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A daring escape is conducted, but not without a cost. a familiar face reappears.

Edited: Spelling/grammar/phrasing/continuity fixes

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Leph sat on a crate in front of all the colonists, attempting to gather his thoughts as the colonists watched him, murmuring among themselves. Leena, Teliko and Yar stood with them, waiting. “Hey, Leena, what’s all this about? And what was going on earlier?”
Yar chimed in with Teliko. “Yeah? And why are you wearing the same clothes you were yesterday?”
“Leph is about to explain it. The situation is bad, though. As for my clothes, that’s none of your business.”
They both looked at her skeptically, and she held up a paw. “Now’s not the time, things are worse than you think.”
Leph finally stood and addressed the crowd: “Everyone! Some of you may have heard of Bowman’s planet, and how it’s population mysteriously vanished. Well, they haven't vanished, they’ve been forced into a cult. Now, this is going to sound crazy, but it’s the truth. We’ve been captured by some of these cultists, and we’re being towed back to Bowman’s planet to become… slaves.”
The crowd became restless, disbelief and anger was clear on the faces of most of the colonists. One of them shouted: “Is this some kind of sick joke?!”
Tsu, who was standing nearby, jumped onto the crate as well. “This is no joke! I escaped from Bowman’s planet, I have the scars to prove it!”
He lifted his shirt, and plainly showing through his fur were many small scars. “They… punished me as a child when I didn’t behave. As soon as I could, I escaped. Unfortunately, I led them right to you when Leph came to my aid. For that I am sorry.”
Leph continued. “But all is not lost. Tsu tells me he knows the “worker’s residence” inside and out, he’ll find us an escape rout. There is a time limit, however. Part of the ideology of these people is that fox Atrieans are the physical embodiment of evil and must be… sacrificed to their gods. There is a ritual preparation that takes twelve hours at least. So unless we escape by then, those bastards will kill all the foxes in this room… including our first officer and… my pilot.”
The crowd began to build panic like an overloading drive, and unless something was done, it would explode. Teliko looked at Leena. “I… Is what he says true?”
Leena nodded solemnly. “Yes… I had a similar reaction. But I have confidence Leph will get us out of this…”
Leena gulped. “I hope.”
Leph threw up his arms. “Don’t panic! The last thing we need is to be so scared we trip over our own shoelaces! It won’t be long until we arrive at Bowman’s planet, and until then, me and the crew will be putting our brains together. If any of you think of anything useful, don’t hesitate to come forward.”
Leph spotted Rackham in the crowd, he made eye contact and beckoned as he jumped off the crate. Rackham walked over, his usual demeanor was much less inviting. “Rackham, I need you to keep these folks from mass panic, or from doing anything rash. My bet is that as soon as the shock wears off, they’ll want to fight.”
“You’d bet right, I reckon. You sure we can’t take em? I mean, if it came to that.”
Leph shook his head. “Remember what you told me?”
“Yes, and I was right.”
Leph patted Rackham on the shoulder. “Take care.”
“You too.”
Leph waved to Tsu and Leena and they exited the converted cargo bay. They headed directly to the conference room, where Serleah, Feldoh and Zach waited. Zach waved a data pad. “I got the schematics from your ship, Tsu. Looks like you have a pretty detailed map of the settlement on Bowman’s planet.”
Tsu took the pad and laid it on the table. “I took a scan before I left. I mean, I didn’t do the scan myself, I took it, as in stole it.”
He brought up what looked like a giant holding pen. “It may not look like it, but this whole thing is eighteen feet below ground. It’s guarded well, and the ventilator shafts are on the ceiling, much too high to reach.”
Serleah shrugged. “Then what do we do? Seems pretty well protected.”
Tsu zoomed in on a small room shooting off from the main chambers. “Here.”
Leph took a closer look. “The restroom? You don’t expect us to crawl around in a pile of shit, do you?”
Tsu laughed nervously. “He he… well, at the moment, these pens are empty, so they’ve cleared out the pit. They don’t have proper… facilities. But see here?”
He pointed to a tube leading from the bottom of the pit. “This leads into the ocean. Once in a while they flood the pit and everything goes out to sea. We can’t get everyone out at once, but a small team can escape and come back to unlock the front doors.”
Feldoh looked at the pad. “This says it’s a nine foot drop to the bottom. That’s cutting it pretty close.”
Tsu shrugged. “We can improvise.”
The ship rocked a small amount. Zach stood. “We’ve come out of hyperspace.”
Leph also stood. “Let’s greet our new friends.”

The five stood before the boarding ramp doors. The ship rocked once more as the other ship landed them on the surface. Leph held up his paws, and the others followed suit, and soon the airlock opened to the backdrop of a ruined landing pad. Standing in front of eight armed and ready men, was the lion Leph had spoken to. He looked up and spread his arms. “We are blessed by this boon you have given us, Laroja.”
He smiled a toothy smile and looked at the greeting party. “You are about to enter holy service! Cheer up. I am Bowman.”
Serleah snorted. “You aren’t Bowman. Bowman was the original mayor of Bowman’s planet.”
The men pointed their guns at Serleah. Bowman roared. “Cease your evil tongue! Did I tell you you could speak, fox!? I killed Bowman in hand to hand combat, so I took his name. It decrees it so in the scripture of Laroja.”
Bowman looked at Leph. “You look like you’re in charge here, keep those… Foxes submissive.”
Leph bared his teeth. “Those “foxes” are my officers. I don’t care what your scripture says, they are your equals, if not your betters.”
Bowman unsheathed his claws, and sliced them across Leph’s face a quick as lightning. “ARRG!”
Leph fell to the floor, a paw on his face. Leena gasped and was at his side in an instant. “Leph!”
Bowman approached her. “See how they feign concern!? The intent is written plainly on their faces! Has this one seduced you, my friend?”
Leph stood shakily. “I’m fine, peach.”
Only one of Bowman’s claws had connected with Leph’s face, but the ugly jagged mark ran from his forehead, along his muzzle and ending at his nose. Leph said nothing to Bowman, only stared him down with cold eyes. Bowman signaled to his men. “No matter. What evil vices you indulge in is no business of mine. Take them!”
The men came forward, each one looked hardened and tough. They wore the bog standard clothes any normal colonists would wear, but each one had a symbol pinned to their shirt, a diamond with a twisted tree in the center. They brandished their old energy weapons as they came forward and threw sacks over the heads of the five, and dragged them off. The last thing Leph heard before he was dragged off was Bowman ordering more men. “Grab more sacks, men! And shoot whoever tries to fight back or escape!”

Leph was dragged roughly along a winding path, the arm of his captor had him in a tight headlock, preventing him from speaking or breathing properly. After a short time, he was thrown to the floor. His captor ripped off the mask and knelt beside him as he coughed. “Blessings of Laroja be on you, worker.”
Leph managed to croak some words before the man left to get more of the colonists. “This is wrong…”
The man glanced back for a second before leaving. Leph sat up and looked around, he was sitting in the pen Tsu had shown them. He spotted the others that were taken with him, plus some colonists, more than could have been captured in that short of a time. Leena approached him as he cursed to himself. “They must have gotten in through the airlock as well as the boarding ramp.” he muttered.
Leena plopped down beside him, and Leph couldn’t resist giving her paw a quick squeeze before the others also sat around, forming a circle. Tsu drew a shape in the dirt as he spoke. “It’s the same pen, thank goodness. We have to go quickly, they won’t start working us until they’ve concluded their sacrifices, but they’ll start dragging foxes off before too long.”
Serleah glanced around nervously. “What? I thought you said the preparations would take twelve hours!”
Tsu laughed nervously. “Yes, well… the ritual takes twelve hours, but they need the subject for that duration…”
Leph jumped to his feet. “You should have told us that sooner! Let’s-”
Leph was cut off by the pen doors bursting open as more colonists were brought in from the ship, the rest of them, in fact. Bowman approached the group, his smile bearing his many sharp teeth. “Well, now that we’ve all gathered, I don’t think there’s any reason to wait.”
Bowman pointed his claw at Leena. “Take her!”
Two men stepped forward, only to encounter Leph, arms outstretched. “Don’t you put a paw on her!” he growled.
One of the men took hold of Leph and shoved him to the ground forcefully while the other grabbed Leena as she attempted to run away. “H-Hey! Get off me you brute!”
Leena was dragged towards the door as Leph scrambled onto his feet and ran at Leena’s captors. Bowman and the other cultist held him back. Bowman’s grin grew wider. “Leph, I like you. In the creation tales Laroja’s bride was a wolverine, like you. You see, I will rid you of that parasite so that you can be shown the true way.”
Leph stopped struggling. He had twelve hours to save her, but he wouldn’t take his time. Bowman and the other rejoined the one taking Leena away. Once they had closed the pen doors, Leph ran to them and stuck his muzzle trough the small barred window as far as it would go and shouted as they dragged her down the corridor. “I’ll save you!”
Leena tried to shout something back, but it was muffled by the bindings that were shoved into her mouth. Leph slammed his paw onto the pen door, multiple times. Serleah stood beside him awkwardly. “Um… we’ll get her back.”
Leph turned to Tsu. “Where’s the bathroom.”
He said it as more of a statement than a question. Tsu wrung his paws together. “Uhh…” his voice was shaky.
“Dammit! Get a hold of yourself! It’s my mate that’s just been dragged off, not yours!”
Feldoh shook his head. “Wait, you guys are mates-”
Serleah dug her elbow into his side and flashed him the “now’s not the time” look. Tsu collected himself and pointed to a small door. Leph strode towards it. “Tsu, you’re with me. The rest of you, we won’t be long.”

The “bathroom” was no more than a hole in the ground, and the dim light from an old LED didn’t produce enough illumination for either of them to see into the pit, but judging by the smell, it was clean. Tsu gulped as he gazed into the abyss. “So… how you wanna do this?”
Leph could swear something was staring back at him. “Hold on, I have an idea.”
He left for a few minutes, and returned lugging several straw bedrolls. He tossed them into the pit, trying to get them all to fall directly down into it to ensure they would be able land on them. Tsu looked into the pit again, then gestured to it. “You first.”
Leph sat on the edge as he looked up at Tsu. “I hope your schematics were right and it’s not a thirty foot drop.”
He psyched himself up, and dropped into the pit. In midair, his instincts took over as his body twisted not a moment too soon and landed him on all fours onto one of the bedrolls. He fell to one side, winded. Tsu’s shadow peered at Leph from the top of the pit. “Leph! Leph! You OK?”
“Just peachy. Get down here!”
Tsu was much more careful. He dangled himself from his paws before dropping, reducing the height of the fall by five feet. He landed without much trouble. Leph hauled himself up. “Why didn’t I think of that? Comon, help me find the hole.”
They felt the sides of the pit around the circumference of the room. Leph was beginning to fear there was no hole, and as his mind raced with the possibility his paw shot into the hole, almost causing him to lose balance. He mentally chided himself as he called Tsu over. “Found it! You first this time.”
Leph heard Tsu crawl into the hole, and he followed suit. Leph suspected there was still some ‘residue’, so he tried his best to minimize the amount of contact he had with the floor and walls. After crawling for a good ten minutes, Tsu stopped and whispered: “Look. Light.”
Leph peered around Tsu, finding there was a faint afternoon light coming from the end of it. It seemed like the colony time and space time was very far apart here. After a short time, Tsu climbed out of the hole and stretched his arms. Leph stretched as well as he spoke. “Whew, I was starting to get cramped up…”
Leph’s voice trailed off as he looked at his paws. “Oh, son of a bitch!”
Tsu laughed his usual nervous laugh. “Heh, that’s just dirt. Wash it off in the waves.”
Tsu and Leph quickly washed off the dirt on their paws in the rolling surf. If they had any interest or time, the beach would have been a breathtaking sight, most of it was covered in a fine layer of bio-luminescent algae that sparkled along with the reflections from the sun. Leph waved his paws to dry them. “Alright, where do we go from here?”
Tsu pointed to the top of a nearby hill. “We can get a clear view from there, common!”
Before they reached the top of the hill, they got on all fours to minimize their silhouette. The hill indeed offered an excellent view of the compound, if it could be called that. The exterior was disguised as a bunch of ruins, the landing pad overgrown with weeds and any buildings intentionally collapsed and covered with plant life. The only evidence anyone lived here was The Frontier, still parked on the pad, and the occasional figure moving to and from it. Leph squinted at the figures. “I think they’re conducting repairs… ooo, if they think they’re going to take The Frontier from ME, then they are sorely mistaken.”
From their vantage point, it was clear which building held the entrance, and soon the coast was clear. Leph sprang up and ran as fast as he could towards the nearest ruined building. Tsu followed him as they bobbed and weaved between small shrubs, the building was only a few feet away… “What was that?”
Two of Bowman’s men stood at the entrance, pointing to where Tsu had just moments ago ducked behind a crumbling wall. The one that did not speak snorted. “That was nothing, we gotta get these repairs finished before ‘morrow.”
“I could have sworn I saw a flash of something just there!”
The second feline grunted. “Then let’s go and check. Don’t be too long or I’ll take your ration tonight!”
The two walked up to the wall and looked around it. “See? Nothing. Now, let’s go.”
They hurried back to The Frontier. Leph let out his breath; it was a good thing they had time to dart around the corner, now it was a straight shot to the entrance. They kept low as they quickly made their way into the ruined building. A large slab was removed from the floor, and a staircase descended into the dimly lit corridor. Once inside, Tsu pointed to a corridor leading to the left. He mouthed his message to Leph, who got the gist: “Two guards just there, pen behind.”
Leph nodded. Tsu, being a cat in inconspicuous clothes, walked past the left passage with his face turned the other way. Then he called back, loud enough for the guards to hear. “Hey! I could use a paw here!”
One of the guards looked at the other. “You go.”
He yawned. “Hell no, he was talking to you.”
The first guard sighed. “Fine.”
He walked towards Tsu. “Alright, what is it?”
As soon as he rounded the corner, Tsu dealt him a fast blow right to the windpipe, stunning him. Leph rushed the second guard, who stumbled to draw his weapon. He managed to get a shot off at Leph before he barreled into him, knocking him flat. Tsu clubbed the first guard over the head with his own gun as he heard the shot. He dashed down the corridor. “Leph! You alright!?”
Leph stood and checked the guard’s gun he had just lifted off his unconscious body. “Yeah, he missed me. But pretty soon someone’s going to come to see what the sound was, we have to hurry!”
Leph flipped the guard over onto his stomach and spotted the ring of keys on his belt. “You got keep watch, I’ll get everyone to The Frontier. Then we’ll go get Leena.”
Tsu laughed nervously. “Heh heh… yeah.”
Leph tried the first key, it didn’t work. “I wish you’d stop laughing like that.”
“Sorry.”
One of the colonists near the door noticed Leph. “Hey-”
Leph shushed him and tried the second key. It didn’t work either. He spoke through the bars as he tried the third key. “Get everyone ready, tell Serleah to get over here. She’s got more experience with firearms than me.”
The colonist scampered off. The third key opened the pen, and Leph swung the doors wide open, and Rackham and Serleah were the first to get out. Leph grinned. “Rackham, let’s go take the ship back. None of the cultists on it are armed, since they’re there for repair work. Serleah, help Tsu. Soon we’ll have some company. Here.”
He handed her the gun. She set it to a lower energy output. “Understood. What about Leena?”
Leph bit his lip. “First let’s get the colonists aboard.”
Rackham and Leph led a stream of colonists down the corridor and up the stairs.

Aboard The Frontier, one of the cultists conducting repairs checked over his supplies. He called to a nearby tiger. “Hey! Have you seen that huge wrench?”
“No, weren’t you supposed to bring it?”
The cultist sighed and stood up to find a wrench. “It’s not my fault weapon fire loosened the power conduits on this level, why do I have to…”
As he went for the ramp, he was met with a figure that took up his entire field of view. It grinned at him. “Hello, sugar.”
He didn’t have time to scream before he was hit with the force of a jackhammer straight to his face, sending him bowling into the tiger.

Serleah’s eyes were dead set on the end of the corridor, the rifle in her paws barely shaking as it was trained on the same place. Someone was coming, she could hear it. She glanced at Tsu, who nodded. Two figures appeared at the other end, and Serleah shot one of them, and the other yelled: “Alarm! Workers are escapi-”
Serleah silenced the second, too late. Someone fired down the corridor at them, sending Serleah back to cover. She poked out just in time to see Tsu shoot one that was attempting to rush them. Three more appeared and began firing down the corridor. “Tsu, we can’t stay here much longer!”
Tsu hit a lynx as she peeked to get a shot at him. “You’re right. Suppressing fire on three. One… two… three!”
They rapidly fired down the corridor, sending the cultist’s heads back. Tsu and Serleah backed up the stairs quickly, still firing. They made a mad dash to the ramp of The Frontier, where Leph and Zach were waiting, impatiently. “Serleah, you and Zach hold them off here. Tsu, let’s find Leena. We need to hurry, Feldoh has detected that gunship, it’s heading this way from another system.”
Tsu ducked behind the ramp they were using for cover. Serleah shot the first head to pop out of the staircase with impressive accuracy. “About that… Leph, it’s too dangerous, you’d be killed, let’s cut our losses and get out of here while we still can!”
Leph’s eyes widened. “What!? You said we could save her! You bastard! Tell me where she is!”
Tsu stammered. “Leph… I-if I told y-you th-that, you’d run after her and g-get killed!”
The cultists began to gain ground, using the walls as cover. A shot whizzed past Zach’s head. “Guys, we’re too exposed out here! I can’t hit a thing anyway!”
Leph slammed his paw onto the ramp. He remembered Rackham’s words, he needed to think of all the colonists, not his newfound mate. “Goddammit! Tsu! You’ve put me in an impossible situation! You lied to me, lead me on! Get inside!”
They dashed inside, and Leph pressed the ramp’s controls. His paw stayed on the button, as he shook. “Dammit! Dammit, Dammit, Dammit! Leena…”
He closed his eyes tightly, trying to prevent the tears from rolling down his cheeks. Tsu stood on the ramp as it ascended. He looked at Leph, and something inside him snapped. “Aaarg! Fuck it!”
He ran and jumped off the ramp before it closed. Leph opened his eyes to see Tsu dive and land on the ground in a run. He quickly pressed the ramp’s button again. “Tsu! Get back here dammit! Get back here you martyr complex having, lying motherfucker!”
Tsu dashed towards a nearby building, a different one from the one that housed the pen, the cultists were caught off guard and didn’t react fast enough to shoot at him. He was gone inside in two seconds. Leph grabbed the pistol from Zach and jumped down behind the ramp again, shooting the guard closest to the door Tsu had just gone through. Serleah joined him and they began firing at the cultists until they ducked behind cover again, yelling obscenities. Zach crouched just out of the line of fire, holding an S-Com which was connected to the cockpit com system. “Feldoh says the gunship is close! We’ve got maybe eight minutes!”
From where they where, they could see flashes of light coming from the building Tsu had gone into, and they could hear plenty of yelling too. Soon, a figure emerged. Leph tapped Serleah’s shoulder. “Suppressing fire, now!”
They laid down fire on every wall nearby, keeping heads down low. The figure ran as fast as it could to the ramp, and to Leph’s infinite relief, he saw it was Leena. He climbed onto the ramp and pulled Serleah up with him. They dove into the ship. Leph yelled, even as the guards surrounded the room Tsu went into. “TSU! DON’T BE A HERO!”
Serleah hit the ramp button and the ramp closed slowly. The flashes of weapon fire didn’t stop, and was still going on when the ramp finally closed. Zach barked into the S-Com, and the ship lifted off. Leph turned around, and was almost thrown off balance as Leena jumped into his arms and buried her face in his shoulder. “Leena! Thank god, I thought I lost you!”
Leena broke off and wiped a paw over her eyes. “I… wasn’t going to let you escape without me…”
She laughed. Leph hugged her again. “I’m glad you’re safe. I’m glad you’re all safe. But Tsu…”
Serleah shook her head. “Maybe he got away, we didn’t see…”
Her voice trailed off, they all knew it was impossible. They felt the ship accelerate, and Zach ran towards the engine room yelling: “You guy’s better save the tears and lovey lovey for later, we aren’t out of the woods yet!”

Feldoh was doing his best to fly the ship, but he wasn’t a pilot. He looked back in relief as Leena, Leph and Serleah arrived. “Guys! That gunship just entered the system! We don’t have much time!”
Leph ran to the weapon controls and Serleah took the copilot’s seat and began transmitting a call on the police line. Leph grinned at Leena. “Take your station, peach.”
Leena sat in the pilot’s chair, she took a deep breath and grasped the wheel. “Ready. What’s your command, Leph?”
Leph trained all guns to rear and waited. “Leena, do you think you can do a sharp turn along our Z-axis?”
She thought for a moment. “It might blow out one or two thrusters, but I can do it. They won’t expect it, anyway.”
Leph nodded. Serleah looked up. “An Atriean ship is on it’s way, we’re lucky there was one so close.”
Serleah’s console beeped. “Leph! Proximity alert!”
“I see it.”
He took careful aim, and fired all barrels at the pursuing ship’s sensor array. Lights beeped at his station as two barrels misfired, but the rest hit their target. “Now! Z-axis, positive!”
Leena pulled up on the wheel hard, and the ship lurched along the Z-axis.

Leph’s barrage had disabled the gunship’s sensors, and The Frontier was already flying in the opposite direction by the time backups came online. Bowman sat on the bridge, getting more and more furious. “Turn around! How could they get behind us like that! Re-aim weapons! Blow them out of the sky! I don’t care if they all die!”
The Frontier had a head start, but a ship hauling that much equipment was never a match for the speed of a top of the line gunship, and soon they had a lock on the ion engines. “Fire all-”
Bowman was cut off, however, when his ship rocked violently. One of the consoles exploded nearby, sending a cat flying. Two cultists went to extinguish the flame, when the com blared to life. “Stolen vessel! This is captain Prax of the Endless ocean! Stand down your weapons or face dire consequence!”
Bowman roared. “AARRG! Come about! All weapons fire on that ship!”
The cultists worked fast, turning on a dime and getting a blast off on the Endless Ocean. The ship’s shields absorbed the energy from the blasts, and returned fire. The gunship’s shields ate the first two pulse blasts, but the next three got through and hit the hull, rupturing several power relays and causing a chain reaction. The ship seemed to sit in space for several seconds, lifeless, when suddenly the reaction reached the reactor and caused a breech. Escape pods jettisoned as the ship exploded, sending debris far and wide, the fireball disappearing quickly as the oxygen burned up.

Leph sighed a long sigh of relief. “Whew. Serleah, hail that ship. Tell them thanks.” Serleah’s paw went for the button, but the console beeped first. “They’re hailing us.”
Leph jumped into his seat and turned to the view-screen. Prax’s face once again appeared on it. “Hey wait, I know you!”
Prax smiled a toothy smile. “We’ve met, at SFSS-867. You’ve got some explaining to do.”
Leph smiled back. “Come aboard, I’ll tell you all about it over some larva soup.”