MGIS 5 - Gathering Strength - Chapter 1

Previously

After finishing his required training aboard the academy ship Valor’s Bid, Desmond McLaughlin exited with a bang. Graduating early due to accumulated commendations for excelling in the line of duty on various fronts, there wasn’t really any reason to keep him at the academy other than to give him more time on the combat range. And it was entirely possible that the vice-admiral wanted him gone to prevent Desmond from digging up another bit of chaos as well.

Choosing a posting aboard the battlecruiser Fist of Defiance, Desmond and the rest of his newly formed clan shipped out onto their first official posting as an adept and his team of guards amongst the Seventh Border Fleet, which patrolled the border between the Hegemony and the EVN, or Empire of Viridian Nebulae. But not before Desmond received a message from the Hegemony ambassador on Terra-Sol 3, mentioning that she hoped he might consider transferring back home to help her manage the various human governments and their integration to the Hegemony.

With their usual ease, Clan McLaughlin was able to make themselves comfortable amongst the crew by befriending a great number of the regular soldiers in the ship's complement of marines. Learning from past mistakes, they worked to befriend the officer corps too, but as is inevitable, you cannot please everyone.

Tara Windracer, an Uth’ra who is a rather harsh adherent to an Uth’ra political faction that believe men have no place in war due to their smaller numbers in the galaxy at large and instead belong in the home, stirred up trouble by herself and also through her guards, who also follow the same faction. This caused a fight to break out when Chloe challenged one of them to an honor duel for her insults. This resulted in Chloe roundly showing why she was the head female of Clan McLaughlin.

Other than Windracer, the other adepts aboard the Fist of Defiance began to make friends with the strange human man, and the crew grew to love him as he helped to introduce (and reintroduce in some cases) another form of distraction to keep bored marines from setting things on fire to amuse themselves.

Tabletop role-playing games.

With his popularity cemented amongst the crew and allies in the command staff—and counting the captain amongst those allies—Desmond thought that things would be easy going for now. But he was wrong.

Discovery of oddities during a Rift suppression led to further digging and finally discovery of something that should not have been there, in the form of a symbol etched into the wall of a Rift. A set of feminine lips pierced through with a pair of spears.

This left Desmond and his clan to assume the worst, that someone was coming along and messing with the Rifts just like the terrorist group that he’d faced only months before.

Many things came to a head during their first official leave rotation where, while touring the space station they were docked at with one of their many new friends, Belladonna ‘Bell’ Razorwing, they stumbled across those same symbols painted on walls and hidden amongst gang signs.

Attempts to be subtle and observe were ruined by spotting suspicious actions and having to step in when they saw someone bearing the same symbol. When their target detonated a bomb to try and buy herself time to escape, Desmond and his girls redoubled their effort and took down the suspicious person, who was able to dispose of the package she’d been carrying by dumping it into the station septic systems.

Recalled to the Fist of Defiance for his own safety, Desmond and the clan were forced to wait while the station questioned the suspect they had captured. Shortly before they were to ship back out and return to patrol, word came down to them from Captain Skytreader about what had happened.

Their one lead, the captive that had been in the hands of station security, was found dead in her cell that morning.

Now, with no further leads and far too many questions, Desmond and his girls are stuck trying to figure out what is going on while waiting for the reports they’ve made to work their way up the chain of command to someone who can act.

Chapter 1

I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear the bullshit games that were being played back on Terra. I’d lived there for most of my life and should have expected them to be doing the same shit with a different coat of paint.

It still disgusted me to see elected officials doing their best to hide the fact that we had allies amongst the stars simply because they were afraid that their tax base would leave the planet. And that was just one part of it.

I shudder to think what would have happened if Terra was actually discovered in another sector of space where one of the less-respectful galactic empires existed.

~Desmond McLaughlin, on the development of Terra-Sol-3.

After the revelation that their only lead was now dead, Desmond and his girls had returned to their room and set about planning what they would be doing next.

They all agreed that there wasn’t much of anything they could do, given the limited authority of a ship-bound adept and his team. But if someone could infiltrate the security cells to assassinate a witness, then they needed to be doubly careful even on board ship.

This resulted in his girls forming an even tighter cordon around Desmond, which was more amusing than anything else, given that they’d been so rabidly against taking shifts or breaks before. He’d wondered how much tighter they could make their guard duty on him without just stuffing him inside their clothes.

That was actually a suggestion from Raegan, but had been shot down by Chloe almost immediately as that would be more like using Desmond as armor than protecting him.

Instead, his girls insisted on spending more time in their rooms and limiting their travels about the ship. While all four of them carried their sidearms at all times, each of the girls also requested and received approval to check out simple batons from the ship’s armory. Desmond knew that each of his girls also had knives hidden in various places around their bodies, but never called them out on it. They were his guards, and they took their duty seriously.

The Fist of Defiance departed the station while they were plotting and deciding what to do next, and Desmond was just annoyed that his girls and he had not gotten the opportunity to get fitted for better armor.

While their old suits were holding up okay, Desmond had finally gotten the funds together to be able to properly equip his girls with new armor, rather than refurbished suits. While they’d done what they could to upgrade them by replacing the older plates with better versions of more resilient alloys, Desmond wanted cutting edge for his girls, or at least cutting edge as far as they could afford at this point.

It would take them three days to meet back up with the rest of the Seventh Border Fleet, and Desmond was wondering about that now. His previous altercation with Tara Windracer had ended with the other adept being arrested and a formal investigation launched into her conduct as a result of what amounted to ‘trial by combat’ that he’d fought her in. The captain had already informed him that they’d be receiving the official report on what happened in person with the Admiral once they rejoined the fleet.

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Trying to distract himself, Desmond was tapping away on his data tablet and planning the next part of their Gloomtreader game that he was running for the girls. It was something to focus on that he hoped wouldn’t continually remind him of the mountain of things they needed to get done.

Okay, if they are able to make the checks to get the information off the downed drone, they’ll get a lead to the supplier. That supplier is an arms and weapons dealer who supplies the mercenary companies. But how to make them interesting? Desmond picked at his lip while he stared at his notes, the overhead lights glinting off his tablet’s screen while soft humming echoed from behind him.

A bit of movement jostled his head and he tilted his head back to glance in the direction of the movement. A soft something slapped the top of his head a moment later and he reached up with his free hand to catch the object that had assaulted him. He then gently pulled the blue-and-black-striped appendage around so he could inspect it.

Sasha eep’d when he got hold of her tail, her muscled buttocks bouncing as she tensed and sent his head jostling back and forth as they were currently serving as his pillow. She was laid out on the floor of the common room on her stomach, fiddling with something intricate and laying parts out around her while she worked.

When Desmond tugged lightly on Sasha’s tail a second time, she let out a low moan of surprise and tilted her head to peer over her shoulder with her yellow, slitted eyes at him.

“You hit me,” Desmond teased, giving the appendage another light tug and making his butt-pillow bounce in response.

“Sorry, Chief. It’s got a mind of its own, though. You know that,” Sasha purred back to him, a slight blush gracing her dark green cheeks as Desmond stroked her tail. Indeed, the fuzzy appendage twined around his hand and wrist like an affectionate snake now that it had the opportunity.

“Not the only bit of her anatomy that has a mind of its own,” Raegan teased from her spot sprawled across the conversation pit couch with her head in Desmond’s lap. Raegan’s fluffy mane was draped over Desmond’s lap, shining in the overhead lights from the attention he’d just lavished on his granite-skinned lover while she worked on her own tablet, playing with formula equations on her own projects.

“Like you can point fingers, I swear yours is going to learn how to talk just so it can beg him for more,” Sasha prodded back, the normally shy Hyreh-Taari woman happy to fire back at Raegan as they were both very comfortable with each other.

“That would be bizarre as hell,” Raegan muttered thoughtfully. “Pretty sure it’d freak the Little Boss out if my snatch suddenly started talking. Might be kinda hot to hear it choke—” Raegan broke off with a belly laugh when Sasha swatted at her playfully.

“Yes, it would be rather disturbing to have parts of your anatomy talk that shouldn’t be able to. Sounds like some kind of horror vid. I’d watch it, but there’s a difference between vids and real life,” Lila commented from her spot on the other side of the conversation pit.

The Va’Aelfa was doing what she usually did when relaxing while wearing clothes, she was inspecting her gear. The parts of her new pistol lay on a soft cloth next to her and Lila was going through assembly drills, breaking the weapon down and putting it back together again.

“I dunno, sounds kinda romantic to me,” Raegan added, this time shifting out of the way when Sasha swatted at her once more.

“You would think that,” Desmond laughed, booping the tip of Raegan’s nose and causing the red-orange eyes of his lover to cross as she stared at his fingertips. “Just don’t go wasting money on a prank to do it. It’d only be funny once and that’s just not worth the credits.”

“What if I slipped the device to someone else? Would be pretty funny to see one of the Radford’s turning in circles trying to figure out where the tiny voice demanding to get laid is coming from,” Raegan suggested, mentioning the triplet Latsu that worked in the ship’s Armory.

There was a silent pause for several heartbeats before Sasha and Lila both snickered. The three of them went on to describe various reactions to the prank, but Desmond went back to studying his campaign notes. But the reminder of their trio of friends from the Armory lingered in his mind and kept reminding him of their failing to get armor upgrades.

Would try to order some, but I want to have it custom fitted… Desmond trailed off at the thought and then sighed, whacking himself in the forehead with his tablet.

The motion was so unexpected that his girls stopped their chatting and turned their collective attention to Desmond curiously. Raegan even reached up to cup his cheek, her brows furrowing in concern.

“Des? Everything okay?” Sasha asked, her tail unwrapping from his arm to instead wrap around his head just above his eyebrows like a fuzzy headband, the mobile appendage seemingly concerned for him too.

“I’m just an idiot,” Desmond sighed, powering off the tablet with his thumb before tossing it aside.

“Well yeah, but you are a cute idiot,” Raegan teased, then yelped when Desmond tweaked her left nipple through the tight tank top that she was wearing currently.

“I don’t want to hear that from Miss I-ate-three-crayons,” Desmond teased back, gently rubbing her nipple to soothe it after his assault. Raegan grumbled verbally but wiggled her shoulders to rub her boob against his fingers playfully while her eyes twinkled with their inner fire.

“What were you being an idiot about, Desmond?” Lila asked, her hands moving in a blur as she locked together her pistol once more and cycled it on. The laser pistol lit up and gave a quiet chime declaring it ready for duty half a second later.

“Oh, I’ve been lambasting myself for not getting you girls’ armor taken care of before we got banned from the station—” Desmond began to explain.

“That wasn’t your fault and you know it, so knock it off,” Sasha interrupted and flicked the back of Desmond’s head lightly with one finger while her tail slid down to wrap around his neck gently.

“I know that,” Desmond countered, running his knuckles across the fuzzy strand at his throat and getting a happy purr from Sasha. “But the point still stands, I was grumbling to myself about it and how we couldn’t just order the gear to have it shipped out to the fleet while we are on patrol because we still need to be fitted.”

“The downside of the heavily customized gear that we use. Part of why we have to maintain it ourselves and not just rely on… the…” Lila trailed off and then swore in a musical language that Desmond didn’t recognize.

“What?” Raegan demanded, twisting to look at the purple-blue skinned Aelfa who was grimacing even now.

“We could just have the Armory team take the measurements. They have our current suits schematics for milling replacement parts with the nano-forges. We can use those to shop with and place an order. It’ll cost extra to have it delivered to the fleet, but personally I’d rather pay out a bit extra rather than any of us getting hurt because we waited,” Desmond answered and Raegan’s confusion softened into a loving smile.

“Fair. When Chloe gets back, let's head over to the Armory and see if one of the Radford girls can get our measurements done up. If they can, we can start looking into what it would cost to place a special order. I know that the ships resupply when they go into port, but can’t hurt to see if a supply ship comes out to us or maybe to the Vigilant Titan and we can possibly have it included in that.”

Raegan’s suggestion got nods of agreement all around, and barely a minute or two later, the door to their cramped adept suite slid to one side, allowing Chloe to enter.

“Des, the captain wants us on the bridge. I ran into one of the staffers on my way back from the bathroom and she passed the message along for me to give to you,” the horned woman said, brushing her short mop of blond curls back out of her green eyes and giving Desmond a smile. “I hate to disturb you when you are so comfortable. Though it’s not that bad, since Raegan is face up and you still have your pants on.”

Raegan flipped her clan-sister off with a grin before rolling upright and stretching. The motion elicited a series of pops from the granite-gray woman’s back as she did so, and the others got to their feet and secured their things. While they might be on good terms and allies with Captain Skytreader, that was no reason to make the intimidating woman wait.

Sidearms were checked and holstered, with Lila and Sasha carrying their weapons at their belts while Chloe had a drop-leg holster and Raegan’s was tucked into an underarm one. All four carried their batons in their belts as well.

A quick once over to make sure uniforms were straight—and Desmond helping Raegan get her hair into the normal poofy ponytail she wore it in—and they clomped out the door with Lila in the lead to head towards the bridge of the Fist of Defiance.

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Like every other ship of the Hegemony that Desmond had been aboard, save the Valor’s Bid, the Fist of Defiance was built around a central, armored spine that supported the rest of the ship and served as the primary corridor for getting from sector to sector. It was wide enough for four to walk abreast if they wanted to, but Desmond and his team kept to one side to allow others to pass through. There were thousands of soldiers and crew aboard the Fist of Defiance and Desmond didn’t want to get in anyone's way while they were moving from station to station.

The walk to the helm was quick, which was amusingly enough closer to the rear of the ship than the front despite the name due to the Hegemony’s penchant for armoring the engines and reactor the most on their ships. It wasn’t the first time that Desmond had been summoned there to speak with Captain Skytreader, and it had been less than a day since his last visit when the captain had advised him of the fate of the woman they’d captured for interrogation regarding the mystery organization.

Arranged in a wide half-circle and layered, the helm held workstations for all of the different crewmembers and most of them were manned at the time. The room had the utilitarian look that Desmond had gotten used to seeing in the majority of ships he’d been assigned too, but it was well kept and had subtle decorations on the edges of stations and along the floor to keep the room from feeling too stark and clinical.

The pilot sat within the unidirectional-treadmill slash hamster-ball that made up their station, with the raised seat behind them for the Transport adept. Even that seat was occupied currently, with the Transport adept surrounded by four guards and blocked from view.

Desmond noted that all four guards for the Transport adept were Hyreh, so he guessed that the adept must also be a Hyreh.

Still haven’t met them officially. Need to do that, Desmond thought as he scanned the room for the captain to find Bree Skytreader seated upon the command throne at the back of the room, tapping away at a console that folded up into her lap.

“Adept McLaughlin? You and your team can head into the captain’s ready-room, she’ll be with you in a moment.” The slightly squeaky voice pulled his attention back to their front and he met eyes with the Boghet comms officer with a smile.

“Understood. Thank you, I didn’t want to interrupt her if she was occupied.” he replied.

Without needing direction, Lila turned and strode across to one of the doors set into the near wall before turning to put her back to it and waiting for the rest of the group. The other four followed her in formation, their steps crisp and in sync.

Desmond noted that more than a few of the helm officers turned to look in their direction both at the sound of the footsteps as well as when the Boghet had addressed them, he nodded in acknowledgement to those that caught his eye but focused on keeping himself in pace.

With Chloe on his left and Raegan on his right, he felt like he was sandwiched between a pair of busty, moving walls. Sasha prowled along at his rear. With the Hyreh-Taari back there, Desmond had no concerns about his back being to the room as he reached up and tapped the entry pad with the polished silver comm-cuff that wrapped around his left forearm.

The panel lit up and the door drew back into the wall with a nearly inaudible hiss, allowing them inside. As soon as the door opened, Lila spun around and preceded the group into the room as the point of their formation.

Like the helm, the captain’s ready-room was spartan, but elegant. There were trophies and art hanging on the walls as well as comfortable looking couches and chairs scattered in the front half ahead of the desk that the captain normally worked at.

Before the group could do more than step in the direction of the seats, the door opened behind them and Captain Skytreader entered with a sigh.

“Sit,” the gruff Uth’ra woman ordered when the group turned to salute her. “I’m not in the mood for the rank games. Just… sit. I am going to be asking a rather large favor of you, McLaughlin, so get comfortable.

“Yes, Captain,” Desmond answered sharply and turned to the section of seats.

Choosing a couch that looked wide enough for him, Chloe, and Raegan; Desmond plopped down in the middle of said couch, to be followed by his two largest guards. Sasha and Lila remained standing, moving to stand behind the couch matching Raegan and Chloe to keep watch while the other two sat and did the same.

Captain Skytreader raised an eyebrow at this and then glanced towards Desmond, who shrugged.

“After the events on the station, my girls have gotten a bit more serious. They usually take turns like this.”

“Good that they are looking after you. What I called you here today to discuss is actually not related to those events, but being diligent is something to be respected and your girls are wise to keep close at hand to him. There are two things I need to discuss today though, so forgive me if we get moving on them.” The thin scars that marked the captain’s cheeks flexed as she ground her teeth in apparent irritation, but Desmond waited patiently for her to begin.

“First off, the Fist is being directed back towards the border with the EVN as we speak. There we will meet the ambassador’s ship as they return from the EVN and escort them safely away from the border. It will add an additional two days until we link back up with the Seventh, but the show of force is necessary. Word was sent ahead on the secure lines that the ambassador was specifically requesting to meet up with the Fist if at all possible.”

“That… is not normal,” Lila murmured, taking advantage of the captain already having dismissed propriety.

Skytreader nodded in agreement, making her short, black mane of curls bounce as she did so.

“Very. The only thing I can think of is that they have some business with someone aboard my ship. And as you are the newest addition of any note to my ship, expect to have the ambassador request to speak with you. Why or what she will want, I have no idea. This is likely the side-effects of you causing waves with your early promotion though, so no complaining.”

“Understood, Captain. Considering the interest that Ambassador Steelbender has already expressed in me, I’m not entirely surprised. Just that it is someone who is coming back from the EVN. They are one of our ambassadors, right? Not a foreign national wanting to meet with me for some reason?” Desmond asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited.

“No, Ambassador Rockchewer is a Hegemony native. She has spent the last year in the embassy to the EVN and is returning to report to the Empress. It’s likely that she just wants to meet the Sire of the rising star amongst the Uth’ra clans,” Skytreader answered with a sigh, rubbing at her face with one hand. “She is loyal, as much as any politician can be. You aren’t obligated to meet with her if she asks, but I wanted to make you aware of the possibility.”

“We appreciate that, Captain. It lets us plan for the situation and what might occur. Is something like this normal, though?” Chloe asked, shifting slightly on the couch and Desmond could tell from how her arm flexed that she’d had to stuff down the urge to wrap her arm around his shoulders like she normally did while they were sitting like this.

“As much as anything around adepts is normal,” grumbled the captain. “There are so many exceptions to the rule that we have out here regarding you lot that it’s hard sometimes to figure out what fits where.

“For all I know, Rockchewer is just wanting to meet with you because of your reputation, or because she knew that we’d be the closest to the border so she didn’t have to wait as long. I just wanted to make you aware since you are the closest thing to a VIP on board. And also why I had you report in person to explain this verbally rather than send a message. No records.”

“I’m honored, Captain,” Desmond said dryly, getting a low laugh out of the Uth’ra commanding officer.

“You should be. The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is less pleasant though.” Skytreader sighed, smoothing her fluffy hair back with one hand before it promptly sprang back upright with the traditional Uth’ra persistence that the dense, wiry hair had.

“Just throw it out there, Captain,” Raegan said after the silence carried on for another few seconds into the awkward territory.

Sighing, Captain Skytreader did just that.

“Once we rejoin the Seventh, Adept Windracer will be transferring back aboard the ship.”

The words hung in the air like a raised weapon, with all those present waiting to see how they’d be received. Desmond felt Raegan tense next to him and gave her thigh a squeeze to reassure her, and the big woman relaxed slightly under his touch.

“I assume that the admiral’s inquiry into her actions is complete then? If she’s being sent back here, then there wasn’t enough to see her dismissed?” Desmond said, keeping his tone even.

Windracer had done her best to provoke Desmond into a series of violent reactions—why he wasn’t entirely sure—but they had instead blown up in her face when he’d called her out in an official fashion rather than play her little back-room verbal sparring match.

“I don’t have the complete report, since that will be transmitted when we link back up with the Seventh, but I have been informed that she will remain a part of the crew for the time being. The Hegemony does not dismiss its adepts lightly, as dismissal requires the sealing of their dynamo and stripping them of their abilities.”

All four of Desmond’s girls hissed in surprise, but he didn’t react. Desmond had done the research on what to expect if Windracer was actually kicked out, court-martialed, or whatever it was that they decided to call throwing her out the door that didn’t involve said door also being an airlock.

“Understood. I will not cause disturbances, but I will end them if one finds me,” Desmond said simply and got a nod from the captain.

“That is all I can ask. Since she will be assigned back to the ship, then it is likely you will be deployed with her into a Rift in the near future due to how the rotations will go. Be professional and do your duty. Don’t give her any reason to claim you were stepping outside your authority if she decides to play a new kind of game.”

Desmond nodded his understanding and the captain returned it.

“You’ve been a credit to my ship thus far, so I look forward to you doing more to add to the Fist’s reputation. You are dismissed, McLaughlin.”

“Captain,” Desmond said, rising to his feet smoothly and offering her a proper salute, which drew a half-scowl out of her as she waved her hand to urge him and the girls out the door.