The day before Alani’s thirteenth birthday, Prototype Mouse Raft 19 passed final test runs.
It had been a long and difficult journey, much longer and harder than anyone anticipated, but at last, the first Sorrelian-built spacecraft was ready to launch! After many revisions and failed designs, the Mouse Raft ended up looking less like a crate and more like an egg with ears. It wasn’t thrown into the air, or hauled up by airship; instead it was lowered from a crane at the Starport loading dock directly onto Zor’khan’s back, strapped on securely by people in industrial Hauler Frames, and only when the technical crews announced it was ready did the Mikkika Lynxmouse Clan finally board their destined transport.
The launch was scheduled for evening, on a day when the moon was up, so as to make it easier for Zor’khan to head directly to it.
By then, Mikkika was a great-great-great-great-great-grandfather or something like that. His clan of thirty had grown to nearly
The mice on the moon and the mice who just arrived on the moon met at the entrance of the tunnels protected by Lu’na-ris. “Mikwiiiwii?” [You the new guys?] “Yiikii?” [Yeah? Why?] “Sii-eeekii!” [This place is all yours! Now give us the suits!] That was the entirety of the handover from the old batch to the new. At long last! They could return to their home on the surface of the planet Sorrel II! It had been a nervous, adventurous, and sometimes tedious couple years or so of living on the moon cut off from home suddenly thanks to the Meorin expedition... but at last, they were going home! For a dragon, a couple years was nothing, a mere eye-blink in their lifespans. For a human, two years was a maturing youth leaving home for college or an extended expedition worthy of a distant voyage. For a lynxmouse, two years could practically account for entire generations. More than half the returnees had been born and lived most of their e
On the one hand, having an expected fleet delay their arrival forty-six times in the past year was really, really annoying. On the other hand, the many delays gave Remian ample time to prepare. Back when Darian was hiring moles to dig tunnels and Eriane was badgering Ermine for a railgun sniper rifle, Remian had taken a whole week to explain ultrasonic sterilization to Jim and the importance of its role in the new massive sewage treatment plant. This, and nine different kinds of processing involved in the treatment were all crucial to handling interstellar guests when those other trading ships arrived. “The Tuskans alone might bring all sorts of bugs and bacteria from their homeworlds. They like moist worlds, wetlands, shallow freshwater bodies... the very kinds of places where microbes thrive.” Remian explained. “What are they like, these... Tuskans?” Jim ventured a query. “How do I put this...?” Remian scratched his head. “If Woofers are dogs and Me
It might seem strange, but the sudden announcement of a tournament actually brought a sense of normalcy to Xue Mengli. The past couple of years had been downright crazy for her. Back in her homeworld, she had learned that humans were actually losing the war against the Ghosts and Demons and they were soon going to lose their world entirely. Lem Yan and Xiao Yan gave them a way out and very quickly her entire clan had moved to this new world. This new world likewise made her head spin. Humans had befriended supersmart versions of Beasts (called Wilds here) and they bonded as Comrades. They used strange devices that used a weird power called technology that relied on physical qualities instead of Qi formations or arrays. Mengli herself had learned a bit of their ‘education’ and had to admit, learning technology arts was far more complex than learning martial arts. Both were endless oceans of learning, but on this world, Qi was thin and so technology was more important.
Some people might look at her oddly, but Ermine loved wandering around this fresh, bright world. She got lost almost every time, and spent hours having little or no clue where she was headed, but Craggy Falls was a quaint, optimistic little settlement that was only so big. Even if she was totally lost, she’d eventually reach the end of it, and then she could simply circle around until she found a main road and regained her bearings. Meanwhile, she’d enjoy the clear blue skies, the fresh, clean breeze, the soothing sounds of the waterfall and the low hum of new machinery. This place had the potential to be a superb vacation spot. It had plenty of nature, and if they put in enough tech to make life here convenient, it could really become an ideal holiday spot by Tau standards. If there wasn’t an imminent threat of Mitigok hordes bearing down, or an out-of-the-way location at the dangerous borders of Quarin and Draconian territory, Ermine might even have wanted to sell tickets
In a world where most humans still hadn't heard of calculators and were only just starting to figure out electricity, the appearance of electromagnetic weaponry seemed to be a very big jump in technology, but while most humans on Sorrel II were stumbling around the industrial age, the Woofers had brought the wolfcats, wolves, foxes, and other canines of the Wildlands straight into the information age with smartphones, tablets, eye-tracking, microcameras, wireless communication and wireless charging ports all paw-and-bark compatible with heavy claw protection. Whether they used their paws, noses, barks, or tongues to interface with these relatively high-tech devices, the canines and semi-canines were rapidly developing over each generation (which, for common Tier 3 wolfcats breeds, only took two years, thus an entire generation had already matured and birthed their own children in turn since the Mice Raft Project began. Bigger Tier 4 wolfcat breeds, however, took 6 years to fully mat
Five seconds passed. The other four incoming dropships high above were still arriving in flames. The hustle and bustle around Craggy Falls and the Draconian Quarter were still ongoing. But in the starport and the immediate surroundings, all the world was still. Then with a sudden surge like a ripple of meaning itself in the air, motion resumed. The Tuskan Dropship plopped down on the tarmac unceremoniously and landed with a thump, but nowhere near the kind of devastating velocity that it had moments ago. There was a tremor in the ground as it landed, and a good deal of cracking concrete, but that was the worst of it. Meanwhile, people in the starport were still in a flurry. “I thought we were going to die!” “He... he just...!” “I’m too old for this sort of excitement!” Sior’khan-dras himself was all but dripping with sweat. “Since when did you have that sort of power?! I thought you was just some average rich guy supporting the
Kae-Taur was the minotaur boy in an orange-and-black t-shirt. Sal-taur was wearing the sleeveless khaki vest. Chi-taur was the girl in the tube dress. All three looked very bulky and easily twice Remian’s height and four to five times his size. Being children of the prestigious Banner clan of the Bison tribe, the Taur children put on good, dignified behavior in front of Remian. “Welcome to Sorrel II.” Remian cleared his throat. “We’ve done our best to prepare accommodations and refreshments for you. Please let us know if there’s anything specific you need or have trouble with.” “Indeed, we do have to trouble you for a few things.” Bak-taur nodded. “I brought my children out for experience and tempering. They need to see the world, and face many challenges and seek their own opportunities. I understand that some sort of tournament is to be held soon?” “As your captain requested, yes. It’s become something more of a mixed contest, including a Forest War
Since it was supposed to be a trip for tempering, most of the Tribes sent just the younger generation so that they would learn how to handle themselves in foreign worlds. Bak-taur’ul was the only adult who landed on the surface with his children (the logistics officer and his crew didn’t count since they returned as soon as their dropship was loaded with their supplies). This also seemed to have made him the default caretaker of the entire group while they were on the surface. After lunch, they went on a tour of Craggy Falls. “What a quaint rural countryside town.” Brittany commented on the most advanced settlement in the world. They couldn’t be bothered to waste time flying around the Wildlands on airship, so they wanted to take the Bison Tribe Dropship to tour the other sites. This presented a problem since they absolutely refused to let primitive natives (like Remian and his crew) on board their advanced spacecraft, which meant they would be wandering arou