Locking eyes with Fela, Epyc Ro strode toward her with grave intent. Her jaw fixed in resolution. Robin elbowed Anitra, to watch the proceedings. Chandra straightened slightly. Even the Mzisoh, not certain what scene was about to play out in front of them, grew quiet. Epyc Ro squared up on Fela.

“Anitra, how’d she do?” Epyc Ro stared down the commander.

“I mean, she did all right, I guess.” Anitra smirked. “I’m not soiling myself or anything, but she came through.”

“Then, Commander Fela…” Epyc Ro saluted. “You are officially a member of the Hellfighters squad now. Don’t fuck it up.”

Glancing around to meet each of their gazes, Fela returned the salute. “Yes, Captain.”

The HOVA Hellfighters rallied around Fela to clap her on her shoulder. She understood that this was only a beginning. That despite being a member of Muungano, already part of the community, she was being welcomed into a special sisterhood. The laughter rang as real, healing places Fela didn’t realize had been scraped raw. A surge of emotion swelled her chest.

“I hate to interrupt whatever this is.” Ellis stood once the back patting and laughter settled. “Our chieftain hopes that you would join them for a private briefing.”

“One moment.” Fela turned to her people. “What do you think?”

“On the one hand, we’re well into first-contact territory. An opportunity to learn intel up close and personal,” Robin said.

“On the other hand?”

“You the only black person in a horror movie asked to investigate that strange noise in the dark basement by yourself,” Anitra said.

“Not by herself,” Epyc Ro said. “Where my commander goes, I go.”

“Of course. The way I will second my chief.” Ellis bowed.

“Then I would be honored to meet your chieftain,” Fela said to Ellis.

Ellis!Olinger walked ahead of them. Fela followed closely behind them while Epyc Ro kept an easy stroll belying her readiness for anything to happen. Fela waited for wooden stairs to creak or the lights to burn out, plunging their steps into darkness, or any of the other telltale signs that they were making poor life choices. The Mzisoh had effectively fortified a cave. Fela guessed that a maze of such caves and passageways ringed the land, calculating that the CO/IN units—even with their deepest scans—probably couldn’t penetrate the ore-lined rock formations. HOVA tech certainly hadn’t detected them.