The familiar humming of machinery slowly drove her from her sleep. Somehow, she felt much more comfortable than the first time she had heard it. She expected to find herself in pain, but found it was dull compared to what she experienced. Raising her left hand to rub her eyes, she let out a groan and lifted herself to try and get up.
『Welcome back, Commander. Congratulations on a successful mission.』Caretaker called out as they noticed she had woken up.
"Caretaker? What, what happened?" She finally sat up and rubbed the drowsiness from her eyes.
She opened them to search for Caretaker, only to find several eyes of various animal-headed people staring at her from around the room. Her immediate thought was that Thrall had somehow gotten into the room. With a snarl, she snapped at the closest one, a black and orange rabbit, and swiped her left hand at them.
"Woah woah, easy now Commander." A wolf-like man downed in grey and white fur held his hands up as he spoke.
"It's alright, you're safe now." The rabbit girl she just swept her claw at smiled warmly as she held her hands up as well.
It took her several panted breaths to realize those around her were not the Thrall she had just been fighting. Finally calming down, her ears fell on her head in guilt. "S-sorry, I just thought..."
"It's alright. After what happened, I think any of us would react the same." The rabbit nodded as she gently held Wolf's hand.
"Still though, I'm amazed you managed to do all that. I could barely stand when that Abomination hit my shield." A large bear-like man downed in brown fur and black eyes chuckled as he folded his arms over his chest.
"The way you moved your sword was incredible after sliding like that. Watching the feed after, I can still hardly believe it." A grey skinned Rhino-like girl chuckled as she shook her head.
"Wh-who...?" Wolf started, still in shock in seeing so many people that were still alive.
"Reporting!" A long haired female cat woman with silver fur speckled in grey stepped up. "We are Alphas 020 through 029. After holding the Void Flayers back long enough, Alphas 023 through 27 managed to dispose of the remaining enemy on arrival. I am Alpha 026, Codenamed Maine Coon."
"Oi, you're out of order, cat." A dog looking man holding the head of a German Shepherd chuckled as he nodded. "Alpha 20, Codename German Shepherd. Just call me Shepherd."
"Alpha 21, reporting. Codename White-Tail Deer. Just call me Deer." The next girl stepped up, giving a cheery smile over her cream colored maw. Her eyes were a strange violet and the tips of her large ears held a dark grey.
"Alpha 22, Polar Bear." A gruff looking bear man nodded from outside. As he wore a helmet, it was hard to see his face, but Wolf could guess what kind of fur he had.
"I'm 23, Tan Rabbit. Just call me Tan." The rabbit girl smiled softly again, making Wolf feel worse about swiping at her.
"Alpha 24, Codename Black Bear." The bear woman nodded from outside where she stood guard with Polar. Once more she could guess her fur color, but was surprised to hear such a soothing voice.
"Brown Bear, 25. Thanks for holding long enough, sister." The bear man chuckled with a bright smile, making Wolf nod back with a smile of her own.
"Komodo Dragon, 26. Just call me dragon." A lizard man spoke up from the left side of the room. He was munching on what seemed to be dehydrated jerky, making Wolf's stomach growl.
"Rhino, 27. Gotta hand it to you Commander, that was some fine fighting for someone so thin." The larger build man chuckled as he gave her a nod.
"You're just jealous she beat you to the punch. Alpha 28, Codename Crow." A man with a crow head teased Rhino before giving his introduction.
"Alpha 29, Codename Raven. It's good to see we have such a reliable leader." A female, raven headed woman nodded to Wolf with a wink. After Crow elbowed her, she simply rolled her eyes and folded her arms.
『After the Thrall had been cleared on this level, I took the liberty of Birthing the rest. After you have recovered, we can move to third level and Birth them as well.』
Caretakers words confused Wolf. The rest seemed to notice, but Maine was the one to step up and explain.
"The first levels inhabitants, like you Commander, are all officers that have undergone special care. With this being the case, Caretaker has deemed it necessary for them to undergo a longer Birthing while we wipe out the rest of the Thrall in the facility."
"Special? What does that mean?" Wolf turned to Caretaker with a glare, making Tan pat her hand to calm her down.
〔Why the hell is she so good at this?〕Wolf thought as her ears flicked in confusion.
『As Alpha 26 has stated, the Creators spent more time on those of the first level than the rest. Due to this, your Mana Reservoirs are vastly superior to those of the higher levels. This means they need more time to stabilize compared to the others.』
"Then, why wake me earlier than them? Shouldn't you have awakened from the top down?" Wolf asked as she slid her legs over the table. She wanted to stand, but Tan held her hand up and shook her head.
『As your creation was far earlier than the others, your rate of stabilization was vastly different compared to them. By the time the others were created, you were already undergoing the process.』Caretaker explained as she brought up a screen filled with a various files.
Though most were corrupted beyond repair, the one Wolf was shown displayed the time when she was created compared to the others.
"Woah, wait. 876 years before the others? How long do we have to wait for the rest to stabilize then?" Wolf barely recovered from the shock enough to ask.
『Approximately 2 months. This should give us ample time to take back the base, hail the PERCH and begin preparations to depart.』
"As for the PERCH?" Wolf asked with a cocked brow.
『4 months until it orbits to us. It has passed us 4 days ago.』
Taking the news in, Wolf folded her arms over her chest and began to think. Given the time frame, it should be doable. However, she began to worry about the old data again.
"What's your order, Commander." Rhino asked with confident smirk.
She didn't know what kind of implants this one got, and was to afraid to ask Caretaker at this point. Looking at the rest of her crew, she let out a sigh and placed her hands on the bed.
"I'm sure you have all been briefed on our current situation and that of the enemy. However, I want you to throw that out the window. We are over 4,000 years late to the fight. I'm sure you all can imagine what I mean by this. Maine, I want you to get info on all of us from Caretaker so we can designate roles."
"Understood." Maine nodded as she held her hands behind her back.
"Rhino. Go with Black and Polar to sweep this level once over."
"Roger that." Rhino nodded before putting his helmet back on and exiting the room.
"Shepherd, go with Deer and Dragon to compile all usable weapons and ammo. I want it distributed evenly based on roles."
"Roger." The three nodded as they put their helmets back on and left with the others.
"Crow, Raven. You two stand guard at the entrances to the third level. If anything comes, send it up and run to the others. I don't want you guys rushing into a fight if we don't know what we are up against."
"Yes ma'am." Crow responded as he left the room.
"On it." Raven nodded as she followed Crow.
"And Tan." Wolf sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. Given how soothing the rabbits touch was, she could already guess her talents, but the headache of being low on Mana still bothered her.
"Commander?" Tan asked as she tilted her head.
"For now, I'll have you be head of medical. Given Caretakers advice to find you first, I assume you are more trained for medical than the rest of us. Whatever training you need, ask Caretaker. The faster we get everyone on their feet, the better."
"Yes, Commander." Tan gave her another warm smile, making Wolf feel worse.
〔It's a good thing she's so forgiving. I'll have to be careful around her in the future.〕Wolf thought as she reluctantly listened to Tan and laid back on the bed.