This issue starts where it left off at the previous one, when the M.T. Feebles, a civilian spacecraft, is intercepted by the ILR spacecraft under Barlahan's command. The captain of the ship, a Rodent (rat) named Koreth, warns the crew that they must help the passengers inside the ship to hide their identities in case the ILR soldiers attempt to attack them, since many of them are VIPs.
On the ILR side, Barlahan gives Ipcha Tankannahai the opportunity to lead the group that boards the Feebles and take possession of their belongings. The young lieutenant tells his superior officer that he has no experience in military combat, but Barlahan tries to reassure him by telling him to consider the excursion as a supermarket trip with everything but a shopping list, except with an armed escort, since in the end, being a civilian ship, they do not think it is possible for them to try to oppose him.
Once in the Feebles, Tankannahai is coldly received by Koreth, the captain. The young Lepine makes his own polite and courteous presentations, but Koreth is not very happy to see the ILR stoop to commit an act of piracy on his own ship, although he comments that he did not intend to stop them for the safety of his crew and passengers. Tankannahai gives Koreth the list of what they need from the Feebles, in addition to the passenger list, something the captain warns in advance that he and the ship's computer had already taken steps beforehand to prevent them from accessing any important information about the ship and its passengers, including destroying personal documents. Barlahan, seeing that Koreth was cautious enough to anticipate this, warns his subordinate to divide his forces into inspecting the ship and the other half to take over the ship's belongings.
Meanwhile, the team in charge of taking the supplies from the Feebles was moving the containers to their own ship, a far from easy task, due to their heavy weight. One of the armed guards is knocked in the back by one of the containers and accidentally opens fire, injuring many of their own and some civilians in the confusion. When Barlahan heard what was happening on the civilian ship, Tankannahai was ordered to do his best to stop his men, without trying to lose sight of the ship's crew who might take the opportunity to attack them. Meanwhile, the ILR soldiers were frantically trying to stop their weapons without success, as they had jammed. The continuous shooting caused even the ship's doctors to be wounded by several stray bullets, to the horror of the soldiers themselves who could do nothing to prevent it. Fortunately, the shooting stopped when the ammunition ran out, but for obvious reasons Koreth was furious about what the ILR had done to the ship and its crew and demanded an explanation of what they were up to. Tankannahai tries to apologize to the captain, but he keeps pointing his gun at him, explaining that his men are still very nervous after what happened, not to mention that he had been warned beforehand by Barlahan that he could not explain to Koreth that the ILR was at war with the EDF.
In an attempt to fix the whole mess with the shooting, Tankannahai offered to help the wounded of the Feebles without asking for anything else in return, something that still does not please the captain in the least, since Koreth considers that the ILR began to shoot without warning in the first place. The young lieutenant can only assure him that what happened will not happen again, but Koreth was still angry, because the ILR has not yet finished inspecting the ship and now intends to do the same with the passengers, just in case.
While this was happening, the next scene takes place in Ekosiak, at Colonel Onni Hitzok's house, where he, along with his wife Kamara and his concubine Dea-Htuhok Kho, were sleeping when they received a message from the Net in the middle of the night. Dea decided to listen to the message instead of Onni and Kamara. When they both get out of bed, they can't help but see Dea's face, who was infuriated like she had never been in her life before, and with good reason: She was the first to know that her home planet Dornthant was bombed by the ILR. Similarly, the Net commented that the ILR, despite what happened, had not attacked other worlds or made a formal declaration of war, but the ConFed decided to consider this as an act of war and now all EDF member planets were being required to help in the war.
The next day, Hitzok told his men about what happened in Dornthant, and he did not hesitate to let everyone know that what happened on that planet was a cowardly and vile act and that they would try to help the ConFed because of the treaty that Ekosiak maintains with them, despite what happened in recent years has caused that alliance to be questioned due of the civil war that beset that planet through Aito Kho and his henchmen's machinations. In spite of all this, Hitzok did not plan to force anyone to follow him in any military adventure that Ekosiak might undertake in his name, so to know what would be a more democratic decision, Hitzok proposes to organize a plebiscite, to decide whether or not they decide to help the ConFed.
To Hitzok's surprise, the Ekosiak government, upon seeing the draft of his previous speech, decided to help the ConFed after all, since everyone knew beforehand how dangerous the ILR could be, considering the last war decades ago. The only problem was that Ekosiak didn't have enough defenses to face the ILR in case that nation decided to attack or invade that planet, so, to alleviate this, the Ekosiaki government decided to give Hitzok the title of Commander in Chief of all the military forces of the entire solar system, which is no laughing matter for some because of the potential for abuse, but the government made it clear that the title would be temporary for the duration of the war and Hitzok would have no political or civil rights or obligations. Once he had the rank of Commander in his hands, Hitzok received from his men what would be the protocols to follow next.
News of the attack reached Ish-tako, where Toki Zha, Erma's best friend, was discussing the matter with a fellow officer. That officer, a Canine (coyote), commented to Toki that the inhabitants of that solar system would have no problem helping the ConFed in the war, because they themselves had had a civil war situation just a few years ago, but they were also not very enthusiastic about entering into another war, especially if millions of people could lose their lives in the conflict, not to mention other worse things, but if the ILR tries to seek a fight with them, then so be it.
Toki says that for the time being their job would be to defend the planet and, if necessary, help EDF on any mission to directly attack the ILR in their own territory, but unless there is a long-term plan in advance, the only thing they can do is to wait and see what happens first, as the ILR could anticipate such a plan and attack without warning anywhere. Finally, Toki concludes that, even if the EDF and the ConFed decided to attack the ILR on their own territory and even in their own capital to the extent of destroying either of the two founding planets, the ILR itself would most likely continue to attack or even escalate to even worse levels, although, considering what happened in Dornthant, things could be much worse.
And as for Dornthant, on the aforementioned planet we see Kanoc Felna and his grandson (and also Erma's son) Rojigo, trying to live as they can in the ruins of Annahport. Both use false names to evade Tavas and his men, who control the government of the planet. Both of them try to help as much as they can in the reconstruction of the city, and during a moment of rest, Rojigo receives some educational apps to pass the time in his Data Pad from a Canine assistant. Due to the situation in which both of them find themselves, Rojigo was in charge of checking if the apps he received did not contain any type of spyware to locate their whereabouts. Meanwhile, Kanoc could not help but think about how long it would take to rebuild the planet, something that could take years.
Another problem that has just arisen was that the new government was thinking of trying to move the survivors to supposedly safer places, although in practice this meant that they would not be able to access many areas. All they could do was appeal their case to a work commission, since they were the only ones on the ground at the time. It would also help them to get some press coverage from several independent media outlets that roamed the ruins in search of answers about what had happened. And while this was happening, Kanoc and Rojigo lived in a tent, something Kanoc asked his grandson that he hoped Rojigo would be happy for the moment, something that for the little Feline didn't seem to matter much, as there were many neighbors and people that Rojigo could talk to, but Kanoc warned him that as more people settled in the camp, he would have to get used to that kind of life.
The next day, we see Eda, Kanoc's wife and grandmother of Rojigo, as well as Erma's mother, who was also using a false identity in another city on the planet, except that, unlike the rest of her family, she was living with another high class family as a guest. The hostess of the family where Eda was living, Tawai, asks Eda (using the name Daiuda) if she knew anything about her family, to which she replies that she did not, and that she did not expect them to be alive either.
At that moment, Eda receives a video call from a person, in which he briefly informs Eda that his son Tasak was still alive and working to help the victims of the attack, although unfortunately he had no information about the whereabouts of the rest of his family (not knowing the caller that Eda was part of Tasak's family, being his mother in the first place). When that stranger asks Eda (using her false identity) about her family, Eda replies that her family has died, trying to hide her identity as Tasak's mother. Then the caller cut off the call. Upon hearing the news that her son is alive, Eda was visibly shocked, but at the same time she considered whether the news that Tasak is alive means that she is safe from Tavas and his men or possibly a trap.
Elsewhere far away from all these events, we see a young Feline girl named Teka Ardehad, who is the Crown Princess of the House Ardehad, which governs the Kawhateena solar system, notable for being the only system ruled by a monarchy. Teka was about to get dressed for a very important event with the rest of her family on her father's orders, with the help of her butler Pattiwah. While Pattiwah dressed the princess, he informs Teka that Dornthant was attacked by the ILR, causing a galactic-level war.
Once in the royal hall with the rest of the members of the House of Ardehad, including Teka's parents, Lord Cha'han and Lady M'T, Teka's father explained the reason why he wanted the whole family to be present at this time: The war between the ILR and the EDF has caused the entire solar system to ally with the EDF and that implies many personal sacrifices for the royal family, but there was an issue that had to be resolved as soon as possible, and that issue was about Teka's kinship with the rest of the House Ardehad, something that is quite evident, since she did not physically resemble her parents in the least, apart from the fact that she was a Feline like them.
Without weighing the consequences that would fall on Teka, Lord Cha'han informs his own daughter, in front of the rest of his family, who are not very happy to hear this, something that they seemed to suspect from the beginning, that Teka Ardehad, despite being born naturally of Lady M'T, was not her daughter nor his, but she was the clone of a very famous woman born outside of Kawhateena.note Because of this revelation, Teka would henceforth have to deal with those who contest her right to the throne, and for them, in another drastic change of events, Teka's parents decided to adopt her as their daughter and therefore, legitimate heir to the House Ardehad.
Teka could not help but feel bad about what had happened, since all the family's eyes were on her because of this shocking revelation, which leaves no one happy, but Lord Cha'han was forced to spread the news because of the war, should something happen to him, and the only thing her adoptive parents could do at that time was to encourage her to do her duties as heiress.
Tropes:
- Awful Truth: Teka learns the hard way she is not related with the House Ardehad by blood, but she is the clone of someone else, in this case from Erma Felna. Needless to say, the rest of her family outside her parents are not happy to figure out this out as well.
- Cincinnatus: Seeing that they needed a strong leader due to the lack of military power, the Ekosiak government decided to give all military power to Colonel Hitzok, so that they could unify all the military forces of the system under one person's hands. Subverted as Hitzok lacks civilian authority to rule the whole solar system.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The whole issue takes place in a timespan of 14 days, at SD 201-01 (January, SD 201).
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: During the unloading of the Feebles' cargo into their ship, one of the ILR soldiers opens fire accidentally against both his own people and the crew of the civilian ship when a container knocked him in the back by accident.
- Inadequate Inheritor: Somewhat: Teka earns the right as the heir of the House Ardehad, despite not being related by blood, as their step-parents officially adopted her as a member of the family, for the shock of the rest of their members.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: A very warped version of this trope, since it's the parents and the relatives of the involved person (Teka) and not Teka herself, who asked about this, and it turns out Teka is not related with the Ardehads, but with Erma instead via cloning.
- Not Helping Your Case: An in-universe meta-example: The soldiers of the ILR and the ILR itself, who did not have a good reputation to begin with, began shooting by accident, causing injuries to the crew of the Feebles and leaving a more negative image of themselves than they already had when they looted the spaceship.
- Time Skip: There's a 10-day skip from the events of the last issue to this one.
