does?”

“That she’ll end up back on one of the academy ships and be forced to go through training again, yes.” Elle chuckled when she saw the surprised looks on everyone’s faces. “It’s extremely shameful to have to do, and also very obvious when it happens. And that’s only if she doesn’t do something dumb and gets sealed instead. We need all the adepts we can get, which is the reason she’s getting this one chance before serious punishments hit her.”

While Elle explained, the door opened to admit the third of the Radford triplets carrying a tray in her hands. Half the tray held steaming mugs while the other half were sealed up, and she trotted up quickly to the group.

“You lot didn’t cause any trouble while I was gone, did you?” Katya asked pointedly, sliding into a spot between her sisters to set the tray on the table in the middle of their little gathering. “I’m sorry if they did, Chief Powell.”

“No, nothing serious like that, Katya,” Elle said with a laugh. “I’m just here to inform Adept McLaughlin of Adept Windracer’s return.”

The explosive sigh of annoyance from Katya was not the response anyone had expected. Katya was the most responsible of her sisters and correspondingly she was also the most respectful. So when she grumbled quietly in the Latsu language, something that sounded like a cat gargling glass, it made those of her species present blink in surprise.

“What did she do to make you that upset already, sis?” Nadia asked, having claimed one of the sealed mugs and popped it open to take a drink that left a colorful smear on her upper lip like a blueberry milk-mustache.

“Oh, she was trying to hold court in the enlisted mess. No one was talking to her and even her own guards were getting irritated. I wouldn’t be surprised if she started smearing Des—I mean Adept McLaughlin here soon. Which I almost want to be there to see. The ship’s marines wouldn’t stand for that,” Katya said, her scowling shifting into a grin and snatching her own non-steaming mug and popping it open to get a drink herself.

“Really? Does she not realize that he’s basically been adopted by the entire enlisted corp of the ship? Those that aren’t angling to join Clan McLaughlin?” snickered Anya, rolling her eyes while her tail flicked in amusement.

“Regardless,” Elle interrupted before the conversation could derail further. “She is under observation and has been informed that if she is discovered to be harassing anyone aboard the ship, she’s off. So expect her to try and be more indirect if she’s causing trouble.”

“Got it,” Desmond said with a nod. “I assume it has to be more than just sneering at me to qualify?”

“Correct, McLaughlin. I’m informing all the other adept teams of the situation. Since you reported the initial issue, any further reports from you would require validation, to prevent accusations of harassment being aimed in your direction. But if Adepts Rowett or Tearclaw were to make a challenge for conduct unbecoming, that would be enough without further confirmation. The admiral made it very clear to Windracer that she’s on thin ice though.”

“Understood. I’ll be sure to take a recording of any interactions we have to be on the safe side. The last thing I need is for her to try and engineer something to discredit me just to try and get some of her own reputation back.”

“Smart,” Elle huffed a quiet laugh and nodded. “I shouldn’t expect anything less from you, though. Your girls will cover you, this was just a formality to inform you. Also, since she’s lost her seniority…”

Elle let the sentence trail off for a moment before Lila let out a bark of laughter.

“That means you outrank her now,” Lila said with a giggle. “Oh that is just going to chafe her like you wouldn’t believe!”

“Exactly. Even if you don’t antagonize her, the knowledge will drive her up a wall,” Elle agreed with a grin as the others all laughed in agreement.

“That’ll be interesting when we finally draw Rift duty with her,” Chloe murmured thoughtfully, taking a sip from one of the steaming mugs she’d claimed after handing the other to Desmond.

A quick glance inside the mug revealed the pale green liquid that was the Hegemony’s equivalent of coffee. It wasn’t as bitter as coffee back on Terra, and the ‘wake up’ chemical wasn’t really caffeine, but it was close enough to do the job for the majority of species in the Hegemony and not toxic. The fact that the drink was created via fermentation then dried into a powder was odd but Desmond wasn’t going to question it.

“Speaking of Rift duty, that is the second part of my message. The captain wanted me to warn you that, per the rotation, you will be up next when we detect a Rift and Windracer is going to be deployed alongside you. So do your best to not murder her in the Rift. The armor suits have far too much recording software to fully scrub out that information and not get caught,” Elle added dryly.

Desmond grimaced and took a drink of his beverage to give himself time to consider it while his girls groaned in annoyance. The hot beverage had a faint zing to it that reminded him of kombucha, but the flavor was close enough to coffee that it was easy to ignore that taste. Swallowing, he nodded after having come to a decision.

“Understood. Let the captain know that we will keep an eye on them but won’t push on them. If she lips off like she did before, I’m not going to hesitate to challenge her again, though.” Desmond’s statement cut through the murmured conversations of his companions and he felt Raegan’s arms tighten around his waist affectionately, so he patted her arm lightly.

The last time he’d challenged Windracer, it was after the woman had made some rather venomous accusations of the granite-skinned woman. Desmond had stepped in to put an end to it, and Raegan had blamed herself for him getting into the fight until he’d taken the time to roundly reassure her that it wasn’t her fault.

“That’s all we can ask of you, Adept McLaughlin. We are going to be on a different patrol this next pass, as there’s been an increase in pirate activity as well. The captain is already aware of your willingness to deploy to deal with them. I expect she might tap you to assist if we end up trying to capture one that we run across.”

“Got it. Anything else?” Desmond said, feeling a brief twinge in his gut that quickly resolved itself. He’d put his regrets behind himself about killing intelligent beings in regards to pirates some time ago. There was still that ache when he thought of it, but it wouldn’t make him hesitate if it came to it.

“Nope. I’m off to track down Adept Tearclaw next to bring her up to speed. I’ll let you all get back to what you were doing,” Elle said with a nod. “See you for dinner?”

“Yeah, we can eat in the officer’s mess tonight. I was due for an appearance there anyway,” Desmond replied in a more relaxed tone and got a smile from the Latsu woman who nodded to the others then turned to trot away.

It wasn’t until Elle had left the room that Nadia spoke up with a wicked grin on her face.

“I think the security chief has a thing for you, Desmond,” she said with a meaningful wiggle of her eyebrows.

“Don’t you all?” Desmond replied dryly before taking another sip of his drink while Nadia sputtered and Anya laughed at her.

“Well yeah, but some of us view you like a precocious little brother rather than a hunk of man-meat to get a bite of,” Katya said to cover for her triplet.

“Anyone trying to get a bite of me has to get through her first.” Desmond tipped his head towards Chloe, who grinned broadly over the lip of her mug, the overhead lights glinting on the wicked black horns that grew forward from her skull into two sharp points in front of her head.

“Fair. Anyway, let’s get back to the important stuff. We need to figure out which set you are going for so we can get the schematics and sizes. We’ll have to work them in around the other maintenance requests and the like for the nano-forge, so the sooner we can get started on printing the parts, the better,” Anya said once she had her laughter under control.

“Okay,” Sasha agreed readily, her pointed feline ears twitching. “I was thinking that we should go for a modular setup with strong sensors for each of us that can integrate with that new mana-sensor I designed. The Tal’renta Corporation has a model line…”