Chapter 45

Tales of the past and raising the colours

Bonita woke with a tail in her face and a sensation of an empty spot behind her back. During the night Sukura had shifted so that her feet were by Bonita's head. Said tail started to idly flick and Bonita had to suppress the urge to sneeze. Slowly she got up and made her way from the cuddle pile, the enticing lure of freshly brewing caf drawing her to the kitchen.

Melissa was seated at the rarely used used corner table of the kitchen, a cold cup of caf in front of her. Looking closer Bonita could see circles starting to form under Melissa's eyes. Pouring two fresh mugs she sat down at the table

"Did you not sleep well?" Bonita asked

"When I could sleep I slept well." Melissa replied

"Could sleep?" Bonita querried

Melissa sighed before taking a deep sip of the caf.

"My mind kept running back to the temple and more specifically two seventeen." Melissa replied, running a finger on the edge of the cup

"Mellie, you should have woken me up and don't say you did not want to be a burden." Bonita stated firmly

"Then I won't say it." Melissa gave a tired smile

"Your friend Fay is right, you have to stop taking everything on yourself. Share the burden." Bonita replied

"I am trying to do it, it just, it is hard for me to do so." Melissa answered

Bonita looked at her in sympathy

"I know. Being too noble and self sacrificing has always been your fatal flaw. So how do we fix this?" Bonita said gently

"I think I should go to Alterra and see what is going on there. Even if it is just to see that the temple exaggerated my fears." Melissa replied

"I still say we need to go blow up that temple." Bonita stated adamantly

"The temple only shows you what you take in with you." Melissa replied

"It is still torture, just because it did not leave you with scars or leave you in physical pain does not make it all right." Bonita insisted

"Curly hair is right. That place tortured you." Kali stated, standing in the doorway

Melissa lifted her hands in surrender

"I don't want to fight over this, please." She stated

"Very well, little wildcat, we will respect your decision on this. But should you change your mind, know we will help destroy that place." Kali replied

"That cargo for Arkaxia should clear quarantine in five days. From Arkaxia to Alterra is a five day jump." Bonita said musingly, drawing points on the table top

"About that quarantine…" Melissa began sheepishly

"What did you do?" Bonita demanded

"I took a walk last night and by coincidence found myself in the customs offices. Their computer was wide open, it is as if they do no not have any security. Anybody can walk in and change dates on their system." Melissa airily explained

"This is like Greenpoint again." Bonita groaned, dropping her head onto the table

"Sounds as if there is a tale to be told." Kali remarked

"Oh, yes there is a tale. A tale of petty revenge and nearly getting arrested." Bonita replied

". It was not petty cows had it coming." Melissa stated vehemently

"You attacked cows?" Kali gasped in shock

Bonita pointed to the lounge

"Why don't we take it in there, that way the tale only gets to be told once." Bonita suggested.

"Yes, if the source of milk and cream had been endangered we all have to know." Kali stated grimly

Walking into the lounge they found the entire group sitting upright, tails twitching in grim anticipation of the tale. Bonita pointed Melissa to a chair.

"You sit there and keep quiet, I will tell the tale." Bonita stated firmly

All eyes followed Bonita as she sat down in the middle of the group.

"First of, no cows were endangered. We humans sometimes refer to other females who we dislike as cows. It is a pretty minor insult. So again the source of milk and cream was not endangered in any way." Bonita stated firmly

The agitated tail swinging stopped and palpable sighs of relief were heard. Bonita leaned back on her hands and began her tale

"It was the year before I went to the Ranger academy. Some up and coming flimsy pusher in the department of social care decided we poor orphans were not getting enough chances to show of our athletic sides, nor that we were getting enough exposure to the more privileged members of society. So in a brilliant move they decided on a sports day between several orphanages and the elite schools of Alterra, the idea being that the schools should be made aware of our plight and hopefully extend scholarships."

"That does not sound so bad." Bast stated

"On flimsy it looked good, but they forgot they were dealing with children. Needless to say there was friction from the start. The rich kids looked down on us and they let us know it. We were sharing the locker rooms with Greenpoint Academy for Young ladies. While we ere changing clothes several remarks were made about the state of our clothes and in particular on the state of our underwear." Bonita went on, "You have to understand that we did not receive a lot of clothes and often it was second hand donations, so when you outgrew clothes it went to the younger ones and you received from the older ones. Bluntly put our underwear was washed and worn out and in really bad condition in some cases."

"That is disgracefull, why does your government not do anything about that. If the Choir should hear of any kitten being treated like that the claws will come out." Ishigo stated

The other yuki nodded at that. Bonita pointed to Melissa

"That one decided that she would not take the comments lying down, so she and the more hot headed among us decided to get revenge on them." She said

"You were part of that group." Melissa objected

"Shush. Yes I was part of the group, the only one trying to deescalate it, So three nights later we found ourselves climbing over the walls to Greenpoint and sneaking into their school dormitories. To mask our appearance we wore stockings over faces. So there we were ten girls sneaking in the dark without a torch between us and barely able to see through the stockings. Going from room to room to get our prizes."

"Not that we approve of theft, what did you steal?" Bast asked

Bonita looked down at the floor, an ashamed look on her face

"We stole their bras and panties, the idea was that taking other clothes would be to noticeable if we suddenly started wearing high end clothes. Any way as we were extracting we ran into their headmistress doing rounds and we were caught red handed in their foyer."

"How did you escape?" Irita asked

Melissa groaned and covered her face. Bonita pointed to her.

"Somehow that one had got her hands on a Zeltron comic, from where she would never say. She threw her bag at the headmistress and screamed, what was it again? Surely you remember, Mellie" Bonita stated blandly

"Come on Bonita, I was ten." Melissa protested

"Say it." Bonita demanded

"The punani must be freed, down with the tyranny of underwear." Melissa mumbled

"We don't know if that statement or the face full of underwear did it, but the woman dropped like a stone and we ran for our lives." Bonita continued

Sukura snorted trying to hold in her laughter, Irita was next.

"Just get it out and over with." Melissa said glumly from between her hands

Mewling laughter filled the room and Melissa looked at the ground swearing to get even with Bonita at some point. It took several minutes for order to be regained.

"What happened afterwards?" Ishigo asked, chuckling

"We made it back to two seventeen just before dawn, running along the back roads terrified that the police would swoop down on us. We barely made it back to our rooms when the administrators called for a general assembly in the food hall." Bonita replied

Bonita leaned forward and continued her tale

"So were standing in the hall, looking around for the police, dead certain we were caught out and at the same time so tired that all we wanted was to go and sleep."

"Go on" Sukura prompted eagerly

"The chief administrator started giving a long winding speech about falling morals. We knew we were busted and was looking at the doors waiting for the police to burst in. The next moment they declared the assembly closed and served breakfast."

"But…" Irita started asking

Melissa finally looked up from her hands

"It seems we were not the only ones out for revenge that night. The boys from one eighty one had apparently broken into an electoral office supply depot and stole voter marking pens. You know the type with the ink that takes ten days to break down."

"No, we don't know that type of pens." Bast stated

"It is a special ink that they made for use during elections to mark people who have voted. It has an isotope that triggers an alarm if you try to vote again when you walk through the detectors." Melissa explained

"Oh, thank you for explaining" Bast replied

Bonita took the tale over again

"Once they had their markers they broke into Somerset prepatory school and started drawing on the boys in the dormitories. They were caught as they were leaving but they did not escape."

"What did they draw on the boys?" Kali asked

"They drew penis's on their faces" Bonita answered

"Why?" Sheba asked, perplexed

"It is from another human insult. The term dickhead means you are a person with no redeeming qualities. Human males sometimes refer to their penis as a dick. So a penis drawn on your face marks you as a dickhead." Melissa explained

"You humans are really strange sometimes." Ishigo shrugged

"What did you do with the underwear you stole?" Hinaro asked

"We shared everything with the other girls." Bonita answered

"So at least something good came of your misadventure." Kali stated

Bonita's comlimk chirped as she received a message. She raised an eyebrow before looking at Melissa

"Seems our cargo is on its way to be loaded. Do we have food for them?" She asked

"Several bales of hay and two pallets of yogans." Melissa answered

Bonita sighed and stood up

"I had better arrange for the ship to be refuelled then."

"Already arranged, they also refuelled the Yarns Ending." Melissa stated

Melissa turned to the elder four Yuki

"Before you say anything, it is a gift from me and Bonita for accepting us. And for being willing to take us into your pride. If you want to you could follow us to Arkaxis five and view the dairy farm we are starting there. There is also a fishery I want to start so I might need some advice on that before going to Alterra."

"Of Course we will go with you. The others of the pride can meet us there now that we finaly have a location to meet. You still have to meet the rest of the pride" Bast spoke for the pride

Melissa deeply breathed the fresh air of Arkaxis five in as she stood on the shore of the sea side plot she had bought. Bonita stood next to her as they saw the sea for themselves for the first time. The gentle waves rolling in had them hypnotised

"It is beautiful." She simply stated

"It is." Bonita agreed

Sukura pounced on Bonita and kissed her neck

"Are you two not going to go in?" She asked

"In a while, just admiring the view for a bit." Bonita answered

Melissa dropped to her knees gasping.

"Mellie, what is wrong?" Bonita asked as Sukura dropped from her back

"A force warning, something is coming." Melissa gasped out

"What is coming?" Bonita demanded

The answer came not from the kneeling girl but by the thunderclap of vehicles entering the atmosphere at terminal velocity. Sukura growled as they recognised the shapes of the craft

"Zygerrans." She spat in contempt

Gone was the playful catgirl and the ex army pilot was in her place, She extended a hand to Melissa to pull her to her feet.

"Shall we go introduce ourselves." She asked grimly

"Certianly, they picked the wrong planet." Melissa replied

The three sprinted to where they had landed the two ships. The Yarns End was already spooling her engines up. Sukura's sisters were running up the landing bay of the Milk runner.

"We are flying with you." Irita called out

"Let us see how well your ship can fight." Hinaro called out

A loud whine filled the air as a fighter came in on low approach. Melissa stepped forward and reached into the force before throwing her hand out and pulling down. The fighter dropped nose first into the water and flipped over before sliding onto the shore rolling upright and sliding along the sand

The zygeran in the cockpit was frantically pushing buttons to get back into the air when he saw a shape landing on his cockpit canopy. A silver blue blade ignited before it was thrust through the canopy.

Melissa flipped from the still sliding freighter and landed in a three point stance blade extended. She got to her feet and closed down her blade before walking to the Milk Runner. The four Yuki was staring at her in awe. Melissa walked past them

" Ladies, first kill was mine. You are falling behind" She stated walking to the ladder to the main deck.

Jack fired rapidly to give cover to the schoolchildren rushing to the courthouse. Doreen closed the door behind him as the last child rushed in and he fell back. They hurried to join the line of defenders taking cover behind the main desk as the children was hurried to the cells below the building. Vanessa was seated on the ground wiring up a detonator for the charges they placed outside keeping an eye on the approaching Zygerrans through a datapad slaved to the security system

"We will finally see if Terri's design is as good as she claims." Doreen remarked

"The kids?" Jack asked

"They were still at the farm, we told them to hide." Vanessa answered

"In case I don't get the chance again. I really love you both." Jack declared

"You can tell us again later. Now we have some slavers to kill." Doreen declared

"Definitely." Vanessa agreed, pressing the detonator.

Melissa was strapped in behind the pilot seat as Sukura made the freighter dance, her sisters manning the guns. The Yarns End matching them shot for shot as they tore into the zygeran fleet. Spotting a pleasure cruiser in the midst of the fleet she pointed to it

"Get to that cruiser." She ordered unbuckling herself

"Why?" Bonita asked

"Got to go and introduce myself to the raid leader of course." Melissa replied

Melissa jumped from the airlock as the flashed past the cruiser and free fell towards the cruiser. Coming closer she threw a force push to slow her fall. She landed on the cruiser and ran to the front towards the cockpit before mag locking her boots. Igniting her blade she slammed it into the plating by her feet

Inside the cockpit the pilot screeched in shock as the blade punched through the steel plating missing her head by centimetres

"Nobody said anything about Jedi being here." The co pilot screamed in panic

A circle was cut into the roof of the cockpit and the metal clanged as it dropped onto the floor. Aiming with their blasters at the circle they saw two orbs being dropped in

Melissa dropped in as the flash bangs blew. Two swungs of her blade dealt with the flight crew. Reaching the terminal she locked the cruiser into a straight flight path before locking the auto pilot. She force pulled on the cabin door before chucking a grenade through as the door started to open, before letting the pull go. The door slammed shut

Surprised screams came before the grenade exploded. Melissa opened the door and walked through ignoring the carnage she had unleashed in the confined space. A zygeran came running up to her bellowing a war cry wielding a vibrosword. A rapid draw had her blaster in hand. The zygeran did a back flip as the bolt struck her face and rocked her back, her brains painting the walls.

Melissa holstered her heavy blaster and knelt down in a sprinting start pose and ignited her lightsaber. The far door opened and she force sprinted to it a small jump had her in the middle of a cluster of hired thughs. A single pirouette had her the only living being as she scythed through the group

Jack lined up on the door as the monitor showed the zygerans and their hired thugs preparing to breach. Moments later the group was blown to pieces. A familiar vehicle swung into view. Grenades were delivered like confetti at a wedding, the top mounted cannon also adding to the mayhem. The craft spun in a circle as the heavy repeaters chattered, before running of in a straight line to the next cluster of invaders

"I am going to murder those kids." Vanessa promised

In orbit the back up craft were preparing to move in to deal with surprising resistance the capture teams were experiencing. Two flashes of light came as two light cruisers exited hyperspace. Moments later the cruisers launched their fighter wings. The cruisers and fighters were Mandalorian made and they had no mercy for the zygeran fleet as they pushed towards the planet. Two more flashes came as two light freighters exited hyperspace and joined the fray.

A zygeran corvette dropped to the planet in flames as it failed to bring up its shields in time as the Mandalorian cruisers fired a broadside each, its sister corvette drifting deeper into space venting atmosphere. Flashes of light came as the fighters started decimating the slave galleys of the fleet. On board the Zygeran heavy cruiser the captain was dying on the floor as his flight crew mutinied and started to turn the ship out of the gravity well preparing to flee the engagement. The two freighters targeted its engines and the heavy cruiser was pulled into the gravity well as the engines were blown apart. The hull starting to glow as the shields failed, segments braking of as gravity started tearing the ship apart.

Melissa stabbed her lightsaber into the locking mechanism of the master suite and walked into the room. The zygeran noble was seated behind his desk. Surprise flittered across her reptilian face as she took in Melissa's armour

"And here I though it would be a Jedi." She stated

"Would not make a difference, your raid has ended." Melissa stated

"What is your price Mandalorian? Credits is not in short supply" The zygeran demanded

"My price? The satisfaction of seeing you and your slaving scum being sentenced to life imprisonment. Failing that seeing you dance at the end of a rope." Melissa replied

"Do you really think the Senate would sentence a member to death. I will be back on Coruscant within days. And you will be hunted down" The Zygeran sneered

"Then I will just kill you here." Melissa answered

The zygeran reached for something under the desk. Melissa gave a force push and the zygeran was pushed back in her chair, Credit chips stacked on the desk went flying.

The zygeran got to her feet and tried to cough, hands going to her throat. A credit chip fell from her open mouth. She started pounding on her chest still trying to cough

"Choke on it." Melissa stated retrieving a blaster under the desk.

The zygeran dropped writhing to the floor. Melissa gave a sigh and kicked the woman in the stomach. The credit chip flew out as it dislodged from her throat

"Instruct your fleet to land and surrender. This is your last chance." Melissa stated

The zygeran got to her feet and tried to lunge at Melissa. Moments later two thuds came as the separated body and head landed on the floor. A flashing light drew Melissa's attention. She threw her lightsaber at the plasteel window and dove through it. A fireball consumed the room as she free fell in the air. With a thud she landed on a capture ship. Figure rushed out of the hatches towards her. She waded into the group lightsaber flashing. The ship staggered as sustained fire struck it. Melissa noted a Komr'k class fighter on its tail. She ran to the tail of the craft and jumped. Landing on the fighter she threw a jaunty salute at the clearly female pilot and pointed to the ground, locking her boots.

All around them craft were dropping from the sky as the mixture of freighters and fighters ripped the invaders apart. The two Mandalorian cruisers entering the fray saw the invaders desperately trying to flee. The sky was filled with fireworks as falling craft burned up and exploded. The fighter she was standing on slowly circled to the ground before landing next to a very familiar land vehicle.

Melissa took of her helmet and ran her hand through her sweat sodden hair. The hatch to the vehicle opened and a girl came bouncing out

"That was awesome." Little Nora cried out

"What is the Beast doing here?" Melissa asked

Nora stopped bouncing and looked at Melissa

"Melissa? What are you doing here?" She asked

"I asked first." Melissa stated

"Well… Ant Doreen told us to find a place to hide so we decided that best hiding place was the Beast. Seeing as we could keep moving." Nora rambled

Melissa sighed

"You know what. I am too tired to care. But I suggest the eight of you find a better story when Vanessa and Doreen catch up with you."

A dry chuckle came from behind her as the pilot made her presence known

"And what story will you tell your buirs when they catch up with you. Sure the kids went on a shooting spree in a stolen combat vehicle. But you went a lot further than they did." The flight helmet distorted the voice

"What did Melissa do?" Nora demanded

"Jumped out of an exploding ship onto another ship before jumping onto mine." The pilot stated

"And I owe you a kiss for saving my shaab." Melissa replied

"I don't believe in the kissing cousins thing." The pilot stated

Karana lifted her helmet off and shook her head to loosen her hair, a shit eating grin on her face

"Someone is in trouble." She sang happily

"What would it take to keep this between us?" Melissa asked

"Two word cousin, gun camera." Karana replied

"I am so karked." Melissa said sighing

A faint cry of swear jar came from within the confines of the Beast. Clouds of dust were thrown up as two light cruisers and four fighters sat down, A flight of fighters were shepherding a very diminished slaver fleet to the official airfield. Two figures were briskly marching over from the light cruisers and another three exited one freighter. Recognising the approaching figures had Melissa sitting down on the ground, holding her head in her hands.

"Karana, dearest of cousins, please shoot me." She asked

"And I should risk the wrath of the buir's, why?" Karana replied

"It is my birthday?" Melissa hopefully stated

"Happy birthday, now prepare yourself for the ultimate spanking. And no, it is not going to be the fun kind." Karana replied, snorting

"Glad I am not you." Nora remarked

Melissa pointed to another trio briskly walking closer.

"Don't start gloating yet." Melissa stated

"Can we swap?" Nora asked, paling

"If only that were possible." Melissa said, bracing herself for execution.

"The explosions made it all worth it, see you on the other side." Nora solemnly said

The two condemned shared a solemn fist bump before facing their impending doom with shoulders squared.