Codename Alpha

Chapter 1

I watched the mesmerizing windows of the tenement block as the bus moved down the street. Most of them still had their lights off, which was understandable, seeing as it was pretty early in the morning. A pawful of others had theirs on, with some slight light coming through their blinds. I noticed that someone was watching the bus from their balcony on the second level - a fox, from what I could gleam. The dim red light from K'delý that was peeking through the cloud cover wasn't quite adequate to ascertain for certain. It also didn't help that my reflection was staring back at me in the window.

"Now arriving at New Little Odessa station," the driver announced. I could see that two others in the same olive Interstellar Navy fatigues that I was wearing get up in my peripheral vision.

I turned to my right to see my friend Rostov waking up, evidently having been pushed back into reality by the driver's rather loud announcement. He pulled his earbuds out before asking "How long was I asleep?" in a dazed tone of voice, while quickly sitting up.

"I wasn't exactly keeping track. I remember you watching something on your tablet about five or so minutes ago," I said. I stood up, stepped into the aisle, and began pulling down both our dufflebags from the overhead stowage space.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," he said, after standing up from the seat. "I think I slept weird, got a nasty kink in my tail now..." he mumbled, while stretching. Seeing as how Rostov and I had gotten seats in the far back of the bus, I waited for the others getting off to go first.

The cold fall air from outside had already begun to flow through the open door. I was thankful that the Interstellar Navy fatigues insulated well against all types of weather, particularly with the freezing cold that I immediately felt on my face. Light from the streetlamps reflected off the pavement and concrete nearby, giving it a wet sheen. I didn't take this into account as I jumped onto the concrete from the second step up. I didn't exactly have a reason to do so - I just felt like doing it. I realised that that was a terrible idea soon as I lost my balance immediately after jumping. Thankfully, I didn't fall on my face, but I did come very close to it.

There were a few seconds of awkward silence between me and Rostov. The sound of the bus engine as it drove away from the station kept us both from talking, despite it not being that loud. The treatment that many, especially canines, refugees of the former Great Kreml received when they arrived north was no secret. I could tell that he wanted to try and reassure me that missing nearly all of my tail wasn't the worst it could've been.

"It's not..." he said, evidently struggling to figure out something to say.

"It is. Just leave it at that," I said, perhaps a bit too harshly. "We've got a ride to catch," I added, in a politer tone.

The atmosphere around New Little Odessa's maglev station was decidedly not fitting for the city. Granted, it was far too early in the morning, but it still felt strange. The previous times I had been here, it had been fairly busy, but now it was devoid of most activity. Unfortunately, that helped to intensify the immediate awkwardness. Someone was blasting some industrial-sounding music with an obnoxiously punchy base that could be heard through the walls of another block nearby, but other than that, the only sounds were of us walking across on the cold and cracked concrete pavement to the maglev station.

A fearsome-looking attack helicopter had been memorialized in the center of the plaza, surrounded by spotlights and the flag of the United Valdera Coalition, in addition to the Embersonian flag, and many others. Distant thunder boomed as we made our way through the glass doors and inside the maglev station. A tan-colored sabretooth security guard was sitting at one of the tables of a pastry shop, half-asleep, watching as we filtered in. The station was otherwise empty. After waiting in line for a short amount of time, we approached the turnstile, where a striped hyena motioned for Rostov to give him his government ID card.