LIBERI FATALIS: The Therianthrope Chronicles

by Eddie-E

A crossover between Ace Combat, Katmandu and another, surprise famous furry comic. A Japanese scientist during the onset of World War II in Europe devises a groundbreaking theory of evolution whose effects will resonate not only on Earth but also throughout the universe for centuries to come. Rated M for language and mature situations.

6. DREAMS

ACT VI: DREAMS

---

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Khalil Gibran

---

-"Where am I?!"-

That was the first question Erma Felna asked herself at that moment.

At that moment we see her, who was in what appeared to be a dark place, with no one else beside her, dressed only in her street clothes, and not in her uniform, something that was rather bizarre for Erma, who just a few moments was in Derzon fighting the ILR forces, and who had been shot and wounded in an ambush inside an apparently empty building.

But now she was in a completely empty, dark and silent place. A silence that for the young Feline girl was a very macabre silence that she had never experienced in her life.

Then, in that very bleak moment, she began to feel something that could have happened to her...

The fact that she might be dead.

And that place where she was is probably the place Erma had heard from some spiritually inclined people, a place where it was said that the spirits of the dead gathered to have their last dwelling place.

Ironically, Erma had never in her life ever thought that something like this could happen to her, since she had never been a person who believed in that sort of stuff, and unfortunately she was the first person to experience it first hand.

But before she could ask any more questions, Erma saw what appeared to be the silhouette of a male person, who was ten paces ahead of her.

-"Hello!, excuse me sir, could you help me, plea...?"-

But before she could continue to speak, she noticed something very disturbing about that silhouette: Although the silhouette was that of a man, she could not deduce which species that person belonged to, although judging by his size and physical complexion, it seemed to be that of a middle-aged man. It was as if that man had no physical shape that could identify him.

And suddenly, the shapelessly shaped male silhouette pulled out what appeared to be a revolver, and with that gun, he, or whatever was that being pointed it at Erma, which caused the girl to react violently.

-"WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO WITH THAT GUN?"-

But when she tried to find a way to defend herself against that silhouette, Erma realized that she had no weapon or any means to defend herself.

Suddenly, that silhouette uttered words in a language that Erma had never heard in her life, although for her she seemed to have heard it before in other circumstances. Even if she could not understand anything that man said, far from sounding threatening or with violent intentions, that specter sounded more like a voice that sounded rather sad and angry at the same time, as if something was tormenting him at that moment.

And suddenly, that silhouette, which had previously pointed his gun at Erma, decided to point his gun at his head instead, and after saying something with a rageful voice, he pulled the trigger and the shadow fell to the ground, apparently dead. It was obvious no one could have survived a shot like that.

Except there was one important detail: There was not a single drop of blood around the supposed corpse of that man or mysterious being standing before her.

And then, the shadow disappeared so quickly that Erma could barely see any more features about what in those moments was a silhouette who commited suicide in front of that girl, who could not understand what had happened, apart from being terrified, for obvious reasons.

-"Wha-what's going on here? Who, or what was that... thing?"-

But before she could ask herself more about this, something extremely sudden happened around Erma...

-"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKK!"-

In a sudden turn of events, that gloomy and shapeless place where Erma was at that time suddenly began to "crack" as if it were a mirror that had broken, except that "mirror" was the world where she stood.

When that dark world broke, Erma fell into what appeared to be a sea or a place filled with water, something she was not prepared for.

-"Oh, Khai! What is this place? And why I can breathe here?!"-

Even though she was underwater, Erma still seemed to be able to breathe without any problems, with the only particularity that she seemed to be floating in that place, that now looked like that dark world where she was just a few minutes away, and that now she was in a different place, but with different physical laws.

-"What kind of damn place am I in now?"-

The normally rational Erma could not help but ask herself these questions when she saw that the place where she was floating in the middle of nowhere defied everything she knew until now. Not only did she seem to be in a place filled with water, but she could still breathe, something that theoretically should be impossible.

But as if this wasn't enough for her, another strange event happened in that place...

The liquid that looked like water took several forms that were familiar to her, as if Erma was watching an audiovisual program coming from a screen, except that the screen was part of that liquid that was there, while the images came from a ray of sunlight.

Except for one thing: There was no sun or light source coming from anywhere in particular.

Those images formed a kaleidoscope of scenes that Erma fully remembered and came from events known to her. Some of those events were, in no particular order:

The day Erma received a commendation from the EDF for her actions in stopping a terrorist attack on Danet, the planet where she studied while at the EDF military academy. Not to mention her colleagues' praises for the event.

When Erma broke up with Tavas Ikalik, something that was very painful for her because she felt betrayed and manipulated by him.

The next event was extremely bizarre for her, due to its erotic content. In that scene Erma was seen having sex with another man, which would not be so strange if it were not for an important detail: That man with whom she had sex was not Tavas as she might think, but was another man, whom she could not recognize apart from that he was a Feline like her.

The next scene was even stranger than the previous ones, since she couldn't find the right context for this one: The only thing she could see was what appeared to be an aerodyne burning, as she listened to what seemed to be panic and pain cries from the aircraft. Although she had never witnessed anything like this before, she had a previous context to which event that scene referred, but Erma could not remember it very well at the time, and she didn't want to recall it anyway.

The next scene was even stranger than the previous two. In this scene, she could see four childish looking figures playing in what appeared to be a park, a park where the most remarkable feature about the place was that several cherry trees flourished at that moment. One of those children's figures was that of a Feline, but the other figures could not deduce from which species those cubs belonged, since they were shapeless silhouettes like that of a man who committed suicide in front of Erma just a few minutes ago.

And the last scene was the most terrifying of all those mentioned:

-"WHAT THE...?! "-

Without any prior warning, Erma witnessed what appeared to be an atomic explosion in what seemed to be an inhabited place, although she could not deduce which place was the one where the explosion occurred, but the explosion was so powerful that it was most likely that the place had been destroyed.

And worst of all, Erma was suddenly there.

The blast wave of the explosion caused Erma to fly through the air, although strangely uninjured, but the power was such that the wave sent her as far from the scene as possible.

-"WHAT'S THE MEANING OF ALL THIS? WHY AM I SEEING ALL THIS? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"-

Erma screamed as loudly as her lungs would allow, but suddenly everything turned white and everything around her disappeared as quickly as it appeared...

---

SD 195-05-27, Very Large Logistical Support Ship (VLLSS) On Its Way to Arras Chanka Solar System, Medical Ward, 0800 hours

-"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"-

Erma suddenly rose from her bed, believing that it was her end, but after a few moments of confusion and seeing the place, she realized something:

It was all just a dream, a terrible and strange dream, nothing more than that.

But for Erma, that nightmare felt so real, that she got up from the bed victim of the horror brought on by that bizarre dream, even though she was still a little sore, due to the wounds she sustained in Derzon.

-"It was... another stupid dream."-

Obviously, Erma's fuss caused a female voice to be heard from the hospital loudspeakers so she could talk to her when she saw the dramatic change in her vital signs. At least it was the voice of a person and not the Net or a computer, that's for sure.

-"Are you OK, Honorable Felna? We detected a very drastic change in your vital signs and we thought something might have happened to you, but at least it's good to see that you have regained consciousness."-

-"How many days have I been out?"- Erma dryly asked.

-"About seven days since her mission on Derzon. You suffered from several broken ribs when you took several bullet impacts in your gut. If it hadn't been that you were wearing your flak armor, you wouldn't have lived to tell it, and I wouldn't have told you this."-

Suddenly, Erma lifted her hospital shirt to look at her wounds and she had some scars on her abdomen from surgery to treat her wounds. Even with her fur, the aforementioned scars were still very visible.

-"sigh I guess you're quite right."-

-"Judging by the normality of your vital signs, we don't seem to have to do anything else about the matter. Don't you need anything else?"-

-"No, I think everything is fine, thanks for asking"- Erma thanked the female voice for the question. -"Although now that you ask, I am going to need something right now."-

-"What would it be, Hon. Felna?"-

At that very moment, Erma's stomach began to growl...

-"Food. Lots of it."-

Following that petition, Erma received the food she needed after being unconscious for a week, obviously in adequate quantities due to the injuries she suffered in combat. That lifted her spirits for her, after so many misfortunes she suffered since she left for Derzon, especially with regard to all the atrocities she witnessed on that planet, and above all, with consideration for her rupture with Tavas Ikalik, whom she did not forgive her betrayal towards her.

Five hours later, Erma received a call from the same female voice as before.

-"Hon. Felna, three people who belonged to your unit in Derzon want to see you. You want me to bring them in?"-

-"Yes, please. Let them in."-

Moments later, three male voices are heard behind Erma's bedroom door.

-"Can we come in?"-

-"Yes, please come in."-

Those three men, who were Canines, entered Erma's room, who was eating at the time. They were none other than Czimmer, Weadjhee and Krimble, the surviving members of the 24th Squad that she helped back in Derzon.

-"Good morning, Lieutenant. We heard that you have regained consciousness and that you are quite well."- Czimmer, who was the first to talk, salute her.

-"Ditto for me."- Weadjhee said as well.

-"Me too."- Krimble followed.

-"Oh, hello, everyone. Seems like I worry you guys a lot back in Derzon, doesn't it?"- Erma smiled at her comrades in combat, who had taken the trouble to come to see her in the hospital.

-"Well, in a way, yes, but at least it's good to see that you're okay."- Czimmer replied.

-"At least we got those bunnies out of Derzon with a good kick in their asses, you might say."- Krimble followed as well, trying to give his own personal spin on the topic.

The three Canine men laughed at such joke, but Erma avoided following them. Even if the ILR was her enemy, she always avoided making degrading or racist jabs against them as much as she could, even if she had very personal reasons for doing so. For Erma, her duty as a soldier to enforce law and order was more important than any personal vendetta she had against her enemies.

Even if her enemies did not follow her in her personal beliefs, as she experienced first-hand at that time.

-"By the way, how long will you be hospitalized?"- Weadjhee asked Erma about the time she'd be in bed.

-"According to the doctors, about two more weeks I'll be in bed and watching. The shot I received in the gut broke several ribs and, as the surgeon told me, I needed about several hours of surgery to restore the damage. Fortunately, there was no damage to the internal organs, so I don't have to worry about further complications."- Erma replied, while she showed her fellow squad members the scars of the surgery she had on her abdomen.

-"Oh, I see."-

-"Well, if you'll excuse us, Lieutenant, we have to go. Apart from not wanting to bother you anymore, we have other things to do, and we just wanted to know how you were doing."- Czimmer commented, as he and his two partners prepared to leave the room.

-"No problem, Czimmer."- Erma replied with a smile in her face. -"Anyway I have a lot of work to do, even though I've been convalescing in bed, because I have to do a post-mission report, and that's going to take me a few hours. So I'll see you guys later."-

-"The same goes for you, see ya, Lt. Felna!"- Czimmer says goodbye to her.

-"Catch you later, Lieutenant!"- Weadjhee followed him as well, along with Krimble.

-"See you soon, guys!"- Erma also said goodbye to them.

Suddenly, Czimmer returned to Erma's room to tell her something she forgot to tell her...

-"Sorry to bother you again, Lieutenant, but I forgot to tell you something important..."-

-"What?"- Erma replied in a surprised way after seen him once again in a sudden fashion. -"What do you want to tell me?"-

-"I don't know if you are already aware, but I was told that you would be promoted due of what you did back in Derzon. If so, I congratulate you very much, sir."-

-"Ah! Thanks for the news. I didn't knew that until now."- She answered somewhat dryly, because in those moments, she didn't want to know about that kind of thing for the moment and she was trying to concentrate on doing her administrative work while recovering in the hospital.

-"Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm leaving now. I'll see you later."-

-"See you soon too, Czimmer."-

Once the three men left her room, Erma immediately started working on her report that she had to deliver to her superiors at the EDF on a laptop she had next to her bed.

-"OK, Let's see..."-

Although the report was quite extensive, there were several important points that Erma wanted to highlight from what happened in Derzon:

The large amount of collateral damage caused by both the ILR and the EDF in the latter's attempt to expel the former from the planet. It was also evident that the ILR had scattered in population centers to maximize damage, especially to civilians caught in the crossfire on both sides of the conflict.

Due to the latter, the number of civilian casualties in the city of Andis alone, the capital of the planet, amounted to approximately five thousand deaths. This also included the victims of summary executions and other atrocities committed against the civilian population, especially the Lepines who refused to join the ILR ranks and were executed in the act. There was still no concrete data on the number of civilian casualties in other cities around the planet yet.

Apart from the civilian casualties, it was necessary to highlight, for obvious reasons, the military casualties, which were considerable, although she did not have specific data on the subject at that time.

And another thing that she had to take into account, at least with respect to her, was the loss of three prototypes of the new ATF-X fighter at the hands of that ILR squadron, with the subsequent loss of two of the pilots of those destroyed aircraft, and the another prototype she lost upon emergency landing near Andis after being shot down by that ILR pilot.

-"Crap! We've lost too many people on this mission. There are also too many civilians dead, and I lost two pilots of my squadron to that ILR fighter squadron..."-

Erma put her head on the keyboard of the laptop, deeply depressed to see the magnitude of the aftermath, and the great number of lives lost, especially those innocent people who died simply because they were on the wrong side, or species, in some tragic cases.

It was more than obvious that victory over the ILR was too pyrrhic for everyone's taste. Even if they achieved their goal of expelling the ILR from that place, the damage was so great that it will took many years for them to recover from that event, an event that will leave a mark on later generations.

-"...not to mention the prototypes."-

Not forgetting the missing pilots she lost, of course.

---

SD 195-05-28, Very Large Logistical Support Ship (VLLSS) On Its Way to Arras Chanka Solar System, Medical Ward, 1200 hours

While Erma was still resting in her room of the ship's medical ward, she heard a male voice coming from behind the door.

-"Excuse me, Lieutenant, may I come in?"-

-"Come in, please."- Erma replied, thinking he could be one of the ship's doctors.

It turned out that the man, who was a Vulpine (fox), was not a doctor, but a high-ranking EDF officer in uniform, who entered her room very quickly, barely giving Erma time to prepare for his time.

-"Sorry for the suddenness of my arrival, lieutenant, but I wanted to speak with you and needed to do so quickly."- The Vulpine man apologized to Erma.

-"No problem, sir."- Erma tried not to make a big deal out of it. -"I was resting in my bed anyway."-

-"Good."- The officer was glad to hear that. -"First of all, I would like to know how your recovery from your injuries in Derzon is going. I heard you suffered from several broken ribs."-

-"My injuries, you mean?"- The Feline girl replied somewhat puzzled by that question. -"According to the doctors, I will be discharged in two more weeks if they do not see anything unusual before, but I am doing well, if you ask me."-

-"Good to know that."- The officer replied as well. -"By the way, I forgot to introduce myself beforehand, because of the rush. My name is Sergeant Kiri Vilso, Intelligence Division. Pleased to meet you."-

-"The pleasure is mine too."- Erma presented herself likewise. -"I was just going to ask your name."-

-"I see."-

-"Well, I'd like to know what brings you here. I don't think you're in such a hurry just for small talk, I think."-

-"Oh, sorry!"- Vilso apologized. -"I think I forgot to mention the reason for my visit."-

-"And what is that reason?"-

-"Technically, it's nothing official, so don't worry about this conversation being kept on file or anything like that."- Vilso thoroughly explained his reasons for visiting Erma in the medical ward. -"It's more... personal, if you could say so."-

-"Personal, you say?"- Erma answered somewhat astonished at such a query. -"I thought I had already explained everything in detail in my report that I emailed you people yesterday. Is there a issue with it?"-

-"No, no, no! There's no problem with your report you sent us yesterday."- The Vulpine man explained himself. -"In fact, your report is excellent, made in a very professional and comprehensive way, and above all, you gave your very personal point of view about what happened in Derzon and what happened afterwards."-

-"So, what topic do you want to discuss about?"- Erma began to raise the tone of the conversation by seeing where it was going. -"Does it have anything to do with the three ATF-X prototypes I lost back in Derzon?"-

-"Not exactly, in fact everything concerning the prototypes you refer to is a matter for the EDF Design Bureau, and they told me that they are very happy with the results obtained during the battle. It's a shame they got lost, but that was to be expected anyway, but at least the other two were recovered, so it wasn't a total loss."-

Erma could not believe that man cared more about the prototypes lost in Derzon than the men, and above all, herself, who piloted them. For Vilso, those prototypes were more valuable than the lives of the people who sacrified theirs on them, and that was something that began to bother her, but Erma decided to continue the talk without any further ado.

-"So, what's the point you want to make about me?"-

-"Well, the point I want to get to is about your state of mind."-

-"Wha-WHAT?"-

Erma was shocked to hear those words, because she knew very well what Vilso seemed to want to say.

-"Well, if it's not too much of an indiscretion on my part to share this with you, Lieutenant, but according to the combat data I received from the prototype you lost in Derzon, as well as the comments of your comrades in arms who fought with you, as well as the data I have regarding your behavior, attitude, among other details collected by the Net, showed a typical pattern of a person who acts in some way... aggresive."-

-"What the blazes do you mean by aggressive?"- Erma started to sulk when she saw where the conversation was going.

-"We are aware of what happened with the break-up of your relationship with Lieutenant Tavas Ikalik before you left for Derzon, and we think that this may have influenced your motives for going to fight there, even though you were warned beforehand not to do so, not to say in your way of acting, and even reacting, in combat."- Vilso replied somewhat harshly to her, trying to make it clear what Erma's attitude was in Derzon.

All those comments about Erma's state of mind began to make a dent in her peace of mind. One thing was been criticized for acting impulsively, and another was been called hysterical, or even crazy, and much more if she was so called by another man, no matter what rank he bragged before her.

-"Are you telling me I was hysterical at the time when I was in combat?"- Erma furiously replied to Vilso, without losing her sights to him.

-"Of course not! I just wanted to imply that your conduct of yourself in combat may have been influenced by personal motives and may have been the cause of the loss of..."-

That last part was the last straw for her. It was enough to have been called crazy in her face, but now Vilso was trying to blame her for the death of her two fellow flight mates in Derzon's skies, and Erma was not going to tolerate any more misogynistic criticism in front of her.

And at that moment, Erma threw her pillow at Vilso furiously.

-"WHAT THE...?!"-

-"I've had enough of your STUPID criticism, Sergeant!"- Erma yelled at the Vulpine man, having enough of his attitude. -"If you think I'm going to tolerate being called crazy, insane or suicidal in my own face, just because my love life was a disaster, and I pretended to die gloriously taking whoever was ahead of me to the grave, regardless of any other consideration, you can wholeheartedly forget it!"-

-"WAIT A DAMN SECOND, LIEUTENANT! I DIDN'T TRIED TO...!"-

-"If you doubt my mental state, check my profiles! I have absolutely nothing to hide about it!"- Erma kept screaming at Vilso furiously. -"Now, if you don't have something really official to say to me, instead of giving YOUR stupid personal opinions, I don't have anything else to say on the subject. Now get out of here, before I do something I MIGHT regret later!"-

-"All right, all right, I'm leaving, you don't have to yell at me!"-

Vilso left the room as quickly as he could, before continuing to suffer Erma's wrath firsthand. Once out of the premises, he met a doctor who tried to comfort him.

-"Looks like Lieutenant Felna is really a very difficult person to deal with, doesn't she?"-

Vilso passed by the doctor without a word, with the exception of this...

-"Stupid Dornthantii bitch..."-

In the meantime, Erma was depressed by what had happened, considering that she insulted and assaulted, even if it were with a pillow, a senior officer, even if he was not in official capacity, and that incident could cause her later consequences in her personal profile, although there was something that then reassured her just moments later...

-"DAMN IT!, looks like I screwed everything up now!"- Erma cursed herself, as she lowered her ears in shame. -"Net, do you think this incident could cause me any further problems for me?"-

Erma asked that question to the Net, the master computer, to which the computer's answer was more than recomforting to her.

-"Technically, no. Sergeant Vilso made a mistake in asking personal questions about your state of mind without being authorized to do so, not to mention that he came here on a personal basis. In short, what he did was something socially incorrect and I doubt very much that the EDF would have allowed it under these conditions."-

-"Good to hear that."- She gasped for relief when she heard this. -"I thought this would be the end of my career."-

-"You should not worry about that. Sergeant Vilso is more likely to be adversely affected by this incident than you are. Although I don't understand how he knew about your affair with Tavas, although he probably heard it from him, or the people who heared the whole thing back in Arras Chanka. But you should not worry about that point."-

-"Thanks for your response, I needed a good answer to that."-

-"You are welcome."-

-"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to get some sleep, I think that will help me calm down after such an incident."-

-"Understood. I'll let the others know you're resting so they won't disturb you in your sleep."-

-"All right."-

---

IV

-"Where the blazes am I again?"-

Again, Erma returned to that dark and lonely place, where she was the only person present, something that for her was beginning to become a recurring theme.

-"What's that sound?"-

But before she could ponder those questions about where she stood, she began to hear strange voices from far away.

-"Mother, do you want to play with us?"-

-"Mother? Me?"-

Those words began to disturb Erma as she had never felt before in her life, for she had never heard anything like this before, considering first of all that she was single and had no children yet.

-"WAIT A SECOND! I don't have children! I'm not even married yet!"-

As she mentioned this, three silhouettes of childish appearance appeared in front of her, playing among them as if they knew each other from a long time ago, judging by the tone of the voices. When Erma heard their voices, she could deduce that those three cub kids were all siblings: two boys and one girl.

But there was something that at the same time was well known to her, and at the same time incredibly disturbing in a hindsight: She had heard those voices and silhouettes before in that dream where she was in a park full of cherry trees blooming in spring, except for a few things: In the previous dream, there were four children, when in this one there were only three of them. Also, as in the previous dream, one of the silhouettes was that of a Feline, but the other two had no known form of any species she knew up to that point.

And there was something even more disturbing: In previous dreams, those silhouettes without definite form spoke in a language that she did not understand, and in this time the shapeless silhouettes spoke her language perfectly.

Even more disturbing was the fact that those shadows seemed to know her and began to get closer to Erma.

-"Mother, do you want to play with us?"- The female shadow said to her.

-"Yeah! You said we'd go play now that the cherry trees are blooming!"- The male shadow replied what his "sister" said.

The Feline shadow didn't say nothing at first, but for some reason, it also started to talk as well, albeit with a shy voice.

-"...A ...I! Don't you think guys this is the not the right place to play?"- the Feline shadow complained to his other two... friends? step-brothers?

This situation started to mentally screw Erma's head, as it was absolutely impossible for that child to be the brother of those two children who had no definite form. Leaving aside the fact that her forms were totally unknown to her, the fact that only one of them was a Feline like Erma and not the other two meant that these two children were not related to the kitten boy, since two people of different species cannot bear children, which is a fact known to everyone.

And suddenly, the female shadow draws close Erma and she takes her hand very familiarly to her, something that started to scare her.

-"What are you doing?! DON'T TOUCH ME!"- Erma responded very startled at the childish feminine shadow.

-"Come on, Mother, let's play!"-

-"I AM NOT YOUR MOTHER!"- Erma retorted at the shadow girl. -"DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME?"-

At that moment, the childish shadow did something even more frightening for Erma: After holding her hand, the girl pulled her arm, making Erma fall to the ground suddenly...

-"WHAT THE BLAZES ARE YOU DOING!?"-

Once Erma was on the ground, the girl threw herself towards her, holding her with great force, but at the same time in a very affectionate way, and with her face very close to hers.

-"You know what, Mother? I love you very much."-

When she heard those words, Erma knew that the girl had no ill intentions towards her, and she only wanted to play with her. She hugged Erma like any child would hug her mother at any time, and she did it as if she loved Erma as if she were her own biological mother, despite being of different species.

-"You know something? You're very cute when you purr."-

-"Purr... WHAT?"-

Erma didn't seem to understand those strange words, but for some reason, the sound of her breathing seemed cute to that girl, something she had never heard in her life. Although since she had a memory she had noticed that as a Feline she had a very definite way of breathing, she had never given much importance to the matter, nor had anyone close to her ever told Erma about the sound of her breathing, and how that sound might sound nice to some people. In plain terms, that sound was something normal for both her and the rest of the members of her species and nobody seemed to care about that.

But for that little girl, the sound of Erma's breath was magical for her, making Erma the perfect target for that girl's affection. It was as if that sound had a magical feature that made that little girl wanted to play with Erma like a huge plush toy for her.

And what at the time seemed like something terrifying became a particularly touching scene.

-"Hey! Stop playing with Mother like she was an oversized cat!"- The other male shapeless shadow said towards his sister.

-"Well, brother, she IS an oversized cat, and I love her for that."- The girl hugging Erma retorted to his older brother after being scolded by him.

Erma didn't know what to do at the time, except to remain silent and just listen to the conversation between those cubs.

-"Technically speaking, my mother and me are Felines. We don't like to be called "cats", because for us it is a racist slur in the same way that you would not like to be called..."- The Feline shadow tried to explain the difference between being called a Feline and being called a "cat".

-"Oh, please ...O! You really are a killjoy at times!"-

At that moment, the girl uses one of her fingers to touch Erma's nose, something that seemed strange to her. She noticed something very strange about that girl: While she couldn't see her face, or her physical features, she could deduce some things that were different from her and the Feline boy who was with them.

And one of those different things was the fact that girl had five fingers, when usually almost everyone she knew either had four fingers like her or had hooves, wings or fins.

-"Your nose is very wet compared to mine."-

-"Really?"-

-"Yes."-

But the moment that girl touched her nose, a white light appeared in her place, surrounding everything around her, and what was once a park with cherry trees, now it was another completely different place. The children had also disappeared, leaving Erma alone again.

-"WHAT THE...?!"-

Once Erma opened her eyes again, she realized that she was now in what appeared to be a city...

-"Oh, khai, Where am I now again?"-

While Erma cursed her luck, she realized some unusual things about the city where she was at that time: At that moment, the city was receiving what seemed to be a very intense rain, something relatively normal if it wasn't for a small tidbit... or rather two of them.

The first of them was that the rain had a blackish look, almost like the color of black oil (better known as petroleum), and another, even more terrifying, detail, was the city where that black-colored rain fell was almost completely destroyed.

Considering what she had gone through a week ago, Erma could have considered that city could have been Andis, the capital of Derzon, the planet where she spent a few days trying to drive the ILR out of there, and that all the destruction she was witnessing could have been caused by enemy forces...

But there were some details that didn't match the description she remembered about Andis. First of all, the city had an aspect that she had never seen in any other place or planet that she had already known before. In fact, the city had a truly ancient appearance, with several aspects that were quite different from each other, as if they belonged to different cultures that gathered together in the same place. But without the proper context, Erma could not deduce exactly where that city belonged, except that it was a strange city that she had never visited before.

And as far as she could remember, the day she was wounded in Andis was not raining at all.

There was also another detail to consider: In spite of the rain, it didn't seem to affect her in the slightest, in fact she wasn't even wet, which was a good thing for her, because if she were wet, it would have been very difficult for her to walk with her coat all wet without protection, and more if that rain was black, because that meant the rainfall had some solid matter in its chemical composition.

-"Hello, is anyone over here?"-

As she walked through the city, Erma realized how utterly alien that city was for her. Nothing she saw around her was familiar to her, with the exception of some things she could deduce from making comparisons with familiar objects in her regular environment: There were several vehicles destroyed around Erma, but all of them seemed to be of very old-fashioned appearance even to the standards of her own culture, all the buildings she saw seemed to be made of a material that looked very flimsy, compared to the more resistant materials that Erma knew in her own environment and even the streets looked antiquated, old and dirty.

But there was something more terrifying for the young Feline girl waiting for her: At that moment, she began to hear the cries of pain and sorrow of the residents of that city who had suffered from their almost total destruction. She could not understand the meaning of those words full of pain and suffering, but Erma could deduce that language was the same as the man who committed suicide in front of her when all these events she was witnessing began.

And suddenly, Erma saw the same unknown and formless silhouettes she had seen before, but this time the silhouettes were busy with their own affairs, ignoring Erma at least, as like she didn't existed at all for them, and for a good reason, at least apparently: All those shadows seemed to have suffered the effects of the destruction that had fallen on the city, and the shadows seemed to be trying to help their fellow men, while others cried out for help.

But despite the magnitude of the destruction that had fallen on the city, she didn't see blood or gore, and the few shadows she saw depicting corpses had no physical form to help her know how they were at the time of their deaths, something that for Erma was at least comforting, because she didn't have to see the most unpleasant parts of them, or the goriest parts, at least.

-"This is... terrible, on so many levels..."-

Then, she heard a scream that seemed to be the cry for help coming from a burning building two blocks north of where Erma was. She, as a soldier, could not help but go out to help whoever was in that damaged building.

-"I don't know who you are, but I'm going to help you!"-

Once near the building, she noticed something strange: Although the building was on fire, Erma didn't feel the intense heat coming from that hellish place, but because of the intense screams for help, the last thing she could think of in those critical moments was to worry about the intensity of the fire.

But she also noticed one other thing: The fire didn't seem to affect her at all. But for her that was the least important thing to worry about, as the most important thing for her was to help that person within that hell.

Once inside the building, Erma went to what appeared to be a dining room. Fortunately for her, there were no doors or walls to break, so she quickly reached the place where the victim of the fire was.

-"HEY, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT, LITTLE ONE?"-

The victim was a girl who appeared to be about 10 years old, judging by her voice and height. Although Erma couldn't know how hurt the girl was because she had no physical features or way of knowing how badly she was burned, at least Erma was trying to help that strange cub somehow.

The strange girl, who at first seemed not to know if Erma was there in front of her, lifted her head to see her Feline savior, but it was more than evident that something was not right with her, due of the tone of her voice.

-"Are you taking me... to the other world, miss?"- The girl asked Erma, with hardly any breath to speak, because it was more than evident that she was badly hurt.

Surprisingly, that girl seemed to understand what the young soldier said, and at the same time she could understand that girl's language without any problem.

-"No, I'm going to get you out of this place. You have my word on that."-

-"Lies!"- The girl cried in pain in front of Erma. -"My mom told me... that the nekomata kill and eat people like me! You want to eat me... now that I'm going to die, don't you?"-

-"Nekomata? Eat you? WHAT THE BLAZES ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"-

It was more than evident that Erma understood nothing of the context of those words that that dying child was saying in front of her. The girl thought Erma wanted to eat her, but apparently the physical pain and burns produced by the attack on the city had caused her to somehow see the Feline woman, when until then no one had noticed her presence.

-"I think in the end... I've been a pretty bad girl..."-

-"Please don't say that now!"- Erma yelled at the girl, while she was trying to get her out of there -"I'm going to get you out of here somehow and you'll be fine soon enough! Just trust me!"-

But Erma realized something terrifying: As she tried to grab the girl and pull her out of the building, all her tries were useless, because every time she tried to touch the girl's body her hands went through her body as if there was nothing there. This began to frustrate Erma, who was crying trying to get the child out of that burning hell and despair began to haunt her.

-"DAMN IT! DAMN IT!"- The Feline woman ragefully cried. -"HOW COME I CAN'T GET THIS POOR LITTLE GIRL OUT OF HERE?"-

-"Hey, can I at least... tell you my name?"-

-"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR SUCH NONSENSE! I'M GOING TO GET YOU OUT OF HERE EVEN IF IT COSTS ME MY LIFE!"-

-"My name is... Saek...o..."-

In that tragic event, the girl took her last breath in front of Erma, causing the young soldier to fall into panic after seeing that little girl named Saeko dying in her own eyes.

-"PLEASE, SAEKO, DON'T DIE IN FRONT OF ME! I SWEAR TO GET YOU OUT OF HERE AND I'LL DO IT EVEN IF MY VERY DAMN LIFE GOES ON IN THIS!"-

As Erma mourned the death of that little girl named Saeko, the building in which both girls were standing collapsed instantly...

-"WHAT THE...!"-

But in spite of the terrible collapse, Erma came out unharmed from the event, something that made her realize two things: The first thing was that she was basically a spectre that only a few people could see, and the second and most important thing was that she couldn't help anyone, nor could the others help her, with the exception of a few people.

But despite that, Saeko's death really traumatized the young Feline, who was powerless to prevent her demise. The only thing she could do in those moments was to mourn her, as she took her hands to her face and cried in silence.

-"Why?... sob Why I couldn't help you?"-

In an attempt to ensure that that girl's death was not in vain, Erma tried to look for some flowers to put in the ruins of that building that had collapsed by the fire, but at that moment she realized something as shocking as Saeko's death...

There were no flowers anywhere, because they were all dead.

After seeing the magnitude of the destruction of the city, the damage that Saeko received before she died, among other details that she perceived throughout the time she was in the city, including the death of those flowers, the screams of pain of the survivors, the black rain, and other unpleasant scenes, Erma came to a terrible conclusion:

That city was not destroyed in an attack with conventional weapons, much less in an invasion such as the ILR attack against Derzon and Andis, or even in a common bombing...

The city where she was standing was destroyed through the use of an atomic bomb.

-"Oh, no! no, no, no, no!"-

Erma took her hands to her head in despair as she saw that grotesque stage before her eyes. All those destroyed buildings, all those dead, the screams of pain...

...And above all, the sense of helplessness she felt when she was unable to do anything for those poor victims who lost everything.

Although Erma had never witnessed the use of an atomic weapon, she was well aware of the effects of these, due to what she read when she was in the military academy with respect to the Lepine War decades ago, especially in the hands of the ILR. She knew that those cursed weapons were capable of causing such terrible side effects that they endured and that in some places they still endure and will for centuries to come.

After weeping over Saeko's death, and the destruction caused by an atomic bomb in that strange city, Erma decided that crying would not help her in any way in her situation, so she decided to walk around the city to see what she could do about it.

And as she walked through what appeared to be the city's outskirts, she saw a young man, who was on his knees in what seemed to have been his home, or what was left of it.

But Erma noticed something extremely unusual about that man: Unlike the other silhouettes she had seen so far, that man did have a definite and recognizable appearance, even though he was on his back from her. He wore what appeared to be a lab coat and while she could not recognize the color of his hair, she noticed that man wore glasses.

And there was another strange oddity about the man: Like Saeko and the children she was playing in the park with the cherry trees a few moments ago, she could understand his language as well.

-"Excuse me, young man, can I help you out?"-

The man did not answer Erma, while he continued to weep in front of the remains of his home.

-"WHY, WHY, WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!"-

She realized that the man had suffered a very great loss, and that he was in no mood to receive help, much less to talk to the Feline girl.

But Erma, in a perhaps naive attempt on her part to try to help in that man's sorrow, took him by the shoulder and began trying to comfort him.

-"I know how you feel, so I'm very sorry for your loss."-

But that man, far from appreciating Erma's words of comfort, began to shout furiously at her, as if she had said something truly outrageous to him.

-"Sorry, you say? DO YOU HAVE ANY GODDAMN IDEA WHAT I'VE SUFFERED, WHAT I'VE LOST? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THESE BASTARDS DID TO MY COUNTRY, MY FAMILY AND, ABOVE ALL, ME?"-

-"Excuse me, sir, but I don't know what are you talking about!"- She replied frightened to hear such an answer from that mysterious man, whose voice sounded in a mixture between anger and pure, unadulterated hatred as she had never heard before in her life.

-"OF COURSE, YOU'D NEVER UNDERSTAND! HOW WOULD SOMEONE LIKE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THESE STINKING MONKEYS HAVE DONE TO THIS PLANET IN THEIR QUEST FOR ABSOLUTE POWER?"-

-"Mon-what?!"- Erma replied after hearing that part, since she didn't get the nuance of the word.

But before Erma could ask any more questions, the man turned around to face the girl.

-"ERMA FELNA, ARE YOU GOING TO FACE ME AS WELL? TO PROTECT YOUR HECES-THROWING FRIENDS OF YOURS, EVEN IF THEY NOT GOING TO THANK YOU LATER AND THEN BACKSTABBING YOU AFTER YOU ARE NO LONGER FOR USE TO THEM?! JUST LIKE ME?!"-

Erma then realized something really eldritch about that man: While she knew he wore a lab coat, instead of having a face, he appeared to have what it looked to be a black hole in his head, from where his words of hatred came out.

-"What... the blazes are you?!"-

The following words came out of that black hole that the man had instead of his mouth.

-"If you want to know that, I am Khai! I AM YOUR GOD! THE MAN YOU MUST KNEEL DOWN TO! I CREATED YOU AND IF YOU DARE TO OPPOSE ME,I WILL DESTROY YOU!"-

---

V

-"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"-

Erma screamed as deeply as she could at the sheer magnitude of the terror she was witnessing. What she had just seen was something so dreadful, so terrifying and above all, so utterly incomprehensible that even her brain could not fully grasp what she had in front of her, not to mention that terrifyingly destroyed place in which she was...

-"Hon. Felna, are you OK? Your vital signs showed very important alterations, and we heard a very loud scream coming from your room..."-

-"W...hat?"

As Erma opened her eyes, she realized that a nurse was standing in front of her, taking her vital signs after hearing panic cries from her room in the ship's medical ward.

-"At least it's good to know that you've already opened your eyes, I thought you were starting to die for sure!"- The nurse, who was a Canine (tanuki), said this, deeply relieved to see that Erma was well and had regained consciousness, albeit in a very sudden and frightening way for both women.

Seeing the nurse, Erma realized again that what she had just witnessed was yet another horrible nightmare, this time much more frightening than the previous ones she had had.

-"Khai"- Erma said with a rather sad face. -"Not another nightmare..."-

-"Sorry if I'm getting into other people's business,"- The nurse interrupted her. -"but I think you're suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Maybe that's the origin of the nightmares you're talking about right now, if you ask me."-

In theory, what Erma seemed to be suffering could be PTSD or something like that, and she was fully aware that something like that could happen to her sooner or later, given the atrocities she witnessed and suffered in Derzon.

But there was something that didn't quite match the classic description of PTSD, as far as she knew about it: She had already started to suffer from those nightmares a few days before she went into combat in Derzon, none of the nightmares seemed to have anything in common with what she witnessed or saw there, apart from the fact that all of them had in common some war or battle as their main theme and above all, all of those nightmares seemed to have a common theme, in this case, the same kind of mysterious people who were the protagonists of some of those dreams, whose species Erma could not deduce, nor understand their language at times...

...started first, by the man who committed suicide in front of Erma, the children playing in the park with cherry trees and the man who had a black hole for face, not to mention that little girl named Saeko, who died in front of her.

The young Feline soldier, in a great effort to try to understand everything that she had witnessed in her dreams, began to try to put some resemblance of order into what she had dreamed of until that moment.

But no matter how hard she tried, the only thing she got from that strain on her mind was an unbearable headache.

-"My head!"-

-"Perhaps this could help you, young lady."-

-"What would help me out?"- Erma replied, still suffering from the migraine produced by the physical strain of remembering all those strange nightmares.

-"Tell me what you dreamed of,"- The Canine nurse commented with a smile in her face. -"Maybe that'll help you with something."-

She knew that would be a very difficult task, but if she wanted to make sense of what she dreamed of, maybe talking to someone would help Erma in some way.

-"OK."- Erma sat quietly on the bed, trying to relax while she ordered her thoughts as far as she could remember them. -"What I dreamt today was that a man who committed suicide in front of me for some reason I didn't understand. After that, I found myself in a park full of cherry trees blossoming in the spring, playing with some children, and then I found myself in a destroyed city, where I saw a girl named "Saeko" die and finally, a man who had a black hole for a face started shouting strange things at me that I didn't understand."-

The nurse began taking note of everything Erma had said in her Data Pad by recording her conversation for further analysis regarding her nightmares. What she didn't realize was that Erma had deliberately omitted some critical details about her dreams (especially, with regards with the physical description of the strange-looking people she saw in them) to prevent that data from being used against her afterwards. She knew very well that she had a very strong quarrel with Vilso hours ago, who had considered her to be a hysterical woman who wished to die in combat, and the last thing Erma wanted was to give people like Vilso further tools to attack her later when necessary.

-"All right, I've already taken the notes you told me about your dreams."- The nurse explained. -"There's only one thing that puzzles me."-

-"Huh?"- Erma replied a little bit surprised. -"What thing?"-

-"About that girl named Saeko you were talking about."-

-"Is there something weird about that name?"-

The nurse took a deep breath first before continuing with the conversation...

-"Well, just between you and me, since I am not authorized to disclose this information, nor to investigate it beforehand, if I remember correctly, Saeko's name was the name of that Derzonii Feline woman who was murdered by that ILR soldier who had his own men blown his brains out, and who you and your companions had killed previously one of his men earlier while they had that woman and the rest of his family as hostages, according with the data I found out yesterday about you."-

Erma was shocked to hear that, because she never imagined having to know the name of that dead woman at the hands of that Lepine in the circumstances in which she was at that moment.

-"Sorry if I said something I shouldn't have. I just wanted to be very specific about the subject and I didn't mean to be nosy or anything."- The tanuki woman said with some concern when she saw Erma's reaction to such news, but then she put a smile in her face with the intention of cheering her up. -"Furthermore, you are a heroine for many women who belong to the EDF, as you are the first woman to participate in direct combat against enemy forces on land."-

Erma's face remained frozen at such statement...

-"That should make you proud, shouldn't it?"-

-"Yeah, maybe you're right..."- Erma replied up with tears in her eyes, trying to remember as many of the events in Derzon as her nightmares. "...but that's no good if innocent people die, and more so if we can't do anything about it."-

-"Well, some sacrifices certainly have to be made, and I can't help but think that all these people died needlessly at the hands of ILR, but at least we succeeded at the end..."

-"At the end of WHAT?"- The Dornthanthii woman furiously replied. -"All of those dead had names, families, and even children, and many of those children were more likely to become orphans now when they lost their families. I saw when that woman named Saeko was killed in front of her children and her husband, but even I, who at that time wished to kill that vermin with my own hands, preferred to save that Lepine's life, only to have his brains scattered all over my clothes and face. And do you know why I didn't kill that bastard before? Because I'm a soldier, and I swore the day I joined the EDF in enforcing the law at any cost, and not let my emotions cloud my decisions, because the day I didn't, I would lower myself to the level of my aggressors, if not worse."-

The nurse didn't know what else to say about the topic, shocked by Erma's own words full of pain and anger, who tried to minimize her own participation in the battle of Derzon by feeling bad on all those deaths.

-"Please, leave me alone, will you?"-

-"Understood, call me if you need anything else or if you have any other problem."-

The nurse left Erma's room, leaving the young Feline girl alone and cursing herself in her own mind for everything that happened.

But there was one thing that began to seem both incongruent and strange to Erma at the same time: The dead Feline woman in Derzon called Saeko looked nothing like the other shapeless girl of the same name Erma saw in her dreams, who also died in a war. The former died at the hands of an enemy soldier, while the latter perished from the wounds caused by the atomic attack on her city and the collapse of her home. Similarly, the city where the other Saeko died did not look anything like the modern city of Andis on planet Derzon, since the other seemed much older.

Was there any coincidence between the two Saekos other than their names and the situation they were in before they died? From Erma Felna's point of view, it was obvious that there were none.

The fact that the woman who died in Derzon was named Saeko was completely inconsequential to the fact that she had met another person of the same name in a war-related dream. Even then, Erma didn't bothered to ask that woman's name before she was killed by that ILR soldier.

Besides the two Saeko's issue, there was the fact of the man in a lab coat and with a black hole face, who began threatening to destroy her if she interfered with her plans. But what plans was that man talking about, and why did he seem to hold a huge hatred for those who destroyed that city? Leaving aside the obvious, it was evident that man meant not only those who destroyed that ancient-looking city, but to something greater and more prominent than just his own personal enemies.

And how does Erma have a connection with that man and his enemies? Was that man Tavas? No, that was not possible, because as far as she knew about him, Tavas had never had any relationship with science or research of any kind, bearing in mind that the man was wearing a lab coat and not a military uniform.

So, if that man wasn't her ex-boyfriend, then, who was he?

No matter how hard she tried to wrap things up, Erma came to the same conclusion, and that conclusion was completely incomprehensible for her.

Another option she could take into account was that those dreams could be the product of PTSD, along with her childhood traumas, mixed with other recent events, including her breakup with Tavas, so the nurse's opinion regarding her nightmares was not entirely far-fetched in the first place.

And, leaving aside her nightmares, Erma also had in her head what that Feline woman, with her kitten kids, said, and whose words impacted her in the same way. Far from helping those inhabitants of that planet, she had the feeling that she, along with the rest of the EDF, had only made things worse, and what happened there would haunt her for life.

And all that started to affect that poor woman in ways she had never experienced in her life, and more so now that she had become a celebrity within the EDF for her actions in Derzon.

And what was Erma's reaction to all this? To put her head on a pillow and curse her luck.

-"I'm SO screwed right now..."-

---

SD 195-06-07, Central City, Planet Arras Chanka, Central City EDF Military Hospital, 1000 hours

It has been a few days since Erma left Derzon, being wounded there in combat and recovering on her way to Arras Chanka, the planet where both EDF and ConFed have their headquarters, not to mention that this planet is considered the cradle of all civilization, although that topic is for another opportunity to discuss.

Because her wounds had not yet healed, Erma would still be recovering for a few more weeks, this time in the capital city of the planet, Central City, and in the EDF military hospital of the aforementioned city, although unlike what was happening back in the ship, she could now walk a little outside her room.

But in a way, she couldn't complain about the treatment she received in the hospital, since more than a medical center, the place seemed more like a luxury hotel, where she was cared for 24 hours a day, she had several ways to spend time in the hospital, so that she wasn't bored in any way, and above all, she had more space and freedom to walk while her treatment continued, compared to the VLLSS, which was somewhat claustrophobic, being a spacecraft after all despite its size.

And one of the hospital's perks was the place had a kind of courtyard where patients could rest with their families, although it looked more like a public park, with trees, chairs and other amenities to hang out.

And thanks to all this, Erma could rest while she was sitting on a bench in the hospital yard, while reading some things on her data pad. At least that helped her to spend time while she tried to get relaxed.

-"May I have a minute of your time, Lieutenant?"-

A very deep, masculine voice was heard beside Erma, as she tried to pay attention.

-"Wait, are you..."-

And as she turned her head to see where that voice came from, she realized that very deep voice was from a person known to her.

-"I hope I didn't interrupt you on something important."-

The man was a Ursine (bear), and for that reason he was a man of considerable stature, much larger than she was. Besides, judging by his uniform, the man there was a high-ranking officer, so it was self-evident that he had something very relevant to say to Erma.

-"No, there's no problem. I was just reading a few things in my data pad to spend some time while resting. Thanks for asking, sir."-

-"Good to hear that."-

Afterwards, the officer sat next to Erma so that he could speak with her in person, albeit amicably.

-"Before we start having a little chat, I'd like to know how you feel. I heard you had some broken ribs, didn't I?"-

-"That's right, but fortunately thanks to the treatment I'm already much better, and I'll be discharged next week. Although I must admit I still feel some pain, but it could have been much worse. Thankfully, outside of the ribs that were broken, no internal organs were damaged, with the exception of some veins."- Erma explained to the man, as she carried her hand toward her abdomen in sign of the pain she still felt for what she suffered in Derzon.

-"I see."-

-"By the way, not to be rude, Commander Anatoh, but I imagine the reason you're here isn't exactly to know my health status, is it?"- Erma asked her interlocutor and senior officer when she saw that he had more important things to say. The man only put a smile on his face when he saw the young Feline pilot wanted to get to the point immediately.

-"OK, you got me."- Anatoh replied. -"I took on the task of reading your report, and I must say that it is one of the best reports I have read in quite a while. Not only did you bother to give all the important details that were needed, but also to give your opinion on the socio-political consequences related to the events in Derzon. That's something to be admired, considering you're merely a pilot."-

-"Thank you, sir."-

-"But"- The Ursine carefully remarked the following. -"that's not exactly the reason I went looking for you here."-

Seeing that man suddenly put a more stern face before the following, Erma realized that there was something more serious to discuss between the two of them.

-"What is exactly... that reason?"-

-"Well, what you did in Derzon, including piloting an advanced prototype combat jet, has drawn some... unnecessary attention to your own person, which has caused some of the more conservative heads within the EDF to start to be alarmed by what happened."-

-"Wha-WHAT?!"- Erma responded quite shocked by such words, since she did not expect what she did in Derzon to be something really special for everyone within the EDF. In fact, what happened on that planet to Erma could have happened to anyone in similar circumstances, and while it was something to be admired, the fact that she was responsible for those events was what caused shock to many influential people within both the EDF and the ConFed. -"To be completely straightforward, I don't know exactly what you're referring to, sir."-

-"Before we continue, let's start with some important facts."- Anatoh tried to give some context to his words. -"The EDF has approximately 8200 combat pilots. Of those 8200, only 1000 of them are women, and of all those women, you are the only one who has participated in combat against both air and ground forces at the same time, and to top it off, you were wounded in combat, not without first taking some enemies with you, and living to tell the tale. It's more than obvious that some people are starting to get nervous when they see someone, especially a woman, do all that in less than a day and still survive, just like you."-

Erma quickly understood the magnitude of the situation in which she was involved, considering what that nurse had told her on the ship when she was going back to Arras Chanka that she was a hero for many of the women within the EDF. She, not even in her wildest dreams, had considered being a heroine, much less an example for other people, since she only intended to serve as a member of the EDF, and not to be a legendary heroine of sorts. But now that she was the center of attention within the organization, as Anatoh explained to Erma, she knew very well that things were just going to start to get more complicated for her.

-"I think... I understand where all this is going, if I can read very well what you want to tell me about the current situation."- Erma responds in the most polite way possible, trying to hide her surprise at the knowledge of her sudden fame.

-"Certainly."- The Ursine officer confirmed what Erma said. -"And according to some internal reports regarding the Derzon incident, if that invasion hadn't occurred so suddenly, and if we had had enough time to respond properly, they might have found a suitable replacement instead of sending you to her and they would have invented some kind of bogus pretext in advance to prevent you from going into combat."-

When she heard this, Erma began to understand why Tavas insisted so much that she should not travel to Derzon to fight, although she did not understand if it had anything to do with the EDF itself, or it was his own initiative seeking to manipulate her. Still, she couldn't forgive him for what he did and more knowing she knew that information.

To explain the context of what has happened up to this moment, Erma's society is characterized by a society in which women have very defined roles, the typical ones in which a woman should theoretically stay at home to take care of her family and children, or dedicate herself to jobs with little or no risk. In the case of EDF, the normal expectation of a woman within the organization would be to work in a desk job, nursing, or as "risky" as possible, pilot cargo flights without weapons.

But Erma, defying the gender roles that were expected of her, decided to go out to fight like any other man in the EDF, and without even thinking twice, to boot. For obvious reasons, many men protested at having to take orders from a woman, but seeing what Erma was capable of doing, especially during the long journey to Derzon, she began to earn the respect of those men.

But it was evident that for some people, the presence of a woman who was in combat in Derzon, and who did several heroic acts there, to top it off, was perhaps the last straw for some conservative members of the EDF, as explained below:

-"So does that mean I've become into some kind of heroine?"- Erma asked Anatoh about her current situation within the EDF.

-"In short, yes."- The Ursine bluntly replied to her. -"And not just any heroine, but also a role model for many women within the EDF, and even beyond. You could even say that now you have become a historical precedent never seen before in the history of the organization, something that does not make the EDF very happy, of course."-

-"Great."- Erma retorted with some uneasiness when she saw that even the EDF was starting to make her life difficult for the mere fact of being a woman. -"Now what's going to happen to me now?"-

Before continuing the conversation, Anatoh breathed deeply again and looked directly into Erma's eyes.

-"I don't know if you are aware of your new assignment that you will receive once you are discharged from here."-

-"Yes, I understand I was assigned as a training instructor to another planet. Just yesterday I received the notification in my email account, and I can't honestly say that I am very happy about this."- the young Feline girl replied quite frustrated after being reminded of this by her superior. -"At least I was expecting a small celebration for my promotion from my superiors, not just that they would send me my new stripes by courier and the corresponding emails with the appropriate paperwork and approvals, which I have to sign as received. This is not damn fair, at least for me."-

Erma bowed her head depressed as she remembered all this, which Anatoh couldn't help but feel bad about seeing that young pilot's life being ruined by political intrigue and sexism. Being sent to another distant place as a "prize" for her heroism in Derzon sounded like a punishment to her for doing something wrong, which in this case was being a woman.

-"I understand very well how you feel, Lieutenant."- The man replied to her. -"Nobody likes to be basically sent to the EDF's Outer Rim, in this case, Ekosiak. Much less in a desk job that any idiot can do. But there's something I can do, at least to minimize the situation."-

Erma was surprised to hear that, seeing that her superior was doing her a favor without even asking him, much less something that directly involved an assignment to a spot as distant as Ekosiak, which was at the outer reaches of the Confederation of Planets.

-"What are you planning to do for me, Commander?"-

Anatoh carefully explained what he planned to do for Erma so that at least her assignment to Ekosiak would not totally jeopardize her career.

-"Well, there's not much I can do, but I can modify your assignment to Ekosiak a bit, so that it doesn't look like a punitive one, and doesn't affect you in your file afterwards. You're a very young and talented officer, not to mention that you have a very promising career and it would be very unfair if that career was affected for political reasons."-

Erma didn't know what to say to that man for basically preventing her career from being affected, but her face showed a sign of both joy and surprise at these events.

-"Thank you, Commander Anatoh!"- The Feline girl replied quite happy at this. -"The truth is, I don't know how to thank you in any way."-

-"You don't have to thank me, it's the least I can do for you, after no one even bothered to congratulate you on your promotion, and they only sent you far away from here so you could not cause any trouble. even after all the things you endured in Derzon."- The Ursine man happily answered her. -"But, there's one thing I must warn you about beforehand."-

-"What is it you want to warn me about, sir?"-

The commander rose from the chair where he and Erma were sitting and looked up at her.

-"From now on, you will be the victim of many intrigues from many people who not only do not want a woman to succeed in the EDF, but also people who are enemies of your family from long ago. As far as I am aware, you come from a family of soldiers that dates back a century since the founding of the ConFed and your father was a very exemplary soldier. It's truly a pity what happened to Kanoc, and I wouldn't want the same thing to happen to you."-

-"Thank you, sir."-

-"And one more thing, and I think you already know this: Put your family's name very high while you are in Ekosiak and make them proud of you. And, if necessary, become a heroine that will be remembered for many more years to come, but don't let the fame go over your head, young girl."-

-"Thank you again, commander. I will remember that."- Erma smiled at her commander after hearing such encouraging words.

-"Well, now if you'll excuse me, I have to go. We'll see you later once you're discharged and before you go to Ekosiak."-

-"See you later as well, sir, and thanks for everything."-

Commander Anatoh left the hospital yard after chatting with Erma, who was pleased to learn that her assignment to Ekosiak was not going to be as painful as she expected, and that it was not going to affect her career after all.

But still, she had to prepare herself for anything that might bestow upon her on that distant planet. Apart from the fact that Ekosiak was in the boundaries of the ConFed, she knew almost nothing about that place, so before going there she had to know everything necessary to at least impress her new hosts.

---

SD 195-06-20, Central City, Planet Arras Chanka, Spaceport

Once Erma was discharged from the hospital, the next day she already had her one-way ticket to the planet Ekosiak. She was in the waiting room of the spaceport, waiting for the order to board the spaceship.

-"Attention all passengers bound for Hicho, Ekosiak. You are advised that your takeoff will depart in 30 minutes. Please have your documentation at hand at all times."-

-"Well, looks like it's almost time to get out of here. I wish my comrades and superiors had come here to say goodbye to me."-

Erma cursed herself when she saw that she was not even going to be given a farewell for her at the spaceport, although in a way she understood why they had not been able to come and see her off. Chances are they were all busy in their jobs in order to get there.

Erma then picked up her luggage as she proceeded to the boarding area to check it out and hand in the corresponding documents.

-"At least hopefully my family would know what I did, and I would be satisfied to know that they are already aware of my assignment to Ekosiak and the reasons why I am going to be there."-

-"HEY, LIEUTENANT!"-

Erma heard some familiar voices and she twitched her ears to hear them: They were none other than Czimmer, Weadjhee and Krimble, her comrades-in-arms from Derzon. And they did not go alone, as they were also accompanied by Commander Anatoh, who fulfilled his promise to say goodbye to her personally at the spaceport.

-"GUYS? COMMANDER? What are you guys doing here?"-

-"Well, as promised, I personally came to say goodbye, and I brought some friends of yours for the same purpose."- Anatoh happily replied to Erma after seeing her happy face when she saw them all there.

-"Well, what did you think, Lieutenant? That we weren't gonna say goodbye to the pretty girl who saved our asses in Derzon?"- Czimmer explained to the Feline girl. His happiness was more than evident, since he was wagging his tail, something unusual in a somewhat formal situation such as a farewell, because it was considered too much... intimate.

-"Hey Czimmer! You don't have to wag your tail, you pervert!"- Krimble quickly reprimanded his partner for doing that.

-"WHO THE BLAZES YOU CALL A PERVERT? I'm just so happy to see her, that's all!"-

-"Hey guys, shut up, this is a spaceport, not a party room!"- Weadjhee tried to calm his other two partners, but he got a very different response from them.

-"Oh, yeah? And who was too excited to say goodbye to Lieutenant Felna one last time, you idiot?"- Krimble angrily retorted to his other Canine friend.

Erma, who was very amused to see the commotion her peers were making, started laughing like she'd never done since she returned from Derzon.

-"Guys, please stop! You guys are gonna laugh me to death with your nonsense!"- Erma keeps laughing as hard as she could, while watching her friends arging between themselves.

On the other hand, Anatoh was standing there watching the amusing spectacle that his men starred in the boarding hall of the spaceport. It was obvious he wanted to tell Erma something before boarding the ship.

-"Commander, you wanted to say something to me?"- Erma stopped her laughs and she adressed him as seriously as she could.

-"I don't have much to say, but I can do something for you before you leave for Ekosiak."-

-"And what's that thing?"-

-"This."-

And without saying anything else, Anatoh embraced Erma as tightly as he could in those moments. She could not believe that man, who had a serious personality, would bother to do something so personal to her. On the other hand, his embrace was too strong and she began to suffocate.

-"Sir... Are you planning... to kill... me?!"-

The Ursine officer stopped hugging her after hearing that.

-"Oops! I think I hugged you too hard."- Anatoh apologized to her. -"Sorry for that. he he."-

-"Well, leaving aside the strength of the embrace, I thank you for bothering to do that, sir"-

-"No problem, young lady"-

Meanwhile, a female voice was heard in the boarding room. The voice warned that the time of departure to Ekosiak had arrived and that all passengers had to enter the ship.

-"Well, I guess it's time for me to leave. I thank you all for what you did for me and I hope that someday we can meet again."-

-"No problem, Lieutenant. You will always be welcome here at any time."- Anatoh gave his final regards to her.

-"See you later, Lieutenant! Don't forget about us!"- Czimmer said goodbye to her.

-"Yeah! And if you don't find a nice boyfriend there in Ekosiak, we are also available as well."- Weadjhee also gave his final goodbye.

-"HEY! You're not even from the same species as her!"- Czimmer retorted.

-"And who cares? She is very cute after all."-

Erma cannot stop laughing at such a show they were starring there, and she gave her last farewell.

-"Ha ha! I will keep that in mind. See you later guys!"-

-"SEE YA!"-

And then Erma boarded the ship, and after a few minutes later, the ship took off for Ekosiak, a journey that would take several days to reach its destination.

-"I don't know what you think sir, but I believe that girl is destined to do something really big."- Czimmer commented to everyone to his friends, while giving his final farewell to Erma's ship.

-"I think so, too. But what kind of thing will it be?"- Anatoh replied to his subordinate. -"I just hope that the path she takes is the right one, because the hard part for her is about to start."-

END OF ACT VI