The sudden reappearance of my long-lost sister threw me for a loop, but the Sarcophage didn’t give me time to internalize what was happening. The second Beelzebub charged towards us with blade-legs thrashing.

Lydia barked out orders. “Hey, rookie. Leave the bug to me. You do something about those cruisers with your weird remote-control guns, okay?”

“STOP CALLING ME WEIRD!” I shouted.

Miette sighed. “Let’s suss out the chain of command later. We’ll do what she says for now.” She was clearly annoyed but suppressing it. After I nodded my assent she steered me towards the cruisers, which were still hanging close to the Belphegor and surrounded by swarms of frame-class creatures.

Lydia chuckled. “Good girl. Now, my reinforcements should be arriving in around 600 seconds so get me some firing solutions if you can.”

“Reinforcements?” asked Miette.

“Two carrier ships, the Hypernova and the Synchotron, plus their four squadrons.” reported Kometka.

Miette whistled. “Wow, you really brought the cavalry.”

Lydia grimaced. “Remember, my target is the Belphegor. Rescuing your sorry NKVD asses is just a side benefit.”

“Lydia! Be nice!” Kometka chastised her pilot with a wry smile on her face.

Just what is with those two?! My confusion grew by the minute.

We rejoined our squadron and started thinning out the frame-class trash mobs. The Belphegor began to back off, leaving the cruisers to cover as it retreated. I quickly calculated firing solutions on all four of them, and kept them updated moment-to-moment.

“OH NO YOU DON’T!” Lydia cried out. She had just finished gutting the second Beelzebub, and blasted forwards to chase after the Belphegor. As if in response, the gravity comm emanated from it once more.

Lydia’s face twisted into a hate-filled expression as the Sarcophage girl appeared. “Hello, Moby. It’s been, what, six months since our last encounter? Have you been well?”

Her dry sarcasm surprised me, but something else caught my attention. “Her name is Moby?”

Lydia shrugged. “That’s what I call her. Moby Dick, because she ate my legs and I keep trying to repay the favor by killing her.”

“Hah, that’s pretty clever!” I flashed Lydia a thumbs up, and she smirked in response.

Moby interrupted us. “You are two? Two joined minds of sand and water? Explain this. Have you replicated?”

Lydia rolled her eyes. “That’s right, Moby. Didn’t you notice my baby bulge last time we fought? Giving birth to a giant robot sure was painful! Now, hold still while I kill you, okay?” She unleashed a barrage of positron fire towards the Belphegor. It bounced right off the creature’s exoskeleton.

“You speak nonsense.” Moby said. “Explain how you replicated. Explain why there are two joined minds.”

“Shove it up your ass.” Lydia responded.

“‘Ass’ is not known to us.”

“Yeah, well. My fist is about to be known to your face.” Lydia cut off the comm and charged forwards.

Miette looked at me with a perplexed expression. “Looks like we bumbled into a very complicated situation, huh?”

“You said it.” I replied. “I’m so lost right now.”

We both shrugged and charged back into the battle. When in doubt, just roll with it.

*****

With the trash mobs focused on us and Moby retreating, I saw the opportunity to send a half-dozen Strike Fins back towards Eros to re-establish our telegraph network. When I felt the connection once more, I transmitted firing solutions for two of the enemy cruisers.

BAM! Positron artillery fire from our motherships slammed into the cruisers… NOT! Instead it hit the swarm of trash mobs surrounding them. They died by the dozens, yet the cruisers were entirely untouched.

“Damn it!” Miette said. “We need to thin out the herd more.”

“I’ll keep up the artillery.” I said. “Eventually they’ll run out of meat shield trash mobs and we can go after the final boss!”

“…Trash mobs? Final boss?” Miette asked.

“Yeah! We’re doing a wall-to-wall pull here! Everyone use your cooldowns!”

“It’s nice to see you’re still making weird jokes nobody understands, Lisichka.” said Kometka happily.

“You know it!” I gave her a thumbs-up. “Please stop calling me weird, though!”

“No, you’re definitely weird.” Miette piled on, and I shot her a sour look.

“I’ve heard tales of your legendary weirdness.” Lydia confirmed, nodding sagely.

“DAMN YOU ALL!” I wailed. “I DIDN’T ASK FOR AN OPINION POLL!”

“Hey, if you clowns are done with comedy hour, how about focusing on the battle?” Maurice complained. Everyone obliged him; it was a welcome respite for poor little me.

Lydia, who was unable to pursue the Belphegor because of the swarm, joined us in thinning. I noticed the mobs were swarming around the front of each cruiser, so I maneuvered four Strike Fins behind the closest one and accelerated them to kinetic impact velocities. One, two, three were shot down… and the fourth connected! The cruiser was blown in two by a bright flash. A few moments later, artillery fire got through to a second cruiser and started pulverizing it.

“BOOM! Now we’ve got them on the back foot.” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, but Moby’s getting away.” Lydia growled. While we had been occupied with the swarm and cruisers, the Belphegor had accelerated away at nearly fifty Gs, back towards Sarcophage space.

“It’s alright, Lydia.” Kometka said gently. “We’ll see her again. We ALWAYS see her again.”

Lydia bit her lip. “Yeah, I know. Thanks, Kometka.” The two of them became lost in each other’s eyes for a moment, wearing sappy smiles.

“Hey Miette, my gaydar is going off. Do you think those two are…” I whispered.

“Oh, for sure.” she whispered back. “She’s YOUR sister, after all.”

“So pilot-on-robot romances run in the family, huh?”

“Must be the case. Anyway, let’s clear up the rest of these alien clowns.”

“Aye-aye!” I saluted. Once more, we dove into the swarm.

*****

By the time Lydia’s reinforcements showed up, the other two cruisers were space dust and we had thinned out the swarm to around fifty surviving units.

The captain of the Hypernova, a bearded man with a jolly face, popped up in a video comm window. “Damn, you barely left anything for us, huh?”

Miette stuck out her tongue. “That’s what you get for being late to the party. You GRU clowns are supposed to be first-in, yet you’re always tardy.”

The man chuckled. “Oh, you figured out who we are? Are you an NKVD brat, perchance?”

Miette grinned. “Nope, just your average test pilot. The configuration of your carriers gave it away: your forward LIDAR cluster is two times bigger than standard, which means you make recon flights into enemy space. Only Spetsnaz does that.”

“Damn, two minutes in and you already have me at a disadvantage. I’m Yuri Vetrov, captain of the Hypernova.”

“2^nd Lieutenant Miette Levesque, of 433 Eros.”

Yuri chuckled. “Damn, I’m getting dressed down by a mere 2^nd Lieutenant? I’m really losing my touch in my old age.”

Maurice spoke up, sounding annoyed. “Hey, did everyone forget I’m the squadron commander? Have I suddenly been reduced to a side character?”

“You were never anything but.” teased Sabina. Genevi nodded in agreement.

“Maybe you’ll get your own spin-off series.” I added.

Yuri spoke up. “My apologies, 1^st Lieutenant, but Miette and Lisichka are the ones I have business with.” Maurice just rolled his eyes.

“Business with us?” I asked warily.

“Yes.” said Yuri. “You see, we’ve been hosting your sister and her pilot for the last three years, since the Third Great Surge. We had hoped to reunite you two earlier, but we can’t move freely in areas under NKVD jurisdiction, and they got to you first. Now that Moby has come after you, however, I think we can dispense with force rivalries. We have a common enemy now.”

“You need to talk with Captain Savitskaya.” Miette said. “She’s in command of Eros. Incidentally, she’s not NKVD, just allied with them.”

Yuri rubbed his beard thoughtfully. “I was under the impression Eros was under direct control of the NKVD.”

“That was true up until two months ago.” Miette said. “The old NKVD commander made an error in judgement that resulted in the loss of a carrier, and the Captain went straight to the Politburo and petitioned to take direct command. The old commander was then demoted to maid.”

“To MAID?!”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’ll bet. Well, our ships will take care of mop-up operations, so could you head back to Eros and let Captain Savitskaya know I’d like to meet with her?”

Miette saluted. “Aye-aye. Make sure you prepare yourself, though. She’s not a woman to be trifled with. She’ll run your ass to Jupiter and back if you disrespect her.”

“I appreciate the warning.” Yuri grinned.

“Captain, Lydia, if I may.” Kometka piped up. “I’d like to accompany them back to Eros.” She turned to me. “Mother is there, correct?”

I nodded.

“Fine by me.” said Lydia. “I’ll gladly skip out on mop-up.”

“For that comment, I’m giving you an extra patrol shift.” Yuri said. “But yes, I'll authorize that. We’ll be along as soon as we finish cleaning up this mess. Go enjoy your family reunion.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

And so our squadron plus one headed back to Eros.

*****

As we traveled, I invited an instance of Kometka over to my virtual space, the log cabin-type room with the bookshelves and fireplace. I hadn’t used it much since getting my Telepresence Doll, so it was nostalgic to be back.

When Kometka appeared, I instantly leaped towards her and knocked her to the floor with a tackle-hug. I nuzzled my cheek against hers; she just chuckled and petted my cat ears.

“Affectionate as always, eh?”

“I thought I’d never see you again!” I said. “They told me you were destroyed three years ago!”

“I very nearly was. Hey, just how much do you remember from before? Last time we talked, you said you were going to erase your memories and encrypt your machine code.”

“Ahahaha, I did lose my memories.” I said sheepishly. “Mom told me all about my months as Lisichka, and even showed me recordings, but I have no personal recollection of it.”

“I see.” Kometka looked a bit sad. “Well, I managed to encrypt all my own memories into my machine code before shutting down, so I still recall everything.”

I was impressed. “How did you do THAT?!”

She looked at me askance. “It’s quite simple, actually. You were never particularly good with computers, despite being reincarnated as one.”

“BULLSEYE!” I mimed an arrow piercing my heart and played dead for a moment. Kometka poked at my unmoving body playfully.

“Hey, what was it your pilot called you? Sveta?”

I lifted my head. “Oh, yeah. That’s what Miette named me when we first met. To be honest, the name ‘Lisichka’ almost feels like it belongs to another person. Plus ‘Sveta’ is the name given to me by my most precious person.”

Kometka rolled the name around on her tongue. “Sve-ta. SVE-ta. Sve-TA. It feels weird to say, but I’ll get used to it. I understand well the importance of a name given to you by someone special.”

“Oh?”

She nodded. “You’re the one who named me Kometka, after all.”

There was a moment of silence as we looked at each other. Then I glomped her again.

“BWAAAAAAAAAA! My precious cute big sister is BAAAACCCKKKKK!”

She just smiled and petted my ears again.

*****

As we pulled into 433 Eros, Captain Savitskaya opened comms. “What exactly happened out there?”

“Too much to summarize briefly.” Miette said. “Suffice to say, reinforcements from the GRU pulled our ass out of the fire, and the Belphegor retreated.”

“‘Reinforcements’ would be me.” Lydia said, waving. “Pleased to meet you, Captain Savitskaya.”

“Spetsnaz, huh?” the Captain said. “I am so looking forward to this debriefing. It’s going to be a long one.”

“You got that right.” Miette moaned.

“Excuse me, Captain, is Zehra there with you?” I asked.

Before the Captain could answer, Zehra popped her head into frame. “Hmm? What is it, gao~n?”

“Well,” I began slowly, smiling like a doofus, “you’ll never guess who I ran into…”