Deedee

Basic Stats

• Species: Dasher (gen 3)
• Model: Iris-HXD-3A 3rd generation unit
• Gender: Female
• Height: 3.7 meters nose to tail, 2.65 meters bipedal height
• Weight: 160 kg
  
• Identifying marks: Fur is white with black striping instead of standard yellow coat

History

Production and Training at Iris

Female dashers are roughly the same length as their male counterparts, but they are almost always stronger and heavier. While not planned, it is a trait that the company used to its advantage. Deedee got her name as a shortening of the phrase 'deadeye dasher' that reflected her skill with both small and long arms. As a third generation unit, she was raised to be loyal to the company, and her psychological conditions was fairly solid like most of her kind. Even during longer deployments, most of the rigors of the battlefield did not wear on them. It was there that Deedee was known for being especially aggressive, and she and her pack mates were enough to drum up terror just sighting them if they were left deployed long enough.

Even though she and her kin were busy proving their worth, Iris as a company had other issues including changing opinions in the government, new legislation, and even attacks from the Galactic Liberation Front that deployed units stolen from Iris back against them. That would prove to be the first turning point in Deedee's life.

Liberation by other hexes

A number of Felyxa had taken in the species derived from their genome as their own, and as they watched Iris and other groups deploy them in combat, they felt compelled to intervene. The path to liberating the other hex species from Iris was long and involved many battle and sacrifices, and about midway through those conflicts is when Deedee would be confronted with the choice to defect or remain loyal.

What likely made the difference for Deedee was not that the choice was 'come with or die' but rather 'live with us or go as you will' which took most of the force out of the argument. In addition, there is an affinity of the hex species for the Felyxa that likely stems from the Felyxa being their source species. As the old saying goes, blood is thicker than water. Even so, it took being on a dead end world on the wrong end of a conflict for Deedee to even bend her imprinting and go with them.

Family Life

One thing Iris would not permit was a family life, and that proved to be the real force of change in Deedee's life. Weary of much of the combat she was forced into, she instead sought some time away to sort herself out. However, she did not do this alone. Taking a mate, she settled on a quiet, forested world where she was quite pleased to put her hands on something other than a weapon in building her home and learning to live off the land. It would be a lie though if anyone said she and her mate did not enjoy a good hunt. Children followed only a few years later, and nothing pleased her more than having a children of her own. For almost twenty years she lived peacefully on her own land with her family.

Unfortunately, others had come to settle the world as well. Though they eventually encroach on Deedee's land. For the better part, she tolerated this and didn't interfere. Even when they started chipping away at her usual prey, she let it slide, but they would come to make a mistake so dire that it would invoke all of Deedee's fury.

Brutal Huntress

The real problem began when her eldest son went out to hunt and did not come back at the usual time. Given that they were suited to living in the forest even in the winter, she was not too worried. When he was missing the next day, however, she started tracking him while her mate stayed with the younger children. The snow made following him easier once she was able to find what track he has used, something complicated by the habit they had of moving along the tree as well as the ground. When she found blood, she expected to find a kill, but there were too many footprints in the area, and they did not belong to her son.

Following intermittent blood, she located a place stained with far much more crimson. The shape left in the snow made her blood run cold, and she had no choice but to follow their trail until she could see it leaving the forest and heading into the nearby town. With binoculars, she was able to see the body of her son strung up along with other game. Hunters were still laughing and looking at it, noting the sheer size compared to most of the wildlife in the area. That was when she snapped.

A dasher running on hind legs has a long gait, but one on all six limbs is swift and dangerous. She set off in a full run at the town, and when her form burst from the forest, the local watch were set to yelling in alarm as something much heftier than their kill was barreling towards the town. They had little time to arm themselves before she was upon their doors which she smashed clean through. Some had time to scream as they saw her coming in, others didn't get off so much before her claws tore through their throats or snapped their necks. If they thought their quarry was a feral beast, they knew better once Deadeye picks up the guns her kills dropped.

Deedee laid low every hunter in the town along with all the town guards and anyone else that dared raise arms against her. As a mother, she didn't harm any of the children or their mothers so long as none came at her. As Deedee cut her son's body down and carried it in her arms back to the forest, everyone left behind understood that attacks against her kin would be met not with the rage of a beast but the merciless assault of a commando.

Both side spent the following days tending to their dead. The small town now decimated had to be partially abandoned without the presence of most of its support. When the village finally did start to come back, Deedee went there directly to warn them about hunting in what she now called her forest. What resistance she got was silenced with broken arms and a reminder that she wiped the town out before unarmed. If she comes at them armed, she will leave no survivors.

Of course a few proud fighters thought they could walk into her domain and just eliminate her. She left their broken bodies at the edge of the forest. They even tried a few bounty hunters. She kept their gear and left their naked bodies at the edge of the forest. At that point they finally stopped. The town was not large enough to attack the forest, and they didn't have funds to hire anyone else.

Innocence

Another ten years and three more children came to be in Deedee's family. Most of the time they were not harried, and she made a point to ensure no hunters entered her forest or took her game. She was still very wary of intruders, and so she took to staying armed and armored when she went out. No one was allowed to hunt alone to avoid another of her children from being ambushed. It would take a child to change the stalemate that had settled in between her and the growing population of settler, miners, and trappers near her home.

There are a lot of reasons a child might run away. It could be a conflict with their parents, a need to explore even though they are told not to, or sometimes something darker drives them away. In this case, an adolescent struggling with depression was headed into the forest with a purpose: he didn't want to come back. Knowing what lived in there, he hoped that he might fall to that because he couldn't go so far yet as to take his own life directly. His wandering paths in the forest eventually crossed Deedee's, and she could smell something about them she didn't like.

She found him slumped against a tree and shivering in the cool night air. He looked a bit afraid as he saw her, but not so much in the same way as other had. She could tell from his eyes alone that something else was wrong. Furthermore, he had no weapons to pose a threat to her. Given the situation, she had to choose between two paths, and the one she chose meant taking him to her home.

Her family was surprised to see her come home with a human in tow, but they took him in, got him washed up, and made sure he was fed. While Deedee was not trained as a medic, she had learned a lot from the one person in the that was, her mate. While he slept, they talked. They had to take him back to town, and as much as she hated it, she knew things couldn't stay as they were especially with the planet being colonized further. The kid was innocent and in need of aid, and that aid was not available in their home. They chose to take a gamble and prepare for change.

In the morning, the town watch saw her emerge with her mate and the boy between them holding their hands. Behind them, all of their children. They brought im to the gate, but he didn't leave their side even when his parents emerged. When he would not come to them, his parents came to him despite having to come right up against all the dashers. That was the first time since the massacre that the two sides met without arms drawn.

It marked a change in the relationship between the town and the dashers. Blood was paid with blood, but that debt was finally set aside even if they didn't put it behind them. Their recommendation for care for the boy was not expected, and it was a wedge that got in the way of old blood feuds being easily invoked.

Deedee still forbade hunting in the forest, but she did allow foragers to enter. Wild game became an item of trade that the dashers would bring in exchange for a number of technological components that Deedee was using to restore the old ship that had brought her to this world. This had been a place of healing for a time, but it was changing too much now for her to remain. When she was ready, her family divided.

Most of her family left with Deedee to look for a new life elsewhere even if it ended up being with the Felyxa or somewhere else. Her youngest son and daughter chose to remain behind, and rather than stay in the forest, they moved into the town, opting to start life again there.

Return to Space

Leaving behind a home of some thirty years, Deedee headed back into the populated worlds while trying to think of what she would do to support her family. After spending time moving from world to world to find that many did not want an old war relic setting up shop, she drifted back out to less populated space. She eventually settled on a small world where she began work as an instructor for the local militia where she was respected and eventually well accepted.

Her time was soon split between a home on the world below and in the local space where she assisted in system defense as needed. Eventually her family either settled or moved on to explore the galaxy on their own until it was once again just her and her mate.

At the last known sighting, Deedee was in possession of an advanced spacefighter used for system defense, and she was still acting as an instructor in that system although now at a much higher rank.