The question was more a statement if anything, as Kore would have mentioned her alongside her brother if she was currently with him.
Ender couldn’t help but smirk a bit at the irritation he heard in Soren’s voice… irritation that was showing on the man’s sharp, angular face. The muscular, over six-foot-tall Harpy was not pleased a bit about it.
“Worried you won’t be able to fend Calico off?” Ender teased.
Based on his past experiences with the Succubus twins, while they were chaos together, apart…the two pirates were so much worse. Calico’s extra chaotic self, however, seemed to lean towards dangerously flirting with people who could kill him, as well as just making bad decisions in general.
The Harpy rolled his eyes. “I can kick his ass easily.”
“I’m sure he’d let you, based on the fact he’d likely feed on you while you did it.”
Succubi, unlike in the stories, could actually feed on all sorts of satisfaction and pleasure, and beating someone up would bring a bit of that.
Kore chuckled. “Moving back to the topic at hand. No, Celeste Delgrim will not be there this time. So it's best to keepthat in mind when communicating with the Delgrim Pirates. As for Riker Amarant, I’ve already got confirmation he is preparing to launch into space as we speak. But the route we will be taking is more direct and faster, so as long as we leave this afternoon as planned, we’ll make it to the attack position on time.”
Iphy Incana, Ender’s gender fluid Supply Officer, who, based on the sparkly yellow sun pin they had on their blue jean cropped jacket, was going by she/her today, spoke up for the first time that morning. Her voice was filled with sleep, making it slightly slurred. “Supplies are already packed and ready, and the manifest is completed, so there won’t be much loading to do aside from personal luggage. Do—” They yawned, their jaw cracking as they did. “—note that there is a whole list of parts we simply do not have, so any repairs that need to be made in space will likely be time consuming, depending on what breaks. I’m still trying to get my hands on things, but you know how shitty the Black Market has been lately for spaceship parts.”
The Dryad was not one for morning meetings, but then she also sometimes stayed up until the sun rose, so…it sort of was a gamble on just how awake she’d be at any time of the day.
“Weapons are all checked and loaded,” his Weapon Supplies Officer, Arco Kyrosa, stated succinctly. The non-binary Cerberus was fully awake, but was not one for words on the regular, aside from when they lost their temper.
“Where are my triplet troublemakers?” Ender asked, cutting in as his gaze zeroed in on the Electric Elemental.
Dessa, Meara, and Kaisa Desai were notably the missing members of today’s meeting, and who, in order, were his Interstellar, Domestic, and Internal Intelligence Officers. Them being missing was only notable because they were usually the most boisterous during meetings.
The triplet Manticores were identical, aside from a single beauty mark on their face that was in a different spot for eachof them, and their hair, which they alternated between bright candy-apple-red, ocean-blue and forest-green. The beauty mark, however, was really the only way to tell them apart, as they liked to switch their hair color almost daily.
“Don’t know, don’t care. I am not their keeper,” Kore huffed testily.
Ender smirked and took another sip of his coffee before adding an extra cube and drawling, “Yes, but they are usually glued to your ass, soooo?”
The sisters had decided to try to force Kore to be either their little brother, or…lover, Ender wasn’t entirely sure which, as their intentions appeared to change daily with their hair.
Soren cleared his throat. “They are ‘disciplining’ one of the new recruits after the Cryptid managed to set fire to one of the towers, causing the fire suppression systems to go off.”
Ender’s right eye twitched as the words registered. “Excuse me?! What tower?!”
The Harpy shrugged. “I was just told ‘the blue one’.”
He gasped in horror as the man said the name for their central internal data storage drive, which was not at all a ‘tower’ as the technologically inept Harpy had first stated. “What in the blue blazes was the fucker doing that it caught fire?!”
“You are going to have to ask them that, as they didn’t stick around to explain,” his brother said with a chuckle. “Or answer my questions, as they continued running past me. The three were looking murderous, mind you, so I'm not sure how much will be left of that new recruit after they are done with them.”
Who gave a fuck about the new recruit?! “How damaged?—”
Soren held up his hand. “Don’t know. Again, you’ll have to ask them.”
He let out an angry hiss.
Kore tsked. “Well, I don’t know anything about that. But them not being here is why I get to remind Soren at least, sincehe is the only one at this meeting actually going on this mission with me, about the dangers we could encounter. That danger specifically being Riker himself.
“The man’s a Skinwalker, and we all know how much of a pain in the ass they are. As a Harpy, Soren, you’ll have an advantage, as they are Cryptids that are weak to fire. Safety-wise, I suppose all I really need to say is pay fucking attention to what everyone is wearing, and refresh yourself on everyone’s identification codeword.”
“I doubt it will come to codewords. Riker won’t be able to mimic what we are wearing, and in the chaos, it’s unlikely he’ll have time to change, or even have the outfit to change into,” the Harpy noted.
He likely wouldn’t, but it was always good to be a little paranoid about the people around you.
Rayner Arken, his Branch Officer, and the only member present who had yet to speak at the meeting so far, cleared his throat. The Gargoyle was inner circle member number two, who looked barely awake. “I’ve already coordinated with the Kelolly and Huckson bases, and they are ready to take off in case of any issues.”
