“Officer Howler in distress Captain! Ship damaged Sir! Over. Ruff.”

Captain Cormitz opened communications, this was the part of his job he liked the least.

“What's the damage Officer? Over.” he asked.

“I'm not sure, Sir. DogBot is too scared to investigate. Over. Ruff.”

“Oh, that's not good...” Captain Cormitz thought to himself. Each ship had a DogBot attached which ran to investigate electronic faults and retrieve information. Occasionally it fixed things, but it was more likely to drool over it and hope that solved the problem.

“We were definitely shot though,” Officer Howler continued. “Bloody HEDGEHOG people distracting me on the radio. Over. Ruff.”

“Ah. I'm sorry,” said Captain Cormitz. “Is there anything we can do for you? Would you like me to tell you a joke, or sing a song or something?”

“No Sir, it's alright thanks. The ground's quite big now, I don't think there's time for that. Over. Ruff.”

“Professional 'til the end,” thought Captain Cormitz. He was especially disappointed with this one. Officer Howler was one of the most talented pilots he'd ever seen and he was sure that he would have been a huge asset during this war. If he'd just attended more Flying Under Considerable Distraction classes, he probably wouldn't have been.

“I see. Well I commend you for your service to the Rearguard Beagles and your help in saving the...”

Before he could finish, there was a huge bang and the line went dead.