Vixen A.D. 2 | Chapter 2

System Checks

It didn’t take her long to get dressed.

Mace spent the next few minutes cuddling Faye before heading off to check the facility defenses. She didn’t mind that.

Faye was happy—so happy, she didn’t want to get out of bed.

She didn’t blame herself; running through Neo Mars, half-remembering her past, the mangled mutations, the walking corpses, and more was enough to tire anyone out. There was no reason to feel guilty.

Yet, she did. Part of her felt like sleeping in was wasting time, like she was become too relaxed. That opened up the possibility of being attacked… or worse.

But you’re not open for attack, you’re safe—safe here with Mace and Cinder!

Faye groaned and stretched in the bed.

She turned to her side and gazed at the nearby closet door. After a few seconds, Faye slipped out of the sheets, and made her way to the open door of the closet.

She was still nude. Naked, standing there like that, almost made her want to find Mace on the comms system and tell him to hurry back—she had something he needed to take care of and fast. But then Faye would still be in bed all day, and that just wasn’t something she could adapt to quite yet.

Instead, she wanted to get dressed and make her way into the colony. There was a lot to learn about the entire location, including all of Delta’s rooms, levels, and subsidiary faculties like the TRAM system Mace had mentioned.

From what she understood, Delta connected to all of the other nearby outposts, too. She felt a little strange knowing that they were the only ones there. Faye knew that it probably bothered Mace as well.

The thought weighed on Mace like a heavy stone. It was creepy, though. Cinder was the only other inhabitant… which meant the others were somewhere else. But where?

Faye shook away the thoughts. She flicked her tail and twitched slightly. The itch was back, gnawing at the depths of her fluffy ears. Good thing they had several different levels of infirmaries. Med-lab, med-bay, and more. Whichever would fix the annoying thing in her ear.

Probably infection, Faye sighed. Outer, most likely, but middle ear wasn’t impossible. Could be both, the kitsune thought.

She would have to locate Mace, then the med-lab, and figure out what sort of treatment she needed to resolve the issue. Faye slipped out of the bed, stood, and stretched. Her shape caught shadows in the dim lighting, casting a silhouette of her supple breasts, hips, and legs along the wall.

Faye yawned and made her way to the closet, sorting through several racks of clothes. She would dress up later. Right now, she didn’t really give a fuck.

After selecting a comfortable t-shirt, hipster black panties, socks, and reasonably fitting jeans. The outfit still showing her curves, ass, and thighs without being intolerably snug. She stretched again and left the room, thinking about coffee, food, and medicine.

She stepped out of the suite and glanced down the corridor. Here, Faye stared at the transparent poly-alloy window nestled at the end of the hall. Outside, a gloomy, overcast red enveloped the landscape and horizon.

Part of her felt some fear. Sure, everything seemed okay in the colony, but nowhere she’d been was actually secure… so how long until Delta wasn’t? Faye let out a sigh.

“Hey there, handsome-man’s-girlfriend,” Cinder said.

Faye blushed, turning to the kitsune. “Did you just say Mace is my boyfriend?”

“Hey, relax, I was teasing,” Cinder said, embarrassed. “I suck at this.”

Faye laughed. “It’s okay. Sorry, just kind out of it. I mean...” her voice trailed off.

“No worries,” Cinder replied. “He is very handsome, though. Hot. Good job.”

“Are you lusting after Mace?” Faye giggled.

Cinder shook her head. “No, no, I mean… I don’t know. He’s off limits, he’s your man, I think. Right?”

Faye shrugged. “I, uh…” she paused, lifted a hand, and scratched at her ear. The itch was back, worse than it was. “Ugh,” Faye groaned.

“You need to get that taken care of.”

“I am. Today,” Faye said.

Cinder stared, then nodded.

Faye scratched her ear. She glanced up at the curious Cinder, shrugging. “Sorry, my ear is driving me nuts more than usual.”

“Sounds like that ear infection is worse,” Cinder said.

“Luckily, we’re going to med-lab later. I’m sure I can go on my own, but I kind of want Mace to check me out.”

Cinder smirked. “You want him to do the exam?”

“Yeah.”

She giggled. “Faye, you’re cute.”

Faye rolled her eyes. “What’s that mean?”

Cinder laughed. “I’m just, well, you’re cute. And I might be a little jealous. I’m kind of alone in all this. Plus, he’s handsome, too.”

Faye blinked. “I, uh…”

“Don’t worry about it. I was being weird,” Cinder blushed.

After a second Faye laughed. “We’re both weird. Come on. Mace should be working on some stuff in the security center.”

“Which one?”

“Whichever is close.”

Cinder paused, then nodded. “Let’s get him. I’m hungry.”

Faye’s stomach groaned. She felt the anger of her empty belly clenching the meat of her abdomen. The fox girl let out a small sigh. “I’m hungry too. Let’s go.”

For a moment, Faye wondered why Cinder was acting the way she was. The kitsune seemed like she wanted to flirt, to hint at something, but was keeping it private. But Faye knew; Cinder had a crush on Mace.

She probably felt some lust for Faye, too. Cinder made comments about cuddling together—which Faye would not oppose—and other things. Seeing Mace snuggled up with her and Cinder might not be so bad, actually.

Mace dominating another kitsune girl would be hot to see, too.

“You okay?” Cinder asked.

Faye nodded. “Yeah.”

“Sorry if I came off strong.”

Faye shook her head. “Not at all.”

Cinder grinned. “Okay, right,” the kitsune snickered.

Faye rolled her eyes. Her tail swished back and forth. “Food, then med-lab. Anything painful on your end?”

“My shoulder.”

“Get naked when we get there, them,” Faye teased. “Mace will need to examine you.”

Cinder flushed rosy red. “Just get naked…”

Faye smirked. Yeah, don’t like Ms. Kitsune—you and I both know you want to strip with Mace and me at the same time. Together, they studied different maps on the walls, checked their location, and headed to the Operations on North Lock 2.

Mace was there, Faye remembered.

***

He went through several more system checks. Mace was concerned with the power and transport systems most. Earlier, he was quick cautionary warning about something not working in the South Lock TRAM 2 system. That wasn’t good.

It meant the defense systems probably weren’t powered on.

If that was the case, the periphery turrets and other mechanisms should have taken care of the issue, but it wasn’t a guarantee. The only real way to know was to go down there, in the dark, and fix it himself.

Mace sighed. He tapped his chronometer crown, turned it, then synchronized with Delta’s intranet. It didn’t take long. Now, all his maps were up to date, along with tons of other information.

He could even share his vitals with the kitsunes, if the opportunity was there. And it was. He suspected they’d agree to it swiftly.

It didn’t do much to quell his nerves and anxiety. He kept going back to the system below, and wondering where the hell everyone was. Already, it didn’t look good. With a TRAM being down and the entire place vacant, Mace could only guess.

But speculation was scary, because if he was to guess, it meant something had gone awry. Something happened. Something went wrong.

People died. Maybe turned…

The Singe.

He remembered the name for it now, along with a little more about how the anomaly worked. It was contagious. Mace knew that. He’d seen it spread in action.

And its DNA was natural to Martian soils and fossils, but the mutations in the code weren’t. Something about a new type of radiation…

He gulped. Later, Mace would go through Delta’s residual records and scientific notes. The research should have revealed a clue, something. After all, part of Delta was having every scientist north of the New Cydonia working on a usable vaccine… anything to stop The Singe, whatever the hell it was.

There were other continents, too.

Since Neo Mars was terraformed, oceans were created, separating large chunks of land. There were three main continents with some islands thrown in. The water wasn’t exactly healthy to drink, but it’d be okay in survival situations.

The oceans were shallow, anyway. Maybe a few hundred feet deep on average. Sure, there were a few areas where the rifts between plates split open. Abysses went far deeper than anything else, but they were few and far between.

Mace paused.

Were there other kitsunes on different continents? He’d recalled that no one had heard from any of the neighboring continents since… a decade or two if he remembered right.

Satellite images didn’t show much. That didn’t mean there were no colonies underground. It was possible that, somewhere, a colony like Delta was beneath the Martian crust.

Don’t be dumb—you would have heard from them by now; the USF focused on saving any personnel who reported so much as a pulse across Neo Mars.

Mace groaned. Maybe he was remembering things wrong. His head still was cloudy. It wouldn’t surprise him if he had misremembered crucial details about Neo Mars’ surface.

Besides, the odds of running into other kitsunes, let alone survivors, were low.

Mace knew that. But having a few extra women around wouldn’t hurt anything. Hell, he liked the thought of Faye and Cinder in his bed, rolling with him beneath a warm blanket.

Got to ask them soon.

Mace was a man of precisions and bluntness. He didn’t have time for guessing. Besides, a three-way couple with two fox girls wasn’t a bad idea.

They could watch each other’s back. None of them would be lonely. The three of them would be satisfied as often as needed.

He liked the idea of that.

Something pinged on the readout before him. He narrowed his eyes and gazed at the monitor. Shit. The power in SL TRAM 2 was definitely out.

The tertiary scan revealed that something was wrong with some sort of power source. If Mace had to guess, it was a junction or core. That meant the defenses were down.

Which meant the stretch of tunnel between TRAM 2’s depots was completely open to attack. Fuck. That wasn’t good.

He’d have to go down there and find what the problem was, then fix it. Going alone wasn’t a smart idea, either; something would rip him apart, probably. Or maybe not. Delta was pretty secure but… he had a feeling.

Mace would rather play it safe. Plus, Faye and Cinder were bad asses, anyway. Hot tough chicks.

But I want them to stay safe…

He tossed the idea around in his head. It’d take some thought. He couldn’t exactly be intimate with either of them if he was murdered or worse, turned.

Mace did want them to stay safe, though.

Would they even let him go alone? Faye probably wouldn’t—she liked him too much. And Cinder—

(the gorgeous Cinder, the sexy kitsune with a shotgun)

—would be lonely. He could see it in her eyes. Mace knew she’d likely hadn’t had any contact in forever, let alone something sexual with another man. The fox girl was lonely.

Sex aside, Mace would be more than happy to help with her loneliness. She did help them on the way. Besides, Faye seemed to like her.

How would he do it, anyway? Mace considered simply walking up and being blunt. That was kind of his style.

Or he could imply. Maybe Faye would lead and guide Cinder to the obvious. Or, maybe, they’d both come to him and admit what they wanted.

Threesomes aside, it didn’t change that the power for SL TRAM 2’s defenses was down. It didn’t change The Singe taking over Neo Mars and it sure as hell didn’t effect that everyone was basically dead out there.

Mace groaned. He’d have to check the research logs sooner than he thought, not because he had to, but because his curiosity won out. Sometime today, he’d find out what the USF’s new research had to say on the strange thing turning everyone to mindless, blood-crazed mutants.

That, and he’d find out what Cinder and Faye really thought about him.