I lingered at the window, looking out at the darkness of the universe from the Carrier Patinate. The stars are always so calming and then the other ships of Naok Hush Fatuur 8 come into view. Space Float Combattants 8. Even the name sounds like shit.

  Mulino, our Korveinian Political, stood at my shoulder suddenly. “Captain Gezzini, you are becoming older.” I tore my eyes from the beauty.

  “Oh yes!” I dramatically fell to my knees, “What outrageous fortunes! For I… I grow… old!”

  He looked at me, unamused. “Korveinian w states that you have a responsibility, as a woman, to keep your popution stable.”

  “This again?” I sighed and stood up. “I have seen the w, you showed it to me st time you bothered me about this, Lautnant Kornel.”

  “Well, then what have you done to remedy this?” He stamped his foot impatiently, “have you started to date anyone?”

  “That is a very person question, sir,” I started to leave, he blocked my way. “Not only is it considered very rude to ask, it is considered even more rude to block someone’s path.”

  “Vice grand admiral T’seffin has arrived.” Our admiral announced over the internal comms.

  “Damn birds.” I said to his face.

  “Captain Gezzini,” he said in his stupid chirpy way, “I’m here to remind you that you are a pilot for the Korveinian Space forces. Do not beak off to Admiral S’teffin or the courageous officers of the Korveinian Political Corps.”

  “Sure, Officer of the Corps of Insurance to Orthodox Korveinian Political Thought within Vassal Forces.” I twisted around him to get away.

  He grabbed me by the shoulders and rotated me to look full on at him. “Gezzini! You need to get your mind right. Your insubordination will be dealt with in short order, keep this up and it’ll get worse for you. Do you understand me?”

  “I understand your words, Korvy.” I spat. “I’m gonna go fuck someone who is a fellow woman now.”

  He released me and backed away. With a scowl he said, “You are sick. Don’t even joke about being a, as your people would say, faggot.”

  I smirked. “My people wouldn’t say that because my people don’t suck. Unlike you shit bird fucks.”

  “Your people are vassals of Korveinian Star Empire, along with the Humans and Uthradiri. Accept your pce and our morality and ws, quit py fagging around.”

  “I’m not pying!” I smiled evilly. “I love women. I hate Korveinians. My people had a rich samesex culture until you barbarians sughtered and ensved my people.”

  “I’ll have you dealt with.” He said and walked away.

  I turned and walked to the mess and ate. I sat with my fighter-bomber wing, the NachtHexen.

  “Their shitty Admiral is here.” I said.

  “I don’t understand how you got promoted ahead of us who actually feigned some loyalty.” Drezhni said.

  “I got this spot because of my combat experience against the Pirates at Kortova,” I said. “We were outnumbered and only fifty of us managed to come back. All said, without my daring exploits many more would have been lost that day.”

  “It's true,” Tivia said. “She saved many of us, even risked herself. Her craft was so damaged it was maybe one hit away from being destroyed.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Drezhni scoffed, “we have heard this all before.”

  Tivia smmed her hand on the table. “She personally took a hit for me.”

  “All of you leave it,” I said. “It was an amazing battle and it got my metaphorical dick so hard, but I was just trying to protect as many of us as possible. I wish I could have done more, brought more of us home. I still think they sent us in there to thin out our more experienced fighters.”

  “You did more than anyone thought one person could have, in any case.” Tivia assured me.

  “Action stations. Action stations.” Internal comms announced, the arm bred too.

  “NachtHexen to flight now.” I abandoned my half eaten food and ran down the hall toward the flight deck.

  We arrived shortly. The flight controller was having our craft prepared for unch. They were painting triangles all over the craft. I saw Mulino yelling at the controllers in their room and went in to see what it was all about.

  “I am overriding that order, Kornel.” Mulino said.

  “You’ve no power here birdy, go fly back to your nest.” He pushed Mulino out of the way and checked a panel.

  “Kornel!” I said. “What's happening?”

  He looked at Mulino then back at me. “Get rid of him, captain. We don’t need Korvey spys”

  I smiled wide. “Yes, sir!” I replied enthusiastically. “Mulino, you dumbass Korvey, come on.”

  He pulled out a knife. “I won’t allow this! Especially not from a professed degenerate.”

  I could not see any of the ethereal beings around so I moved between Bird and Man while unsheathing my own knife and held it up to parry and strike. He ran into the weapon, it must have pierced his heart because he fell to the ground only an instant ter, dead.

  Kornel Regev put a hand on my shoulder. “Well there's definitely no going back now. Thanks for the assist.”

  “Sir?” I asked.

  “We are throwing off the shackles of birdist oppression.” He said. “The three vassals are resurgent. We have had enough and are not standing for it anymore.”

  “This isn’t a spur of the moment thing.” I said. “How long has this been pnned for?”

  “A year or so from what I understand.”

  A year! “So my promotion then?”

  “Was probably to put a reliably anti-Korveinian in pce of the best fighter-bomber squadron in the fleet.” He said with a smile, “not to mention your incredible performance on the battlefield. You are the entire package, in that respect. You don’t exactly keep it to yourself, how you feel about the Korveinians.”

  “So what are your orders, sir?”

  “We are not going to fight here, if that is what you’re asking.” He replied. “We are taking the grand vice admiral and mustering our forces near the human world of Aviara.”

  The comm line began to ring. Regev answered.

  “This is Kornel Regev. Yes sir. Understood Sir. I’ll send them out immediately, sir. The NachtHexen, of course, sir. She is right here, sir. Yes sir.” He offered me the phone, “Admiral Vishny would like to speak with you, captain.”

  I took the phone, “Sir, this is Captain Gezzini.”

  “The first shots of the war have been fired, captain. Our enemy is our former overlords, the Korveinians.” He said levelly.

  “Understood sir.” I replied. “I am fully committed to the cause of freedom for Humans, Uthradiri and ourselves.”

  “Good. Tell Kornel Regev to apprehend any Korveinians he can as well.”

  “I will, sir. I already killed Mulino,” I said without thinking.

  “Killed Mulino?” He sounded surprised. “I appreciate your go getter attitude, but capturing them is preferred.” He chided

  “Oh of course, sir.” I said quickly. “He was attacking and in reality I just stood in his way with a knife than did any actual killing.”

  The phone fell silent.

  I pced it down. “Admiral said to detain all Korveinians, sir.”

  He looked at the body of Mulino. “Get to your ship.”

  I left the control room. “Alright dies!” I yelled. “NachtHexen, get to your craft, strap in and strapon, our enemy needs to be shown what's what and I’m ready to give them a nice fucking. Whose with me?”

  The women cheered.

  “Who is the enemy?” Drezhni asked.

  I smiled wide. “The Korveinians. The vassals have had enough, we are resurgent. We need to get away from here but one of our ships has been nearly disabled by the enemy’s fighter-bombers, we are to provide cover and drive the enemy away so we can escape.” I looked at my women’s faces. “I love you all, are you ready? This is the real deal, everyone.”

  “Yes, maam!” nearly in unison.

  “Then go!” I ran to my ship and prepared to unch.

  I went through my flight precheck with the flight controllers.

  “Precheck complete,” I said when the st of my women completed her precheck. “Launching from the Patinate on your order, sir.”

  “Launch by order,” he paused for a moment, “unch!”

  I hit the accelerator and flew out of the fighter-bomber bay into the cold darkness outside the ship. I could see the battle happening. The human ship was being wayid by a wing of Korvy fighter-bombers, I angled toward them.

  “Ok dies,” I started over the radio, “this is revolution, the Korveinians are our enemy. Shoot at any fighter-bomber without a load of triangles on it. We will be flying using the Alemani tactic.”

  We split into groups of three, the bait ship went out ahead while the stingers fell in behind the attacker and fired hopefully not hitting a friendly. The battle raged and we were able to draw the Korveinian ships from the humans. They were finally able to put some distance between them. Slowly we were able to reduce their number but we were also taking some losses, expected but it still hurt every time I saw a ship blow that still had a capsule and triagles.

  “This is flight calling NachtHexen leader,” the controllers said after some time, “please respond, over.”

  “This is NachtHexen leader, over.” I responded as I barely managed to avoid a collision with debris from the Korvey ship I just destroyed. I saw an ethereal chasing Drezhni’s craft. “Drezhni break and hard left.” She quickly complied and the ethereal paused and looked elsewhere.

  “Bring your squadron home, we are bugging out, over.”

  “Copy,” I acknowledged. “We’re Oscar Mike, back to the ship now! Break contact then drop chaff on them. Over.”

  We broke off. I let off a chaff grenade, it released a blinding light to disorient our foe while we escaped back to the ship. We approached slowly so we could safely be caught by the restraint tractor and brought back into the haul, the cables quickly moved us so the next craft didn’t crush us from above.

  I jumped out and stood on the muster line. The NachtHexen came to stand in front of me as they left their ships. When it became apparent there would be no more ships nding I started to read out the names of my pilots from the roll control handed to me as we waited. I checked off those that were still here, x-ing out those that did not respond to their names. I also made a mark for those who came back in just capsules. We had jumped while roll was being taken, my witches would sleep in the darkness of space on that battlefield for all time. It was a lot to hold on to. I could not dishonor them by letting go of their memory.

  We lost seven. Ardra, Vamina, Suseff, Krenia, Karpkoza, Firama and Lizelia. Those who were called and injured went to the clinic right away, escorted by medics.

  “Well done out there,” I said to the rest who remained. “We sacrificed out there but we got our allies out of there alive. Those who owe me reports, you know who you are, I expect them by tomorrow. Otherwise you are free to rex. Dismissed.”

  I took the roll to the controller’s office. Kornel Regev was sitting in his chair. Mulino’s body had been removed. The floor was still stained with his blood. Faded bloody footprints were also dotted around the floor. A very morbid sight.

  “Kornel, the NachtHexen have completed the escort mission,” I reported. “We have taken seven losses and more casualties, sir. Here is the roll,” I offered the tablet to him. “Three capsules came back without craft.”

  He looked at it for a long time. “Good pilots, every one of them.” He shook his head. “More will die before the war is over though.” I nodded. “Good work, Captain.” I started to walk away, Kornel Regev stopped me. “There’s just one more thing, captain, the ship’s name has changed. Instead of celebrating the subjugation of the humans, we are celebrating a hero from our past.”

  “Whose that, sir?” I asked, on the verge of tears.

  “We are now the Castan Lukonia.”

  I turned sharply to face him. “The Castan Lukonia?” I burst into tears. The emotional whipsh was too much. “Of the Heinas wars? You mean? Have we fully abandoned Korveinian propaganda? Have we fully gone back to the old ways?”

  “Yes, captain,” he smiled. “Go find yourself a girlfriend, will you?”

  “Yes, sir!” I ugly cried my way to my room, several people on the way tried to stop me and help. I left all and continued on my way. We are reciming our ancient culture, where everyone is allowed to be who they are, homosexual, trans, it's all on the table again.

  I wrote this all down in my diary. I felt so joyful and still so sad from our losses. This is too important to half ass my way through. I’ve got skin in this battle.

  The ships made their way to the mustering point, over the human pnet Areiva. Human and Khaveni space were quite close, we were to spearhead an attack from our side while the Uthradiri held them off as best they could from their side. We were docked in the Salish port, which was named in honor and regret of a culture the humans had nearly wiped out on their own pnet. We were taking on supplies and crew.

  Vitally the Korveinians had not seen fit to colonize this world as they usually did with their vassal’s pnets. So there was no chance of sabotage from one of them.

  I transported myself to one of the battleships. I chose the Verikrona. The battleship’s bars were much bigger and nicer than the one on the Lukonia.

  I sat with my drink, several of NachtHexen were there too. A man came up to me. The lights were turned low and the music was decently loud. The dance floor fshed its different colors in a seemingly random order. A man caught my eye as he approached my table.

  “Hey, you’re cute.” He said.

  “I sure am.” I said. “I’m looking for a woman, not a man though, so…”

  “Ah ok, my apologies.” He gnced away for a moment. “One moment.” He walked to a woman who stood in the direction he had just come from. She looked very displeased to see him. Then her face shifted. He pointed at me and she smiled at him. He left her and she began walking toward me.

  “Hi,” I said as she approached.

  She smiled at me. “Hello. That guy who was just–”

  “I saw.” I said when she tried to look for him again. “I suppose you told him something simir to what I told him.” I ughed awkwardly as I stared at my drink.

  “I guess so.” She said, there was a long pause. “I haven’t been able to ever…”

  After a long moment I put in, “talked to a woman with the intent to date?” I gnced at her and saw her nodding, then looked back at my drink. “Me neither.” There was another long pause. I sipped my drink. “What do you do?”

  “I work on this ship’s communications, both internal and external.” She cleared her throat, “how about you?”

  “I’m a fighter-bomber pilot on the carrier Castan Lukonia.”

  She looked confused at me. “Which ship is that?”

  “Oh up until recently it was called the Patinate.” I said.

  Her eyes grew, she looked surprised. “Are you one of the NachtHexen?”

  I cleared my throat. “Yes, actually, I am the leader of the NachtHexen. I’m Torkona Gezzini.”

  “You fought at the action the other day that allowed us to escape from the rest of the Korveinian task force.” She was looking at me.

  “Yes,” I was feeling very awkward now, “I did fight that battle. I’m sorry, what was your name?”

  “You are a hero.” She said in awe, “I’m Injra Hefzi, by the way.”

  “You two are very cute.” A random guy said.

  “We’re gay,” we said in unison. We stared at each other, smiling.

  “Right, my bad,” he backed away. “Sorry.”

  “Can we go to bed?” She asked. “I’ve wanted badly to sleep with a woman for so long.”

  “Me too,” I said enthusiastically. “I’ve never been able to before either.”

  She scooted her chair closer to mine. “Can I kiss you?” She whispered to me.

  “Please do.” I was nervous. I gnced around to see if anyone was watching, but no one seemed to care or pay attention. Our faces came closer together like two stars in a decaying orbit and when they eventually csh, sparks will fly.

  Our lips brushed together.

  The arm sounded. The intercom bred. “Action stations! Action Stations!”

  I pulled back. I stared at her for a long moment.

  “Captain Gezzini,” one of the NachtHexen, Kellen, was at my side, “should we head back to the…”

  “Absolutely, we should.” My eyes didn’t leave her. “I’ll see you ter, Injra.”

  “Later then.” She looked sad.

  “NachtHexen, back to the Castan Lukonia now!” I gathered my women and we went to the transporter.

  “Was she nice, Captain Gezzini?” Kellen asked me when we arrived back to our ship.

  “I didn’t talk to her very long but she seemed nice and amenable.” I could still feel the warmth of her on my lips. I got a chill.

  “I think that's great. I’m happier to be going back to the old ways,” she sounded a little nervous.

  I stopped. “The rest of you go on, Kellen, I need to talk to you for a moment.” They continued ahead. “What's wrong, Kellen?”

  “I’m just scared.” She wouldn’t look at me.

  “Scared of what?” I questioned, “we’ve been training for this, we’ve been to battle in the st week.”

  “Not the battle,” Kellen said. “I’m scared I can’t be a NachtHexen anymore. Now that the old ways are coming back into force. I’ve always wanted to be a man, always dreamed about it actually.”

  “Well then, mister,” I smiled at him, “you will always have a pce on my team but if you would rather go to one of the all man teams, we can talk about that ter, ok?” He nodded. “Come on then.”

  Shortly we arrived in the flight bay. “Captain, the weapons are charged and loaded. Fueling is nearly finished. We are two minutes from being green to unch,” one of the ship engineers said.

  “Get them ready, get it done.” I said then walked to the gearing room. “Everyone ready? Seems the mission might be interdiction.”

  “Ready maam!” My women and Kellen said. I changed quickly too. I walked to the control room. “Kornel Regev, what’s the order, sir?”

  “They have sent a blocking force to engage the fleet,” he sighed, “It seems the pnet is their true target. Our orders are to abandon the pnet and leave, their fleet is overwhelming.”

  “Abandon the pnet?” I was shocked by what he said. “Sir, the humans on the pnet, are we just going to leave them to die?”

  He looked directly at me, “don’t forget, Captain, the fleet commander is a human, he is the one that ordered us to abandon this position. He is abandoning his own kind.”

  “We are to stand down then, sir?” I asked, I felt defted and sad.

  “Yes, stand your squad down.”

  I walked out into the flight bay. “NachtHexen, we are standing down. Orders from the commanding Admiral. We are leaving this world.”

  The audible gasps were almost deafening to me.

  “Why?” More than one voice asked.

  “Doesn’t matter, those are the orders.” I said. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t like it, but we will follow our orders and our orders are to leave this system and this pnet, no matter its impending fate.”

  I went to the gear room and ripped off my flight suit. I felt helpless. I felt angry. I left and ran to try and get a view of the battle from one of the windows.

  I watched as our fleet disengaged. I watched as the Korveinian fleet fired on the pnet. I watched as millions died under wing and talon. Later I would sit in the mess hall and eat food grown on that pnet. We took from them what we needed but left them when they needed us. I felt sick about it. I saw the fleet of our foe, it was indeed rger than ours, possibly more deadly. I would have rather fought the battle though.

  I turned as the Korveinian fleet began orbiting the pnet. It would be unlivable, possibly forever. Not a pnt would be left alive. Many pnets during the subjugation wars suffered this fate and had not grown a single thing since.

  I found myself back in the flight bay as we jumped away from the system.

  “Disarm the ships. Drain the power back into the banks,” I ordered before anyone could talk to me. I walked into the control room, ignoring the questions people were asking me.

  “I’m not in the mood, Captain.” Kornel Regev said. Clearly upset at the events of the st hour.

  “I saw the fleet,” I said, monotone, “we would surely have lost or paid dearly for a win. A Pyrrhic victory the humans would have called it. He made the right choice.” I tried to console us both.

  He looked up at me, “sure feels bad not to try though.”

  I scoffed. “Yeah. Yeah.” I left to fill my stomach with the blood-food.

  I read the after action reports from the battle over Areiva on the way to DSS10054-85-5. Many ambushed ships had taken severe damage. Half the fleet was nearly lost. I could understand why we needed to flee that fight.

  I still don’t feel good about it. I understood the Admiral’s thinking now, though.

  Nothing to do about that now. At least the food didn’t taste like ash and betrayal anymore.

  The carriers of Task Force 5-47 organized a conference of fighter-bomber commanders to go over tactics and strategy going forward.

  I got the NachtHexen working on drills, trying to come up with a new strategy to employ against the Korveinians.

  I came up with nothing. Even after hours in simutions and studying air and space warfare from the collective histories of three peoples. Not that it mattered much, as the Korveinians had access to all those histories as well and would probably easily find a counter.

  Finally the day for the conference came. Kornel Regev, Major Vintro, Major Aurin, Captain Sigezmun and I took our pces around the table. The other four carriers were represented by our counterparts.

  “I’m Vice Admiral Junior Grade Danilov,” one of the humans said, “we are here to discuss strategy and tactics for the employment of our fighter-bomber forces for our war of independence against the Korveinian Star Empire.” He paused. “Our, of course, being Humans, Uthradiri, and Khaveni. Does anyone have any questions about that?”

  No one spoke a word or raised their hand.

  “Good.” He continued. “I understand several of you have been running simutions and otherwise have been studying the problem we had at the Outbreak Battle. We lost nearly a quarter of our strength in ships and personnel.”

  I raised my hand.

  “Captain Gezzini?”

  “Yes, sir,” I replied, “I believe we lost so many due to the use of the Alemani tactic. The Korveinians are too familiar with it and can counter it with ease.”

  “Of course,” he smiled, “we had suspected that was the case. Do you have a suggestion of what to do instead?”

  “I have been tearing through historical battles and strategies from the histories of our three peoples and no. I have not found anything that works well in a simution.” I could feel everyone staring at me, I could feel my skin heating. How red was I at the moment, I wondered.

  There was snickering from somewhere.

  “That is good,” he nodded with approval. “We have exhausted our collective histories for an answer to the problem. So, we will just have to come up with something new. Does anyone have an idea of what to do instead?”

  Silence.

  Admiral Danilov scoffed. “Some of you snickered at her just moments ago, but she had the courage to speak. Thank you, commander of the NachtHexen.”

  “Sir!” One of the Kornels on a different ship spoke.

  “Kornel Elint?”

  “The Korveinians forced us to have these weapons as support for their ships. I think we should explore the idea that we may not even need to continue with a fighter-bomber force.”

  “I suppose we could take that under advisement.” He sounded very reluctant to give credence to such a suggestion. “I don’t think we should make such drastic changes during war when our pilots are still quite capable. We can have further talks about that when the fighting is done and our freedom from the birds is assured.”

  The meeting dragged on with no resolution, but the problem was thoroughly expined. It was finally decided we would go into simutions against each other. We connected to the Hood via the Verikrona and flew against the humans, taking turns acting as the Korveinians.

  I ate with my women at dinner when we finished training for the day.

  “Have you heard about where we’re going?” Zluo, her voice quivering. “I heard it's a DSS, that’s the Korveinian designation for Dangerous Star System.”

  “What do the survey reports say about it?” Treliop took out her palmy.

  “I haven’t had a chance to look at those reports.” Zluo replied. “I’ve been in flight training all day.”

  “I would be out there if I could be,” Treliop scowled at her. “If I had known our war of liberation would be happening, I wouldn’t have gotten pregnant half a year ago.”

  “I’m sure you’re really upset about not being out there.” Zluo shed out.

  “That’s enough of that,” I said sternly. “We are a team, we support each other, we are not snide toward each other. I understand things are scary at the moment. We are going against the Korveinians. An enemy our people have fought before and lost. So please, everyone take a breath.” We all inhaled and exhaled a few times. “Now, you two say something nice about each other.”

  “Treliop, you are glowing. I’m very happy for you and I hope your baby grows up free and healthy.” Zluo said.

  “Zluo you are a crack pilot and I love your pottery work. I drink out of the mug you made me every chance I get.” Treliop replied.

  “Good.” I said. “Now, get on with telling us about the star system.”

  “Right,” Treliop said. “It says there's dangerous radiation and gravity waves from the dash 0, it is a main sequence star. 2 inner pnets, 5 outer, 30 moons. None are habitable. They made several jumps in and out to try and stave off radiation poisoning.” They all looked uneasily at me. “Is this really a safe pce to go?”

  “It doesn’t sound like it.” I said. “I’m going to talk to our Kornel. I’m sure there's a pn, there must be, surely. I’m going to talk to our Kornel.”

  I quickly finished my food and looked around the mess. I did not see Kornel Regev. I ran toward the NachtHexen unch bay, looking for him. He was not there. I looked in flight central. He had been there recently, according to Lautnant Frushka. I checked the mess once more, since I was going to run by there anyway. Still not there. Finally I went to his room and pounded on the door.

  A muffled, “just a minute,” came from the room. A few minutes ter Kornel Reveg appeared and was particurly disheveled.

  “Sir? Are you ok?” I asked, the star system temporarily forgotten.

  “I am fine, captain.” He replied. “Was there something you needed?” He was sweaty and out of breath.

  “Um, right,” I quickly remembered why I had come. I looked around at all the people around. “Can we talk inside?”

  “Something personal?” He looked around. “One moment please.” He went in for less than a minute then opened the door and motioned me in. We sat on his couch. “So, what can I do for you, captain?”

  “I heard we are going to a bit of a dodgy system, sir,” I started, “a pce that is designated as a dangerous system by the Korveinians. Love or hate those birds, they did decent science and an eye toward the safety of their people and the safety of their vassal’s people, when it was convenient.”

  “I hear you and your concerns,” he replied. “We have a few days before we arrive there and I can collect your questions and concerns and take them directly to the admiral. I am, however, in the middle of something at the moment, but I promise to get to this when I’ve finished. How does that sound?”

  “I will get that list to you–”

  “I will swing by after I finish–”

  “What he’s doing.” My head shot over at the new person in the room. A man stood naked in the door of the bedroom. “Tavvy, come back to bed.”

  Regev stood, eyes wide and mouth agape. A long moment passed. “Simion, please go back into the room.”

  I stood. “I should go, sir.”

  “You look pretty, what's your name?” I kept my eyes off Simion. “Come on, girl, you want to come in here with us? It’ll be fun, I promise.”

  I scoffed. “I would never. He is my commander and I am a raging homosexual. You are too man for me.”

  “Oh fun,” he giggled. “I am a raging homosexual too! But I can get down with women too.”

  I reached the door and looked back at Regev. “I’ll see you ter, sir.”

  I gathered the concerns from my team and handed it to Kornel Regev when he came by ter that night. The next morning the NachtHexen were called to flight central and were sat at the conference table.

  “Welcome Kornel Regev and NachtHexen, I am Lautnent Kornel Baleres. I am with military intelligence. I heard you have some concerns about our destination. You are ordered to cease speaking to the crew about your concerns in favor of good order and discipline. The order is from Fleet Admiral Remagen.” He offered Kornel Regev a piece of paper. I saw the Fleet Admerial’s seal.

  “So we are to be silenced?” Kornel Regev asked.

  “Indeed, sir.” Lautnant Kornel Beleres answered. “It will soon come to be known but the Admiral has authorized you to know, the star system is perfectly safe. The entry you found in the central repository is false.”

  “Wow, we hacked the central repository?” I said, impressed.

  “Not quite.” Came his reply. “This revolt has been in pnning for a long time. The all human and Khaveni expedition flew to another star system and faked the position data. The system we are going to is safe, they should think twice before following us there though.”

  “Deception!” I excimed. “Even better!”

  “We have gathered materials there for years, we have shipyards, supplies, and defenses of all kinds. You don’t need to worry about whatever you’ve read, it's very safe.” He reassured us.

  “I’m satisfied by this answer. How about you all?” Kornel Regev turned to me. I looked at the women, they all nodded. I nodded at them.

  “Don’t talk about this with anyone before we’ve achieved victory.” He said. The part unsaid rang loudly in my ear, we have other systems we’re hiding in a simir way. “Understood?”

  “Akno, sir.” We said.

  The action station's arm bred. I snapped my head toward Kornel Regev. He looked at Lautnant Kornel Beleres.

  “Kornel Beleres, we have to go now.” He turned to us and thrust his thumb toward the door. “To the unch bay, NachtHexen.”

  We ran to the unch bay and quickly changed. I jumped into the capsule of my ship and completed pre-check and prepared for unch.

  The battle commenced. The ethereal white spectators gathered, more than I had ever seen before and far earlier. A chill ran up my spine, my whole body felt cold.

  “Get ready, dies.” I said over the radio. “Watch out for each other and be careful. May Khavet protect you.”

  We broke into groups of three. They broke into their Alemani tactic. Our third broke hard in their separate direction and we dove under their ships. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, one of those ethereal women.

  “This is Nacht Leader,” I said quickly, “Nacht 3 brake now!”

  I smmed on the brakes hard and got my ship turned to get on their tail. She slowly faded from my vision. My wingwoman was a bit sluggish at my sudden move, but got on quick enough. A Korveinian craft attempted to pull up to continue the attack we had foiled by braking. We countered by firing at the craft in front of us and got the Korveinians nice and focused on trying to avoid and get around us. Our third’s ambush severely damaged one of their ships, the pilot ejected the capsule and fled back to their carrier.

  “Well done, let's clip this other bird’s wing!” I fired, the Korveinian ship was crippled and its pilot abandoned it too. We let them go but blew their ships.

  The ethereal ones flew to them. I saw another flight of our fighter-bombers heading to them, they attacked, blowing up the capsules.

  I was horrified. I didn’t break off the attack though. We were able to gang up on the Korveinians, overwhelming them easily. Their one carrier couldn’t stand against our three. The rest of the fleet were taking shots at their carrier. Most of the fighters had been destroyed before long.

  “Nacht Leader, this is flight control,” Kornel Regev’s voice said, “come back to the ship. The NachtHexen are being recalled.”

  I lined up my ship with the nding strip and reduced speed to a safe speed, the nding beam caught me and brought me to a dead stop. I lowered the nding gear and unlocked the wheels. When I touched down I was pulled back quickly, getting out of the way for the next ship. The rest of us nded in the bay with ease. I took off my flight gear and headed into the bay’s flight control room.

  “Kornel Regev,” I came in hot, “what happened out there? Why were we sughtering the Korveinians in their capsules? What precedent is that going to set? That kind of thing could get my NachtHexen killed! It could even get me killed! Is this really a road we want to go down?”

  “Captain,” He said firmly. I took a deep breath. “I understand how you feel, don’t chew me for it. I will bring it up at the debrief meeting and I will add an official protest in my after action report.”

  I unclenched my jaw. “Thank you, sir. I was out of line. I apologize.”

  “It's ok, Captain. I get it.” He replied. “How is the hunt for a girlfriend going?”

  I was caught off guard by the question. “How is your boyfriend, sir?”

  He scowled then cleared his throat. “I deserved that. If you must know, we were just having some fun, trying things we haven’t had the chance to because of the Korveinians. It wasn’t that serious.”

  “Well if you do want a more steady thing, you should look for that, sir.”

  He sighed, “I need your count, Captain.” He offered me the flight roll.

  “Oh right! I’m on it, sir.”

  We only lost one pilot and five craft were destroyed, the four pods were able to bring my women back safely. I thought about us attacking the Korveinian pods. How long will the pods be a safe pce to be? Probably not long. I reported my numbers and decided I needed a drink. I headed to get cleaned up.

  I transported myself to the Battleship Verikrona and made my way to the bar. I ordered a Belorussian, a human drink that I very much enjoy, and sat down at an empty table. Shortly a man sat down and smiled at me.

  “Can I help you?” I asked with a sigh.

  “You look pretty and I wanted to come talk to you, see how you’re getting on.” He said.

  “I am doing fine,” I replied. Then, in an effort to forestall lingering with this man, “I’ve come to look for someone I met here before. A pretty woman, her name is Injra, do you know her?”

  His smile disappeared for only an instant. “I know her,” he admitted. “She is in a retionship with another woman, I’m pretty sure.”

  I snapped my head toward him. Retionship? I guess that shouldn’t be too surprising, we only met once and that was a month ago now. “She is?” I finally said after a minute.

  “Yeah, she is,” he said, “if you are at all into men though, I–”

  “Not even a little bit,” I interrupted.

  He sighed. “Then I will not waste any more of either of our time. Good day.” He left the table.

  I finished my drink and suddenly felt out of pce, weird. No, that's a Korveinian thought. I told myself. I steeled myself then looked around. I can’t sit here waiting for more men to approach me. I need to get up and find a woman myself. I saw a group of women sitting at a booth and walked over to them. They looked at me as I approached the table.

  “Hi, would any of you happen to be interested in women?” I said awkwardly.

  They all stared at me bnkly.

  “Ok, sorry to bother you.” I turned to walk away.

  “Um…” one of them said. I turned. “They all took over a different bar. There were a lot of hurt feelings from both sides so we kind of segregated ourselves to stop that.”

  “A bar for the gay compliment?” I asked, “that’s where I need to be, where is it?”

  I arrived quickly from their easy directions. There was a rainbow fg sticker on either side of the name of the bar, “Gefredish” which brings to mind rexing on the most peaceful beach.

  I entered. It was markedly less crowded than the other bar. Booths lined the side, all had same sex occupants at each. There were some tables between the booths and the bar and billiards table stood at the far end near the music machine near it and pying at a medium low level.

  I ordered another Belorussian and looked around the room. Some of the women were making eyes at me, I even saw Injra. I picked up my drink and walked to her table.

  “Hi,” I said, “do you remember me? I came over a month or so ago and we talked for a little bit.”

  “Yes, NachtHexen,” she sighed, “I remember you.” She was looking away from me.

  “Well, have a nice evening then.” I walked to another table, one of the ones with a woman who was giving me eyes earlier. “Hello. What is your name?”

  “Kafei,” one of the women responded, “things didn’t go well with that other table?”

  I ughed but felt embarrassed. “Oh no, I talked to one of the women over there a month ago, I was just saying hello.”

  “It took you a month to get back here and talk to her?” Another asked.

  “Well, I mean, there is a war going on.” I felt like this was going to be a bust too.

  “You mean we’ve been running for a month, we’ve hardly done a bit of fighting so far,” the other said.

  “I’ve been fighting.” I said, Kafei scoffed. “I have, I’m the commander of a fighter pilot wing and I’ve lost people. I lost people today, I nearly died today.” I felt indignant and unappreciated.

  “There are no fighters stationed on this ship.” Kafei decred confidently.

  “I’m not stationed on this ship, I’m on the Support Carrier Castan Lukonia.” I was on the verge of tears.

  “Well, I work in fleet ops and I happen to know theres only one flight commander who is a woman on that ship and I know what her name is. So why don’t you tell me your name?”

  “I’m Torkona Gezzini, Captain and commander of the NachtHexen.” The tears started streaming down my face now.

  No one responded for what seemed like an hour. I felt so miserable. What was I even doing here? I downed the belorussian and beted heard them talking to me again.

  “Anyway, I’m sorry. Would you like to have a seat?” She finished.

  I plopped myself down and wiped the tears from my face. My makeup now, no doubt, running all over. Another belorussian was slid in front of me.

  “Hey, so sorry.” Kafei said. “We were just getting frustrated because we felt like we were finally liberated and then the fleet keeps on withdrawing with damage so many times. We kind of felt like we were being pushed back into the closet. Anyway, we shouldn’t have treated you like that to the point where you start crying, especially.” She gave me a hug. “You smell very nice by the way.”

  “I cleaned up before I came here. I was sweaty and gross after being in that capsule in those dangerous situations, like split second decisions and intense concentration are difficult work.” I finished wiping off my makeup. “You smell nice too.”

  “I’m Karpkozia,” the woman who spoke before said. “It’s nice to meet you. This is Anetesh.” She pointed at the woman next to her.

  “That’s a cute name. I don’t think I’ve heard of a Khaveni named that before.” I said.

  “It’s pretty common in Ekelon.” She responded. My eyes widened, she smiled. “Yes, I’m Ekelonian. I am from Ekelon. We do get out sometimes, not all of us want to stay there. We never would have seeded your culture if all Ekelonians didn’t go out at some point.”

  “Oh I know, my Kornel is Ekelonian. I’m just surprised to meet another one.” I replied and thought about it for a moment. “Weird how both the Ekelonians I know turned out to be gay though.”

  Kafei started ughing. “Speaking of gay,” she gnced around the table, conspiratorially, “why don’t we go to my rooms and have a little fun?”

  My heart started to beat a little faster in my chest. I cleared my throat. “Fun? Like a game or something?”

  She looked at me with a wry smile. “I’m talking about doing some fun naked woman things.”

  My heart really started to pound now.

  “Hey, are you ok?” I didn’t see who talked nor did I recognize the voice.

  “I’m just nervous,” I stammered. “I’ve never been with a woman before. I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed.”

  Kafei put her arms around me and started rubbing my back. “Hey, it’s ok friend. We are here, we will be gentle. Anything you don’t want we will respect.” She gave me a peck on the cheek. “Even if it’s just being in the room, clothes on. Right dies?” The other two nodded.

  I nodded too. “Ok, ok.” I smiled. “I’ll come too.” My heart had slowed down some.

  We left the bar and I completely lost track of time and what was happening. I remember being warm and the feeling of pleasure and belonging. The one time I had sex with a man could not compare to the ecstasy I felt in those… Minutes? Hours? Hell we could have been in that room for a year and I wouldn’t know the difference.

  The next thing I knew, I was in the hall. My clothes were decidedly disheveled and I was walking to the transporter. I felt like I had seen the face of Khavet themself. I embarked on the Castan Lukonia once more.

  When I arrived at my room, I crashed into my bed, as a confirmed lesbian.

  I continued to hang out with Kafei and her crew of dies at least once a week. We got to know each other very well. I also focused heavily on training for the battles ahead.

  We decided the best way to overcome the Alemani tactic was to bring overwhelming force to bear against the Korveinians. The battle on the way to the danger star proved that as a tactic would work.

  We worked for nearly a month and half at this secret outpost. Ships were repaired, new fighters built and repcement crews gathered and their training began. The new fighter pilots were far from ready for a real battle, but I kept them busy in simutions and training.

  One day I was called to flight central. I sat with the other commanders and flight control officers. Admiral Danilov presided over the meeting.

  “We have intel,” the Admiral began, “the Korveinians are going after the Siveros system. I want you all and your people to be ready to defend that system. The Uthrandi were able to hold them off at one of their pnets but with heavy losses. We suspect they are trying to do the same to us and they are using this primarily human pnet to do that.” I raised my hand, “yes, captain?”

  “How do we know they are not going to just wipe out the pnet like they did at Areiva?” I asked.

  “An excellent question, captain.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “We know they care about Korveinians more than other peoples. We know there is a significant contingent that lives on Siveros 3 and Siveros 5-2, better known as Gondwana and Laurasia respectively, also Tethys station is of great importance to them. We are betting that their bias toward their people will make them attempt an invasion of either of the pnets, so we should be able to attack their fleets and transport ships while in space.”

  “So the idea is to defend the pnets and beat back the Korveinian space forces?” Kornel Regev asked.

  “Essentially,” Denilov responded.

  “Why are we defending human pnets?” A Major from another flight asked. “We are all Khaveni, except you, Admiral. Are there no Khaveni pnets that need defending? No disrespect intended but I want to defend our people.”

  “We are a coalition and we are a military,” Admiral Danilov scowled. “There are no pnets of ‘your people’ under threat at the moment but I promise you if there were one, we would come to their aid too. No, the fact is there is a human world under threat so we are going to aid them. Furthermore you are under orders so unless you want to accept the punishment, you will take part in the battle and you will do your best to liberate that pnet, understand?”

  “Yes, Admiral.” He shrank in his seat.

  “Does anyone else have questions or concerns?” The Admiral asked. No one said anything. “Prepare your troops, people.” He gathered his things and left the room without another word.

  Everyone’s eye slid to Major Torkhin. “What?” He asked. “I was just asking.”

  “There's a time and pce,” Kornel Regev said. “This was neither. Get to work, all of you.” We all left and prepared for the battle to come.

  We slowed to sublight speeds. The NachtHexen stood ready in the unch bay ready to board the fighters and unch against the Korveinians.

  “We’re closing the distance,” Kornel Regev announced from the control room. “Load up NachtHexen.”

  “Into your fighters!” I yelled. “The battle is afoot. Preflight checks and final preparations, go go go!” I ran to my ship and loaded myself into the capsule. I finished my preflight and got on the radio, “NachtHexen leader preflight complete, all green. NachtHexen leader is a go.” Everyone else readied up soon after, the tension in my capsule was palpable. My heart was pounding harder than that first night with Kafei.

  “We are in unch range,” Kornel Regev announced after an eternity, “our battleships will be in front of you when you unch. Round them and the enemy will be before you. Good hunting NachtHexen and Khavet’s favor. Launch.”

  “Launch!” I ordered over the radio to my wing. “Go, go, go!” I smashed the unch button and the craft began to move forward and left the bay. I was in the vacuum and ready to fight.

  I lead my wing around the battleships, skimming their shield and sighting our foe. We moved in, the other flights of our ship and the other carriers flew close. The enemy’s fighters approached, we broke into our hunting packs instinctively. The Ethereal beings were thick in the space between the two fleets.

  So many of them, I thought. How many people are about to die here?

  We moved in with our Square tactic and overcame many of the enemy. I directed several of my women out of harm's way when I saw the ethereals coming near.

  I smmed on the breaks and flipped the craft many times to chase our foe. Craft after craft exploded, some ours, many theirs. I just hoped on bance we were getting the better of them. The battle sted for hours. Damaged ships retreated. Capsules were blown or made it to safety. Chaos reigned. Finally the Korveinians recalled their ships. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I survived another battle with many close calls, missing the beings several times.

  “Flights NachtHexen, Kolvera, and Capini,” Admiral Danilov said over the radio, “go after those transport ships, everyone else return to your carrier.”

  “One st task then,” I said to myself. I turned my fighter toward the pnet to cut off the transport ships. I got on the radio. “Cut them off and fire until they are destroyed.”

  I moved my ship in toward the cut off point and smmed my weapons against them, destroying one of the transports. Bird bodies were sucked out into the vacuum violently, few were whole. They began popping as the other ships came into range. The task finished and my craft skimming low pnetary orbit, I turned my ship away to go to the carrier.

  A loud bang, my craft shuddered. Arms bred at me. I tried to give the propulsion a hit. Nothing happened. I was falling into the atmosphere, my craft dead. I hit the separate button to release the capsule. I felt the bolts go but the capsule would not separate. Something was terribly wrong.

  “This is NachtHexen leader. Emergency,” I radioed. “I’m going down. I have failed separation. I’m crashing onto the pnet. I say again, I’m crashing onto the pnet, negative separation of capsule. Do you copy flight? Over.”

  “Understood, NachtHexen leader,” Regev’s voice said. “Survive the nding and we will pick you up ter, captain. Over.”

  “Easier said than done, sir. Over.” I attempted to angle the ship properly but my atmospheric fins were fused or destroyed. There was nothing to be done about it. Here I would probably die.

  The hull temperature arm began. I muted it. The hull integrity arm came on again. I muted it.

  “Khavet, thank you for letting me live to see the day where my people fought again against the Korveinians for freedom. I hope my efforts were not in vain.” The arms continued to come on and I continued to mute them. Then it struck me, I cast about to try and see where it was. “There’s no ethereal being near me. Why? Where is it?”

  The twisting of metal screeched in my ear then the body separated from my capsule. I took the controls up again. Engine power wouldn’t be enough to escape the atmosphere but I could soften my nding.

  The crunch was loud but soft enough.

  I’m alive. I’m alive.

  I pushed the capsule open. Jungle was all around me. I saw the rest of the fighter spinning and falling, leaving a trail behind it. I ripped out the potable water sack and gathered anything else useful I could find.

  There was rustling in the bushes all around me. I pointed my pistol around the area. “Is anyone there?” I asked.

  A human appeared from behind a tree. “We saw you crashing, miss Khaveni.” The man said. “Come with us. The Korveinians will come soon too.”

  I nodded. “Thank you. Lead the way.” His other soldiers came out of the bushes and we began trudging through the jungle.

  “Lucky for you, you aren't a Korvy, we would have shot you if you had been.”

  “I suppose that is the treatment I would have received if you had been Korveinian.” I replied. “I’m gd you turned out to be humans if that's the case.”