This morning's prompt is 'retirement cake'.

Stuff!!!

That knock down drag out fight has to involve a retirement cake, because now it *has* to! 8-P

I veered off into class warfare stuff, both what I knew about in the orbitals and what happened back on Earth after the second day of dragons.

So, what do I know about Wendy and her friend? Cathy is her cousin and they enlisted together in the Republic of Venus Navy via the old US Navy and the Pacific States from their home in Montana. Cathy is originally from Fort Collins on the edge of the Front Range Death Zone and her family are successful 'scavengers', reclaiming the ruins but definitely not 'ferals', basically the remnants of the cannibals who survived the dead zone. The Pacific States and the old Navy are dependent on the orbitals and work very closely with the RV as the RVN started out as remnants of the space assets of the old US Navy. NI are naval infantry, very decidedly not marines...

Wendy had trouble adjusting to 'being inside' similarly to habitat rats having trouble 'out in the open', and Jake helped her out with that. Cathy has had trouble in the RVN, 'scav' and that's how she landed in Aphrodite but it caught up with her almost immediately. So this is a story about acclimation and adjustment, and the troubles we carry around with us.

As a true blue pantser I usually manage to somehow find a way to a decent ending, sometimes even a great ending, if I do say so myself, but it's time to do some gardening. I need to start off with the cousins, at least have Cathy mentioned before she jumps into Aphrodite. Chief Petty Officer Banks sees qualities in Wendy on the acclimation exercise and 'you don't waste good'.

That and I need to paint a picture, of a planet, a habitat, and a starship, inanimate matter come alive, living and breathing