Spes stared up at the giant. Had he just imagined that? He had to. in the weeks the giants had spent systematically erasing their cities from existence they hadn't spent even a single second even trying to communicate with them or even responding to their own attempts to get their attention.
Above him the giant scanned the are with his eyes. Once more his lips moved. "I-i didn't lose connection did I?"
It was real! How the hell was it real?! Spes stood frozen in place, shaking like a leaf. Around the city section he could hear people screaming and the sounds of panic as the giant leaned in closer, casting them in his shadow.
"Hello?"
The lynx quickly raised the radio back to his lips. "I-i'm here!"
"Oh!" The giants lips curled into a smile. "Good! Are you alright in there? I tried to be as careful as i could when picking you up."
Careful? How was uprooting what remained of their city in any way careful? "W-why are you doing thi- why are you attacking us?" Spes asked, trying his best to keep his voice steady.
"I'm not attacking you. I'm trying to keep you safe."
He bit down on his jaw. "Safe?! You've destroyed countless cities and killed hundreds of millions of people!"
Surprisingly the giant seemed a bit taken aback. Their lips opened and closed several times as if confused as to how he would respond. "I-i know. We have a good reason-"
"A good reason?!" Spes balked, anger overtaking his fear. "There isn't any reason you can tell me that justifies killing so many of us!"
"I-i-Please listen- I'm saving yo-"
An angry, bitter growl sounded from the lynx. "Dont give me that shit! You're invaders hellbent on exterminating us! And what--did you grab us to be pets? I'd rather die than be pet to some monster!"
Above him the giants face shifted oddly, his lower lip seemed to be shaking. His rage subsided enough to allow the lynx to realize that antagonizing his captor was likely not the best course of action. He'd made a mistake, one that might cost the lives of everyone in the city section.
Before he could say anything else, the radio signal was lost and the giant looked away. Spes couldn't help but rush out of the buildings to alert the people that they might be about to share the fate of the rest of their city.
He tried to stammer some response, realizing anything he could say would mean nothing. What did an apology mean from someone who has erased a dozen of your cities? These people had every reason to hate him. "I-"
A knock on his door made the mouse jump. Before he could even stand up, the door slid upwards and a figure stepped inside. "Sorry, couldn't wait for you to call." The dark furred squirrel said with a smile. His cocky smirk lessened as he looked into Eleos's face. "Is something wrong."
"Erebus!" Eleos quickly wiped his face and stood up. "I-im fine." He lied. "It's just-it's been a long day. Sorry, i totally forgot i was gonna call you."
The squirrel wasted no time walking up to Eleos. "No, there's something wrong." He placed a hand on the squirrels shoulder. "It's alright, you can tell me."
He swallowed back a sob. "I-i was just reading some news from the front lines." Eleos lied.
The color washed from Erebus's face, though he didn't show any other sign that the news affected him. "Ah. I should have guessed." Erebus swallowed. "It's hard not to let that get to you." The squirrel forced a smile. "Dont worry, as soon as we're set up here on this planet we'll be able to secure proper resupply routes."
Eleos wanted to nod. Not only was he lying to someone he truly cared about, but he'd done so in a way that now had him thinking of something if not equally, then far worse.
"Let's not linger on that." Erebus gave him another quick pat. "Let's focus on the good things, like how i finally have a weekend off that lines up perfectly with a certain round eared cutie-"
He blushed. "I-i gue-" The squirrel suddenly pulled him in close for a hug, holding him firmly.
"-And i'm gonna use every single hour to remind him what an absolute cutie he is." Erebus continued, planting a kiss on the mouse's forehead. "Tonight we cuddle, tomorrow i'll treat you to the finest rations and then we-"
"First- i gotta shower." Eleos said, giving his boyfriend a pat on the back to prompt him to release him. "Seriously, i'm filthy."
"Is it weird if i say i'm into it?" Erebus smirked.
Eleos laughed. "Very." He wiggled out of the squirrels grip and walked over to his bathroom. "I'll be quick."
"You better!" The squirrel chuckled. "I'll wait here and try to find a way to live a few minutes without you!"
He laughed again. "I'm sure you'll manage." The mouse chuckled as he closed the door to the bathroom. He'd offer the squirrel to join him, in fact the idea was something he'd always liked to try with Erebus, but his shower barely fit him alone which was saying much since there wasn't much to fit. Eleos stripped and stepped into the shower, while he'd like to linger in the warm water for hours, far more comfort awaited him in the squirrels arms.
Erebus paced around the room, spotting the piles of clothing in the corner. He always loved hearing more about his boyfriends exploits outside the colony. Being a member of the security detail he didn't exactly get many chances to step outside the colony ground, which was a real shame since this was the first planet he'd been on beside his home-planet. There was a whole world out there to explore and he wasn't going to be the one to do it. That's where Eleos came in.
They'd med when Erebus had approached the shy little mousy to ask him about the outside. It wasn't until the second hour of listening to the nerd rant on about their lack of equipment that he realized he was quickly enamored with the guy. He was cute, clever and was perhaps the only one in the colony shorter than himself. Not only could he finally feel like the big tough military man for once, but he could do it with the single cutest field researcher they had. Truly everything he dreamed of when he signed up for the Astral Army.
As he wandered around the small quarters, an object caught his eye. A small lunchbox sized case resting on the mouse's desk. Erebus immediately recognized it as a field sample box and he quickly moved over to it, eager to see anything from outside the colony. Was Eleos even allowed to have this?
The strange grey clump looked odd. it took him a moment to realize what he was looking at. These had to be the buildings of the tiny natives. His eyes lit up and his tail swished behind him excitedly. By the time he arrived the area had mostly been cleared of them and he didn't get a chance to see them.
Erebus leaned in closer, trying to see if he could see them better, failing to do so. He'd heard they were small, but not so small he couldnt see them.
It was strange to think that those tiny grey blocks were actually buildings.
The squirrel reached a hand towards the glass cover and tapped it a few times to see if he could get some sort of reaction.
While he hadn't seen any of their cities, he'd certainly felt their influence. During their first week on the planet some natives had apparently managed to get into their electronic wiring and triggered a fire alarm. He was still somewhat salty for having been woken up in the middle of the night by blaring alarms and fire suppressant systems. "Little bastards." He muttered.
He couldn't help but wonder what it was like. It was hard to imagine how entire cities of these things could exist. The official stance of the Astral Army was that they were considered enemy combatants, he'd been briefed that they had a few weapons that could be a threat but it was rare that individual cities had access to them. Erebus chuckled, trying to imagine how going to war with something this small would work.
An idea crossed his mind. He picked up the container carefully and moved it to the floor to get a better idea of what it would look like in the wild. Erebus rose to his full height and stared down with a smirk. If he didn't know what it was he might have assumed it was some form of grey mushroom or something. "Heh~"
He raised his foot over the container and held it there. Had Eleos done this? He'd heard that Field researchers had been relegated to clearing areas of these things and heard from others that it was usually done via ruining their settlements to drive them off. The squirrel lowered his foot slightly and rested it on the dome. No wonder they had the nerds doing this if it was this easy.
"What are you doing!?"
Erebus looked up to see Eleos standing in the doorway of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. Before he could say anything the mouse launched himself across the floor, tearing the container out from under his foot and holding it close to his chest. "Woah-"
The mouse scrambled to his feet and moved past him, carefully placing the container back on his desk and leaning over it, examining intensely.
He stepped up to Eleos. "S-sorry, i was just playing with it-"
"They're not toys!" The mouse hissed at him.
Despite his conditioning, Erebus found himself flinching a bit. He'd never even heard Eleos raise his voice, let alone be angry. "I-i'm sorry. I didn't mean to-" His voice trailed off when he saw the mouse wasn't listening, instead he was completely focused on the container, looking at it like a mother would an injured child. "Eleos. What is this. Why do you have that?"
Eleos glanced over his shoulder. "I-i can explain."
The city had been in a panic as soon as the other giant appeared. His tapping of the dome had sent painful shock waves through the city sections, though that paled in comparison to seeing the underside of the giants sole.
As the dome creaked and groaned under the weight of the foot and Spes thought their strange twist of fate was simply going to result in the same grim doom as the rest of the city, they were snatched out from the cold clutches of death.
By the time Spes could even realize what was happening, they were back where they were with the previous giants, Eleos, face looming over them. For the first time since the invaders arrived, the lynx could see what he recognized as fear on their face.
He lingered by his window, even as Eleos moved away. Spes stared at the two giants as they moved over to the bed, the larger one with the fluffy tail stared intently whole Eleos spoke, nodding occasionally. For a moment they seemed to argue, the round eared one seemed to tear up a bit. Spes braced himself as the fluffy tailed one stood up, only to see he pace around the room. Occasionally one of them would glance back at them, and every time they did Spes feared they would do something.
2 hours passed before the fatigue in Spes's legs had him sit back down. The two giants seemed to finish their conversation and joined each other in the bed.
Around the city section people were also calming down enough to try to sleep as the lynx tried to process what he'd just seen. After staring at the sleeping titans for a moment, Spes opted to try to sleep as well.
When he woke up Erebus was gone. Eleos sat up, not feeling rested at all. Last night had been a trial. He'd expressed to his boyfriend how he felt about their colonizing of the planet despite how necessary it was. He hadn't expected him to take it lightly, being in the military proper.
Erebus had tried to argue the necessity and hadn't taken it well when he'd argued despite that. They'd left things on a sour note. He'd have to talk to him later. For now he had more pressing matters.
Eleos got to his feet and walked over to his desk. He stared down at the container, spotting the small lights between the streets. His mouth was dry, and hurt slightly from having talked so much long into the night, swallowing didn't help.
With a shaking hand he reached for the comms again and held it to his mouth. "A-are you there?"
Total silence. Eleos tried to swallow again. He was shaking.
"...yes."
His tail twitched. "I-i'm sure you wont believe me, but i promise i'll do everything in my power to keep you safe." He said, his voice was a bit raspy and it shook with every word. "And i swear to you, i'm going to find a way to stop the construction of this colony."
There was another moment of silence. Eleos braced himself, expecting to hear more about the horrors he and his people had inflicted, hearing the tiny person on the other end call him everything horrible under the sun. He deserved far worse.
"...i believe you."