Recap of the first 2 weeks of the FireFoxx and Lion's Den combined forces training.
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LionkingCMSL was sitting at his desk in the quarters on board the Lion's Den. Although he had a stateroom that was 5 times as a big on board the FireFoxx, he still used this one as a "retreat". This was for a couple of reasons. First, it was familiar and he enjoyed the coziness of it . Even his wild side, who normally rebels of anything small in size, was more at peace here. It was like the grasslands of Homestead. It was "home".
Second of all, he had to, at times, get away from the hustle of the FireFoxx and her AI, Fire. Fire was starting to get on his nerves. He knew, in time, that he and Fire would work well together, but right now, it was a pain in the tail to be second guessed by that blasted computer.
Any fur with half a brain cell, especially those of the Lion's Den, knew where he could be found when he "disappeared", so it wasn't much of a "secret place" as much as a place to relax.

"Computer."
"Aye sir," said the familiar voice of the Lion's Den's computer.
"Start recording personal log entry, this date and time."
"Aye, sir. You may start when ready."
"Personal Log, Captain LionkingCMSL recording. Well, it's been a hectic two weeks since I took over the captaincy of the FireFoxx and the Lion's Den's crew was transferred as her command crew. To say it has been interesting would be an understatement. On the first day there was the time I caught two of the FireFoxx's crew ready to play a practical joke on one of their fellow crewfurs."

After LK left Altaica, he started to wander the ship, or at least part of it. He wanted to get a feel for the ship and it's crew. He also had an hour to kill before his next round of meetings, and he needed to unwind. He also found that there were advantages to not wearing boots on a ship where all the crewfurs wore them. He walked in almost complete silence and crew furs would carrry on as if he wasn't there. In fact, many furs didn't realize he was there until he said or did something. It gave him a good feel on how the ship ran on a day to day basis.

He had rounded a corner and came up behind two crew furs who were deep in conversation while walking.
"So that's the plan."
"Do you think Phil will have any idea who did it?"
"Nah. Will serve him right for trying to kiss up to the new commo officers."
"I can't wait to see his muzzle when he finds his bunk upside down."
LK spoke in a low, conspiratorial, whisper, "What about the new C. O.? Won't he mind?"
"Nah, he's too busy with important stuff, "the first fox said.
LK then spoke in his normal tone. "That may be so, but I do care about all of my crew."
Both foxes froze in their tracks and slowly turned around. Their eyes grew wide as they realized they were looking at an anthro lion's chest with arms folded across it. They slowly looked up and saw their new captain's face. He was not smiling.
They both offered a half hearted salute and stammered, "S-s-sir."
"Your 'joke' will end here and now. Before you plan any other 'shenanigans', I would suggest, very strongly, that you talk to a certain bobcat and coyote, Lts. Allen and Simpson. Ask them how I take to horseplay that becomes destructive."
"Aye, sir," both foxes replied.
"Dismissed."
"Aye, sir," replied both foxes as they saluted and took off at almost a dead run.
LK shook his head and said, "They never learn."

"I never did hear if the joke had been played out, but I suspect it was not.
"It seems that Altaica has made an impression on her new charges. I knew she would."

Altaica was at the training range watching the Marines and security forces go through their drills.
She turned to her new yeoman, William Cook, and said, "Will, make a note to get me in to one of the next sessions. Also make sure that the range officers know I will be using projectile weapons and to adjust accordingly."
"Aye, sir."

They had moved to the "rifle" range proper. After the troops had gone through their required shooting drills, Altaica was shown the different weapons that were used. She was allowed to use them. The range officer (R.O.) had initially had the target set up at 50 meters, but Altaica told him to move it to 100 meters. Altaica then shocked every fur there as the R.O. called out her hits. Not one shot she took was outside of the 8x ring.
"Ummm, sir?", asked Sgt. Burt "Bear" Gonzalez.
"Yes, sergeant."
"Sir, are you sure you never fired any of our weapons before?"
Altaica smiled and said, "Never fired any of them, before now." She turned to the furs who were seated in the "gallery" where muzzles were hanging open. "Surprised you, didn't I. You thought I was only a console jockey. Well, before I went to the Lion's Den, I was a 'grunt' for four years after I graduated from Homestead's Marine Academy. I keep in regular practice with various types of weapons. It may also interest you to know that I grew up on a farm and was started shooting when I was a cub."

She was not surprised to see the muzzles hang open even further. She just smiled and turned back to the bench. She lifted a case she had been carrying, placed it on an unused firing bench and opened it. The R.O., Bear, and anyfur within sighting distance got a shock. For inside the case were 2 rare, seemingly new, antique firearms. One was a Colt Model 1911A 45 calibre semi-automatic pistol. The other was a M-16 automatic rifle. Those furs that knew what they were looking at let out a low appreciative whistle.
As she picked up a paper target, out of the case, and put it on the target trolley, she asked the R.O., "Can the range handle those?"
The R.O. was shaken out of his shock, blinked and said, "Yes, sir. The range can handle them. May I inspect them?"
"I would not fire them until you did," she said as she set the target to 150 meters.
The range officer picked up the M-16 and said, "Sir, I normally don't allow antiques to be fired here, but an exception can be made for you. This thing is in mint condition."
As Altaica picked up the clip for the M-16 and started loading rounds, she said, "You misunderstand. These are not antiques. I had seen the originals in a museum. After I had signed up with the LD, I saved enough to have these modern replicas made. They are just like the originals, except they are made of modern alloys. By the way, your not allowing antiques to be fired here is a prudent procedure."
"Thank you sir. Your rifle. You may fire both of these, at any time, on my range."
Altaica did her safety check before she loaded the clip into the rifle. As she was loading it, she turned to the watching furs and said, "These two firearms are my weapons of choice while on the surface. Most, if not all, of the personal armor and shielding is designed for energy weapons, not a projectile moving at a good percentage of the speed of sound." She then picked up a specially designed set of "shooter's ear muffs" and turned to the R.O. and said, "I'm ready".
The R.O. turned to his left and yelled, "Clear on the left." He looked to his right and yelled, "Clear on the right." He faced forward and said, "Range is clear. Fire when ready."

Altaica put on her muffs and shouldered the rifle. She started with the rifle in the single mode, and popped off 5 quick shots. She then switched to "semi-auto" mode and did the same. Those furs who didn't think the noise from the M-16 was not that bad, got a surprise when she switched to full automatic and let loose with a 5 second burst. More than one fox was holding his ears when she set the rifle down and removed the empty clip. "Clear," she said as brought the target trolley up to her.
"Range is safe," yelled the R.O.
To all but one furs amazement, there was no longer a center to the target. It was shot away at the 9x ring.

As she was putting a new target up, she asked the R.O., "Do have a way to move a target sidewise?"
"Yes, sir. Move the target to the 50 meter mark and I can control it. Do you want steady or varied movement?"
Altaica looked up from loading the 45's clip and said, with a feral smile, "Let's see how hard you can make it. Varied. Ready."
The R.O. took a gulp of air and went to the controls. He went thru the previous procedure and Altaica started to open fire on the rapidly and intermittently moving target. She lowered her pistol and repeated the "clear" after she undid the clip.
The target was brought up, but most of the assembled foxes knew what she had accomplished. Despite the best efforts of the R.O., she got all of her shots, all 5, in no less than the 9x ring.
Bear approached her and said, "Sir, how good are you with that?"
Altaica smiled, put up a new target and told the R.O., "Same thing." She then loaded one round into the 45 and set it on the bench. "Ready."
"Yes, sir. Fire when you like."
While standing sidewise and looking at Bear, she picked up the 45, aimed down range and pulled off the single shot. The target was in its first cross range movement when she fired. There was a gasp from every fox there. She had, without looking, had gotten a clean bull's eye.
"How's that?" she asked with a sweet smile.
The astonished white fox closed his mouth long enough to say, "Sir, you can be in my divison at any time."
"Thank you sergeant. Truth be told, there was a bit of luck there, and my hearing helps." She then turned to the R.O. and said, "When I get done policing my 'brass', I'll be finished here." She then turned to the gallery of foxes and said, "You have impressed me with your team work and training. I'm sure that we will work together well. Dismissed to your divison leader."
Bear then spoke up and said, "Alright, you have 5 minutes to get to the mess hall for lunch. Move out."

While she was policing her brass, she had waved away Will Cook's help saying, "I made this mess, I'll clean it up", she saw that a lone fox was hanging back looking at her tentatively. She recognized the fox. "Yes private? May I help you?"
"Sir, I would like to apologize for the what I said the other day. It was wrong. I didn't know anything about you and spoke out of turn. You are one of us!"
"Is this your doing or on orders from Sgt. Gonzalez?"
"Mine, sir."
"Then I accept your apology. Private, please understand this, I will not ask anyfur under my command to do something I would not do. You will also find this is true of Capt. LionkingCMSL."
At this point Sgt. Gonzalez came barreling into the range yelling, "Milmay! You're supposed to be ..."
"Relax sergeant. My fault. I asked him to stay. I should've told you that he would be helping me police my 'brass'."
Now, Bear didn't believe this for a second, for not that many rounds were fired and Altaica held all but a few shells in her paws. "Yes, sir. Milmay, when the Commander is finished with you, double time it to the mess hall."
"Yes sergeant," the somewhat flustered fox said.
Bear left, still not believing what he had been told, but he knew that he could not do anything to Milmay, because it was just possible that the commander had asked him to stay.

Private Milmay looked at the tigress in awe. She had covered for him. "T-t-thank you sir."
"No problem. I had figured you didn't have permission to stay and you don't need to get into more trouble with Sgt. Gonzalez.
"You better be going though, because I don't think he really buys my story," Altaica said with a laugh.
The private stiffened to attention, snapped a salute and said with a smile, "Yes, sir. Thank you, again, sir." With that, he turned and triple timed to the mess hall.

Yeoman Cook turned to Altaica and asked, "Sir, why did you do that? Cover for Milmay, I mean." Will had learned early in working with his new commander, that if he asked honest questions of Altaica, she would not be upset. In fact she welcomed them, for that was the only way that he would learn how she would react to any situation.
"Will, you have to understand something, I meant what I said to Milmay. He's in enough hot water about that remark, he doesn't need to get in deeper. I haven't forgotten, nor will I, but he has apologized on his own. That counts for a lot. If Bear had ordered him to apologize, that would be different. I'll forgive honest mistakes and errors in judgement, especially when the fur owns up to the mistake or error on his own. Milmay did that, and he was sincere about it. He has earned my respect, for he is a conscientious fur, if maybe a bit quick in the muzzle.
"Now let's get out of here. I'm starving."

"And Altaica was afraid she couldn't handle the job," LK said with a chuckle. "I knew she could do it.
"It was on the first day of us having actual control of the ship after the simulators and basic maneuvering training that the LD's crew proved their worth to Admiral Fox and the rest of the FireFoxx crew. Of course they got a few laughs from yours truely, although they weren't intended."

LK was finally glad to be out of the simulators and on the "real" bridge of the FireFoxx. While the simulators were realistic enough, he knew that they were still simulators and not real. If he did something wrong, no fur would get killed or injured. On the real bridge was a different story. If he or his crew made a mistake, the results could be devasting.

They had gone through 3 days of learning how to move the FireFoxx for real and now it was his turn to see how he and his crew could handle the ship. In another words, they could play with the ship. LK wanted to see what this 6 mile long ship could do. His first two orders gave him a splitting headache.

"Okay, I want to see how fast this thing can accelerate. Sam."
"Yes, sir?"
"On my mark you are to give this thing everything she's got. Understand?"
"Aye sir."
Fire, the ship's AI, then piped up after looking at Admiral Fox, for it was in its holo mode. "Captain, are you sure you want to do that?"
"Yes, Fire. I'm sure," LK said with a bit of irration in his voice and a small lash of his tail. Fire was getting be to a nuisance.
"Aye, sir."
Just then sirens started to blare and the experienced FireFoxx crew furs braced themselves for what was coming.
LK turned to Fire and asked, "What was that for?"
"Just a precaution sir," Fire said with a hint of a smile.
"Ok. Whatever. Sam, now!"
"Aye sir," and Sam's finger hit the control.

The next thing LK knew, he was sitting in his chair. He had been standing about 2 feet in front of it when he gave the order. He shook his head to clear it. When he opened his eyes, he saw that there were former Lion's Den crewfurs sprawled on the deck. They had been the ones who had been standing and not holding on to something. They got up slowly, making sure that the deck was still in one piece.

"Okay-y-y. That proves how fast she can get up to speed." LK leaned forward and said, "Now, let's see how fast she can stop."
The sirens rang out again and even the new officers sat down or held onto something. LK thought his weight would hold him in his seat.
LK glared at Fire, but said, "All stop. Now!"

The officers and crew of the FireFoxx were treated to an unusual sight of a dark bown, tawny brown and green object rolling forward on the deck. The object was their captain, who had been launched by the sudden stop. There were a few small giggles and smiles.
LK stopped rolling when he hit the forward bulkhead, hard. He laid there for a moment or two. As Altaica was moving forward to help him, his eyes shot open and he fairly roared, "That chair is going to be equipped with seatbelts!" He then let out a small yelp of pain and moved his paw to his head. He now had a splitting headache, and his yelling didn't help it any.
As LK got up, slowly, Admiral Fox looked at Fire and said, with a small chuckle, "Captain, consider it done. I would recommend though, if Fire asks if you really want to do something, better take into account that he does know the ship better and may know something you don't."
"Recommendation noted Admiral," LK said as he retook his seat. "Ok, let's keep going. Sam, take us up to about .5 C."
"Aye sir."
"Here's the next maneuver. Sam, we're going to do what we discussed. A 'power slide' to port. Altaica I want you select a target behind us. Use the two rear turrets and see if they can track the target through the turn."
"Aye sir," came the reply from the two furs named. Then, "Ready sir."
"Okay, now!"

The observers on the Nightshade were treated to a sight they never thought could happen. They saw the 6 mile long FireFoxx execute a perfect ninety degree power slide in space. As it it did that, they saw the rear turrets swivel in unsion with the turn and the forward turrets swing around to the same side after the turn was halfway done. This was something the ship's designers never thought of.

When the slide was finished, Fire looked at Admiral Fox and said excitedly, "I didn't know I could do that! Did you know I could do that?"
JFox was as astonished as Fire was. LK and his crew just showed him something he never thought of. He looked at Fire and said, "No, I didn't know. Never occured to me to try it. Wonder if it would work with the Nightshade. I want you to upload what commands were used to the Nightshade."
"Aye sir," Fire said with a bit of disgust. He wanted to keep this move as his secret.

"Report," LK said.
"Sir, turn completed. Ship handled beautifully. All nav and helm systems report nominal status."
"Sir, rear turrets tracked target through the entire turn, and soon as it was possible, the forward turrets acquired the target and kept their lock."
"Great. That was better than I hoped for."
At this moment the intercom light from "Main Engineering" winked on.
"LK here ... "
"What are you doing to my ship, you overgrown house cat?" the voice on the other end bellowed.
Lee Philips could be heard in the background saying, "Chief, I wouldn't yell at LK like that."
"Shut up you, you river rat."
LK looked at Admiral Fox and pointed to the speaker. His unasked question was clear, "Who the hell is that?"
"Chief Phersh. He takes pride in this ship and doesn't like it when he feels somefur will damage it. I had to pry him away to get him on the Nightshade."
LK turned back to the intercom and spoke evenly. "Chief Phersh, be assured that this ship is in very capable hands. Also, please refrain from referring to me as an 'overgrown house cat'. Chief Philips."
"Sir?"
"How is everything down there?"
"Tell that mangy cat, mmmph ..." Chief Phersh's rant had been cut off like his muzzle had been placed in a vise.
"Everything is fine down here sir. Although you did catch us by surprise with those sudden maneuvers."
"Okay, Lee. Carry on."

Later LK found that one of the officer's from the Lion's Den, a large bear morph, had clamped his paw around the chief's muzzle. Lee had a hard time to avoid getting the bear placed on report and stopping Phersh from stuffing the bear into a plasma conduit.

"So it seems that even the Admiral can be surprised when a new crew gets their hands on one of his ships. Regarding the FireFoxx itself, all I can say is, WOW!! I had only seen small percentage of what she can do. If she had been more prepared for what was going to happen at the first Embolid battle, she wouldn't have suffered so badly. Of course she's had several upgrades since then, with more on the way.
"Also note to self, watch where you are walking! Not every corridor on the FireFoxx was designed with a large anthro lion in mind."

LK and JFox were doing an inspection tour of the FireFoxx. They were in one of the lesser used service passageways, deep in conversation. LK was walking at his normal rate of speed, which meant that JFox had almost to jog to keep up.

JFox suddendly realized where they were and said, "Excuse me LK, but you'd better ... "
BWANGGG!!!!
" .. look out for that low duct."
LK let out a deep growl. He had walked into a HVAC duct. He had left a basketball sized dent in it. He almost added four deep gashes for good measure, but he caught himself before he could claw it. Normally no fur would have hit their head, for the duct was eight feet off of the deck, but then again LK was taller than all of the other officers and crew.

JFox turned to his aide and said, with a wry smile, "Make sure anything under eight and half feet is marked with yellow and black striped 'hazard' tape."
"Correction," LK said, "that is to be anything under eight feet nine." He turned to JFox and said, "Gives me a little leeway."
"Correction noted. Now see that it gets done. Now!"
The aide snapped a quick salute and departed to pass the word.
JFox looked at his tall friend and said, with a smile, "After the bridge incident and now, you probably should keep headache medicine on you at all times."
"You're probably right," LK said with a laugh.

"That concludes some of the highlights, and maybe lowlights, of the past 2 weeks. On the whole, I would say that combined crews will work fine together. It'll take some more time, but these two crews will be looked upon as one. Not only among themselves, but from outside as well.
"We are now headed back to Outpost 1 to make an official announcement of the change in status of the Lion's Den and FireFoxx."
"Captain?" his intercom said.
"Yes."
"We're approaching HASS controlled space."
"Right. I'll be right there. LK out."
"Aye, sir," and the intercom went silent.
"This concludes this personal log of Capt. LionkingCMSL. Computer."
"Aye, sir."
"I'm done. Log this to long term storage with standard security protocalls."
"Aye, sir."

With that LK got up and walked from his "retreat" to assume the mantle of command once more.

The End

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