Looks like the Ieroquin won the last poll. That means we're getting a tall and athletic cat girl.

The Ullian spaceship lifted from its underwater dock and ascended.

Once it had cleared the water’s surface, it fully engaged its FTL drive and soon entered orbit above Ullia. 

It was larger than Luna, with its primitive FTL drive and fusion reactor taking up much of the space, but its main point of interest was its large cargo hold.

Once the cargo doors opened, the ship flushed tons of metal fragments into space using jets of compressed air, an automated x-ray laser satellite hidden inside.

Once the cargo bay emptied, the ship reentered Ullia’s atmosphere and slipped back into its underwater hiding place.

Ryan watched the cloud of metal fragments expand and mix with what was already there, making visibility in most spectrums of light just a bit more opaque than they already were. She wondered just how many trips this ship had taken to make the space above Ullia this bad. If it wasn’t for the warp bubble around Mk. I deflecting the material, it would have been torn to shreds with how much was there.

Anton scoffed as the ship disappeared from the Mk. I’s view, “How’s that thing flyin’? Even I can see how wacked out its warp field is, just from lookin’.”

Becky waved her hand in front of her face, “Yeah, I wouldn’t bet my life riding in it.”

Evan gave the two a look, “I for one am impressed. They have successfully reverse engineered faster than light technology in only a few short decades. I have nothing but praise for them.”

Charlotte nodded enthusiastically in agreement, “They are trapped and hiding but still built it. I… I would just hide and hope they went away.”

Ryan agreed with Evan and Charlotte, “Yeah, most of them died and they still got it built. I bet they’ve even got more or a better one they’re working on.”

Anton scratched the back of his head, “Yeah.” He turned to leave the mess hall, “I’m gonna get back to work.”

Ryan was particularly excited about Anton’s next project, “I did some work on it while you were watching, let me know how I did.”

Anton waved a hand, “Sure.”

Ryan jumped the Mk. I back to the Ullian headquarters, “I’ll let Vof and the others know we’re ready to start the plan. Just need to wait for the pill ships to warp in and look for the new laser.”

Charlotte pulled out the remote control that activated the Gateway, “Good luck!”

Becky turned towards where Anton had just left, “Wish he’d come too. I thought he’d want to do some training to make himself stronger.”

Evan shrugged, “I have no doubt he will come later. He probably wants to see his attack drones in action.”

Charlotte lowered her ears, “I…” She pushed the button and a Gateway opened, “Back in two hours. Good luck, Yan Yan.”

Ryan waved to her, “It’ll be fine. The station isn’t expecting us, and we’ve got three working attack drones now.”

Charlotte gave Ryan an uncertain smile, and stepped through the gateway.

Becky gave Ryan a smile too, “Yeah, good luck, Yan Yan.”

Evan gave Ryan a curt nod and stepped through.

Mayu picked up Saki’s cage and walked to the Gateway and gave Ryan a bow, “Be safe.”

Saki pouted as she saw Ryan, but stayed silent.

Aoi fluttered through behind Mayu, “Can we go outside? I’m sick of being inside!”

Sashae stepped next to Ryan and watched the Gateway close, “We’ll be okay?”

Ryan turned to Sashae, “No idea, but we have surprise, so…”

Sashae turned to the feed of the Dregasi station, “I think it will be fine.”

Ryan focused on the feed. She had been rotating cloaked attack drones in to watch the station. 

It had started building another pill ship to replace the one lost the day before and had already repaired the one that got damaged. If they were lucky, the X-ray laser would kill another one so they’d only have to deal with three ships, but the station was still the biggest concern.

As soon as the pill ships went into FTL, the attack began.

The three attack drones, and Luna appeared next to the station simultaneously.

They roughly knew where the reactor was, so concentrated their fire there.

Most of the station’s area was docking and assembly yards that were attached to a central hub, and it was the hub where they attacked.

Ryan successfully hit the same spot with all four particle beams on Luna, and two from the two particle beam drones. The single plasma shot from the plasma cannon drone entered the hole made by the earlier damage, doing unknown damage.

Just as the second salvo was ready, several turrets on the space station opened, revealing plasma cannons and missile silos. There was also a sudden strain on the FTL drives as the station engaged its anti FTL tech.

Ryan fired a second salvo at a different spot, and warped Luna and the drones in random directions. Luna’s two FTL drives easily overcame the anti-FTL field, but the drones barely had the power to do so.

It didn’t matter. As long as the drones could break light speed, the station couldn’t track them.

The station realized this and started saturating the space around it with shots of plasma, and missiles.

Now, FTL didn’t protect them from anything larger than dust, so she knew she could still take damage if she calculated a trajectory wrong and collided with the missiles or exited FTL in the path of a plasma ball.

Not that it mattered. The station was immobile and their weapons had extreme ranges that made it hard for the station to cover enough area to pose a real threat.

Their particle beams started to miss their targets just as the anti-FTL field disappeared. The station had deemed that it couldn’t slow them down, so it had focused on reducing damage? Even the plasma seemed to dissipate faster than expected just before impact.

It wasn’t stopping the damage, but it would make the station’s destruction take longer.

A bay opened on the bottom of the station, and a small ship emerged.

Sashae pointed at it, “A messenger probe! Stop it!”

Ryan moved the attack drones to block its path and fired on it.

The probe had no armor, so the beams and plasma easily tore through it.

Ryan got an idea and fired a salvo inside the station’s probe bay just before the doors to it finished closing.

The station stopped firing plasma, but continued to launch missiles, “How many missiles does that thing have?”

Sashae shook her head, “I don’t know, but if it’s plasma turrets stopped firing, it’s power must be low.”

Ryan thought the same thing, “Maybe it’s running on battery power or something now?”

Sashae shrugged and shook her head, “Maybe.”

Missiles started exploding, sending debris everywhere, probably in a last ditch attempt to prevent their movement, reduce visibility, or lower the effectiveness of the incoming weapon fire.

It didn’t end up making a difference as soon all activity on the station stopped and all that remained were a few navigation lights.

Ryan pulled Luna back, while moving the attack drones in, “Well, that was easy. I’m going to send the probes inside, just to make sure it’s really dead.”

Sashae nodded once in agreement, “Yes, it was easy, but the pill ships are what I’m worried about.”

Ryan felt the same, “They arrived at the ambush site, but they killed the laser before it could do a lot of damage. They’re looking around, but they’ll probably head back soon.”

Anton entered the mess hall, “That was pathetic. It didn’t even get close to hittin’ us.”

Ryan felt relieved more than anything, “I’m just glad we’re safe.”

It was strange, a part of her knew she should be disappointed at the ease of the battle, but now she felt more happiness at the fact that no one got hurt.

Anton shrugged, “Yeah, I guess.” He turned back to leave the room, “You sendin’ in the repair drones yet? Those pill ships are gonna come back any time.”

Ryan watched as the pill ships finished scouring the expanding cloud of new metal fragments, “Yeah, they’re making sure nothing else is hiding inside the fragment cloud, but they’re almost done.” She focused on the attack drones, “Hmm, there doesn’t seem to be any defense inside the station.” She brought up the video feed from the attack drones inside the station, “Pretty sure we got the reactor and anything bigger than a fridge in here.” She turned the attack drones towards the nearest way off the station, “Better get the drones outside.”

The inside of the station was filled with holes, as it appeared every particle beam pierced its armor and only stopped once it hit the armor on the other side, sometimes even punching through that.

Anton groaned, “I hope we didn’t hit the computer. I’m achin’ to hack into it.”

Ryan wasn’t surprised at Anton’s comment, “You know how to hack?”

Anton shrugged, “A little. We have to learn how to code to get our engineering degrees, so I dabbled in it a bit.” He grinned, “But it’s not me that’s gonna be doing the hard stuff. You’re the one with the supercomputer attached to your brain. I’ll give you some tips, but you get to figure out the rest. ‘Sides, I doubt they use the same code that we do, so we’re probably gonna have ta start from scratch.”

Ryan had thought about stealing the station’s computer before, and knew he’d probably have to work at hacking it, “It’s worth a try, I guess. Maybe the Ullians know how to do it? They’ve been researching the ships for a while.”

Anton raised a hand and shook his head vigorously, “If they get their hands on it, we might not get it back!”

The four pill ships entered FTL.

Ryan hid the attack drones in spots around the station and charged their weapons.

Anton’s face grew serious, “Alright, you got this, Yan Yan.”

Sashae clenched her fists and watched the video feeds closely.

The pill ships arrived moments later.

Ryan jumped Luna in, and fired with the drones at the nearest pill ship.

It appeared the ships were better armored than the station, and the particle beams didn’t pierce the armor of the ships as easily . 

One had taken some hull damage thanks to the laser, so Ryan targeted it after firing the opening salvo.

Ryan felt the telltale sign of an anti FTL field appear four times, but even combined they weren’t much stronger than the station’s.

Luna had no problem with this, but the power strain it put on the drones meant she only had a few shots left with them thanks to the power consumption red lining the FTL drives caused.

The pill ships open fire, just as Ryan’s third salvo tore through the damaged pill ship.

The damaged ship’s lights flickered and stopped tracking the drone it had targeted and the anti FTL field weakened. However, it still launched four missiles.

Ryan tsked, “They can still launch missiles even after taking out the reactor like the station.”

Sashae didn’t look away from the video feeds, “They only have four salvos of missiles, so that’s good.”

Anton looked at the power readings of the drones, “The anti FTL is worse. My babies’ll have ta run away at this rate.”

As Ryan turned to fire on the next target, she noticed the turrets on the probes retract and the anti FTL field disappear, “They’re gonna run!”

Ryan wasn’t worried. She’d been practicing with her own anti FTL field, which had made her realize why Luna had two FTL drives. One so Luna could still move, and the other for the anti FTL field. She had even found a way to project the field so it didn’t affect Luna. Still, she would need to move the attack drones out of the way because it would stop them too.

The pill ships began drifting as Luna’s vastly superior anti FTL field engulfed them.

The attack drones opened fire at the edge of Luna’s anti FTL field, and Ryan continued to jump freely around the pill ships.

The battle ended much like the one with the station. Luna or the drones hadn’t taken a single hit.

Ryan wiped some sweat off her brow, “Whew. Looks like four is easy, but if we have to fight more than that, things’ll probably get harder.”

Anton crossed his arms, “Then we’ll have to build more drones if we’re gonna attack these guy’s homeworld.”

Ryan leaned back in her chair and let her head fall backwards so she was looking at the ceiling, “Yeah. Don’t wanna go back there, but it’s our fault the Meatballs are there.”

Sashae finally turned away from the holograms, “I want to go back, too.”

Ryan warped the Mk. I back to the island chain that hid the Ullian command base, “Let’s finish up things here, maybe take a break while we build more drones. Those islands have some nice beaches and…”

A grin slowly appeared on Anton’s face, “Can ya make a skimpy bikini for Charlotte to wear? She’s got some nice…”

Ryan threw an empty cup someone had left on the table at Anton, hitting him in the stomach, “No trip for you!”

Anton looked hurt, “And let Evan have you guys as a harem to himself? I’ll be a good Klingon. Promise.”

Ryan shook her head after sitting back up properly and gave Anton a wry grin, “I’m surprised you even want to go.”

Anton shrugged, “If it’s just us there, I’m fine.”

Ryan got a transmission from the Ullian base, “Ryan, can you hear me?”

It was Vof’s voice.

Ryan turned away from Anton, who also stopped to listen, “Yes. We disabled the station and the pill ships. It should be safe for you guys to stop hiding now. If anything else comes, we’ll stop it.”

Ryan could hear cheering in the background as Vof replied, “Excellent news. We shall start preparing to clear the debris in orbit.”

Ryan wondered why that was their priority, “Why clean the debris?”

There was a pause, then Pall came on, “There is something we must discuss.”

Ryan had warning bells ringing in her mind, “Okay…”

There was another pause, “The Dregasi used nuclear devices encased with cobalt. The bombs turned the cobalt extremely radioactive and made most of the land on every continent uninhabitable. It will take another generation or two before it is safe for us to live on the surface.”

Anton swore, “... aliens used salted bombs.”

Ryan turned to Anton, “A salted bomb?”

Anton nodded and looked disgusted, “If you put cobalt in a nuclear bomb, the explosion makes it super radioactive for a long time and it spreads as fallout, so it gets everywhere.”

Ryan clenched her fists, “So they had a nuclear winter AND were irradiated!?”

Anton nodded again, “Yep…” He thought for a moment, “We should use the repair drones to help ‘em build an O’Neill cylinder.”

Ryan was going to ask what an O’Neill cylinder was.

Anton spoke before she could ask, “It’s a cylinder in space that rotates and people can live on the inside on the walls.”

Ryan vaguely remembered seeing stuff like that in sci fi, “Ah, okay.”

Sashae smiled warmly at Anton, “Thank you.”

Ryan opened the comms back up, “We’ll help you build a habitat. We can also help you mine metal or whatever.”

Vof replied, “Your offer is appreciated, but we would like to confirm ourselves that the Dregasi presence in our system is indeed gone. We would like to rebuild our society with our own ingenuity instead of relying on outsiders.”

Oln spoke, “As do we. As much as your help would speed things up, we want our ancestors to look back with pride at building our societies back from near destruction. We could have also saved ourselves given time, but we know to accept help when we truly need it.”

Pall spoke next, “We have everything we need, too, but your offer is appreciated.”

Ryan didn’t mind their rejection of help, “Alright. We’ll spend time preparing to clear out this galaxy of Dregasi probes and find our way home.”

Oln chuckled, “A waste of time. This galaxy has billions of stars.”

Ryan had similar thoughts, “Yeah, but I can at least clear out the nearby systems so it takes longer for the Dregasi to come back.”

Vof spoke, “That is acceptable, but in time we hope to reach the point we can clear them out ourselves. The probes do not advance their technology from what we have seen, so it is a matter of time before we surpass them.”

Ryan thought about how they’d already reverse engineered the FTL tech, “Okay. Fair enough.” She remembered something, “Oh, Pall. Mayu wanted to know if we could take a look at your farming technology. This ship isn’t exactly designed for comfort and she wants to repurpose an empty room into a farm.”

Pall replied immediately, “I would be honored to as thanks for your help. I will notify my people of your request and will contact you when we are ready. Let us know if there is anything else we can do for you.”

Vof spoke once Pall finished speaking, “With the threat of the Dregasi gone, I will be heading back to my people, so I will be unavailable for the foreseeable future.”

Oln added much the same, “As will I. There is much to be done with the alien threat gone.”

Pall spoke last, “I will be leaving too, but I will see you when you come to my peoples’ refuge.”

Ryan wondered why they were splitting up, but thought it better not to ask about it yet, “Okay. I’ll be here if you need anything.”

Vof spoke last, “Understood. Ullia Command out.”

The transmission cut off.

Ryan sighed, “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to diplomacy.”

Sashae’s expression showed she was more than happy to let Ryan do it, “You are good, I think.”

Ryan sighed again, “Thanks, I guess.” She focused on the repair drones, “Alright, I’m gonna gut this station and see what we can get from it.”

Sashae stood up from the chair she sat in, “I will go practice some music.”

Ryan turned to Sashae, “Can you do it in here? I need some help relaxing.”

Sashae smiled briefly and gave a curt nod, “Okay.”

Sashae left the mess hall.

Anton scratched the back of his head, “I’m gonna head back to the fabrication room.”

Anton left.

Ryan leaned back and wondered if they should have left the station for Ullia, but they hadn’t asked for it, and if there was anything on there that could give them an advantage when fighting them in the future, she wanted to find it.

Drones got nothing on a fully repaired Luna. The fight with the Dregasi space station in their home system is gonna be where its really at.

This week's poll is gonna be different. You have three votes, one for three different categories, hair color, eye color, and tail fur length. Ties will also play an important role, such as two patterned hair colors/calico, heterochromatic eyes, or tail hair length being medium. Now, you can choose to not vote in one category and vote for two choices in another to create a tie. Hair color has no limits on ties, but eye color will max out at two for obvious reasons. In case of a three way tie on eye color, I'll break the tie.

Thanks for reading!