Salib-76T, an A-Sequence star in the tertiary arm of the Ravlanta Galaxy three armed spiral galaxy. Fifteen galaxies removed from the Adversus Galaxy that was home to Solakku the Avali home system. Or Uresk or Arlong, Sabbatak, Knoltar; it really depended on which dialect of the Avali language you were using as to which name you used. Most importantly however, the new system the Odyssey was off to survey was millions of galactic standard lightyears from the gas giant Valaya and the Avali homeworld of Avalon.

Of course by conventional warp travel the Ravlanta Galaxy would have taken about three years to reach by conventional warp. However the Ravlanta galaxy was only four weeks' warp travel from the Yaelan Galaxy, a small loop galaxy that was the home of a Fold-way Gate run by the ancient, elder civilisation known as the Kasvane. The gates were a marvel of technology so advanced most races, even the technologically adept Avali could not really understand how they worked.

But the Kasvane built these gates in certain systems, linking together clusters of smaller galaxies. Allowing them to trade with one another and helping to shorten travel times significantly. By conventional means Salib-76T would not have been economically viable for Avalon. But with that three year transport cost cut to a matter of weeks thanks to the gate network the Illuminate could run the risk investigating the unexplored system in this relatively uncharted backwater and if they found useful materials to extract it was only weeks away from home rather than years.

The Odyssey had been assigned to run the initial survey as the Yaelan gate cluster as it was known was also within five weeks of the bunny homeworld. So after the survey they could proceed to their next destination without having to travel for months.

The white main sequence star was pretty mundane all things considered. It was larger than a G or K type star where you usually found life bearing planets. With an average temperature of 8500 kelvin and a mass two times that of the star whose light gave Avalon life.

The sphere of influence that consisted of Avali space was set by agreements and treaties between the Illuminate (Avalon’s government) and other members of the local coalition of governments. Star-systems under Avali control were dotted throughout the galaxies, designated and claimed by the Illuminate based on their usefulness and resources and how easy it was to ship things to Avalon or larger colony worlds. This didn’t even take into account rogue or disassociated colonies who wanted nothing to do with the Avali Nexus and government.

For Chantelle, this system was keeping most of her attention. The white and blue Avali was sitting in her office watching the results of the preliminary scans filtering through from the ship's sensors and the first batch of drones they’d launched. Three screens showed raw data, images and notation, sensor returns, chemical composition and visual scans based on reflecting light. It was pouring up the screen rapidly, too quickly for Chantelle to read. But all this raw data was being processed by Ifelse, the Odyssey’s AI. They were rapidly checking and interpreting the data allowing them to create a basic solar system hologram that was taking shape over the centre of the big desk.

“So what do we have?” Firi asked, bouncing up and down next to Chantelle’s chair, “Me and Ki have had the drones scanning the system, though I still say you should have let us use my algorithm we’d have been done much faster.”

Chantelle glanced at her sister and flicked her ears, chirping a soft sound of exasperation, “No, I ran your algorithm through Ifelse, it’d have done the planets faster but left out all the space in-between.”

“So! There isn’t anything in the space inbetween usually,” Firi grumbled, “Look you have found…”

The yellow Avali trailed off as she took in the number of mid-orbit objects and her ears wilted and murmured “What?”

“Nineteen objects of high interest,” Chantelle said with a triumphant smile, “Thirty seven objects worth a deeper look and at least one asteroid of pure Gabierum on the must have list.”

“Well… usually there is nothing,!” Firi objected but Chantelle bapped her lightly on the snout with her tablet.

“There is always something between planetary orbits. This is my area of expertise, do you want to have this argument again? I can call Selenu down here and have her remind you whose job it is?”

“No,” Firi sighed, “She already said if I deviate from your survey plan she’ll ground me.”

“Then behave and clear out,” Chantelle waved her arm at the door, “I have results to examine, go print more drones with Ki… actually, go tell him his new design is excellent,” the Avali pointed at the data flowing in, “Stripping out all those excess safety systems have sped this whole process up by about 30%, lighter faster drones have made this so much easier.”

Firi chirped and flounced off and Chantelle sighed in relief and sank lower into her floating chair. She loved her sister but Firi was a handful and she needed peace to start reviewing the survey results. Gesturing at the hologram she turned it vertical and started to examine what it was showing her and matched it against the long range scans the Illuminate had on file. There were two inner rocky planets, an asteroid field, a hydrogen gas giant, two ice giants and a very large outer ice planet. She started assigning priority to the initial drone findings and settled in to look at the speciality result list whilst the computer compiled the results on each planet and object of significant interest.

She had to admit Ki knew what he was doing, the new drones were quick, manoeuvrable and had been flawlessly networked by Taran into a comprehensive system wide sensor grid. Ki still worried her, he alternated between sleeping with them in their pack sleeping chambers and hiding out in his room. It was still a gamble each day as to whether or not they found him in a drunken stupor or feverishly working away. Yet he was starting to bond with them, also he was a lot more relaxed about casual contact with other Avali now.

A chime went off and Chantelle glanced up at the system map and ordered her goggles to connect to the survey system. Unlike her brothers Taran and Seinu… Well, and the extra brother now counting Ki, she’d not gone for intrusive augments like replacing her eyes or installing neural processors or being entirely remade out of nanite infused slime (not that Seinu had chosen that outcome). She liked to keep the technology on the outside but she had spent a lot of time customising her goggles. They were able to link up with the cartography suite computers and give her a full virtual sensorium. Her desk sank into the floor and as she stood up her chair hovered across the room to slide into a wall locker. It took about a minute to slide everything away leaving her office as a vacant white space illuminated by long strips of glowing orange aerogel.

Gravity reduced around her, allowing her to float and the view of her empty office dissolved, her goggles translating the images from the cartography suite and forming a three dimensional virtual reality overlay around her. She found herself floating as a bodiless spirit above the virtual representation of Salib-76T the Odyssey’s computers had created for her. The 6 planets in the system floated serenely in their orbits around the glowing white star, it was a fully immersive simulation and she could make herself as large or small as she wished to view them.

Currently she was larger than the solar system and could reach out to pick up a planet or one of its accompanying moons, asteroids and inter-solar objects of interest. As she refined the system and learnt more they’d be able to add maps to the planets and surface details and eventually the simulation would allow you to land on them and walk around. For now though the limit was outer orbit scans, in time mapping drones, satellites and surface expeditions would fill in the actual details.

It was enough for now to make a start, Chantelle just had to focus her attention on one of the stellar bodies or pick it up and the computer started to feed and show her all the data the survey drones had sent back so far. It was a tactile, interactive learning process and she was soon surrounded by holographic note-pads, making detailed observations on the data that had been gathered so far. All in all it took about five hours for her to absorb all the info from the survey drones and start to build an initial survey plan of where they should focus their efforts first.

Satisfied with the mountain of information she had received, Chantelle disconnected from the virtual overlay and took a couple of minutes to let her eyes adjust as she lifted up her goggles and ordered her office to re-deploy the furniture. She then sent a message around to the pack scheduling a meeting for later that afternoon before scampering out of her office and making her way up to Seinu’s.

His office was a cosy affair not far from the bridge and the conference rooms built into the executive suite. There were also long halls for entertaining, dining rooms, meeting rooms. The nicest room was a long hall full of snow and blooming crystalline shrubs that replicated an Avalon environment but whose roof was a transparent dome that showed the stars outside. The rooms also had secure bedrooms for political guests as well as independent data storage systems for secure, classified info. In effect it was everything a roaming diplomat and ambassador might need.

Seinu himself was sitting at his desk as she came in. Chantelle walked over to him and draped her arms over his shoulders in a cosy hug and nuzzled him between the ears. Her brother flicked his ears and tilted his head back to chirp at her in greeting, as he continued to listen to the three dimensional holographic Avali being projected by the messaging system. It was Sawi which was a surprise, Chantelle tilted her ears toward the message and listened.

“I received your request via the Illuminate Diplomatic Office. I was surprised but I’m happy to help. I’ve included my Bunny Song language file and some of the raw data from Sher’s visor. You shouldn’t have any trouble learning it though it is quite complex and a tricky one for anyone who isn’t augmented, even though it is still doable.

You have to let me know what the other bunny villages are like. We didn’t stay for very long after dropping Sher’s family home, and only saw his home.

If you want to know more I’d suggest dropping Cherry a message. I am sure he will be happy to tell you about his home. In addition, we updated some of the planet data recently; Its name now is Babupekkakerok [Vampbun Packmate Lands], and the Oracle already updated this name everywhere.

Send us photos! And include pics of yourself too. I want to see what you look like as a bunny! Anyways, speak to you later, slime boy!

A last word of warning: Be careful with the wildlife. Cherry wasn’t exaggerating when he told us about how dangerous it is.”

The holographic image shut down but whilst Sawi had been talking Chantelle had been holding a separate conversation with her brother. It was a useful ability Avali had, being able to hold several conversations at once, it certainly made things more efficient.

“I wanted to see how you are doing before we settle in for the big survey meeting. I am assuming you are too busy to help out?”

“Sorry,” Seinu chirped, reaching up with both hands to hold her lower ears gently and rest snout to snout with her, “I am mostly preparing for the big diplomatic conference we have to attend. It’s a border dispute so I need to learn the situation then come up with a proposal to try and de-escalate things before we get there in a few months.”

“Oh? I saw it on the list of upcoming missions but have been focused on Salib-76T, what’s the deal with that?”

“It’s a bit of a mess and we’ve been asked to act as independent mediators in this dispute as both sides have trading agreements with the Illuminate. The planet at the centre of the dispute is Crastaforna, they only recently went galactic and have quite rightly claimed their home solar system and surrounding space as their sovereign territory.”

He gestured at a screen showing a local star map, “However their two neighbours have been established in space for a couple of centuries and are still sore at losing territory they believe is theirs.” he shook his head, “The two older races are part of the local Coalition and have been trying to petition that the Crastafornian should only have rights to their solar system.”

“Sounds like a mess,” Chantelle sighed, “I wish more races would follow our outlook and not interfere with others'.”

“Sadly some aliens are just greedy,” Seinu sighed, “There is also a charged ion nebula in the way of the most lucrative trade routes which is why the other two don’t want to give up their claims as they’d be stuck paying tariffs to use Crastaforna space or divert around the nebula,” he shrugged, “But hopefully we can do some good and come to an agreement with them.”

“Sounds like your sort of thing,” Chantelle chuckled, “Well I am about to hand out the first round of follow up surveys but I wanted to see you,” she nuzzled his snout and nodded at the holographic display as it shut down, “What was that about though? I saw our trip to Babupekkakerok on the list but I don’t think we got a good explanation as to why we are off to play anthropology on these bunnies?”

“That is a more interesting job,” Seinu chirped, “And why they picked us for it. The Illuminate wants to update the nexus entries on the Vampire Bunny species. You know how Sawi’s pack essentially adopted two aliens? Not just as friends but literally incorporated them as part of the pack?”

“Yeah,” Chantelle said, “Daniel and Sher right, Rowi’s boyfriend and their bass player, what of it?”

Seinu smiled, “Yes Sher, their band is slowly building a name and reputation for themselves. People are starting to notice them and Rowi is a part of it. Our people and aliens log onto the nexus and can find out lots about Rowi, I mean there aren’t many packs at our level and one that is not compromised of ambassadors and diplomats like us is even rarer and there he is, playing music and living with his alien bunny lover and their Earth friend roaming the Universe and putting on shows.”

“Ah I see,” Chantelle said, glancing at the holographic image of the three members of MMF on a screen nearby, “I’ve seen we have plenty of info on D.”

“Yup,” Seinu nodded, “Despite his appearance he’s just a Human with a muzzle, fur and antlers, maybe a few sensory alterations but that’s about it, it’s mostly cosmetic.” he looked at the picture again, “I really want to try out antlers, they look so cool, next chance I get I gotta get hold of some Earth deer DNA,” he waved a hand, “But me wanting to shapeshift is beside the point, Avali packs and aliens are starting to notice this cool music band out there seemingly representing Avalon and our species, where the singer and leader is one of these bunnies. So, naturally people want to know more.”

“Is… just that… worth sending a huge ship like us to do a study for almost a whole year?”, the girl asked.

“Here is where things get spicy. Go to the nexus and try to check the information about Sher and his species.”

“Okay?” Chantelle murmured and pulled her goggles back on and ordered them to load the Vampire Bunny files from the nexus. She scanned the data and winched, “Oh lord… this is… there is barely anything in here?”

“I will send you the unredacted information in a moment”, Seinu said. “Basically, the information we had about vampire bunnies had been written not by a trustworthy source, but by Horkers.”

“Horkers? Those ugly brutes with super obsolete technology who supposedly are trying to conquer the universe?”

“The same. After the MMF show in Warfaisser, a lot of Avali went to the Nexus to look up the band. After reading about Rowi and D they went to look up the Vampire Bunny front-man and lead singer on the nexus and found just a giant pile of redacted entries”. Seinu flapped his ears and continued. “Problem is, I get it. I am all for not censoring the Nexus, but ‘1001 ways to kill and cook Vampire Bunnies’ or ‘Chef Ark’Lal’s guide on how to butcher bunnies for the perfect flavour’ or ‘How to clean bunny entrails for consumption while keeping them alive the longest’ isn’t really Nexus friendly reading material…”

“What the fuck”, Chantelle said flatly.

“That’s not all about it. Horkers started a disinformation campaign, and it’s been proving annoying. Horkers are flat out terrified of alien species with access to more powerful weapons than the ones they have, and that includes us, and as such, they started trying to discredit us. And this disinformation campaign is starting to affect some outlying colonies and independent packs,” Seinu growled, “While I have no proof of this, I am quite sure their disinformation may be one of the reasons why Ki’s pack got attacked without even a chance to talk it out. Aliens attacking Avali ships, even independents, was relatively unheard of, and yet there have been several recent instances of aliens blocking us, ruining trade deals or in a couple of instances outright attacking us. Aliens that for centuries had neutral stances with our species, that now seem less tolerant to our presence.”

“Is it really that bad?” Chantelle asked, “I mean I’ve not heard anything official.”

“This isn’t public yet but the Foreign office is starting to notice trends in galactic wide opinion,” Seinu pointed back at the picture of the band. “Now, after the UMF, Avali and other aliens started going to look up this band whose members belong to one of our highest ranked packs to see what the deal is,” Seinu sighed, “Their performance included a very shocking song near the end, it got people talking about them. But the Horker’s PR, that we believe is not being done by Horkers themselves but probably one of the species they conquered, has been blocking our attempts to show what arseholes they are with the perfect ammunition: Pointing out that we the Avali are hiding information on the Vampire Bunnies.”

“Of course it looks like we are hiding stuff,” Chantelle said. “How annoying”

“Yup,” Seinu’s ears wilted, “And frustratingly the info we have all comes from the Horkers except for a few minor entries from Rowi about Sher over the years but we can’t use that as they’re “unreliable narrators” due to their subjectivity. You can read the un-redacted source files if you like, I just sent them to you, but we can’t go and release them now. If we go and release the un-redacted files now the Horkers will just scream it is just more Avali lies and people will believe them over us. Our technology level makes people nervous, we put on a friendly front but we also don’t interfere in other races' actions. Lots of people believe we are just biding our time ready to conquer the universe. The Horker king is not stupid, he’s creating this persona as the “tough guy” standing up against Avali aggression and slippery double dealing.”

“And people are falling for it?” Chantelle said with a sigh, “I really don’t understand how people can think we want to rule the universe.”

“It’s simple really,” Seinu grumbled, “When people do attack us or push us too far we stop them, usually with minimal ships or a pack or two and lots of high technology. The fact we got attacked first always seems to get lost in the political screaming afterwards so there is this perception we are dangerous and not to be trusted.”

The silver avali shook his head and continued. “Still, after reading the unredacted Nexus entries it is clear that those bastards were literally harvesting Vampire Bunnies as food, and very surely that song MMF played at Warfaisser, ‘Cattle’, was referring to that even if they didn’t mention Horkers by name. Horkers were using a sapient species as cattle just because their “Screams are Pleasing” to their ears and “they taste nice.”

“That is so wrong…” Chantelle shuddered, not knowing what else to say.

“It certainly is,” Seinu shook his head, ears perking back up, “So that is why we are being sent. The Illuminate want to know more about this species that got adopted into one of our top packs and to update the nexus info for the curious public. They aren’t really keen on pushing the whole “And they were used as Cattle” story without some greater context of who they are now. So, we aren’t going to visit to survey their planet or poke around at their wealth. We are going to learn about them, their culture, their species, their way of life and all that”.

“Now that sounds like a much better use of our time then your diplomatic conference,” Chantelle smiled, “I am sure you’ll do amazingly. Thank you for this explanation. For now, though, I need to focus on the survey. I wanted to see you before I get all busy with work and check you have everything you need.”

Seinu chirped and cuddled up against her happily, “I have some new language files for you all to look at, but otherwise I have everything I need,” he tapped a button on his desk and an angelic voice started to sing in exotic words nobody understood. “That was Bunny Song, the language of the Vampire Bunnies. It is quite complex, but I figure we have like eight months before we arrive, that’s enough time for all of us to either master it or pick up enough to at least sing hello.”

“Sounds good brother,” she smiled and kissed the tip of his snout then extracted herself from their lazy hug, “I will see you at dinner, have a good day Seinu.”

“You too Chantelle, show these stars who’s boss.”

The white and blue Avali chirped happily and headed back out toward her office where hopefully the rest of the pack would be gathering. They had a lot of work ahead of them to survey Salib-76T and only six months to do it in.

Firi…

Firi Trail-Blazer-Master-of-Arms, or as her brothers jokingly called her, “Firi Trail-Blazer-Master of the Huge Explosions, we are so sorry”.

She was both the most fascinating Avali in the Trail pack and the one who gave Ki the most trouble. She was bright, she had woven several of her longest crest feathers into two braids that hung down on either side of her head and then accented them with active glitter strands. It was pretty much a statement of her personality. She was loud and enthusiastic and never did anything by halves or thirds. She threw herself into every project with the energy and volume of an excitable child with a new toy.

She was also competitive, excitable, and everything she built was given a personal touch; nothing left her workshop that hadn’t been personalised somehow. Officially she was the ship's Security officer in charge of keeping everyone safe. She was also a damn good driver; if it had wheels or went under water or skimmed through the atmosphere she was the best. Only Selenu outstripped her when it came to flying things in the void of space, and even then the two pushed each other competitively trying to out-do their sibling as they careened through the void.

Ki had admittedly tried to limit his interactions with Firi since they had departed Warfaisser. It was a thing he was trying to deal with, in a way her exuberant, clingy nature was exactly what the therapists said he needed, regular, normal interactions with other Avali. But also she was a lot! Nobody from his old pack had a personality that matched her, making any communication with her feel strange.

Now that they were at Salib-76T, Ki had gotten brave enough to request being shown all the new exo-vehicles the Odyssey had onboard for the exploration of new star systems. They were highly specialised mechanical systems and he had already learned that the pack, not his pack but the Trail pack, relied on automated maintenance systems. Taran did electronics and computers, the others had basic mechanic skills but Ki was an actual mechanic, he could take things apart and put them together in ways the prim and proper Illuminate approved maintenance drones couldn’t.

It was an area Ki was filling, a niche that was his, and it helped to make him feel like he had a purpose on the ship. Of course there were still bad days when he locked himself away and moments when his temper and mood flared or he woke up in the infirmary having alcohol purged from his system. But they had been growing less, a little bit, it was good progress. So today instead of giving in to an overwhelming urge he had to lock himself away he decided to ask if he could learn about the exo-vehicles so he could set up a proper maintenance schedule.

They were Firi's babies and so Ki was ambushed in the crew lounge shortly after he made the request to Selenu. In a whirlwind of energetic motion Firi descended, accompanied by the heavy thump of an Avali in armour. This was her preferred outfit, when not being as she called it “Extra girly”, she wore her armour. Firi was an Avali weapon expert and according to her very impressive resume had spent time doing military service whilst Seinu was training to be a Diplomat. Her confidence and self-assurance when it came to combat and defence was well earned (even if it made some of her classmates insane); you didn’t get appointed chief of security and bodyguard to an Illuminate Diplomat without some credentials. It was just all of that quiet confidence and skill wasn’t “quiet” it was wrapped up in a bright yellow Firi shaped package.

Her armour fit her perfectly and was pink and white with heart logos and a red, pink and purple flame motif stencilled on it and she had a hammer strapped to her back. This was no ordinary hammer, this was a technological marvel of kinetic reinforcement systems, momentum dampers, arc-generators and aerogel impact points.

The Supernova!

Ki had sat frozen in place, like a skittish prey animal in headlights as Firi bore down on him, “Ki!,” she had exclaimed in that bright voice of hers, armoured arms wrapping about him and muzzle nuzzling between his ears affectionately, “I’m happy to see you! Selenu says you want to see our survey vehicles before we start using them, so I am here to collect you!”

Ki had then found himself clinging to her neck as she just scooped him up out of his seat. He’d forgotten quite how tall she was, she loomed over her siblings by a good foot and the armour enhanced her already augmented strength. Her helmet had closed around her head as she picked him up; panels of white and purple metal with an aerogel visor sealing her head away, the process was entirely automated, even pulling in her crest and braids, wrapping them all away. She had then absconded with him, carrying him through the heart of the ship, not taking the elevator but leaping down maintenance tunnels and giving him an impromptu tour of the interior segments, usually only the realm of drones. The whole journey was accompanied by a thumping drum and guitar beat, a wailing Earthian style rock melody that followed them through the ship.

It was crazy but kind of catchy and Firi's knowledge of the maintenance tunnels was encyclopaedic. She knew them all and despite the indignity of how she was carrying him; he’d learnt a lot about the internal spaces of the Odyssey. He wanted even more to feel part of it, something that he knew the other Avali were encouraging but that his brain refused to completely believe.

For a short moment he zoned out, thinking about how his new friends were woefully ignorant of the basic mechanical aptitude needed to properly live in space. They relied so much on all the shiny robots and automatic systems which sure were good but someone had to know how the mechanical side of things worked and that was going to be him. Eventually, with Firi skipping along, not as if she was in full armour but on a jolly romp in a field of wildflowers they arrived at the vehicle hangar.

It was beyond the shuttle bay, its own dedicated space for the Odyssey’s planet side vehicles, including a large mechanics workshop that Firi had turned into her own. Sure it was still mostly dedicated to maintaining the vehicles but most garages also didn’t include weapon workbenches and a fully-automated Avali exo-armour workshop. He was in awe and very jealous of the equipment she had, he’d been used to working with Avali tech that was at least a decade to twenty years old; she had the newest tools and equipment, things the independent colonies would never be given by the Illuminate. Not out of malice but simply because one of the prices for Independence was you didn’t get a share from the top shelf.

That was how he’d wound up here, being carried through the vehicle bay, slung over her shoulder, it had not been how he expected his morning to go. He’d been expecting a quiet tour like Selenu would give, or a friendly chat with Chantelle, not a kidnapping.

“Welcome Ki”, Firi boomed as she set him down on an hexagonal aerogel pad, “To my workshop! These are my babies”, she gestured at the vehicles in their cradles, “We’ll introduce you to them all in a bit but first things first! No member of my crew is serving on board without their own armour.”

She placed an armoured hand on a control panel and the aerogel floor under Ki lit up and holographic images started to flow into place around him, “I adore your bionic arm, it is awesome! It’s a WX-754q right?”

“What.. I- Firi wait, I…!” Ki never got any further as the armament system deployed aerogel armatures, robotic arms, scanners and interface ports that started whirling around him as other arms began to pull pieces of material off a rack and slide them into place around Ki’s body. Armoured panels, flexible under-layers, aerogel, lightning rigs, wiring, all the component pieces of a full set of Avali armour where assembled, clipped into place and constructed around him.

Ki didn’t dare move as even his wing-feathers were covered, smoothed down and securely protected under aerogel armour systems that would enhance his natural ability to fly. According to the HUD scrolling info across his eyes he would be able to fly in this armour in a whole variety of different gravity strengths. The armour station was even taking into account his back-pack computer and bionic arm, the armour on his right arm integrating the junction around his elbow where the replacement arm and hand began.

The whole assembly process took about ten minutes and then with a click and hum of power the assembly arms drew back and Ki took a step forward off the armoury platform and turned his head, now encased inside a feather snug helmet to look at himself in a reflective panel that had been deployed to act as a mirror. His armour was white and orange to match his arm, with a built in cloaking layer that gave the surface a hexagonal pattern of reflective panels. His wings were encased in an aerogel shell that offered both protective safety, weapon grade sharp surfaces and flight systems in tasteful black and red that curled up over his shoulders and around his neck and helmet to replicate the patterns on his flesh and blood ears. It even had extra space at the back for his back-pack computer which he had noticed had its CPU upgraded and the system RAM doubled. He hadn’t even noticed it being opened up; the assembly system had quietly upgraded it whilst leaving the exterior functionally the same.

He panicked a bit at that, raising one hand to touch his visor, which of course wasn’t there! He looked around the inside of the HUD printed on the inside of his helmet, panicking as there was no way to connect to his computer and then he realised it had already connected itself, its internal system icons were unfolding inside his virtual vision, crisp, clear and less intrusive then it had ever been. In fact it had finished connecting before he’d even thought about it. His backpack was an older model bio-neural processor attached via the spine rather than built into the skull, modern versions could fit on a wafer thin chip that was attached to the brainstem, his version was old, an actual integrated system wired into his spine. He’d never been able to afford an upgrade before and it could only be used for a few hours or in short bursts before needing to be recharged. The system was now telling him it had upgraded to the latest version of Avali-nOS and was ready for 24/7 operation. It was also listing a series of upgrade options for his bionic arm and other systems it could help with as well as a fully integrated control link to his new armour.

“I… Firi… this is too much!” Ki protested, his voice amplified by the helmet's radio, “This thing must have cost a fortune! I’m supposed to be a mechanic, why do I need any of this?”

“Nonsense”, Firi chirped, “It’s standard equipment for the crew, what if you need to come down to a hostile planet with us on a survey or help with repairs on the hull? A mechanic like you needs it even more than I!”

“I… I guess,” Ki said, he had to admit it was a very nice gesture, he certainly felt a lot safer inside the armour, “I don’t know how to use half of these functions. Are you sure it’s worth your time giving it to me?”

Firi smiled, “Absolutely, don’t worry I’ll teach you but first”, she clapped her hands together and a huge white and orange drone lumbered into view, “You wanted to see my vehicles and equipment!”

She turned and patted the huge wyvern shaped drone’s snout. It was huge, towering over both Avali with long wing-arms and talons. Their body was white with long strips of orange aerogel along the side of their legs and across the tops of their wings. They also had a long thick stripe of orange running across the top of their head, down their spine and all the way to the end of their heavy, augmented tail that had several overlapping plates of aerogel covering the end of it. Their head was entirely smooth, sleek white fabricated material with a visor but no openings or nose, just a set of four antennas that took up the place of horns and ears.

“This is the S4-R4B, my primary drone! I use him for testing security equipment and carrying stuff when I am out on a survey!

“It’s…very big,” Ki said softly, “That has to be the biggest drone I’ve ever seen, surely a regular Avali drone would be more effective?”

“Maybe,” Firi chirped, “But way less fun. Now follow me! We’ll do a tour of the vehicles in a bit but first we can experiment with some of your armour options! Getting the crew acclimatised to their suits is part of my job and you Ki are going to learn!”

“Lead on,” Ki laughed, it was hard to dwell on his problems in the unflinching face of pure Firi optimism, “But vehicles first… then you can walk me through just what you did to my back-pack. It is connected to my brain! You could have at least asked before upgrading it! But… I still appreciate it.”

Firi draped an arm around Ki’s shoulders and turned the shorter Avali toward the ground vehicles, “Ah sorry bro! I got a bit carried away but trust me you’ll love the new upgrades Neural OS comes with, now come on let me show you what you can do in this.”

“It…” he blinked as the upgrade list finished scrolling through his mind, he realised he’d already mentally adapted to the faster processing speed, “Koiki would have loved this… she always wanted to upgrade my computer and hers,” he looked down at his bionic hand and squeezed it shut, “Koiki…”

He could feel the tears threatening to come whilst his brain brought back memories of him and his sister playing “kick the wrench in zero gravity.” However, Firi held him close, helmet to helmet and he swallowed heavily, getting a hold of himself, “Ok… show me what this can all do, so I can tell Koiki all about it tonight when I say goodnight to them all.”

“Of course,” Firi nudged him with her helmet affectionately and Ki allowed himself to be led off. He was flattered she’d gone to all this effort to make him armour and help him fit in, but this was still quite a lot to take in. For now he just wanted to focus on the vehicles and drones that made up the survey squad. They’d be starting the full survey in earnest soon, peeling back the curtain to expose the secrets of Salib-76T. That would mean using these shiny new survey vehicles for the first time and no new system worked flawlessly the first time. There would be mechanical problems that he could apply himself to fixing and troubleshooting and show… show the pack that he could be useful, that he wasn't just a useless drunkard.

“Thank you for the report,” the Avali hologram floating above Chantelle’s desk said softly, “We were also very happy to see that Ki is integrating with your pack, it sounds like you guys have pulled him back from the edge.”

The Avali stopped speaking to look off to one side as if they had been listening to something unseen, ears perking sideways, “I have also been authorised to congratulate you on finding a potential new colony world. Interplanetary Developments are already planning a follow up and we have already entered initial talks with some of our allies over mining rights. This will be reflected in your bonus payments for this survey. Director J'ask of the resource directorate also sends his thanks, the odyssey doing the initial survey means he can now send a more in-depth team in with clear goals. Very good job and see you when you are next on Avalon.”

The avali looked forward and smiled, “Director Ck’akk also says you’re authorised to proceed to your next engagement, let Seinu know the Diplomatic office has approved his planned approach for the talks. Speak soon.”

The hologram faded away and Chantelle sagged back in her chair and chirped, she raised both hands above her head in victory, “Ifelse, turn on the PA,” she said and the ships AI chimed happily as it turned on the speakers in every compartment.

“Good news everyone,” Chantelle chirped, her voice carrying across the ship, “We just got paid and a huge bonus too! They’re going to start preliminary colonisation plans for that ice moon we found!”

A series of chirps, cheers and chorps echoed through the speakers around Chantelle as her pack, her family celebrated this news, “Party on the rec-deck in one hour! See you all there! Next we are off to re-supply at Klewerok then off to Seinu’s boring border negotiations.”

More chirping echoed through the speakers and Chantelle smiled at the sound of booted feet thumping along the corridor outside. Firi was on her way to visit her office, no doubt she would be super explosive and energetic but for once Chantelle didn’t mind.

They had done it.

Their first solar system survey and it had been a massive success; not only had they proven the concept behind the Odyssey’s mission but they had show-cased and utilised the full skill of the pack, including Ki and all their new equipment. It was just the sort of success they needed, now they just had to broker peace between some upset governments, which Chantelle was sure would be a walk in the park for Seinu.

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