Sergeant Samuel Strong, known to his friends as 'Mauler', was off duty. He wore his old combat fatigues, the cloth cool and light, but strong. He stood on the observation deck of the IPD Scalene, staring out at the debris cloud. He had had friends on the Isosceles, people he would have given his life for, and who would have given their lives for him.
A movement caught his eye, something small, tumbling slowly end-over-end through the vacuum of space. It approached slowly until finally it bumped up against the plasteel window. It bobbed there for a moment, black velvet nose pressed against the window, beady black eyes peering in at him. The pink fur was matted with slime—cucumber juice, if the reports he had heard, unbelievable as they seemed, were true—and partly frozen in the frigid cold of space. Strong tilted his head to read the message inscribed across the teddewok's black shirt: STIFF HAPPENS.
Slowly the plush toy, somewhat the worse for wear, bounced its way up the window, and then it was gone.
"Makes you wonder, doesn't it?" said Izzy Jenkins from his side. He hadn't heard her arrive, but then, Izzy could sneak up on Death Himself if she wanted to.
"That it does," he said. He glanced down at her. She wore fatigues similar to his own. Her hair was cropped short, as always. He looked back out the window.
"I hear it was our rogue Jubbly who was responsible for all this," said Jenkins quietly.
"Whoever it was," said Sergeant Strong, "they are going to pay!"