Spacesoapopera Stories

Jupiter doesn't know if she really wants to ask. Caine doesn't feel the need to tell her.

The Universe May Think You're a Joke. Prove It Wrong. They call the pilot "Chief Warrant Officer Pilot First Class Fluffybutt" and at 82 centimeters of genetically engineered "pocket-sapien," the moniker is a constant, irritating reminder that Command sees them as a mascot. They don't care. Fluffybutt only needs to fit into the cramped, high-G cockpit of the Overcompensator, a four-hundred-ton walking insult to reasonable engineering that carries enough weaponry to start a new religion. When the ruthless Combine forces descend on the colony of Juniper's Folly, civilian evacuation is the only play. Fluffybutt and their mech's AI, Mora, are assigned the impossible job: rearguard. The plan is simple: buy time. With the colony's fragile "Tin Finch" convoy trying to lift, the pilot must stand in a canyon pass and later bolt their entire mech to the hull of a transport as a fixed gun platform. They'll face down Shrike walkers, heavy infantry pods, and a charging Combine heavy cruiser, the Razorbus, by leaning on extreme measures-from surgical precision shots (Undercompensator Mode) to the all-out chaos of the eponymous Overcompensator Mode. From ground battle to desperate orbital defense, Fluffybutt must not only survive but also keep the convoy-and their own sanity-intact, even if it means resorting to manual repairs during combat, whispering heat-spirals with a Sermon-laser, and defending the line with a weapon system affectionately known as the "Gratitude Cannons". This is the story of a soldier who was built to be underestimated and chooses instead to be effective. The line must hold, the ships must escape, and the most ridiculous name in the regiment must become the last thing the enemy ever hears.