Judy's first full day in ZV-73, a day of grey clouds that foretold heavy rain, did not get off to a good start.

It wasn't a total disaster, either. The first thing she did after getting settled in her apartment was take the monorail to the Rainforest Sector to get her suit and equipment. There was only one other colony she knew that used a monorail for public transport. ZV-20 was a tiny planet which was completely submerged in water. One would think this would make the planet uninhabitable, but if they did, they'd never heard of the abundant fauna that dwelled beneath the surface. Deep blue squid with tentacles as long as a sperm whale's entire body. Beautiful fish with scales that glittered like jewels. Nocturnal shark-like predators with toothed tongues that shot out like a frog's, the go-to prime suspect whenever a worker went missing on a calm night. The colony had been operational for thirty years now, but they were still barely skimming the surface.

Upon reaching the Rainforest Sector, Judy was stopped at the main entrance by the marines standing guard there, and without clearance they'd refused to let her through. At least a dozen mammals going to and from the building were there to see her humiliation.

It was her own fault; in her eagerness to get started, she'd forgotten that security around the Rainforest Sector had tightened since Green's murder. Worse, when she contacted Administration to explain the dilemma, she found out that she'd just missed an escort that had gone to her apartment with a pass to deliver. So far as Clawhauser knew, they were still waiting there. Clawhauser didn't seem upset by her mistake, but the same could not be said for Bogo.

"Are you trying to get an ass chewing?" Private Wilde asked the moment he saw her turning the corner.

Judy snatched the pass from his paw.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. The question sounded more hostile than she'd intended.

Wilde appeared to shake it off. "Commander's orders. Something to do with me knowing this colony like the back of my paw. I wouldn't advise complaining. He's pissed off enough as it is."

"But I didn't actually do anything."

"You didn't go to a restricted sector without an escort and informing Administration, two of the three things he explicitly told you not to?"

Judy almost shrunk in on herself. She sucked in a breath, feeling another rush of irrational anger at the fox. She didn't need him making her feel smaller than she already was.

"I'm sorry, alright? Do you have clearance?"

"Enough to get through the front door. If Clawhauser's popular for one thing, it's applying the bare minimum of red tape."

Judy looked him up and down. He wasn't dressed in full gear today. Just a standard shirt and pants, with a single pistol in his holster. His pass was hung around his neck. He looked less like a marine and more like that cop from that tv show from the twenty-first century, the one who had to wear t-shirts on account of the seemingly perpetually hot climate he worked in. Pawaii, that was the place.

She stopped paying attention to his clothes. It didn't matter if he didn't dress in appropriate marine attire all the time. He was a marine, and she wasn't. That wasn't worth obsessing over.

Yet her dumb bunny brain kept bringing it up.

"So, you can get me anywhere in the colony?"

"And out, if need be."

"Good. I want to investigate the crime scene."

"Will that be before or after you try the Rainforest again?"

Judy pursed her lips. "Rainforest."

On their way back to the Rainforest Sector, Judy was grateful when Nick turned on the sarcasm filter and started acting more like a professional- almost as professional as Dr. Tristan Carthusia, the head researcher of the sector. Carthusia was a reindeer who made sure his antlers never got too big for him to do his work safely. Instead of a traditional white coat Judy had seen on other colonies, he wore a wrap-around synthetic jacket of white, black and teal green, apparently designed by his cousin. Judy hadn't expected to meet him during her time on this planet, but when he passed through the reception area and spotted her and Wilde near the desk, waiting for her kit, he stopped in his tracks. He stared at them for a few seconds, as if unsure if they were who he thought they were, and then he strode up to her.

"Miss Hopps." He spoke with a slight twang that didn't affect his words as he bent down to shake her paw with a gloved hoof. "I hadn't expected to meet you so soon."

"Er, not to seem rude, but I didn't know we'd be meeting." Judy replied. Speaking with Carthusia wasn't necessary for the investigation, and she'd figured he'd be too focused on his work to take the time to speak to her anyway."

Carthusia smiled. "Creature Shoot. I've admired your work for years."

With those words, Judy felt a surge of shock and pride and returned his smile. "Wow. I didn't think I'd have fans of your caliber." She said. "If what they're saying is true, you're this close to creating a new non-addictive painkiller using the plants on this planet."

Carthusia nodded absent-mindedly, well aware of his own genius. "I know you're almost as busy as I am, but I have to know. How in the world did you get those photographs of the Indigo Gigante Squid? They live, what was it, one thousand feet underwater?"

"Now that was actually a team effort. The research team was testing out this new ROV model, and, because I happened to be there on a case, they wanted my help to get photos that would impress their investors."
"Hm, must have missed the annotation. Well, I'm positive you'll find the wildlife here on Rhamnusia just as diverting."

Before continuing on his way, he warned Judy that Dr. Roland, the medical examiner who autopsied Mr. Green, may not provide such a warm reception when she meets him. He was a shrewd mammal who did not like to be contradicted, especially by a soulless machine like Minerva. Judy didn't let this worry her too much. Minerva needed the evidence from the morgue to do her job efficiently, and Roland was in no position to refuse.

When she turned to Wilde, who hadn't said a word through the exchange, he had shown no surprise whatsoever. "You knew."

Wilde gave a shrug of indifference. "I've skimmed your site a couple of times."

"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Did you want me to? You don't strike me as the 'don't you know who I am' kinda gal."

"Because I'm not."

"Good. You keep it that way."

Once Judy got her kit, their next stop was Lionheart's Gate, or as Wilde eloquently called it, the Car Wash. Judy couldn't help but prefer the nickname, a small smile coming to her face whenever she heard it. It was one of those names that was funny because it was so true. She was tempted to ask what other nicknames he'd come up with. In any case, their route to the Car Wash required cutting through the canal.

When they passed over one of the bridges overlooking the canal, Judy pointed to the wide grate in the border wall from which the water flowed, her attention drawn by the marine presence on both sides of the canal.

"Isn't that where the water comes out from the power plant?" Judy asked.

"That's right." Wilde said. "We don't usually post a guard there, but with what's been going on-"

"You're worried it might be a target, I know." She didn't bother to ask how easy it would be to get into the colony from that tunnel. No doubt the architects would have taken that into account while they were designing the place. Instead she asked, "So, do the marines provide security for the entire colony?"

Wilde jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the Tundra building where they had just come from. "Nope. Private security handles the research facilities."

Judy remembered the mammals who had confronted her at the main entrance. "But the marines…"

"Are covering the main entrances so the secs can beef up security down in the labs. It's just temporary 'til the saboteur's caught."

"I see." Judy fell silent for the remainder of their journey, wondering how the marines were feeling about being relegated to temp guard duty, substituting for those who worked for higher salaries at lesser risk. Such menial duties would probably feel like a slight. As the token bunny, Judy herself would have bristled at such indignity, had things gone another way.

Upon reaching the Car Wash, Judy and Wilde stopped by the adjoining garage, a metal block of a building that was large, but not quite as large at the garage at the Outback Sector all the way on the other side of the colony, located at the gate that lead to the desert. Expecting that they would be taking a small, two-seater vehicle, Judy did a double take when Wilde signed off on a jungle group transport instead, and then lead her to a hard bench outside the building. On the bench sat Fangmeyer, dressed in light armor. When she saw them, she uncrossed her legs with a flourish and stood up, rifle in paw. Without her shoulder pads, Judy could see a tattoo of a Roarman spear on her right shoulder.

"You're late. Twice in a row now, dumbass." She gestured the number with the V sign, palm facing inward.

Wilde gave a mocking cry of outrage. "Do you mind? You're in the presence of a celebrity."

"Who?" Genuinely confused, Fangmeyer blinked before she realized who he was talking about. "Carrots? You gotta be shitting me."

"No shit. She hosts a photography website. Creature Shoot? You heard of it."

"Creature Shoot…" Fangmeyer took a long look at the rabbit. "Sounds like porn."

Judy's shocked anger burst out in a sharp laugh. "Ha ha, screw you too!"

Fangmeyer laughed. Wilde just grinned.

Judy was still fuming when they climbed into the group transport, Fangmeyer taking the driver's seat as the only mammal big enough to do so. Judy and Wilde sat just behind her, clipping in their seatbelts just before the engine hummed to life and the vehicle strolled out the garage onto the road leading to the Car Wash. The group transport was no APC tank. It was a lean 8X8 with a light frame and reinforced windows through which Judy could watch the sterilizing liquid gushing over the glass like paint. She checked her watch and looked at Wilde.

"Do you have to do this every time?"

"Every damn time."

"Even though the chances of picking up any contaminants from the garage to the gate are minimal?"

Wilde nodded. "Complacency kills, you know. Wouldn't want to spread my seed all over the ecosystem."

"You're a sick puppy, Wilde." Fangmeyer retorted over her shoulder. For some reason she had decided to play a game of solitaire on the dashboard. "I don't see why you had to drag my ass into this."

"Insurance. If a predator catches her scent, you're our best bet of keeping them away."

Judy stiffened, her eyes breaking away from the window to dart back and forth nervously. She'd been so narrow minded, thinking about the saboteur and whatever had almost obliterated the Vidar, that she'd never considered the threat of the local wildlife. This jungle had all the dangers of a rainforest back on Earth, and more. Reptilian beasts shorter than crocodiles but just as quick. Hawk-like birds that could lift a Tasmanian devil clear off his feet. There were plants in the jungle that could poison you just by touching them. No matter how hard she worked or what skills she picked up, there were some things about being a rabbit that could never be changed. Judy gripped her seatbelt, angry at herself and angry at Fangmeyer for being there, her presence a harsh reminder of her own weakness.

"What exactly should I be worried about?" She reluctantly asked.

Wilde thought about the question before answering. "Well, we have ways of repelling dangerous animals without harming them, but there's any animal I'd worry, it'd be the Gorgon."

"Gorgon?"

"The squints call them Gorgonama- ami- Gorgonamyntas." Wilde grimaced at having to twist his tongue. "I think it's on account of them looking like some prehistoric animal." He plucked a laminated pamphlet from beneath his seat and passed it to her. Judy found the creature on the third page. It was a reptilian creature with a large, compact, four-legged body with a large head and snout. Atop the skull was a frill of bone which resembled coral. Compared to the silhouette of an upright horse, it was over a meter tall, its thick fangs longer than her ears.

Judging from the blood staining its maw, the photograph must have been taken some time after it had fed. Judy didn't like the idea of coming face to face with this carnivore. Not without a weapon and a camera, anyway.

"All this talk about nature has given me an idea for a joke." Wilde said. "Get back to me later once I've refined it."

At long last, the final set of doors to the outside world slid apart. Fangmeyer pulled her cards from the dashboard and drove onward, and Judy soon forgot all about feral predators and weak prey.

Since becoming Minerva's mammalian assistant, she had travelled to twelve different worlds, some more than once. Some of them were rocks, with no indigenous life. Others were a fountain of flora and fauna, no matter the climate. But only on Earth did she ever experience a world such as this.

The first thing she noted was the mist. It drifted around the teal trees like the breath of frost giants, noticeable but not quite dense enough to block their path. Light filtered through the mist and treetops, casting lime sunspots over the jungle floor, the effect on the mist ethereal. As they drove through the road, leaves, branches and thorns slapped and scratched at the doors and windows, the ugly sound doing little to dampen Judy's awe. Though all the windows were sealed, Judy could smell the jungle- vegetation, wet dirt, and something rotting somewhere close by, probably a dead log or a foul-smelling plant. Whatever it was, it smelled more like mushrooms than decaying flesh.

When her job was done, she absolutely had to take herself and her camera on a hiking trip. It mattered little that there may be predators in this forest. She'd gotten up close with Komodo dragons on Earth and frog-tongued sharks on ZV-20. She could do this. She would do this. What other wonders did Rhamusia have in store?

Fangmeyer took a sharp turn, following the road in a long curve until the transport broke free of the forest, stopping within five feet of the colony border. She took another turn, driving along the fort-like wall until it stopped at a closed khaki tent.

"Crime Alley. Next stop, Cornbread avenue." Fangmeyer declared with a hint of disgust. One of the three marines guarding the tent was approaching the transport. Fangmeyer rolled down her window to talk with him.

Judy took this time to pull on her protective suit. Almost as soon as her goggles and mask were put in place, they were given the all clear to access the crime scene. Fangmeyer stayed behind to watch their vehicle, leaving Wilde to accompany Judy to the closed flap of the tent. The closer they got, trudging through the overgrown grass and fog, the more relaxed Judy felt as the remaining dredges of anxiety from the Vidar accident seeped away. She was in her element now, and it was time to get to work.

"You'll have to wait outside."

Wilde shrugged and stood just to the left of the flap, but he did have the courtesy to unzip it for her. With her kit in paw, Judy stepped into the tent.

Without the body present, the crime scene was unsurprisingly unremarkable. A plain of blue-green grass lay before her, shrouded in the darkness of the tent. To the right-hand side of the grass, close to the wall of the tent, was the two-seater vehicle the victim had used to get here. Beyond that was the border wall, and the secure metal panel where Green had accessed the damaged power line. It appeared that he had managed to finish the job before he was murdered.

Wilde or one of the other marines must have suddenly remembered to turn on the light, for the bare ceiling bulb dangling in the center of the tent roof suddenly switched on, casting the crime scene in an uncomfortable white radiance. Only then did Judy see the dry brown blood coating the grass near the center of the plain in a meter-wide circle. As she did with every crime scene she stepped onto, she reconstructed the murder in her head; Green travelling to the crime scene. Disembarking. Approaching the panel and opening it with a special tool. Fixing the power line within an hour. Closing the panel. Turning around and finding a gun between his eyes.

That was her first impression of what had happened, but the truth would be up to her, Minerva, and the evidence.

The professional side of her wished that they hadn't moved the body, but she understood the downside of leaving the body of a colonist to rot in the jungle for two weeks. At least they'd limited the number of mammals who had entered the scene to the mammals who had found the victim, and the marines who had searched the area for his killer. It had been the marines who had moved him to the morgue. She was especially grateful that they'd taken photographs before removing him, but she'd have to remember to put all this in the report.

"What was the weather like, before I got here?" Judy called out. The ground was bone dry, but she had to be sure.

"We had some rain every now and then, but I don't think it got in the tent." Wilde said.

Judy first photographed the scene, taking notes with a notepad in between shots. The ground was too dry to leave any noticeable footprints, but she documented every spot of crushed grass, including the large patch where the body had lain. Without her crime scene markers, she had to make do with writing numbers on the pages of her notebook and folding them into tent shapes.

She measured the dimensions of the puddle of dried blood before taking a sample, and then searched for a spatter of blood that would have resulted from the exit wound. There were no transfers, blood trails or wipe patterns that indicated the body had been moved prior to discovery or to suggest that the body had been touched. Judy wrote it all down.

She found the exit wound spatter on the border wall, just above the metal panel. Green was a tall mammal, his head likely half a meter higher than the location of the spatter. It looked like someone had sprayed paint in a short burst. High velocity pattern. Typical result of a gunshot. Judy would have to consult with Minerva to know for sure. She photographed the spatter, took a sample, and took a closer look at the metal panel to see if it had been tampered with.

Then she heard it.

A high sound stabbing at her eardrums.

Beeping to the rhythm of a heartbeat.

She had heard an M314 motion tracker before. In thrillers and monster movies. That sound had always filled her with excitement.

She lived to hear that sound.

To hear it meant that someone, something, was close.

Close enough to see, yet out of sight all the same.

You never knew for sure what was out there, until it was leaping for your throat.

That same thrill filled her now, causing her to breathe in sync with the beating of the tracker.

Suddenly the interior of the tent seemed too small. The bright white light seemed to shine with menace. The old brown blood seemed to regain a hint of its former crimson hue.

She ran out the tent, rejoining the marines. She looked at each mammal, searching for the one holding the tracker.

"What the heck is that?"

She realized then that none of them was the source of the worrisome sound.

She sought out Wilde and found him still waiting by the tent flap. He saw her face and gave her a smile that was somehow both mocking and comforting.

He pointed to the trees where the sound was coming from.

Judy looked, but saw nothing but branches weighed down with knife-shaped fronds. As she listened, she realized that the sound was different than a usual motion tracker. It sounded harsher and didn't have that electronic echo.

"Dumbass tracker birds." One of the marines, a black bear, grumbled. His name tag read Crowe. "Bet they got set off by the car fumes again."

"Go check it out." Wilde spoke up.

"Bugger off, why should I?"

"'Cause Sgt Sparky will have your balls for brunch if you don't."

The bear bristled. "He'll have yours for breakfast if he hears you calling him that, you-"

"Knock it off, Crowe!" The jaguar, Roth, hefted his pulse rifle and went to check out the disturbance himself. The third marine, an ox of few words, went with him.

They vanished into the jungle. Judy wished she could go with them.

Tracker birds. She must have skimmed past that page in the pamphlet. She kept watching the trees, searching for any sign of the tracker birds. Wilde nudged her arm so gently she nearly didn't notice it.

"You're wasting your time, Carrots. If they were close enough to see, we would have set off the alarm ourselves by now."

Judy sighed, but didn't let it get her down. She'd seek out the birds herself once she had some free time. "Any chance of having that panel opened?"

"Not today, Carrots. You need permission from Chief Engineer Park, and you need it on paper."

"Crackers. Looks like I'm done here for now."

"Jesus, I can't wait 'til your finished." Crowe said. "We've been watching this empty patch of grass near two weeks."

Judy retrieved her kit with the samples inside and followed Wilde to back to Fangmeyer's group transport. The tigress was leaning out the open window, smoking a nicotine-free cigarette, another one of Carthusia's achievements. She pressed a button on the dashboard, opening the side door. Like an annoying gentlemammal, Wilde stepped aside to let Judy enter first. Before she could, he spoke up.

"Wanna hear my joke now?"

Judy forced air through her nostrils. "Sure."

Wilde looked around, and seemed pleased to see that Fangmeyer was listening, too. Crowe didn't appear to want to hear it. Wilde told his joke without pausing to draw breath. "Three marine biologists, one male, two females, are about to have a threesome. The guy's an eel expert, one girl's a whale expert, and the other girl's a shark expert. The three of them take off their clothes. Then the shark expert takes one look at the eel expert's dick, turns to the whale expert, and says, 'You're gonna need a bigger bu-"

A compact wall of reptilian muscle slammed into the transport, right in front of their faces.

In the first two seconds Judy didn't truly register what had happened. Something wet and warm hit her in the face as her lapin instincts threw her back, her arms extending to break her fall onto the wild grass. Mammals shouted sharply as Wilde landed beside her, his paw flying to his weapon.

The coldblooded torpedo crumpled to the ground in front of them. Only then did Judy's brain catch up with her.

"FUCKING LIZARD!" In his fright Crowe opened fire, his pulse rifle punching a ragged spiral into the Gorgonamyntas before he came to his senses and realized it was already dead. Wilde had his gun out too, but Judy couldn't remember him firing a shot.

"Jesus, Mary and shit!" Fangmeyer kicked off the crumpled door and leapt out the vehicle. "Are you okay?"

Judy nodded, her paw clutching her pounding heart. Her other paw found her face and made a downward stroke. She looked at the part and found it smeared with blood. She instantly felt sick.

Seeing that she and Wilde were unhurt, Fangmeyer turned her attention to the fallen reptile. "Jesus, look at the state of it."

Curiosity calmed Judy's nerves when she saw the blood and the wounds covering the Gorgon's powerful body. She slowly pushed herself to her feet and stalked forward to take a closer look.

Wilde stayed on his rear, staring at the creature in shock.

Roth and the ox came barreling out of the jungle, shouting if everyone was alright. Blood stained Roth's hip, but he wasn't limping. "Crazy little shit knocked me down!"

"What the hell did you do to it?" Crowe glared at the pair in disgust.

"Piss off, Crowe, I don't do sick shit like that!" Roth would have gotten in Crowe's face if the ox hadn't gotten between them.

"Bullets didn't do this." Judy gently probed the wounds with her gloved paws. "Look at it. The poor thing was mauled."

"What the hell does that mean?" Fangmeyer asked.

"I don't know. Maybe a dominance fight that went bad."

Judy saw the first tooth mark at the base of the Gorgon's neck. Only it wasn't a tooth mark. It was a single puncture wound, nestled between two deep lacerations. Judy probed the wound. She balled her fist and put it just in front of the hole. It was thrice as wide as her paw.

She couldn't think of any bullet in the corps' armory that could inflict a wound of this size.

There was a sharp glint of a slippery translucent substance on the Gorgon's neck. Judy touched the edge of the substance and rubbed it between her fingers. It felt more like jelly than saliva…

"This ain't normal." Crowe was shaking his head, his paws tight around his pulse rifle. "Apex preds don't get fucked up like this. They just don't."

"Look on the bright side, guys." Wilde finally spoke up, a slight tremor in his voice. "Free lizard steaks for everyone."

Only Fangmeyer laughed.