Dustin Smith, Space Cowboy

Dustin found himself in good spirits the following morning; despite the fact that their date had ended shortly after the kiss, things with Trea’k had been… nice. The others had also left him alone on the basis that they expected at some point one of his dates with the insect woman to end in intimacy, and by general consensus agreed that people should get to monopolize him in bed their first time together. The result of this decision was that he was humming cheerfully to himself as he dressed alone in his bunk room rather than the ambassadorial chamber, before stepping out into the ready room to face the day.

As he entered the room, Rye and Yril’k looked up from where they appeared to have been going over something on a tablet. “Good morning captain” the Vex’ess said in contrast to the bunny girl’s casual wave. Nodding for the two of them to return to whatever they had been working on, he grabbed a drink from the automat and sank into his usual seat just in time for the door to the ambassadorial quarters to open and his other two lovers to emerge. Meli and Emely had clearly just finished in the showers; the Velca woman’s damp hair made her ears even more noticeable than usual, and the Feliax girl’s fur was slicked to her skin - at least where it was visible in the short-sleeved top and trousers she was wearing.

“You two have fun last night?” He asked, more out of curiosity than anything else. Emely blushed and nodded, throwing Meli a grin before curling into the chair next to Dustin. “We did, thank you li’ah’a. How did your evening go?” Meli said, just as the door hissed open and Trea’k walked through. Dustin met the envoy’s gaze for a moment and both their faces broke into small smiles. “Pleasantly then, I take it.” His fiancé said, before dropping into the chair on the other side of him from Emely and reaching over to pull him in for a kiss.

Trea’k settled herself a short distance away, seemingly unsure of her place in the group at present - before Meli surprised her. The Velca had stood after kissing Dustin and walked around the table to repeat the good morning gesture with Rye; on her way back around she leaned down and brushed her lips against the insect woman’s cheek. “I’m glad things went well” she murmured in passing before looking at Dustin’s expression as she returned to her seat. “What?” she asked, at which Dustin glanced around the room and then inclined his head towards Emely. “Any reason you didn’t kiss her?”

Meli blushed and ran her tongue across her lips seemingly without realising that she was doing so. Dustin shook his head and smiled at his first lover. “Ah. I see. You already did. That explains the shower. Well, since we’re all awake and ready to face the day - Sola, how long until we arrive at the mission site?” The AI’s voice crackled through the speakers a moment later. “We are in the final weave-route now captain. I estimate arrival at the planet in question within two hours.”

Two hours gave the crew enough time to finish assembling any equipment they decided they might need at the last minute as well as double checking all the shuttles were prepped and ready to launch. While they were expecting to bring Sola into the atmosphere of the planet - the larger vessel would be able to transport the entire herd in one trip - they would still need to use the smaller craft to get close enough to stun the creatures as well as ferry them to and from one of the spaceship’s holds.

Dustin found himself working with Meli for this part of the task. While the human shuttles weren’t as efficient as the two Rabyth built ones they normally used, they were more than adequate for what was essentially herding cattle, and so the group had divided up into three - a pilot and a gunner-slash-herd wrangler. While in an ideal world that would have meant Rye, Yril’k and Trea’k each in separate groups as their strength made them the best fit for moving the animals around, a quick test at the firing range had shown that while the bunny girl might be good at building weapons she was utterly hopeless at aiming them.

With that in mind, and given Yril’k and Trea’k weren’t fully comfortable flying the shuttles yet (especially in atmo where there were lots of things to bump into like trees or mountains) they’d divided up - Emely would pilot for Trea’k who it turned out was a natural with a stun gun despite her chest making actually getting into position to be ready to fire one something of a gymnastic exercise, while Rye and Yril’k paired up as Dustin wanted to give his new officer a chance to prove herself in “combat” without it being somewhere the other side might actually fight back.

The three shuttles eventually prepped, Sola slid smoothly down through the atmosphere of Mecuar on a clear sunny day. They wouldn’t be needing suits for this one - the atmosphere was if anything a little too good. Meli fussed about that as they broke through the cloud layer. “Remember, if you start to feel excessively giddy it’s probably a sign you need to pop on your rebreather for a bit. Just because we can live perfectly fine in the atmo here does not mean that operating shuttles and stun guns while having an air high is a good idea.” Dustin debated commenting about how giddy his women made him as a joke for a minute, but decided against it for two reasons. One, Yril’k was present and it wasn’t appropriate, and two - he wasn’t sure his relationship with Trea’k was quite at that stage yet. In any case, the landing proceeded smoothly, Sola touching down around a mile from the site of the herd on the edge of a high cliff.

“Right everyone, let’s go wrangle them thar critters.” Dustin said in his best impersonation of a cowboy to a giggle from Emely (who he knew had watched a western with Meli the previous week because she’d asked him a bunch of questions afterward) and a bemused look from Rye and the two Vex’ess. “I’d avoid using jokes that rely heavily on human culture for at least a month li’ah’a.” Meli said gently, checking the strap on her rebreather one last time before hitting the button for the shuttle door. “The others haven’t had as much time to read up on your species as I have.”

Chalking that one up as an important point to remember Dustin gave what he hoped was an apologetic looking smile to the other women and followed his fiancé into their craft. A moment later the door hissed shut and he slid into the co-pilot’s seat. “All ready?” He called out over comms then gave the order to move out as the other transports called in their readiness. Three ships slid smoothly out of Sola’s open hull, skimming down the cliff and away across the shrubland towards their target. As they flew the ground below them changed, with the hills at the base of the cliff flattening out into a depression in the landscape that naturally shielded it from rougher weather; the result was the shrubland became an oasis of grassland for a couple of miles in every direction. In this grassy bowl ahead of their path Dustin could already see their targets through the shuttle’s scanners - and soon enough through the viewscreens as Meli and the others took their craft up to a low cruising altitude.

Reaching their destination, Meli put the shuttle into a hover about six hundred feet up. “A little longer range than Rye recommended as the ideal for the weapons li’ah’a, but well within the optimal band, and the herd moved a lot when we were lower.” Was her only comment as he left his seat and walked back to the cargo area. Inside, his stun gun was firmly strapped to the wall beside the large winch and harness he’d need to use to bring the alien cattle into the vessel. Thumbing the bay doors he steadied himself against one of the grab straps on the wall as the wind at this altitude whipped around him. Taking a moment to fasten a safety line just in case he walked forward, dropping to one knee in the open doorway and lifting the gun to his shoulder.

Below him a pack of about twenty of the large herbivores were engaged in grazing. The animals were vaguely interesting to his human eyes, looking as they did like a cross between a small elephant (about the size of a large pig with a long trunk and big ears) a lemur (light fur, large eyes and long prehensile looking tails) and a kangaroo or rabbit (smaller forelegs with powerful rear legs designed for jumping). Sighting through the scope of his gun, he took aim at one of the larger animals. Toggling his communicator, he checked on the status of the other shuttles floating nearby. “All guns ready?” The reply came back affirmative, so with a order to open fire once he took the first shot he double checked his sights and squeezed the trigger.