Food
     It's been a week since Boomer lead us here. Crunch is feeling a lot better but still has a fever. Boomer brought us food, which was fantastic! It was hard for us to find anything to eat around the building, and a microwave cannon is not the best weapon to hunt rats and the like with. At first they tried to give us stuff from plants, but we don't have the teeth for that. Then they tried this weird spongy stuff, which smelt like egg, some kind of plant seed, and... milk? It was ok, but we found it hard to stomach. Eventually they came the right conclusion: humans can eat anything under the sun, but we are strictly carnivores.
     Boomer showed up the day after the spongy food with a small pail and a grim look. When he opened it I felt like dancing at the sight of nothing by meat. When he offered me a piece and I smelt it, though, I understood his grim look. Crunch and I have eaten a few humans since we landed. We found a sheep(I think it's called that) once, which was really tasty, but otherwise there's been only once meat source here in the city that leaves something behind when you blast it with the 'ol N-5 cannon. And you don't need to shoot this source: there are a lot already slaughtered.
     I've gone with him since then. I know how hard it would be for me to bring home my own kind to feed something that for all I knew might have come to do just that, and I hoped to take some of that burden off of him. We would be safer in a team, and I could do the dirty work. I was also afraid he was killing off other humans, so I was relieved to find he wasn't, and he was likely making sure I wouldn't do the same. He was lopping the heads off the dead to make sure there were no, ah, extras, in the body proper before cutting them apart. The cooler air was welcome: the bodies lasted longer and we were less reliant on salvaging the carnage.
     After sunset they covered and sealed off all the windows in the apartment to keep any light from getting out before lighting a couple of lanterns. They were overjoyed when I brought out the lights from our survival gear that first night and hung them up in place of the lanterns. They cast more light and didn't leave a layer of soot on everything or emitted that nasty, pungent smell.
     Apparently some part of the building was still in use, though I dare not explore to find out where, because the steam heat still worked and kept the rooms from getting too cool. Crunch wrapped up in a blanket and leaned against the radiator when she wasn't in bed. It turns out there were only three of the strange, rectangular mattresses they used, and before we had arrived the three oldest had used them, leaving four women and two other men to sleep on the floor.
     I think Crunch felt guilty over using the bed after she saw the man who answered the door trying to get comfortable on a large cushioned bench (Boomer kept referring to it as a "thesofa") and others on the floor. She tried to stay on the floor but they insisted on her taking the bed. I tried not to laugh at her indignant expression when they stopped trying to communicate and simply picked her up and carried her back there.
     Two nights ago the steam heaters stopped working. They came back on around midday, but that night got pretty cool for these people without fur. I woke up to Boomer and one of the women on either side of me, and covered in two blankets. It was so warm I nearly started panting, but they seemed to find it comfortable. The woman talked in her sleep that night. It was a little creepy.
     Crunch said she woke up in the night to a shivering little girl being stuffed into her as she slept on her side, and then a blanket wrapped around them. I don't think these people would have done that to their little girl if they knew Crunch like I did, but when I walked in to check on her in that morning Crunch was sound asleep with both arms trapping the child in place, buried into her thick fur. The kid looked nervous, but I patted her on the head and gestured with my hands in what I understood meant "it's/your/I'm fine". She relaxed a little after that, but five minutes later I had to stop her parents from waking Crunch up.
     I don't know if she would ever make a good mother (I pity those children if she ever had them) but I do know if she was surprised she would might jerk back and give the girl a series of deep cuts across her chest or lash out at whoever was closest in protection of her. We extend claws as reflex, so either way someone was going to get hurt. I gave them the same gesture and ushered them out, with the little girl bouncing her way out about thirty minutes later. She's had a name for Crunch ever since then. It must be something humiliating like "Fluffy", because they all think it's funny. Crunch tolerates it, if only because the kit is so young. She's definitely far from maturity, but she doesn't smell like anyone's offspring. Did they take in the young of dead parents?
     I haven't said anything to Crunch about the incident. There are times when a subordinate can give a superior a hard time in jest, and others when he should withhold. Boomer hasn't laughed about it either. He's been mimicking me. At first I thought he was simply trying to figure out what I was doing, but I think it's more than that now. He's trying to learn from me, and I don't know why. Is it because he knows I'm in the military? Beats me. It seems harmless, so I let him.
     There is fighting still going on. Once Crunch started feeling better Boomer and I began going out at night again to fight. I'm amazed at this species, I really am. My government estimated our ground war would have been over in less than two days, but here they are: a primitive species that is still fighting an opponent even we fear over two months later. They have to be the toughest, ablest, and most unrelenting creature on this half of the galaxy, if not the whole thing its self.
     While this battle still looks hopeless to me, after witnessing them continue to resist for this long without failing I'm less convinced of the human's doom than I was before. I've seen sacrifice, courage, impressive selflessness, and people that simply don't know when they're supposed to die. And the speed these people learn, adapt, and improvise is phenomenal.
     For instance, last night Boomer took me into a basement where someone had a workshop. They wanted my cannon, which I refused to give them, but after some obvious and shameless begging I reluctantly took it apart and showed them how it worked. I figured I was just putting them in awe as they marveled at the complexity of it. I was dubious at the time that they would understand anything by looking at it until I was shown a number of failed attempts to make crude versions of captured weapons.
     Now I'm not so sure. They still have the problem of that unique ammo, which is exactly why that weapon is used by those conquesting horrors and I don't doubt why they were so eager to look at mine. I'm still not convinced any of us will come out of this alive and uncaught, but I don't think victory will come for those nightmarish creatures without it being very bittersweet.

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