xx.xx.xx

That poor boy almost didn’t make it on Tier in his ‘feral’ form. I’m still blown away by the difference in his personality from the condition he was in when we first found him, or rather, how he found us, versus the Forza Ninetails I know. Our meeting was almost the end of his life. Or was it nearly the end of mine? It’s hard to say.

Life on Tier had been pretty quiet. Our job here was anything but legit, but the illegitimate functions had been slow. A select few of us, intelligence officers from the System’s Alliance, were tasked with monitoring the Sun Jin Empire’s activity in the area by posing as a neutral branch of a logistics and mercenary company, Asuya Company. It was one of many companies like it that littered the forest planet, waiting for work, and thus money, from whoever controlled the planet. For now it was the Sun Jin. They paid well to have their weapons restocked and cargo transferred to planetary storage for later pickup by proper transports, but for our outfit the real payoff was the intelligence we could gather from what kind of cargo they were carrying, where their ships were going, from where, etc.

I still remember being summoned to General Ukatan’s office. I’d never met the new special operations overseer. Not many had. He had only recently taken charge of all the secret military projects after the last overseer was assassinated by Sun Jin operatives.

“Tier’s a remote planet, out in the middle of nowhere. It’ll be a big change of scenery for you, Lieutenant Shiinx. Are you sure you’re ok with this position?” A rare feline Amber Krowen breed. White fur with gray spots, short in height, and white swept back hair. He finished a long gaze out the skyscraper office window and turned to look at me with a grin I just couldn’t trust. He had those eerie glowing ice blue eyes behind his glasses. “Last chance.”

With a small gulp I nodded my head. “Sir. Job needs to be done. I’ve been looking for an out of office vacation anyway.”

He laughed quietly and looked out the window again, arms folded behind his back just above his thick white and gray Amber Krowen tail’s base. “Your team’s being assembled. You’ll have time on the way there to familiarize yourself with the finer details of your position. You’ll be assuming command of the Asuya Co operation. Good luck.”

“Sir,” I saluted, turned, and left.

Now here I am, Tier. Seems like a lifetime ago, I thought as I knelt beside his bed stroking a finger through Forza’s sleeping hair, since I’ve been here. All the information we’ve been able to send back to Amber Krowe, ranging from the typical onboard diet of a Sun Jin officer to the schematics of new weapon systems, and yet the most important mystery and secret we’ve been unable to crack is the one inside Forza Ninetail’s head.

I sighed to myself, resting at the side of his bed, lowing my muzzle to the soft padding of the mattress he laid on, and watched him in the darkness. He stirred a lot. He was uncomfortable. I couldn’t get it out of him why. It wouldn’t be for weeks longer until he’d finally start talking more openly to me instead of crying in my arms every other day.

The ‘feral’ form I spoke of, our meeting, still makes me chuckle. It was a close brush with death and yet it’ll happily remain the day I met him to me. Much later down the line I would find out it wasn’t too dissimilar to when Forza investigated the crashed vessel and found Kiara. Instead I lead a team to find the source of a distress signal originating from a team sent out to repair damages to a weathered listening post in the mountains.

What the nine of us found were bodies. Three dead technicians, and two of my soldiers, slaughtered. They were ravaged. There was blood everywhere. Some of them with their insides on the outside. Of course, how safe are we to be here at night? Great planning, right… but I feared for their safety and waiting until day to mount a rescue would be too late.

Throughout our time there we kept hearing sounds that kept us on our toes. Rocks rattling, tree branches being bothered, twigs snapping, and so on. Our support was on the way to gather the bodies and damaged equipment but we still had to hold our ground in case whatever did this came back.

“What the fuck?” shouted one to himself standing just outside the small station’s main entrance.

“What is it,” I asked with my back to him trying to help clean up.

I heard him take a few steps away and then the simultaneous sound of his gunfire mixed with his shouting, then the gargling of his voice choking on blood. Of course we all readied our rifles and filed out of the compound. I was near the back of the group and only one of us could fit out of the door at a time. Death trap. Whoever it was knew we couldn’t all exit at once and waited until most of us were outside.

Everything was still pitch black besides where our rifles flashlights were pointing. The station was powerless and gave no illumination, of course, right? As the first person exited the doorway I saw a black wipe of something, a weapon I’m guessing, swooping down sideways along the top part of the opening, and the spray of blood from his head, another body on the floor. The dark figure landed on the dirt, and the weapon went through two more of my men. They fell over moaning in pain, bleeding.

By the time all of us got outside only four of us were still standing uninjured. I looked back and forth, weapons at the ready, trying to see where it was, but we saw nothing. An ambush was coming, again. It’s a very deep feeling when you fear for your life but you have to hold on and keep your eye on the target... once you find it that is.

I signaled to one of my men to assist the wounded and when I turned to look forward again I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head, but I hesitated in turning my body to draw down on it. I don’t know why I waited. Maybe I didn’t want to alarm it, or my men, and start another slaughter. With my body forward I instead kept my head turned to the side eyeing him. I could see him. It …

Before me was a dark figure on his hands and knees with his side to me holding a hand crafted spear in his hand. Like a cat, he looked like he was watching us, studying us, waiting to strike with his thick tail stretched outward stiff but with some loose sway in it. All I could see was the dark outline, his silhouette I could tell from the wide flat fins running down his spine, from his shoulders, and on his hips, that he was a typical build Amber Krowen. I could also tell he was naked. Don’t ask how. Why though? What’s up with all of that? What’s he doing out here like this? Why were those dimly illuminated red eyes staring at me? He knew I was looking right at him, right? He studied me, a few slow drips of blood leaving the tip of the crudely crafted spear.