Novella - Macross Xilimyth 1/6 (Patreon)

Commission for: Xilimyth 

Art by: Janus 

"Macross Fifty-two, come in. This is VF-72 Specter requesting clearance to dock."

"Macross Fifty-two, this is Z-72 Tinycat also requesting docking clearance."

After several long moments of silence, a slightly annoyed sounding woman's voice cut through the static of empty space. "This is Macross Fifty-two. We have you jokers on the radar. Please follow the designated flight path to docking bay two. And for god sake, remember to put it in Fighter Mode this time."

"I like how they're always happy to see us," Janus said flatly, staring through cockpit windows at the looming colony ship drawing closer. Hands moved almost out of habit across the command console. Without needing to look, he triggered his mech's transformation from a humanoid shape into a similar spaceship of much smaller scale. "You scratch the paint one time, and they never let you live it down."

"Since when is crashing through two diplomatic ships count as a minor incursion?" Xilimyth's voice crackled over the wolfs headset. An air of amusement was thick in her spiritual pitch.

"Hey! It worked in our favor since they were terrorists in disguise!" The air of blushing embarrassment was thick in Janus' stuttering reply. "Besides, I'm not the one that 'accidentally' sat on those anti-Zentradi protestors."

"And I told you they were in my favorite spot to eat lunch!"

Janus scoffed, diverting his gaze to the massive blue mech flying several kilometers off his left wing. Unlike his ship, it had not changed from its human-like configuration. In fact, such an event might have been painful for its operator.

"Cut the radio chatter!" The annoyed woman's voice stopped Janus' attempted witty reply for his wing girl. "General Schott is just dying to hear your latest debriefing."

He decided it best to just fall back in his seat with a sigh. The autopilot had kicked in to take him around to their designated docking bay, so there was little else to do. The brass always did like to suck what little fun could be had out of post-mission victories. Frequent requests for some rock music on these silent space coastings usually went unheeded.

Instead, things got pretty dull for several minutes. Janus was observing the Macross one minute and then suddenly got jerked out of his usual short nap signaling his ship settling on a landing.

Xilimyth came to the right behind him. Several boosters fired off her metallic legs for the mech to land with as light an impact as possible. While the bay doors closed up behind them, she walked a few casual steps up into a special station against the far wall. Each foot was carefully inserted into a notch that promptly clamped down with electromagnetic locks. Allowing her vehicle to join the line up of several more along the same wall.

They were all too happy when the bay doors finally closed. Within seconds they got the signal that air and artificial gravity had been restored. Nothing felt better after a six-hour flight than to eventually get out for a stretch.

And as usual, Janus almost got out of his Variable Fighter before the dock crew could properly wheel in some stairs. Good thing the health plan for the Macross fifty-two's flight crew is insanely generous.

Soon after he touched the ship floor proper, a loud grinding of heavy mechanics drew the wolfs attention to his co-mech. The lock on its torso had come undone so it could split open like a flower. A large pair of breasts helped push those segments away soon as they loosened. A gasp of immense relief echoed across the bay right before the cheetah's cute face was freed as well.

"Oh gosh, why do these things have to be so tight?"

Xilimyth climbed her way out of the mech-suit grateful to have recirculated air blowing on her spotted fur. Even more so to have a center of gravity pulling her bare feet back on cold metal flooring. She immediately broke into a stretch reaching for the ceiling while thrusting her chest out.

An act that always drew attention from the shifts current dock crew. That static resistant leotard Xilimyth wore while piloting put great emphasis her curves. She was really above-average from human standards, but at ten meter's tall Janus was sure he could get lost in those bouncing spots.

"You're staring again, hun..."

"Am not!" Janus said purely on instinct. His gaze whipped to some marks on the floor to feign interest in.

"I'm pretty sure you were." Xilimyth drew out each word with deep childish purrs.

Janus looked up to adamantly correct her way of thinking but was cut off to see Xilimyth had squatted down to meet him. The usual excuse was that she just wanted to get closer for conversation. Most of the crew she was friendly with however knew the half-Zentradi liked to give admirers a better look at 'the goods.'

The socially-inexperienced wolf was an especially fun target to tease. He would always zone out for seconds at a time only to come back with tail wagging and ears redder than tomatoes.This time when he snapped back, Janus promptly faked a need to tie his shoes.

Points for effort since pilots tended to wear strapless boots.

"I'll see you outside," she said when the silence started to get boring.

After giving a huffing Janus some gentle pats on the head, Xilimyth rose back up to step over him. Despite her looming size each step barely resonated through the steel of their landing bay. Her gentle humming of a merry tune was much louder. Her long spotted tail whipped high to each movement on the route to the micronization labs. Most of the crew still lingered a gaze at Xilimyth's hips twisting in great shows of mobility to avoid the other mechs and ships on her path.

A pretty standard procedure for all Zentradi, pure or half breads, when aboard human ships sadly. They were simply not meant for accommodating humanoids taller than the average Earth dwelling.

Good thing for the wonders of technology in the form of two tube gizmos. Xilimyth entered her 'decommissioning chamber' as she liked to call it, as it usually made things less fun for her when off service. It was a fairly narrow room line up with sets of chambers; one for giants like her next to one for meter-and-half tall tinies walking around her shins.

Speaking of which, Xilimyth's ears perked happily spotting a familiar cougar in a jumpsuit tinkering around with a control panel to one of the stations. Another of her short list of friends that both secretly enjoyed having a looming feline for company, and did not have a broom shoved up their tailpipe.

A disturbingly rare combo in this kind of military.

"Prrf?" Bren's own ears and tail perked at catching her approaching footsteps. He gave a glance over his shoulder, matching eye contact long enough to give a welcoming smile before returning to his work. "Back already, Xili? Thought you guys had a few days worth of scouting to do."

"It wasn't as epic a showdown as you might think." Xilimyth squatted down behind Bren. Her head tilted in curiosity to make sense of what he was doing. Although this inadvertently cast the cougar in a dark shadow. "Whatchu working on here?"

"Oh the usual outdated hunk's of junk is on the fritz again," Bren said. He continued diligently trying to work his tools in spite of the sudden vision impairment. "I tell you, one faulty wire and the whole system can't..."

The cougar straightened up with a deadpan expression. A standard reaction to suddenly have hot, heavy blasts of air breathed upon his back. He turned to find Xilimyth had gotten on hands and knees to get her nose within a meter of his head.

"Prrf!"

"What?"

"You're doing it again."

"Whaaaaaat?" Xilimyth broke into another toothy grin. Another hot breath seeped out from between those fangs to wash over Bren. If they had not known each other for years, she might have looked ready to eat the smaller feline.

Bren retaliated by bumping her nose lightly with his knuckles. "The general's waiting, ya goof. Hurry up and shrink down."

Xilimyth's smile dropped so fast it threatened to breach the floor. "You know it sucks going through there..."

"Well, I'm not the prrfing captain of this ship. There'd be a lot more lax policy on casual wear otherwise."

"You're just envious I wear the jumpsuits better."

Bren rolled his eyes, returning to some calibrations. "Whatever Xili. Use pod three."

That might have been the last thing Xilimyth wanted to do. Sadly her crewmate was right. Even half-Zentradi could not wander around a ship designed for tiny little terran's. The few sections that were accommodating such giants still felt cramped. And there was the minor problem of getting her fat feline hips through the doors.

Speaking from personal experience, that is a very tricky feat.

Out of excuses to stall with, Xilimyth laid back in the larger of two chambers on platform three. The added weight soon clicked on the control panel so it could begin the micronization process. Whirling of engines slowly marked the descent of a glass lid that encased Xilimyth in her tube.

It was a revolutionary feat of technological wonder. A method that allowed earthlings and Zentradi to co-exist in whole new ways after generators of bloody war.

For Xilimyth it was more akin to falling inside a runaway elevator. Her ears folding back to loud revving of machines. For several seconds vision would be blocked in a display of colorful lights.

And then she would blink, and her entire perspective would change. With a loud hiss, the lid of the smaller chamber would open. A thick mist seeped out in president of Xilimyth stepping out at a significantly lower fraction of her normal size.

That might not have been so bad if not for the 'side effects' brought on by her half-Zentradi heritage.Purebloods would simply change size going through such a machine, but half-breeds tended to get a bit more drastic. In Xilimyth's case, she glanced over at Bren to pout at having to look up at the six-foot tall cougar man for a change. Worse yet, her muscles ached despite them having smoothed out to little twigs for limbs. Any remnants of the luscious womanly curves other soldiers would waste time gawking up at had been reduced to borderline pre-teen status.

At least the jumpsuit changed size with her, even if there was less for it to hug.

"Now isn't that better?" Bren could not help giving Xilimyth a pat on the head when she stomped past. "Have fun with your R&R, Tinycat."

"Your retribution will be long, harsh, and full of my fluff!"

Thankfully Janus was a bit more mature when it came to a half-Zentradi's sensitive condition.

"Sorry, kiddo. You'll need your mom's permission to board the ship's bridge."

Of course 'a bit' is not that impressive a term for it. At least the majority of the Macross Fifty-two's other crew members held a bit more dignity when on the clock. That made their trip up to command center easier to unwind from the tensions of post-combat.

Mostly because it was the rare few minutes of rest this duo usually got before a debriefing. By the time they were standing at attention before General Schott's desk tension had returned with a vengeance. Having to crane up to talk with friends was depressing enough, having a polar bear for a commanding officer developed irrational fears of being eaten. Pilots tend to get some good shade sitting in that mans wake.

"So you managed to flush out the entire pirate nest?" Schott rapped a pen against his desk. Shimmering blue eyes squinted dubiously over the data pad in his other hand. "Do I dare ask why both of you needed to exhaust your entire payload for such relatively small opposition."

"Well..." Janus stammered, glancing to Xilimyth for some help. She refused to stare at anything but the stripes on Schott's extra-broad vest. It was her bit of revenge for the last three short jokes delt on their lift ride over. "We found their hideout was inside a cluster of asteroids, as suspected. So when we did our first scout of the area, we found construction that leads us to believe it was their main base."

"Turned out it was just abandoned mining equipment," Xilimyth said to end his story faster.

Schott looked between the two with a single blink. "You bombed an abandoned and empty asteroid?"

"Actually Janus missed."

"He...missed?" The bears gazed focused intently on Janus, who looked like he wanted to be several feet smaller. "VR logs say you fired a dozen missiles in the first wave."

"Asteroid, uh, gravity scrambled up the guidance lasers." Janus looked unusually calm meeting Schott's towering eye level. He was dwarfed even with his commanding officer seated. "That's why my co-piolet followed up with a more line sighted ballistic."

Xilimyth tried not to wince when attention diverted back to her.

"And I suppose you finished off the deadly mined hunk of rock?"

"Well..." Xilimyth's tail tucked between her legs while she tried to play off forced optimism. "I did actually hit some asteroids, just not all missiles hit the same rock..."

"Turns out several of those we hit WERE the pirates current living quarters though," Janus said with genuine optimism. Xilimyth envied his positive outlook on life sometimes. "So we ended up getting the drop on them anyway. By the time they realized what was happening all they could do was high tail it out on a single cruiser."

"And then we exhausted our ammunition making sure to neutralize the area from future pirate use," Xilimyth finished with her chest swelled up in a bit of pride.

Schott looked less than impressed by their tag team explanation. "So you spent triple the projected budget to blow up some rocks. Excuse me, MISS blowing up the right rocks and complete your mission through sheer luck. I'd almost be upset, but this is probably the least ridiculous debriefing I've had with you two assclowns in the past quarter."

This time Janus and Xilimyth did exchange a quick glance. They had come to expect such responses by now, so could hardly complain. This was probably the nicest tongue lashing they received this past quarter.

"At the very least," Schott continued. "You managed to free up airspace for the rest of our mission. Those pirates were the last reported threat to our colony ship going through this sector. You may receive demerits for careless use of weapons, but otherwise, I'd feel better giving you both shore leave for the rest of the week. Make use of the military's line of credit on the colonies casino or something."

Both their eyes widened into bright headlights. It was too early for Christmas to have come.

"Now get the hell out of here before you give me a reason to be angry!"

They were all too happy to follow that order. Xilimyth exited out onto the bridge in a bee-line for the turbo lifts. Her tail threatened to get crunched by Janus' boot more than once with the wolf following behind. Short legs were just item six on the list of things that sucked about being micronized.

"Well he was unusually quick with us today," Janus muttered once the lift doors had closed. Lights flickered by in a rapid descent across decks.

"Almost nice even." Xilimyth leaned against the lift wall to stare at its ceiling lights. "Something must be really bothering him."

"Maybe we should get him a present?"

After a moments pause, Xilimyth rolled her head enough to stare blankly at Janus.

"Oh, don't be like that. You know he loves us."

"That's what you said about the electric toothbrush we got for his birthday."

"It worked, didn't it?"

"So well it almost filed down his front fangs." Before Janus could reply, the lift ground to a rapid halt. Xilimyth put her weight back on both feet to stride out soon as the doors slid open. "Come on, let's hit up that barbeque place Bren keeps talking about. I need some energy to burn off on laser tag."

"You'll never beat my high score!"

Janus followed after at a pace that kept Xilimyth's tail safe from his boots. Nothing helped well-trained soldiers like them unwind after active combat than holographic simulated combat. No one was really sure how the worst shot in the fleet could rank a record score over an entire colony ship in video games.

Xilimyth had turned to make a jab at that lacking aspect of his combat expertise when someone else decided to have a literal blast. A muffled explosion sounded off from somewhere beyond the ships hull. But it was close enough to cause the floor to tilt off its artificial axis. Panic cries sounded off from all around while lights flickered. Xilimyth had the unfortunate luck of her turn on one foot being utterly unbalanced, so she fell face first into Janus' chest.

Fortunately, Janus' tail broke his fall. A mouth full of brown dreadlocks kept his girlish squeals from hurting the cheetah's ears.

"What was that?" Xilimyth said, hefting elbows across Janus's chest for a look around.

Janus opened his mouth to reply, which came out in a whimper drowned out by loud sirens. They became coated in flashing red lights. Crewmen began tumbling out of their quarters in half-dressed panics while officers ran along the corridors shouting a wide assortment of orders. Above it all, they could both make out the resounding echoes of explosions and gunfire.

"I think we're under attack," Janus said more to himself. Like stating observations out loud had a profound impact on focusing his thoughts. What they ended up focusing on made him blush and try to divert to what open field of vision remained. "Also your boobs are in my face..."

Xilimyth drew in a sharp breath, having ignored the second statement entirely. She leaped off Janus almost overjoyed to yank the larger wolf back onto his feet. They managed to get back onto the lift they had just come from before it closed. A pair of other VR pilots had gotten on board still in the process of zipping up their flight suits.

"Any idea what's happening?" she asked them after catching a breath.

"Pirate attack," replied a husky woman that was busy adjusting her gloves.

"Looks like they snuck in from the Gamma Quadrant," said the other pilot, a fox man.

"Why does that sound familiar?" Janus wobbled a little on his feet letting the lift's wall catch him from falling over again. The feeling of dropping at high speeds did nothing to steady his spinning sensations.

Xilimyth, however, lost all enjoyment at the prospect of getting to go back to her giantess state so soon. "That's the asteroid cluster we just blew up..."

"W-what?" Janus tried to hide his blush when the other pilots glanced quizzically over at them. "That can't be right. I know we let their cruiser escape, but you scrapped their VR bay."

She could only offer her partner a shrug. "Maybe we only took out the vanguard?"

"Eh heh..." Janus felt an urge to end this conversation, if not his life, given the glaring looks of the other two lifts occupants.

Xilimyth was not in a mood to be judged. Soon as the doors opened, she was off at a bullet's pace down the hallways. Her death grip on Janus' hand was the only reason he was able to keep up, almost getting dragged by his knees in the process.

The bay was in surprising order despite constant explosions causing the walls to shake. They arrived in time to get blasted off their feet from continuous jet engines firing. Several VR were already launching in route for a mounting defense of the colony.

"What's our status?" Xilimyth said once she managed to sink her claws into a deckhand running past for the next launch.

"Two groups of fighters tried to take out our aft engines," said the ocelot once he had caught a breath. "We don't think they succeeded. We're trying to launch for intercept as they make another pass."

"Perfect! Janus, get your cruiser ready to fly."

"W-what? HOW!?" Janus managed to recollect himself after all the pushing and pulling to question the cheetah's sanity. "My VR and your suit are both out of ammo, and with the amount of fuel left we'd probably just be glorified targets."

"How's that different from any other mission we fly?" Janus gave her a long stare. "We'll just grab some standbys. Just hurry and get in so we can look good for the General when he kills us."

"That is sadly the most reassuring logic I've heard today."

But Xilimyth had already shot past the worry wolf.  Explosions were getting closer, causing harder tremors for her to duck and weave around shifting equipment to get to the macronization chambers.

The doors whisked open before she even got there. Xilimyth yelped as she ducked aside to avoid getting kicked by the boots of a ten-meter tall vixen rushing past for the Zentradi battle armors. Aside from that, they virtually ignored each other for the greater threat. Luckily Bren was already hard at work keeping soldiers going through his chambers to come out as sexy giants.

"Just in time, Xili," Bren said once she had gotten close enough to hear over the sirens. "I just finished repairs on Chamber three, so jump on it."

Under calmer circumstances, there might have been concern for a freshly repaired DNA altering device. Instead, Xilimyth climbed into the smaller chamber with only concern for getting her muscles back to crush some pirates. Bren wasted no time sealing the chambers mechanisms before bathing her in bright, colorful lights. While shrinking down felt a lot like an elevator drop, Xilimyth did not have to wait long before feeling a pleasurable sensation of rising. Much like her body was being pulled up by crane wires. It made her close her eyes and purr loud enough for her friend to hear every time.

Outside Janus was still struggling to find a free VR to commandeer. Even at his rank most soldiers generally took him as seriously as a janitor due to their reputation. One especially short mouse girl seemed to be enjoying his mounting desperation.

"How do I know this won't explode like..."

Another explosion cut her off, causing them both to instinctively duck behind her VR's leg. A large hole had just been blasted through the hull thanks to a lucky pirate missile. And they only had just enough time to register that before the suction of space began pulling everything, and everyone, towards it.

Janus could not get an explanative out before losing his grip on the VR. Luckily the mouse had better reflexes. She managed to snag the tip of his tail with a firm enough grip to keep from getting sucked out into space. Granted the girlish yelp resonated a world of pain that strain was shooting through his spine.

"This is incredibly undignified!" The mouse yelled in a deep struggle to hold onto their anchor. "Also you're very heavy!"

"Also in lots of pain, but please don't let go..." was about all Janus could get out in reply. Assuming his tail did not simply break off, it was going to be very sore later.

Something small and fast zipped past Janus, allowing him a distraction from the pain. It was quickly followed by dozens, maybe hundreds, more crashing into metal all around the wolf.

"GUNFIRE!" The mouse yelled. Spurred into a new degree of panic, she somehow managed to haul Janus back behind cover by the grip of his tail. Bullet's continued to rain hell upon the VR for several seconds until the pirate fighters had completed their pass.

In the macronization room, Bren has sparred a lame KIA report purely by the grace of feline luck. At the sound of gunfire, he had just happened to be standing in a position that put the chamber controls between him and the launch bay. This proved more than adequate cover to dive behind and absorb the projects randomly heading for his cougar tail. Not long after the emergency blast shields clamped down to reseal the hull. Getting sucked out into space through holes the width of a pen was not a fun way to go either.

What was not so lucky was the condition of the control panel. Bren stood up to observe there was little of a console left. The top screen had been entirely blasted away, and only a few buttons remained over the decimated circuit boards he had spent all morning trying to repair.

Loud whirring noises from the chamber also remained him that the machine had also been in use. Gentle humming had been ramped up into a grinding of gears struggling to stay on their axels while the tiny and giant chambers shook on their bases.

"Oh crap! Xili? Xilimyth!?" Bren rushed to the human-sized chamber. The aura had increased to a blinding intensity, but he could see her from thrashing about in wild spasms.

This would probably cost him later, and he hardly cared. The kill switch for the machine had literally been killed, leaving a good friend in potential danger. Bren drew his standard firearm to unleash a round of bullets into the console until the machine finally let out a loud crack that ceased all functions. Suddenly he was grateful for all that free time in the gym. It took a lot of banging the hinges with the butt of his gun and a hundred percent cougar muscle to pry the lid off.

Xilimyth lay in a heap on the chamber's floor, unconscious but not apparently injured. If anything she looked flush and panting in very labored gasps. Much like she had experienced the most pleasurable thing outside of intercourse.

* * *

"I honestly think you bastards are a lightning rod for trouble!"

Xilimyth would wake sometime later to the always familiar screaming of General Schott. Fighting through a dreamy haze of a surprisingly restful sleep she could see them doing the usual looming routine on Janus. The bear had to hunch drastically to get within inches of the wolfs face.

"Stalling a fully functional pilot in an attempt to commandeer their VR. I can't believe you'd ever have the balls to ask for something so ridiculous."

"Actually I was just asking to ride with her..."

"Oh yeah, because that would make you super useful screaming from a backseat."

"I...get very passionate about expert combat flying?"

"Really? And when the hell would you like to demonstrate your supposed expertise? Maybe we could..."

Xilimyth meant to silently scratch an itch on her belly, but that alone caused a flurry of pain in some very tender muscles. Trying to stifle a moan did little good. All activity in the room suddenly went still. She could feel the attention of many eyes burning intently at her bed. Even so, only one eye creaked open ever so slightly in the hopes of still faking sleep.

The first thing she saw was Janus and the general at the foot of her bed. The poor wolf looked to be drowning in a pool of his own sweat but still managed to smile at seeing her stirring. No surprise, Schott was just as remorselessly intimidating as ever. She could have been shot, and he would be angry about it limiting her expendability in space combat.

Holy crap, had she been shot!?

Xilimyth dropped her obvious rouse to crane for a look at herself. She was still tiny, with barely a mound to her chest under the loose hospital gown. Legs and arms were still attached with all twenty digits. Even better was a lack of bandages or wounds. The only problem was that it hurt to move.

"Well, looks like the other disaster magnet finally decided to join us!"

Oh yeah, an angry bear was still glowering over her bedside.

"Sir, I..." Oh cripes, did it hurt to move her jaw. Something must have really messed up the macronization. An eight-hour gym marathon never felt this sore. "We...we tried our best to..."

"Save it, cat! You look like you can't get a good excuse out anyway." Schott turned to a corner where Bren and a human doctor were sitting in quiet discussion. The former stared back at Xili in a less than reassuring sense of worry. "Have you two figured out what screwed up this time?"

"We're not entirely sure," said the doctor standing up to pass off a clipboard. "She received no injuries from the bullet storm that destroyed her chamber..."

Xilimyth gulped, thanking stars she had not been shot.

"...but her readings are like nothing I've ever seen. My first scan when she arrived showed a large amount of energy welled up in her cells. The second one I just got the results in show that energy has still not dispersed in the slightest."

"Am I going to explode!?"

Everyone paused to stare at Xilimyth for her outburst. Janus took an unappreciated backstep at her notion.

"No, of course not," said the doctor, who turned to Bren. "But your friend here has been unable to recover the diagnostics for us to properly diagnose you. Considering the state of the chamber now, repairs are looking to take at least a week."

Schott snorted. "Is she dangerous?"

"No, of course not. We..."

"Good, get both these time bombs out of here and back to the barrack decks. They're grounded until further notice."

"WHAT!?"

Janus and Xilimyth could not have synchronized their shock even if it had been rehearsed. Technically you could not be on the ground in space. That was just the generals fancy way of stating house arrest.

"Sir," Janus started but suddenly went red trying to hide behind his tail when Schott shifted those burning bear eyes towards him. "We were only trying to help with the attack."

"Oh you helped those pirates find us perfectly fine, I'd say. 'Took care of all their VR's' my ass! I'd have you both locked up pending investigation for terrorism if I honestly believed you had the combined wit to plan this disaster."

They looked at each other lost for words. If the logical insult kept them out of solitary might as well take it.

Schott puffed his chest into a deep bubbling breath before letting it deflate. Apparently, that helped take any remaining rage out of him. Steel heels from his boots scrapped the floor when he did an about face to depart without a glance at his two favorite subordinates.