Sure, Svetlana knew from experience that Kobaroic technology wasn’t always the smartest. She still hadn’t been fully ready to accept that Plynx’s spaceship could successfully slip in and land over an access port without issue until they did it. She let out a sigh of relief as they touched down.

Plynx headed over and opened the door of her ship, the small maintenance hatch sitting in front of them. O’tmyil (back to her usual size) headed over and slipped her hand into the control panel. A few moments later the hatch opened.

“Don’t go in yet,” O’tmyil said, her eyes still closed as she continued to interface with the control panel. “I still have to break into the deeper security systems. It may take a bit.”

“Uh, ok,” Svetlana said, as she watched Plynx gather up various weapons. 

The feline girl looked mildly manic, and Svetlana decided to stay behind her whenever possible while the two groups were together.

“I think I’ve got it,” O’tmyil said. “I can’t cover all of our tracks, but I’ve unleashed a packet to cause secondary chaos and throw them off our scent for what I couldn’t cover.”

“That seems fair,” Svetlana said, stepping over and taking O’tmyil’s hand. 

After a brief flash, Svetlana was in the safety of O’tmyil’s protection. Otherwise known as the part of the mission she felt confident about. Going around on the enemy ship unarmoured later was… not as comforting. It was necessary, though.

She let Plynx lead the way down the maintenance shaft. Vivian was behind her, while Thisbe covered the rear. Svetlana had to appreciate the size of the maintenance tube, it felt far roomier than she’d imagined when they’d first discussed the idea. Clearly there were advantages to sneaking aboard a ship for aliens who made Vivian look short. 

It wasn’t far until they reached their exit point. It was a secondary corridor that didn’t really lead to anything important. Except for a washroom. Even aliens had to go to the toilet sometimes.

Well, Kobaroians. Some types didn’t. Especially if you counted androids like O’tmyil as ‘aliens’ which Svetlana supposed did make some sense. She was fully self aware, so…

[Focus,] O’tmyil said softly into Svetlana’s mind.

“Sorry,” she whispered back. “We’re just staring at an empty corridor right now, it’s easy to—I, wait, since you know what I was thinking, what’s th—”

[Later,] O’tmyil cut in.

Svetlana blushed and nodded, going back to watching the corridor with Plynx.

After a few more minutes of waiting, she found herself appreciating the colour of the walls of the Kobaroic ship. It was a really nice shade of purple. Sort of lilac adja—movement.

A member of the royal guard hurried past their access point, heading into the washroom. Plynx slipped the grate off, before hurrying over to the bathroom, Svetlana following after her. 

The Kobaroian was using one of the stalls, and the pair moved to either side of the door. When the royal guard stepped out a few moments later, they sprang from behind. Plynx hit her with a shock pad, temporarily knocking out the Kobaroian woman.

Svetlana crouched down, pulling the alien’s cape up to get access to the central power unit on the back. She placed her hand on it and let O’tmyil override the programming. 

The suit hissed as it opened, and the pair began the awkward process of pulling the large alien woman out of the suit, Svetlana doing most of the heavy lifting. They shoved her back into the stall, Plynx placing a sleeping patch on her to keep her in place until they returned. The feline princess then closed the stall door from the inside, to lock it, before hopping up and scrambling over the top of the door to get out. 

Svetlana then hurried back to the hallway, making sure it was clear before calling Vivian and Thisbe over. They slipped back into the washroom, where Vivian stared at the bulky suit lying on the ground. 

“How do I get in?” she asked.

“Ah! I’ll get it upright for you,” Svetlana said.

It was easier said than done, though. The suit was rather floppy while empty. Still, she managed with a little help from Plynx and Thisbe. Vivian made a bit of a face, before slipping into the suit. The structure clamped up behind her automatically, before adjusting down to fit her.

“The open space for a tail feels so awkward,” Vivian said, moving around to get used to wearing the armour.

O’tmyil hopped off of Svetlana and transformed herself into an armoured Kobaroian as well. “Actually having a tail is strange as well.”

“Oh, yeah. I can imagine,” Vivian replied, as O’tmyil swung the tail slightly for emphasis (Svetlana backing up just to be safe).

“They are very perfectly normal to have,” Plynx muttered, crossing her arms.

“I suppose this is where we split up,” Thisbe said. “You three be safe.”

“Will do,” Svetlana replied. “And, a kiss for good luck for both you.”

She leaned in, kissing Thisbe first, then Plynx. They were quick kisses, but she could tell both girls appreciated receiving them as much as she liked giving them. She then hurried off to keep up with the longer legs of her other two girlfriends.

“You know,” she said as they made it a few metres down the hallway, “a girl could get used to being surrounded by such tall women.”

“If this plan fails you may have to,” O’tmyil whispered.

“There’s worse fates,” Svetlana replied with a shrug and a nod.

---

Queen Bokarza tapped on the armrest of the throne in her main work room. It had been six standard hours, and Fujikawa had been silent the whole time. The local Earthling government had also been rather quiet, at least recognising how outgunned they were and not bothering to move military assets anywhere close to the ship. The only thing the local government had really done was that annoying phone call where they insisted she needed to provide a French translation of her broadcast if she was going to cover all television bands in the region.

“I was hoping for a fight with the pretender,” she grumbled, slumping into a worse posture on her throne. It was a bit uncomfortable for her tail, but that fit her mood right now.

[With all the security alerts from the ship you should be at the ready, your majesty,] O’ktaubr chimed in her head.

“They’re malfunctions. It’s an old ship… everything in our country is old and starting to show it,” she grumbled. “Stupid Issiod’rians taking the main remaining military shipyards with them. And stupid Corporate Alliance for taking most of the others before that.”

[These malfunctions seem oddly frequent,] O’ktaubr countered, prompting Bokarza to roll her eyes.

“You’re paranoid… learn to relax a little,” she muttered as she sat up and flexed her tail out. “Hey, Officer Mak’rig. That open airlock was a false alarm too, right?”

“Yes your highness!” the woman barked, standing to attention to give her reply.

“See, O’ktaubr? It’s all false alarms. We’ll take the ship into the repair yard when we get back. It’s probably a side effect of the Earthlings broadcasting on weird frequencies or… something,” Bokarza said, waving her arm dismissively.

“Your highness!” another guard said, bursting into the room. “We’ve captured her!”

Bokarza blinked, taking a moment to process that, before hopping to her feet. “What do you mean? That quickly?”

“Apparently she tried to sneak onto the ship without the Imperial Armour,” the guard replied. “She is on her way.”

“Why would she… an Earthling without armour trying to pick a fight?” Bokarza muttered, confused. “Well, bring her in when she arrives!”

She tried to ignore how annoyed she was about not getting to have a fight. O’ktaubr, however, expressed his relief at not having to fight his big sister. He’d missed O’tmyil all these years and wanted a better reunion than that. Bokarza supposed she couldn’t hold that against him, as much as he annoyed her most of the time.

The door opened again, a human female with dark hair stepping in with two guards to either side of her. She was small in Bokarza’s view, but most races were. Fujikawa was about the height of a male Kobaroian, though, which she gathered was fairly exceptional for a female human. Bokarza couldn’t get a very good look at her, though. The prisoner had her head down and was wearing a cloak over most of her body. 

“Hello, Pretender,” Bokarza said, standing up. “I have to wonder what you were thinking, coming onboard without the Imperial Armour.”

“Some other aliens had been able to track O’tmyil’s signature,” the Earthling replied, keeping her head down. “I thought I could use the element of surprise.”

Bokarza marched over, looking down at the prisoner. “Well, that didn’t work out very well, now did it?”

“No… may I make one request while we talk?” Fujikawa asked, her head still down with her bangs covering much of her face from Bokarza’s view.

“I suppose you can ask. Not sure I will agree, though,” Bokarza replied.

“Would you lower your helmet so that we can properly talk face to face? It’s… it’s an Earthling thing, I guess.”

Bokarza raised an eyebrow, but complied, asking O’ktaubr to lower the helmet.

She then leaned in, putting her face directly in Fujikawa’s. “Here, how’s extra face to face for you?”

She grinned, trying to intimidate the Earthling who claimed the Imperial Throne.

“Even better!” Fujikawa replied, looking up and giving Bokarza a proper look at her face.

The Earthling woman was actually kind of—

*Thwong!*

---

The sledgehammer to the head had worked, knocking the alien queen over and out with one well placed swing. Svetlana was so glad the cloak smuggling idea had worked.

She didn’t have time to celebrate, though, having to turn and grab O’tmyil’s hand quickly. The android woman flashed with light, shifting into armour mode. They then moved forward, placing both hands onto Queen Bokarza’s shoulders. Svetlana felt the wave of stress as O’tmyil pushed to assert her rank over O’ktaubr. There was significant pushback, O’tmyil’s younger brother insisting he had backing from the Emergency Authority while O’tmyil was effectively rogue with an uncrowned claimant. 

“I’ll point out,” Svetlana hissed under her breath, “in Canadian law monarchs accede automatically. A coronation is just a formality.”

[I… that…] she felt O’ktaubr stumble. [Does that apply in this…]

The mental stumbling let O’tmyil push forward, putting her brother in a sleep mode.

That conflict dealt with, the pair turned to realise that poor Vivian had her hands very full with the two actual guards who had been present. Vivian had done more karate than Svetlana ever had, but it had been years since she’d faught anyone bigger than her. Also, the Koraboians were royal guards. They had combat training too.

Svetlana rushed forward, drawing her energy sword and stabbing into the power pack of the one guard’s armour. The alien woman stumbled forward, her armoud locking up. Svetlana then did a side step and a slight spin to point the blade at the chest of the other one.

“Be a good girl and surrender,” Svetlana said, even as the Kobaroian towered over her.

“I’m not so cowar—urf,” the woman replied, cut off by Vivian throwing the throne at her, knocking her flat.

A thrown throne.

The silliness of the phrase got to Svetlana and she began giggling. Vivian took a moment, before remembering who she was dealing with and letting out a groan.

---

Plynx and Thisbe popped followed the ventilation system into the brig of the ship. The ducts weren’t designed to be crawled through and would never have fit a Kobaroian or Vivian. Or even Svetlana. But Plynx had skills with wiggling and was quite able to slip through the tight turns.

And then Thisbe had turned into a bat, so had had more than enough space. (Also, in Plynx’s opinion, she looked adorable. Why were earthlings so frightened of such cute creatures?)

Plynx hopped out of the vents onto the ground of the brig with a smile as Thisbe fluttered to the ground beside her. To their surprise, Augusta had a Kobaroic tablet in her hands that she was currently yelling French profanities at, while the other prisoners were sleeping.

“What are you doing, Augusta-princess?” Plynx asked.

Augusta blinked and looked up at them. “I was trying to get this machine to properly pronounce the French translation of the hostage notice, but… I suspect that may be unneeded now.”

“Why were you translating it into French?” Thisbe asked.

“The Kobaroians apparently felt obligated to follow local broadcasting bilingualism laws,” Augusta replied. “And none of them knew French.”

“Kobaroians… just, Kobaroians,” Plynx muttered. “Well, we-two are here to rescue you-all. Just as soon as—”

Alarm lights burst out of the ceiling as a surprisingly pleasant, if loud, alarm sounded.

“—that. It should mean Svetlana-dearest’s part of the mission has succeeded,” Plynx replied.

Responding to the noise, Svetlana’s mother groaned for five more minutes, while Mr. Fujikawa simply continued to snore. Mynx sat up, hair a mess as the system blinked and looked around.

“Where am I… when am… who am… want sleep.”

“It would be good for you-sisters to figure those three questions out quickly. We will have company soon and must fight,” Plynx replied.