PREVIOUSLY IN SENTENCED TO WAR

The Exile Fleet continues to ply the far reaches of the galaxy, ostensibly to discover potential threats to humanity, but also to find new resources. Meanwhile, humanity starts to drift into war among itself.

More children are being born to the expedition, giving hope to the exiles’ future, but there are losses. Lieutenant Colonel Bundy, Rev’s best friend, becomes a victim of the rot and unable to perform his duties.

The mission doesn’t change, though, and when the expedition discovers a Goldilocks planet that was not on the objective list, they decide to deviate and explore it. While on the surface, however, eight alien craft enter the system. Rev orders a hasty withdrawal from the planet.

The eight craft move into attack, and during the ensuing battle, three ships are lost, and three are damaged before the survivors can enter bubble space and reach safety.

The Kanter ship is badly damaged, with a large part of the crew casualties. The Star Gala, a converted liner and home to the Genesians, is also badly damaged. Neither ship is spaceworthy, and the surviving Kanters and the Genesians transfer to the Galaxy Explorer.

While the expedition is reorganizing, the Loup-Garrou is recalled to the Hégémonie. With only the IBHU Marines and the surviving karnans who’d been on the Galaxy Explorer actually being exiled, the rest of the civilians and Union military are offered a chance to return with the Loup-Garou. Bundy, who needed immediate medical care to prolong his life, chooses to return. With the previous casualties, that leaves Rev as the senior Union military representative, so he takes command as part of a three-legged command stool, with Dr. Njuguna as the civilian head and Captain Nyad as the Navy head.

Significantly depleted and having lost most of their firepower, their expedition continues despite them knowing there’s an aggressive threat plying the same area of space. New SOPs are enacted to ensure that the mistakes that resulted in the loss of the expedition’s ships would not be repeated.

Most of the systems are not particularly noteworthy. NP-968, however, has amazing flying life-forms, some over 100 meters long. For the civilians, this is why they are there. Discovering such alien life is their lifeblood.

With little danger, Rev loses some of his caution. In a moment of carelessness, he’s badly injured and barely makes it through the crisis with his life. The ramifications will be worse, though, when he finds out that the equipment on the ship is not enough to completely repair some of his damaged hyper-augments. Combined with his worsening rot, Rev won’t be as capable as he was before, and that takes into account a significant rehabilitation effort.

With Genesians, the rest of the humans, and the Kanters all aboard the same ship, it takes some adjustments by all sides. There are some clashes, and the Genesians make it clear that they consider the Class 1 AIs, such as the battle buddies embedded in all Direct Combat Marines, to be enslaved sapient beings. They want to test all of the battle buddies, remove those who are determined to be sapient, and install them in modified versions of their own shells.

Rev long ago realized that Punch is sapient, but he can’t imagine having him removed. He resists the request for testing.

The expedition’s next objective is NP-72771, where the fifth planet is another Goldilocks. The Marines refer to it as Bundy in respect to their late commander. The planet is somewhat of an anomaly, being smaller but far denser than most planets. This can result in extreme weather, and a quickly forming and powerful storm is almost fatal to half of the surface team.

Meanwhile, Genesians have been pressuring Rev about Punch. And when Punch indicates that he wants to go through the testing, Rev relents. As expected, Punch is sapient. The question is what to do about it.

Rev’s rot numbers get worse, and he’s constantly thinking about Punch possibly leaving him. He can’t imagine being without his battle buddy, but in the end, it is what’s best for Punch. He agrees to the procedure.

Punch’s crystal body is removed from Rev’s brain and installed in a modified Genesian shell. The installation runs into problems, but it is successful, and a fully conscious, fully functioning Punch awakes in his new body. Best of all, Punch is still Punch. Who he is hasn’t changed.

But is their relationship the same?

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