Metal rain

Dustin lounged in the co-pilot's seat as Rye navigated the shuttle through the debris field towards the planet below. It’d been eight hours since the battle for the Lemth homeworld, and the planet’s orbit was still a mess of drifting Fractal hulks, dotted here and there with the ruined hulls of more than a few human vessels. He tried not to think too hard about that; the crews had all thrown themselves into this fight knowing full well that they might not survive it, and he’d already got Emely drawing up a full list of the lives lost. Once he had a moment to process the names, he had promised himself that he would be writing some kind of a memorial speech on the way back to Earth.

The more immediate problem that was taking him away from this sombre duty was the need of the locals to have stability above ground again, which flaming chunks of alien craft falling from the sky did not lend itself well too. Neither did the range of drones and other Fractal units that could potentially still be functioning in those pieces of ruined ship; part of the reason Dustin was heading to the surface was to coordinate with Izzy to send out parties to pick through the debris to ensure no stray hostiles remained intact to cause problems in the future.

That was also the reason for the other people in the shuttle with him; Yril’k as the strategist, Defia for her insight into the Fractals, Bleu in case medical assistance was needed, and Rye as technician. Meli, Sammie and Emely would maintain the ship in orbit, while Trea’k was busy offering her support and counselling across the fleet to those who had lost friends in the fight. Truly, his senior staff were a well oiled machine at times like this, and much as Dustin might have hated having to lean on them he was still grateful for it.

“Gonna breach atmo in a sec, Dusty. Can you keep an eye on the lateral sensors for me? The debris cloud is thicker than I thought.” Rye said, jolting Dustin’s attention back to the present. With a nod to his bunny girl, he tapped the console in front of him, bringing up the sensor readings.

“Small cloud to starboard, twelve degrees off and moving at one point three meters per sec towards us.” The reading was easy; all he had to do was make sure that Rye had the information she needed, the Rabyth woman putting the craft into a lazy spiral between the falling chunks of metal that glowed hot as they hit the upper atmosphere.

Moments later, the craft began to slow as Rye throttled up the engines once more, allowing a massive piece of crashing starship to ghost under their hull before they dropped again. “This is really shitty conditions for flying, Dusty. Next time, get Sammie to do it,” the blonde muttered as she neatly slid the craft sideways to avoid the whirling remains of a thruster housing.

“You know we need her on Sola, Rye. Someone’s gotta keep my ship from dinging itself on all this junk. Besides, you wanted to be part of this away team for the discussions on how to handle inert Fractal tech. You’d be on this shuttle anyhow.” Dustin grinned as he replied, before leaning to one side to dodge the woman’s attempt to flick him on the arm.

Rye sighed, before pushing the shuttle nose down and gunning the engine. “We’ve a clear route to the ground now, but it’s going to be a rough landing. Hold on tight people!”

Their craft spiralled down through the gap Rye had spotted in the debris field. It was a tight fit - the shuttle shifting from side to side rapidly as they shot towards the rough sea below. At practically the last instant Rye levelled their flight out, a great trench kicked up out of the water by the **** of anti-grav engines striking the waves. The shuttle slid over the storm-darkened ocean, rocketing towards the distant lights of the contact center; as they sped forward Rye weaved them left and right to avoid still more space-junk that splashed into the waters of the bay all around them.

Dustin was very glad when they finally touched down on the landing pad. The center had reinforced walls; anything short of a direct hit and it should be fine, and even that wouldn’t be a problem for long. Izzy and Terri met them as soon as they walked into the deserted building. “Elevator’s this way, Dustin. Hope you don’t mind, but it’ll be easier to talk downstairs where we’re not afraid that half a starship’s going to land on our heads,” his old friend said, steering the party rapidly to an express lift and ferrying them into the underground of the planet.

That the Lemth preferred to keep part of their civilization below the surface after their historic encounters with the Fractals was something Dustin knew. He hadn’t however been prepared for just how expansive their network of caves and tunnels was; he was aware that they had a range of things above ground, and had assumed that all that remained below was heavy machinery.

In actual fact, the caverns were a vast network of cities in various levels of use, normally. Now, with the very sky catching fire and raining detritus from a massive space battle those cities had swelled in population to encompass the bulk of the Lemth species. The cavern to which the lift took them (after a short underground train ride) put Dustin in mind of a space station, with its spire-like housing complexes around the edge and vast network of shops and government facilities in the middle.

To one of those facilities, Izzy led their party, ushering them into a conference room with a group of rather harassed-looking younger Lemth before the human liaison practically threw herself into a chair. “Alright, Dustin, take a seat. Terri, be a dear and get us all some refreshments would you love? And the rest of you… updates? I guess?”

Dustin glanced around as the assembled aliens scrambled into action. “Nice place you got here, Izzy. What’s the…” she cut him off with a imperious wave of her hand.

“We’ve got pieces of Fractal tech raining from the sky, Dustin. Let Terri get us something to drink, then you and your ladies can tell us what we need to watch out for and I can start formulating how we’re going to sell it to the major houses without them trying to pinch bits of debris for their own private collections and causing a disaster.” The liaison grinned as she spoke, clearly enjoying the opportunity to boss around her old friend despite their difference in rank. “And then you can tell me all about how I’m gonna be an auntie several times over while my team’s doing their job. Oh, don’t look so shocked - Terri and Emely are pen-pals, you must know that?”

Dustin did in fact know that his redheaded lover was in regular contact with his old friend’s other half. What he hadn’t quite reckoned on was that this would mean that Izzy - and no doubt the rest of his friends, given her inability to keep secrets - would be up to date on his love life… and impending fatherhood. As the pair talked over the details of likely Fractal incursion points, aided by Defia’s periodic interjections - “Statement. In the presence of a mountain range, low function units will seek altitude to attempt to connect to others in their region” - Dustin pondered on exactly how to handle the more personal conversation to follow.

As it happened, the personal conversation turned out to be the easier of the two. After over an hour of discussions, analysis and impromptu speech-writing, they’d hammered out a plan that Izzy’s team were busily transmitting to all the major shelters on the planet. With that done, the two humans retired to a corner so that they wouldn’t get in the way of the important work, and Izzy produced a bottle of rather fine **** from somewhere.

“Thought I’d be cracking this when we finally got Terri’s sister hooked up with someone, but this is even better.” Izzy commented, pouring them both a glass. “So, you’ve got kids coming - Terri tells me two of your ladies are already expecting and you and Emely are working on making that three, you perv.”

Dustin coughed and sipped his drink, the spirit burning his throat before he responded that it was largely the ladies that had wanted it. Izzy gave a snort. “Yea, of course, and you took so much persuading to start hitting those hotties raw, I’m totally sure. Still, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to talk about is, y’kno… we’re family right? I do get to be an auntie don’t I?”

His childhood friend looked so worried that for a moment Dustin couldn’t find the words. “Of course we’re family, Izzy. I should have called to tell you about the fact you’d be an aunt sooner, but yes. I’m sorry,” he managed at last, earning himself a punch on the arm from the woman in front of him. “Good. Just ‘cos me and Terri aren’t likely to have kids anytime soon doesn’t mean I don’t want to lose out on my chance to be an auntie to… well, whatever the hell kind of babies you’re gonna make, those poor women.”

Dustin took the insult in good humour; he could tell from her expression how much Izzy really wanted to be family for his kids, and given how much they’d relied on each other growing up he was genuinely grateful for that fact. Sure, Trea’k’s species might not make a deal of family connections, and Emely and Meli both had their own families to call on, but Dustin had very few people he could point to on Earth that could play that role in his children’s lives. “So, auntie Izzy, you want to know the names we’ve picked out or not?” He said with a grin, before holding his glass out to be topped up once more.