Fierce and Swift
Waking up in the body of a fictional race, in a fictional world that is on the verge of destruction seems like a really bad joke. The worst part of it is, it might just be one.
And we are back. Nothing much to say here, other than enjoy!
Chapter 2
Consciousness returned to me slowly and with PAIN. My entire body ached and my head felt like someone had taken a hatchet to my skull, filled my head with broken glass and then shook me as hard as they could. For a long moment, I could do nothing but lay there, waiting for the pain to fade. After an indeterminate amount of time, the pain in my head faded to a tolerable level and I cracked open my eyes. The ceiling above me was white and the air was filled with the sharp scent of antiseptic.
"Hospital?" I thought, "What happened?"
My head throbbed as I tried to think, but I vaguely remembered an uncomfortably close encounter with a delivery truck while walking home from work. Yeah, that made sense.
I took a deep breath, some part of me strangely noting that something was…off somehow about the scent of the disinfectant used. I couldn't put my finger on it and my pounding head didn't help. Thankfully, it was starting to ease off, but that only made the ache in my body more obvious. Hell, even my EARS seemed to ache, which felt remarkably strange. I shifted a little, trying to get comfortable and, in the process, winced as my sensitive tail twinged. Damn, I must be really badly injured if…
Wait, TAIL!?
Ignoring my aching body, I sat up and pulled the sheets away, revealing two things that were remarkably worrying. The first, and most obvious, was the long, fluffy fox tail covered in salmon coloured fur that lightened to a pale peach colour at the tip. The second was that my legs looked…odd. For a moment, I couldn't put my finger on why, before I looked further down and…I did NOT have tits this morning!
I looked wildly around the room and spotted a door I'm pretty sure led to the bathroom. I scrambled out of bed, ignoring my body's protests, and stumbled over, my body feeling remarkably unwieldy. Sure enough, the door led to a bathroom that had a mirror over the sink that I quickly stumbled in front of and stared at my reflection.
Looking back at me was a young women with salmon hair, teal green eyes and fucking FOX EARS sticking out of the top of her head. She…I also looked oddly familiar and, after a moment, I realised that I looked a lot like Yanfei from Genshin Impact, only with fox ears instead of antlers.
The moment that realisation crossed my mind, the dull throb in my skull suddenly flared into blinding agony. The broken glass from earlier was back and MOVING, shredding the inside of my skull in a way that was pure agony. I think I might have collapsed, possibly vomited and definitely screamed as the moving glass slowly pieced itself back into memories. They were fragmented and out of order, but still more than enough to piece together what was going on.
I was Yanfei, a Lieutenant and field medic for the Verdant Knights of the Xianzhou Yaoqing. My last memory was being involved in a skirmish with the Borisen that had ended when the Reignbow Arbiter had fired a Lux Arrow. What exactly happened afterwards, I'm not sure, but I think that I had been in the middle of engaging a warp jump when the Arrow struck, resulting in my ship being…
I jolted awake again, the memories settling back into my head as if they had always been there. It would probably take some time for them to fully return, but I knew enough for now and at least my head didn't hurt any more. Well, no more than the rest of my body at least, that still ached. Now however, I recognized it as the feeling of my natural regeneration dealing with large scale injury without proper treatment. That was concerning since it meant that I likely wasn't aboard any of the Xianzhou ships and most other friendly factions would have some idea of how to treat an injured Foxian. The fact that I was in a hospital meant that I hadn't been captured by the Borisin, but that didn't mean I was safe.
My fingers curled under the covers as I cracked my eyes open and looked around without moving my head. I was still in the same room and wasn't restrained in any way, which was mildly surprising, but now there was a man sitting in the corner. He was working on some paperwork and didn't seem to be armed, other than a handgun at his side. His uniform appeared to be unarmoured, but that didn't mean it wasn't made of something exotic. The uniform in question was black, with insignia that likely indicated rank and a symbol depicting the letters PRT over a winged shield. Wait a second, I know that symbol…
OH SHIT!
My shock was enough to make me take an involuntary sharp inhale and a small flame sparked in the palm of my hand. I managed to get a handle before I accidentally started a fire or summoned Heaven Scorcher. It looked like I was currently being treated as a guest and summoning a giant flaming halberd would not look good. Nor would setting the sheets on fire.
Despite that, the trooper in the corner noticed my reaction and sat up, eyeing me warily. Deciding that there wasn't much point in pretending and opened my eyes.
"Ah, you're awake!" he said, "I'll just…"
He dropped his paperwork and bolted for the door. I shook my head and worked a finger in an ear (a VERY weird sensation considering the change in location, made worse by the fact it also felt familiar) as my Synesthesia Beacon registered the new language and went to work. In less than an hour, it would have the new language added to its database. Less if I kept interacting with people. The creations of the Genius Society are complete bullshit.
I sat up and stretched, wincing at the ache. I really hoped that my gear was still intact and I could get it back.
A moment later, the door opened again and a dark skinned man with short cropped hair and a doctors coat entered, followed by the trooper who had been keeping an eye on me. I also noticed that a couple of fully geared troopers were outside, one armed with what was probably a confoam sprayer and the other with a gun. Smart, I'd be offended if they had not included some security like that.
Before the doctor could say anything, I held up a hand.
"Before we start with bad charades, I can understand you," I said, "It might sounds a bit…weird for a bit, but that shouldn't last long."
The doctor looked a bit taken aback, but quickly rallied.
"I see," he said, "Well, that makes things significantly easier, although I do admit that there's not much I can actually do for you. We didn't want to risk doing more harm than good."
"Probably wise," I said, "I'm mostly fine anyway."
"Mostly?"
"I'll be sore for a bit longer, but my injuries are healed," I said, "I could use a painkiller, but I'll be fine without."
The doctor sighed.
"Well, I'll have to take your word for that," he said, "As far as I can tell, you're correct, so I'll sign you off."
I smiled.
"Great, any chance I can get some actual clothes?" I said, "I assume someone wants to talk to me and I'd rather not deal with potentially dicey political situations or dramatic escapes from vivisection in a backless hospital gown."
Two hours later, I was sitting in a meeting room across from who can only be Emily Piggot, now wearing a slightly oversized spare set of fatigues they'd found from somewhere. Looking at the infamous Director in person and with the benefit of more than a hundred years of experience (which was something I was intentionally not thinking about. I could have a breakdown later), it was easy to see why Piggot was still in charge, despite her clear ill health. While perhaps not entirely suited for command, she still had a bearing like I'd seen in many commanding officers among the Cloud Knights. As a field commander, she'd probably be among the best, although the current position was probably a little out of her comfort zone.
The woman on the screen behind her on the other hand could probably meet General Feixiao face to face and not back down, even without her powers. Chief Director Costa-Brown might be part of one of the most ineffective conspiracies in fiction, but I couldn't deny that she had the scary Commander glare down pat and I could clearly see that she had very much earned her reputation.
Much to my surprise, other than Armsmaster, Dragon on another monitor and two faceless goons stationed behind me, no one else was present.
"Lets get this started," said Rebecca, "I am Rebecca Costa-Brown, the Chief Director of the Parahuman Response Team. With me is Dragon of the Guild, Emily Piggot, the director of the Protectorate ENE department and Armsmaster, the leader of the Protectorate of the same."
"Lieutenant Yanfei of the Xianzhou Yanqing Cloud Knights, Verdantia Fleet," I said, "I would have thought there would be more people here. I get the impression that your world hasn't seen much in the way of first contact."
"You would be correct," said Rebecca, "You are the first alien we've encountered."
A part of me really wanted to call her out on that lie, but this wasn't the time or place to upend the Capinartie. Nor did I honestly care to. Frankly, if I wanted to fix Earth Bet, introducing them to the rest of the Cosmos was probably the best bet. The IPC might be sketchy as hell, but a bit of backup from the Xianzhou would go a long way to get Earth Bet setup with an actual fair shake in the wider Universe.
Assuming we could deal with the space tapeworms, but that was something I'd leave for the Generals to figure out.
"I see," I said, "So, since I'm here and not locked up in a blacksite it means that you've decided that being on my good side is preferable to vivisection?"
"That remains to be seen," said Piggot, "There are some people who wanted you locked up, but cooler heads prevailed."
"Well, that's a relief," I said.
"So, judging from your rank, you're a soldier?" said Rebecca.
"That's right," I said, "There's a bit more to it than that, but my service history isn't relevant here."
Piggot looked like she wanted to protest at that, but kept her mouth shut.
"I see," said Rebecca, "In that case, I'll just ask, why are you here?"
I sighed.
"I don't actually know where 'here' is," I said, "I think my Starskiff got caught in the backlash of a Lux Arrow as it was entering a Warp Jump. My best guess is that I got blasted across the Galaxy. I can say that the Xianzhou has absolutely no interest in invasion though."
"How can you be sure of that?" asked Armsmaster.
"Because thats not what we do," I said, "We aren't an expansionist force. We simply don't have any need to do so."
"I see," said Rebecca, glancing at something off screen.
"Do you have a way of contacting your home?" asked Dragon.
"My Starskiff has an SOS beacon onboard," I said, "Its designed to be pretty much indestructible, so I can activate that. I probably ought to check the remains anyway, just in case."
"Is it dangerous?" asked Piggot.
"Probably not, the Jade Wheel engine is generally pretty safe," I said, "But it is armed, so I need to check the armaments."
"We have it in our underground car park," said Armsmaster.
"Before that, we have more to discuss," said Rebecca, getting the conversation back on track.
I nodded and leant forward.
"Alright, lets get started," I said.
And I think I'm actually going to leave this here. Its a bit shorter than what I'd normally post, but this seems like as good a place as any to end it because I don't really want to spend more time writing this scene.
Yanfei is one of my favourite Genshin characters, both in terms of design and play style, so I figured I might as well do a Hoyo and co-opt her design for my character. She isn't the same, obviously, but her looks are identical, other than the obviously different animal bits.
Incidentally, if anyone wants to guess what her weapon is based on, feel free.
If it seems that shes taking this whole thing rather well, shes basically faking and intentionally not thinking about her situation as much as possible. She'll have a breakdown once she gets somewhere more private than the PRT medical bay.
I actually checked the article on the Synesthesia Beacon and, while I might have read it wrong, I'm pretty sure that only one party actually needs to have one in order for it to do its job. Not that its actually needed here since Yanfei can speak English, but its still cool. And bullshit.
Costa-Brown might be a bit passive here, but on the other hand, what she has on her hands is a genuine alien who is, as far as she can tell, not an intergalactic parasite. That implies that theres other species out there who could potentially help Humanity. They want to keep an eye on her, but making potential enemies out of an unknown power is not a very sensible thing to do. Like she said, there are some people in the command structure who want to be more…firm with Yanfei, but shes told them all to shut up.
Now all I have to do is figure out if the PRT would keep the fact they have an alien on their hands quiet or announce it. Either one seems plausible since the villains are going to know in short order and Coil is almost certainly going to be getting a pointed visit very soon, but I'm not sure which they'd do.
And with that, I'm done. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!