When The Stars Died

Joe

These dirty human whelps have found me in my weakest moments, after Commander Septanomis shot me with the so called rifles we stole from the huge land that they call China (it used to be Darquona) because apparently in China they make everything in bulk, enough to supply our three hundred thousand soldiers at least.

That rifle was not a rifle, the human male whelp called it a 'BB gun', and said it was only meant to sting a bit, not even pierce skin.
But we people, we Supernovae, we people that have been forced to retreat to outer space, have abnormally thin skin (and the male whelp cut me with only his fingernails to prove it) and, well, no bones. Technically, the magic our bodies possess should be holding up our systems impeccably, but so far a hundred soldiers have died of bodily functions failing.

I can feel the lead pellet's bruise forming already, and my biologically engineered clothes grow to cover it, and it will eventually heal. I'm ecstatic that the commander doesn't know his 'guns' won't affect his soldiers that harshly.

The female whelp is looking slightly sick, but she did just demand for her co-partner to murder me slowly. 

"Do it." I say, my voice hoarse—even more hoarse than usual— and my body limp.

The female whelp crosses her arms and stares down the male whelp.

"I'm not gone t' kill Joe!" The male whelp protests.

"Skeeter." The female says in a low, dangerous voice, "if you don't, I swear to whatever gods are watching down on us I will punch you till all your teeth fall out and then I'll grab your—"
"Okay, okay, okay." The male—Skeeter?—hushes her. "I'll kill him. Got a weapon?"
"No." The female says. I can see she's lying, and I wonder why. And why is 'Skeeter' wearing a red squirrel like it's biologically engineered fashion?

"Before I die," I croak, "my name is Reditirisus, okay? As much as I like the name Joe, it's Reditirisus. Got it?"

"Wait," Skeeter says to his female—his mate?—, "we can use him fer infer-mah-shun."
The male whelp has such a strange way of twisting his words.

"Oh. Ugh. No, I don't want to." The female, his mate, whinges.
"We're usin' Joe for information and that's that, okay Pan?"
'Pan' looks surprised at his harsh tone, laughably inferior to my commander's sniping, grinding, stone on metal voice.
"What? He killed our families, Skeeter." She snaps angrily.
"Pandora. Listen to me. We can't do anything about that, okay? We ain't gone bring 'em back or magically heal 'em, okay? So we gotta move on. I'm sorry. C'mon." Skeeter bit his lip.
Her name was Pandora then.

"Are you sure?" Pandora says softly. "We could just... Torture him..."
"Ah, I see yer evil boxin' side now..." Skeeter chuckles.
"Please?"
"No, he's now our... Our friend." Skeeter says friend weird. Like, 'free-end'.

I close my eyes for a moment, then open them. "So I'm allowed to live?"

Pandora snorts, but Skeeter nods.

"Yes. Ya give us t' information we need, an' we can be friends." He says.

I rub my chest. I think I might have of just experienced a minor heart seizure. That little lead pellet did horrors to my skin complexion... Ugh.

There's a red spot right over my heart. I look up at the boy whelp.

"Friends." I say, and the female whelp grimaces.
"Colleagues, more like it." She corrects.
"Colleagues." I sigh. "Great. Wait. Hear that?" I cock my head.

I can hear the thumping of Commander Septanomis' squad's boots. I still do not understand why we must wear those infernal boots, but Queen Imerosis has insisted. Ha! Bloody Queem Imerosis, that son of a human.

"Hear what?" Pandora asks.
"They're coming back." I tell them.
The boy whelp nods. "He's right, I hear them."

Pandora looks a little sceptical, but she aids Skeeter in getting me inside their little cave and place me near a pile of dying coals, and I watch jealously as she uses her telekinesis to seal the cave entrance with a boulder.
But I'm confused as to why she has to point her hand at the object. I have to wait a whole month till I regain my powers, and here she is, unexperienced and idiotic, with top quality powers. Not even Commandar Septanomis has telekinesis.

The boy whelp appears to have animina, the ability to communicate with animals, and use animal's characteristics, which explains his hearing. And his sight.
You see, I was the one that spotted the boy whelp, Skeeter, up on the mountain, which is why Commander Septanomis was very suspicious. He thought I was delaying them, or even betraying them. He doesn't allow Squad 43 to be hindered in any way. He tortures us frequently.

The whelps still have powers to unlock though, that's one thing I know. As to why, I don't know, it's possibly a mutation due to the supernova radiation. Their families are mutated, technically. Their bodies couldn't handle the overload of energy in the atmosphere, therefore resulting in the coma, which their bodies did automatically in an attempt to—how to say it—hibernate till the energy dispersed. But supernovae energy is too powerful. Although the effects should die out in about a month, which allows us to regain our powers.

I want to tell the whelps this, I want to repay them for saving my life, I want to thank them from saving me from the Commander, but I also don't. I pledged my unconditional service to the Queen.
But screw the Queen.
But I must worship the Queen.
But now I'm a rebel.
But I'm also still a soldier, technically.
But now I have human colleagues.
But I love my old life... Wait, no, that's a lie.
But... What about Ueridi? My love, my life, my girlfriend... I still love her.
But she's not that good.
But she supported me!
But she's ugly.
But she's technically, traditionally, pretty.
But she's also sort of a son of a human. Remember that time she told you off for buying that canine embryo? We were going to have a dog, Reditirisus! But no, she made you throw it out. Because feline embryo were popular. Waste of a dog embryo, that was.
But I love her.

SHUT UP REDITIRISUS! YOU ARE NOT IN LOVE WITH UERIDI, SHE WAS AN ANNOYING, UGLY SON OF A HUMAN, AND YOU ARE NOT GIVING AWAY YOUR ONLY CHANCE OF FREEDOM FROM THAT DAMN QUEEN IMEROSIS BECUASE OF HER.

My head is clear. My thoughts have stopped buzzing.

"Who's this Ueridi?" The female whelp, sorry, Pandora, asks.

I can feel my brown skin reddening. Was I talking aloud?

"Yeah, who is she?" Skeeter grins. "Yer girlfriend, eh? Yer ugly, suppor'ive, son o' a human girlfriend?"

I groan. "She's nobody. My past girlfriend. Now, be quiet, my squad is nearing."

"Joe," Pandora suddenly hisses. "Get off that poor squirrel."

In the sad little glow given by the fire, I haven't noticed that I'm surrounded by animals. A whole bunch of little red squirrels and a pair of bears.

"Yeah!" Skeeter whispers. "That's... Who's that, Nut?" He seems to be thinking for a moment, and I realise him using his animina to that squirrel perched on his shoulder. He stops thinking, or speaking, or whatever, after a minute or so. "Yeah," he restarts, "get off Twiggers."

I spot the squirrel squirming underneath me, and raise my leg, releasing its tail, and it scurries off.

The thump of the squad's footsteps become loud, and extremely close, and we all freeze, and then they fade off into the distance.

"Shouldn't you be worried about the, uh, bears?" I ask, pointing to the hulking mammals.

"No, this is Fiercefur and Brownberry." Pandora introduces them.

"You named these beasts?" I scrunch up my face.

"Uh. What?" Skeeter chuckles awkwardly. "Everythin' has a name, stupid."
Do all boy whelps speak this way? Stew-piiiid, he said. Stew-piiiid.

I sit up with a groan and rub my chest. "Okay, well. If they're not going to hurt me..."
Pandora assures me they're friendly.

"Okay. Good. What do you wish to know?" I ask.