The next day, the rest of my pack and I were preparing for our departure from E.W.E.a.D.B.

I had my doubts about this day coming, but at last it is finally here, I'll have the opportunity to have a good chunk of the glory and fame, is truly remarkable. It was like a dream come true.

Unfortunately, there is only one downside to this day: I had to recalibrate the nano fibers for my pride and joy, my E.H.E. suit.

Apparently, the improvements I made to the battery for Q.U.A.S.A.R. mark 5.5 were simply too much to be carried in one small point on the shoulders of my suit, which caused a structural collapse among the nanite fiber tubes.

An easy fix, though it kind of takes a long time, 35 minutes to be exact, to repair the damage that MY beloved suit had received.

In order to do the calibration while being on time for our departure, we have to wake up earlier than usual.

*To give you perspective, because I don't think that you filthy humans know how long a day is on Avalon, a day usually lasts for 16 "Earth" hours, which means we get 8 hours of daylight every day.

My E.H.E. suit is truly one of a kind; it's custom-made with a grappling hook and long-range taser that can extend up to 15 ft.

As for how it was built, during the early days of our career in E.W.E.a.D.B., a few years after our dreams of becoming Elite Marines had been violently crushed by one simple mistake, which again wasn't my fault.

I was in quite a fit of rage, or that's what my packmates told me.

Nahun described that my over-the-top behavior went into overdrive, whatever that means.

Rena said that ever since that fateful day with the Globe master disaster, I had a hard time eating and sleeping, to prioritize some kind of weird conspiracy theory about the maintenance crew conspiring against me.

But after a few years of ourselves getting re-educated for building machines, we put our skills to use, for our Pi'tcy nt'ib*.

*Pi'tcy nt'ib, means hatch day, and if you still need more context, you hairless monkeys, it translates to birthday.

On that fateful day, my packmates told me that they were planning on making an Elite Marine-style E.H.E. suit for me.

It took a few months but through our own determination, and at the expense of our own free time.

We were able to make this piece of armor a real thing, every part of it is made to my preferences and my style of combat that I always dreamed of having but never actually got.

We even put our pack emblem* on when it was done!

*A pack emblem or flag is an important part of our culture; it's a symbol that usually represents every member of an Avali pack.

What made it even better was that while we were working on it, Ni didn't do a single prank or sabotage when he was around me! Too bad those days are gone now...

Anyway, after the recalibration was complete, I put it on.

It's always mesmerizing for me, every time I put my exosuit on, the way that the helmet and chest plates open themselves up allowing me to climb inside.

My qrwi'slookl* slide in perfectly, as the suit links up with my Nexus implant in my spine which allows me to easily operate multiple features of the suit with a single thought and the slight movement of my fingers and qrwi'slookl.

*Wi'slookl, means hand and wing, the reason why is because in our anatomy, our wings and arms are integrated with each other. Ko told me, anatomy-wise, our wing appendage is like an extended pinky that bends sideways.

What? What do you mean that the word that I'm explaining doesn't match the word I said? Oh, right, you sheepish bipedals don't know that qr is a plural prefix that usually is located at the start of the words that we Avali say in our spoken language.

When the helmet closed its external plating with a rhythmic hum and began to integrate its senses with my own, that is when I became one with it.

It always gives me such pleasure that I can chirp a happy little tune.

Suddenly, one of my packmates, Nahun, came into our trophy room to check on me.

"I know that you're having a nice flight over Memory Forest*, but we need to get going! If we don't get there on time, Commander Oocheto will have us clean the external hull of a frigate, with a toothbrush," he said with a trill.

*A flight over memory forest is similar to the human metaphor, a trip down memory lane.

I turned around to look at Nahun, the HUD of the helmet improved my vision dramatically, a typical feature of the E.H.E. I was able to see him very clearly.

"I will be with you in a minute," I said while grabbing a small trophy.

The trophy in question is a skull of a tyi'swk*.

*Tyi'swk, a small rodent-like creature that's similar to a rat, but has venomous teeth. These creatures are quite the nuisance, chewing through wires inside our equipment in search of food, which really ruffled our feathers when we were trying to work.

Eventually, we were successful in getting rid of it for good. We decided to make a trophy out of its skull because this tyi'swk in particular was quite the challenge, due to its size and its ability to squeeze through small spaces.

We had other trophies, but it's not in the way that you expect,

These trophies are actually pack pictures and selfies that often have a large or dangerous animal in the background.

We didn't kill those beasts unfortunately, since these pictures are usually taken out of hunting season, these creatures just simply got a blow dart injected into their bodies, causing them to go unconscious.

At least the pictures look nice.

Eventually, we started to walk towards an elevator will lead to Hangar B, which took a very long time. E.W.E.A.D.B. is a subterranean facility deep within the Thy'gh Mountain Range.

Ni eventually noticed that, I was bringing something other than my E.H.E. suit.

"Well, would you look at that!" Ni Said with a chirp
As he grabbed the tyi'swk skull out of my hands.

"HEY!" I yelled with a streak.

"Crazy feathers over here, is bringing a tiny trinket with us!" Ni said with a coo as a smug look on his face.

The rest of my packmates then turn towards Ni's direction their upper ears perked up in interest.

Ni then places the trophy on top of his snout, as he playfully attempts to balance it.
What a show off.

Fortunately, Nahun grabbed the trophy off of Ni's snout.

"That's a very interesting track Ni." Nahun said with a trill "But the last time you did that, you shattered a ceramic pot beyond repair."

"You're no fun, Nahun... and besides, Eeso was supposed to only bring what he needs," Ni said with an annoyed coo.

"You're not entirely wrong, but at least he's bringing something that is small and can be easily stored in a box. I think it's ok to let it slide this time," Rena said with a calm chirp.

"I absolutely agree." Ko Said in agreement, "This is a large improvement, compared to when we went to Ma'ko Hills last year. Remember when he almost got crushed by trying to bring the big statue of himself with us in his E.H.E. suit?"

"I remember that, he was stuck holding up his own statue for a solid 2 minutes. If it weren't for him, shrieking at the top of his lungs, we wouldn't have been there to help." Nahun said while scratching an itch on his upper ear.

Ugh, I'd rather forget that, it's one of the most humiliating moments that I had last year, the joints in my suit locked up, while I was trying to bring my prized possession to show it off at Ma'ko Hills.

A warrior like myself is supposed to be able to get themselves out of a tough situation on their own, NOT WAIT UNTIL HELP ARRIVES!!!

Then again, I was getting exhausted when I was stuck with my arms raised... And my second command told me that one Avali alone won't be able to do much, if anything at all by themselves... Though I kind of find it hard to believe that.

Eventually, we arrived at the main elevator, which was quite large, but that was expected; it was designed to transport large vehicles built here.

Of course, other Avali packs who were also drafted for the cause are also there.

They gave me an odd look, one of them even said "Oh great, that khyro is here." behind my back.

They were probably just jealous because I have a high-tier E.H.E. suit, and they don't.

With a loud clink, as the elevator doors closed, we started ascending upwards.

Unfortunately, the elevator took soooooo looooooong, it's one of the consequences of being in a subterranean base.

You cannot just simply fly your way out, you either take the elevator or the stairs. Both of which take a lot of time, especially if you're near the bottom.

To pass the time, I looked at a photo of the Capital City of Avalon, Thi'glo.

The architecture is beautiful, I can only imagine
the beautiful sounds of the music, the culture, and the attention, like trees of titanium and steel that extend towards the heavens whose branches serve as landing platforms for the people of Avalon.

Of course, if you have actually been to Thi'glo, it would look nothing like some kind of mystical metal forest, but the skyscrapers do reach into the upper atmosphere, so at least it's still breathtaking.

Right in the center of this beautiful photo of the capital city is a big statue of the Eiloli pack, to honor the sacrifice of Khazuyo, Eikuli, Jasyo, and Nesuko.

Once we go up against whoever DARED to destroy an unarmed science vessel.
is will soon have my very statue within the capital, they'll make parades in every building I enter, and even write songs about the great warrior that I am!

Probably should also include my pack members... But their statues will have to be a little bit smaller than mine.
I wonder if I will be able to get some quality time with Rena?

I try to imagine what it would be like, but that is when the elevator shook and started to slow down and stopped at the top floor, which leads directly to hangar B, where a full squadron* of empty AVT-6 was waiting to transport us.

*A full A.D.F. squadron consist of 2 or 3 Avali packs.

The elevator doors slowly opened like a very large garage door to make easy for you humans to put it into perspective.

Once the elevator door was done opening, we walked in single file into a AVT-6.

An AVT-6 can usually hold up to 18 personnel, which would mean it can hold up to three full Avali packs.

If these Avali packs in question, have 6 members each.

The engines and propellers of the AVT-6s hum loudly as we walked on board.

Once everyone got on and was accounted for, the back hatch closed with a loud hiss followed by a small click.

The pilot of the craft then said through the coms "This is orange leader, requesting permission to transport the last batch of personnel to the Renaka*." the pilot asked with a chirp

*Based on what I've heard, apparently the Renaka is the ship that we're going to be assigned to. And yes it's named after the Renaka pack, the same ones that liberated our ancestors from the benefactor's occupation.

We Avali have this habit to reuse names, especially when it comes to our vehicles and individuals that have significant importance to our people.

Eventually the pilot of the AVT-6 got a reply from the control of the base "This is E.W.E.a.D.B to orange leader, you are clear for takeoff." The tower Monitor said with a trill.

The ride to the Renaka, was quite uncomfortable despite, The awesome situation that me and my pack are in.

It took the AVT-6 forever, to get to a shuttle so we can go into orbit to get to the ship.

To top it all off, during the entire time, there was another group of Avali who were squinting at me, like they were expecting me to do something crazy.

Eventually Ni started talking because he was bored "Hey Nahun, remind me why we have to ride a noisy vehicle to get to the shuttle, couldn't we just fly to it?" He asked with a chirp.

Yeesh what an idiot, you cannot simply fly to a restricted air zone.

"Yes we could have flown to it but, we've been cooped up inside a industrial facility for quite some time, and we don't even know where this launch site for the shuttle is.
Not to mention that we're going to a restricted air zone, If we were to fly, we will have to wear a heavy transponder that will be strapped to our back so they won't try to escort us out of the area."
Nahun answered as he turn towards Ni's direction.

"I see..." Ni replied with a coo "But I don't understand why this part of the sky is restricted."

One of the other reason why Ni annoys me, is that he never reads standard protocol files.

Fortunately Rena helped explain to Ni why, it is a bad idea to fly near an active launch site.

"It's because of the heat the shuttle's rocket engines will produce, if any one flys within a half a mile radius of the launch site without any protection, they will be cooked." Rena explained with a trill.

"Oh..." Ni said with a small squeak, as he realizes that If he flys too close to a large engine capable of producing extreme heat he will get fatal Burns.

Eventually, we got to the launch site of the shuttle craft.

Of course the squad leader did a checkup on the watchtower "This is orange leader requesting Clith valley for permission to land, and transport recruits to the shuttle." The squad leader set said into the radio with a chirp.

"This is Clith valley to to orange leader, You authorization." The watchtower of A.D.F. personnel replied form the radio

As soon as the transmission was over the AVT-6 squad the docking hatch.

As we got off of the AVT-6 while its propellers started to slow down, we saw a sleek looking shuttle attached to a rocket.

The shuttle in question was kind of large, of course not large when compared to a A.D.F. frigate but, it's big enough to hold at least 20 passengers by the looks of it, which is quite impressive when compared to the mediocre spacecrafts you humans make.

The shuttle's hatch opened with a quiet grinding sound.

As my pack and I got on the shuttle and strapped ourselves into our seats.

I overheard some passing conversations about me, like "See that guy in the knockoff special forces E.H.E. suit, whatever you do, do not go near him." and "Isn't that the crazy Eeso guy?" which is often followed by "I think it is. I'm surprised he hasn't killed his packmates yet given his history."

Fortunately, these negative comments tend to fizzle out. When someone says "stay quiet, he might hear you. We don't want to provoke the khyro."

Reka, ever since the globe master incident, everyone assumes that I'm chronologically insane, and that I would eventually turn against on my own kind.

Fortunately though, things have finally changed for once, they will see how great of a warrior I am in the front lines, and everyone who say I'll be nothing more than some kind of monster that society hates.

Oh, they'll be sorry, THEY'LL BE VARY SORRY THAT THEY EVEN DARED, TO SAY SUCH WORDS RIGHT BEHIND MY BACK!!!

And it will be valid proof that I'm not a total out outcast and would eventually reintegrate into society... and obviously prove my worth to become a elite marine.

Eventually, my pack and I got to our seats and strapped ourselves down before take off.

Of course almost everyone has to where a pressurized suits while inside the shuttle, except for me of course, because a E.H.E. suit is practically a hyper advanced spacesuit.

After 30 minutes of waiting, due to some kind of delay. The shuttle finally took off, the loud rumbling and the intense G-force, made the ride quite uncomfortable for gently.

Fortunately these conditions usually die down Once we go into orbit within 1 or 2 minutes, which is kind of surprising since Avalon has a very large and thick atmosphere for an ice Moon.

I always thought it would take an hour to get outside the atmosphere.

Anyway, once we got into orbit the shuttle was preparing for an Lightgen* ignition.

*Of course you ignorant monkeys don't even know what Lightgen even is, to put it plane and simple, Lightgen is a word that we Avali use to describe FTL (faster than light).

As we zipped across the Uresk system, going to the ship refinery* with the second asteroid belt.

*A ship refinery is one of the largest structures that we have made.

To put it into perspective. A average ship refinery is approximately 773 miles In diameter, which makes it's large enough to be considered a large asteroid.

I could hardly wait until we get to the Renaka, What what it look like?

A large old frigate that has a lot of burnt and cracked plating from previous battles and yet is still fully combat ready.

Or is it going to be sleek, shiny and new, with state-of-the-art ship to ship missiles, along with a very cool but very destructive G.A.Z.E.R.* emitter.

*Unfortunately, I forgot what the acronym stands for. The only thing that I know for sure is that the G stands for gamma-rays.
Anyway the G.A.Z.E.R. weapon system is one of the very first and wide we use laser blaster like weapons that we Avali have created, that Is capable of melting a planet's crust.

As a shuttle goes out of FTL It the ship refinery known as the Bi'tecoo, the first ship refinery we have built.

As we drifted closer to the Bi'tecoo, I caught a glimpse of of the ships that were currently under construction some are typical civilian class frigates, others were large scale projects for infrastructure and the A.E.F.

Eventually the pilot of the shuttle which was apparently named the Thiy'cato made radio contact with the port on the ship refinery.

"This is the Thiy'cato requesting permission to land in hanger C to make contact with the Renaka." The pilot side with a chirp.

"This is hanger C requesting that the Thiy'cato state it's business with the Renaka." A hanger operator spoke with a trill.

The pilot of the Thiy'cato then replied while cooing "We have personnel for the ship, some engineers others recruits for security force and task force for a classified mission."

They must have checked the records and compare to what what the pilot said.

"This is hangar C to the Thiy'cato, your business with the Renaka matches with our schedule, though you are 2 minutes late, care to explain?" The hanger director said with a chirp click.

"The fueling schedule was delayed, due to a leakage of a canister." The pilot of the Thiy'cato explained with a chirp.

As the Thiy'cato maneuvers towards the hanger I caught a glimpse of the Renaka, It was a civilian ship.

a warp class ferry starliner to be exact, the kind of ship that high class corporations use for trade and advertising across multiple colonies.

The exact opposite of where I want to be, we we have been lied to, so we'll be reassigned to a job that's even more boring then weapons designing!

What made it even worse was the ship's name, a weak vessel like this is unworthy for such a name, and absolutely dishonorable towards the Renaka Pack!

But the cherry on top, as you humans would say.

The one thing that got me the most, is when I read the job slip that was assigned to our pack, we're not even security officers, but engineers and maintenance crew!

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!" I shouted with a screech.

"Can't believe what?" Ko asked with a chirp.

"Look at this, LOOK AT THIS!!!" I said with a angry hiss, as I shove the paper into his face.

"We are engineers on a civilian ship, A CIVILIAN SHIP, Oocheto lied to us, this entire mission is a fabrication to get rid of us!" I squawked angrily at Ko.

"Oh boy, there he goes again making conspiracy theories while yelling at the top of his lungs, because he didn't got what he wanted." Rena Said with a quiet but irritated trill.

"Indeed." Nahun agreed with a quiet coo, "It was only a matter of time before you would learn the truth that we're not going to be in combat."

"And once again, he takes things a little bit too extreme." Ni Said with a quiet chirp.

I knew that they were talking about me behind my back, but I was too angry to focus on that.

"Despite all the HORRENDOUSLY BORING and HARD WORK we put into our projects, do we get any recognition, NO WE DO NOT!" I yelled with a shriek while stomping my feet onto the floor.

All of the other Avali looked at me uncomfortably, like the kind of look that says. "Do you really have to do this here?"

"Can you please calm down and save your complaints for later, you are starting to make a scene here." Ko said with a chirp while squinting his eyes.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN!?!? NO I WON'T CALM DOWN, JUST LOOK AT THIS!!! THIS SHIP LOOKS LIKE IT WILL FALL APART WHEN IMPACTED BY MICRO ASTEROIDS!!!!" I yelled with a shriek while my feathers were flaring outwards out of rage.

Nahun and the rest of my pack then started to unbuckle their seat belts and start walking out towards the hatch that will lead to that disgraceful piece of junk.

"This is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE to us, we were better off building weapons than!" I took a breath in between my sentence "Doing routine maintenance work on a vessel that would NEVER, see any action!" I yelled while walking behind my second in command as we walked through the airlock.

The Avali packs that were behind us in a line, but uncomfortable, one of them even said "Reka, 10 years of radar training and evaluating, for this..." The random Avali said behind us.

"Are you absolutely sure, that this is just a civilian ship?" Ni said with a chirp and trill, in a tone of voice that suggests that he knows something...

"I am not sure, I KNOW, just look at it! No turrets or Anti-Spacecraft missiles, making it absolutely INCAPABLE of offensive engagements or intercepts!" I replied with an angry hiss found some clicks, while flapping my wings aggressively.

"If the Renaka really is a civilianship? Why go through all the trouble to supply it with ammunition and troops?" Rena asked with a soft coo.

"I don't know, all I know is that we've been tricked, in the most dishonorable way possible!" I answered while yelling with a growl as my feathers flair out in anger, my eyes squinting with absolute rage.

I don't exactly remember what I said next, but I do know for a fact that I continued to complained until I entered the vessel.

As we walked through a typical looking airlock, that had no turrets for defense or even or armored planing, typical for commercial
grade ship.

The architectural design changed dramatically once we're actually inside the Renaka.

Everything about it from the inside just screams high tier A.D.F. frigate, the armor plating was in the interior of the craft instead of the exterior.

Not to mention that there were security turrets scanned us as we enter through the airlock when it properly pressurized with a quiet hiss.

"What kind of ship is this?" I said with a confused and quiet coo while looking around.

It was really confusing for me, on the outside it was a civilian craft, but in the inside it's actually a military ship...? What? What is going on here?!?

Seeing my confusion, Ni took this opportunity to rub it in my face, because of course he can.

"Wow, this is the first time I seen you shut up all by yourself. I guess he haven't read about that this ship is an ambush class interceptor." Ni said with a smug look on his face.

A big slip like that would be absolutely ruin my reputation as a pack leader especially in front of a lot of people that were in line behind us.

"Well, of- of course I knew that an ambush class interceptor. I was trying to make sure that everyone else did, by acting like I didn't." I said with a trill as I tried to defend my own dignity and future in front of my packmates.

Of course Ni took this opportunity to tease me because since I stuttered.

Ni then said with a chirp.
"Not to long ago you were complaining about how we we're going on a civil-"

I interrupted him.
"SILENCE, STINKY FEATHERS!!!" I yelled towards Ni while flapping my wings aggressively.

Meanwhile, one of the Avali packs behind us in line over her to conversation and commented, "Oh no... This is going to take a while."

"Oh realllllly, "stinky feathers" is that the best you got, Eeso?" Ni replied with a trill.

Oh great, Ni Is doing that thing where he starts insulting me back, when this happens it usually takes hours before we stop, but don't look at me. He's the one that started it!

"Don't you DARE, push it you REN'KUSA." I said with a growl, as an attempt to end it, before it begins.

"Oh I'm pushing it all right, and there's nothing you can do to stop me, you grumpy chuto'aohtak."

Unfortunately this crossed the line, and I started to say a lot of insults to Ni, and Ni kept throwing them back at me.

"Rika, there they go again." Nahun said with a chirp in the background.

"This is the second time, that this happened this week." Rena said with a sigh of annoyance.

"At least Ko is doing in the tedious work at the security checkpoint. Though I'll have a bad feeling that we are going to get a penalty for holding up the line, thanks to Eeso related shenanigans." Nahun said while looking at Ko who was interacting with a security officer.

*What, How do I know this was going on when I'm preoccupied with dealing with Ni?

It's actually quite simple human, the Avali Brain can process multiple sounds at once thanks to our amazing sense of hearing.

In other words we can listen to multiple conversations and respond to them, at the same time.

Anyway, enough of this lore dump, let's get back to the story.

Eventually and unavoidably the insult war dissolved into some kind of scream contest.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!" shriek and clicked towards Ni.

Predictably Ni responding with.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" with a smug look on his face that says that he's enjoying every second of this.

Unfortunately my second in command, abruptly end this shriek contact by pushing Ni and saying.

"I think that's enough, besides, I think the entire ship knows that we're on board at this point." Nahun said with a calm coo.

I was still glaring at Ni with my upper ears down ready for whatever he is going to say next.

Meanwhile Ni still has his cocky smile on his face.

And then I said to him while pointing "This is not over Ni."

"Indeed, it's not." Ni sad with his smug look on his face that makes me sick.

"Yeesh is going to be a long trip, let's just just go through line before we get into even more trouble." Nahun said well motioning us to catch up with Ko.

End of part 4.