I. UN Heavy Cruiser Orion
Alchibah system asteroid belt
Alchibah Day 980

“But how do you know they are even out there? St James thinks they will be dug in on the planet”

Richard Redmond was beginning to lose his patience, something he had little of to begin with “Dickenson, I’ve told you already, Captain St. James doesn’t know these people like we do.” He went on “These aren’t your typical tax dodging asteroid miners, these criminals twice attacked UN warships while escaping from the solar system. I guarantee they will come out to meet us. What you need to do…” he was interrupted as the door to Orion’s briefing room opened, and Hunter St. James made his entrance.

“I apologize for being late” he said “but we have some very tricky work, synchronizing the task forces comm systems and I’m pretty busy”

An outside observer would notice that despite the forced politeness none of the inhabitants of the compartment much liked each other. Each man felt himself to be the rightful commander of the task force, Trent Dickenson the designated “Ambassador” to the colonists from Earth, Captain Hunter St. James UNWG “Commodore” of Task Force Alchibah” and Richard Redmond 1st Undersecretary to the Secretary General for military affairs. In reality each of them was equally wrong.

Redmond was quick to reply “I understand your devotion to naval procedures and routine, but let me remind you that our mission is to bring the lost colony back into the fold of human civilization”

St. James voice had a trace of irritation in it “keeping these ships functional is more important than another meeting…and I don’t know why you keep referring to them as lost colonists; they’re not our colony at all, and they got lost quite on purpose.”

Dickenson, always the diplomat, stepped between the two flaring tempers “Gentlemen certainly we can agree that we would like to reach a peaceful reconciliation with our fellow humans, let’s focus our energies on that”

Redmond continued to glower; St. James visibly relaxed and then walked across the compartment to the liquor cabinet. Dickenson continued “I’ve changed my mind; I believe we should broadcast an invitation to begin dialogue with Hamilton and his people. The profiles I’ve studied all indicate these are intelligent people who should be able to see reason”

Redmond was still fixated on St. James “you shouldn’t drink on duty” he said “‘it’s bad for morale”

St. James tossed the tumbler of scotch back and slammed it down on the counter, ” Well it’s good for my morale, so you two can make all the broadcasts you want, but I have work to do” and so saying, he strode out of the room.

“Typical Neanderthal mentality” said Redmond “We don’t need his help anyway, lets finish the plan to contact the rebels”

II. On the Bridge

Hunter St. James settled into the command chair on Orion’s bridge, outwardly calm inside his thoughts were dismal “four years on board the ship with that man” he thought “if it wasn’t for the fact that Redmond had spent most of the trip in cold sleep I would probably have walked out the airlock”

Hunter was not the kind of officer who would spend time in hibernation where he could not protect his ship. He had remained awake the entire trip many times spending weeks as the only conscious human in the fleet.

“What am I hearing?” he thought suddenly. “Oh” he chuckled softly to himself, the communications tech was quietly humming the banned song onward goonie soldiers…”Redmond would have a cow!”

He looked at his 3-d radar plot, “oh just great”
“Blake open a channel to Trident, if you please”
“Aye aye skipper” the young tech replied “Trident on secure 1″

“Captain Heinrich, I hate to mention this, but you are about 15 kilometers off station”

Trident didn’t acknowledge but immediately began to slide back into position; Hunter couldn’t help but wince when Trident almost passed directly through UNLC Falmouth’s exhaust plume. Even the new shields wouldn’t protect her from that. Hunter lets his breath out slowly “perfect move Karl” he thought “do it just like that”

Orion’s executive officer Lieutenant Guy Anselmo had observed the close call from the other side of the bridge. “Capitan, this is maybe forth time trident is off station; maybe we should have Trident run the navigation diagnostics… yes?”

“No I don’t think that’s necessary” Anselmo’s face showed doubt “Relax number one…at the academy you must have missed the lecture about the old randomly drift out of formation maneuver” Anselmo was now clearly lost

Anselmo’s eyes suddenly got wide “Oh Capitan! a joke! Of course ha! ha!”

Hunters thoughts returned to the problem at hand “A heavy cruiser should have a full commander as XO” he thought. But Orion wasn’t really a heavy cruiser. No Orion was really an old bulk freighter converted to naval service, she had the drive and shield upgrades and all the new sensors, but not much in the weapons department.

Now Trident, Falmouth and Canberra, those were real warships, the best in the UN fleet, Hunter had commanded powerful ships just like them for years before being promoted to command of this rusting heap of junk on this God forsaken mission.

The intercom screen lit up with the Image of Trent Dickenson. “Commodore may I have word with you?”

Hunter switch the device to privacy mode “Of course sir, but I must ask, are you feeling Ok?” indeed Dickenson was pale and shaken, looking quite ill.

“I’m all right Hunter, really I am… it’s just that… Redmond took me in to see HIM”

Hunter shook his head “What a bastard! I’m sorry; he just does that to upset you”

On the screen Dickenson seemed to pull himself together “Look, Commodo…Hunter, I know you don’t think the rebels are out here in the asteroids, but this is their best chance, I can’t bear to think what will happen if they try to fight, I’ve seen enough… too much” the man was choking up ” Too much death, please can’t you try to help?”

“This is not going well” thought Hunter “Mr. Ambassador… Trent, you misunderstand, I do believe they are out here…that’s the problem. I wanted to come in high over the belt and approach the planet from open space. With all this ionized dust, our sensors are degraded so bad we can barely see our own tailfins.” He went on “All we know is that Hamilton has a ship that looks just like an asteroid and a couple of captured UN cruisers, but he had 20 years to plan this thing, he might have anything and this soup we’re in is just the place for him to try something crazy. Believe me I want a peaceful resolution as much as you do”

“Oh I hope so. I’ve done some raw thing in my time at The UN… but I thought I was working for the good of man… I thought I was a good man…” the ambassador was sweating now, his hand clasped in front of his chest clutching something within, he continued “And then THEY came, and I learned what I really was, Oh God! Nothing changed except that there was nothing holding us back. THEY let us become what we really were all along… and I’ve had enough… please Captain, don’t let them make me do this!” and the screen went blank

“Yeah that was bad” Hunter wished he could get a drink now, just before the image faded he saw what was in Dickenson’s hands, a six pointed star, something not seen on Earth for years. He keyed the switch for the surgeon “Doc, do me a favor please, go to Dickenson’s cabin and give him a trank”

Dickenson was right, we all became what we really were all along, it just rides some of us harder.

Anselmo came over “pardon me Capitan, but we have lost the laser link to Canberra and if you look at the plot…”

“I see it. Thank you number one… Well at least Falmouth can stay on course for more then 10 minutes at a time.”
“Blake, Signal the fleet… My regards and please execute formation Tango on the next time hack.”

Liberty Township Hall
From the Various Log Files

Alchibah Day 981

…And Les said, “Alright. All Councilmen into my office. We’ve got to organize — NOW! Bart, Kellerman, you come, too.”

“Stop! Everyone! Quiet now!” The roar of Bartlett’s voice cut through the din in the heat of the buildings confines. “Listen up! Everyone not going into this council meeting, if you live in town pack a bag, only one! Warm clothing and a few canned goods if you got em. Militia members, get your gear. Be back here in fifteen minutes or less. If you are staying at Hanna’s or are just in town for the night go to the Inn and pack what you got. Anyone with dogs, leash them quick and take them with you. We are going to have to evacuate and no time to argue. Walt, Karl, you come with the council.”

“Lisa, Kaiya and I will stay here to watch the kids,” Elana added in a commanding voice, “They’ll be safe here, so everyone just get back here as quick as you can with what you can carry.”

“What’s this? “ Frank Turner said.

“Not now Frank, no time to talk, just do it,” Bart said. He turned to his wife. “Janie get to the Dora and power her up. Bring her back here and land out front as soon as she’s warm enough to fly. I’ll talk to you when you get back but get it done.”

Janie had her snowshoes on and was first out the front door even before Bart, Kellerman, and the Council members made it into the small meeting room. Just before they went inside Bart caught Rocco’s attention and said. “Big man, better get the cargo bus warmed up and ready too, I‘m afraid we are going to need her.”

They all sat at once and Les looked at Bartlett said, “Let’s hear what you have in mind Bart. You must know something I don’t.”

“Don’t know anything Les but this is what I think. Somehow, someway, the Goonies are on Alchibah or in orbit. The destruction of our communications makes that a certainty. We hand no warning of ships in system and that is very bad. How they evaded our detectors is something we’ll have to find out later. But they are here! So what do they do next? We don’t know their numbers but if it were me I’d set down in front of Township Hall and send the troops out to secure the place. We can’t be here when that happens.”

Just at that time an emergency message came in over the low power town net. “Sabbu here. We have just seen an IR signature showing a ship coming out of orbit and landing a couple miles from town out by Bob Sarra’s place. Nothing else at this time.”

“Proven wrong again,” Bart said shaking his head. “I can’t figure that one out but it really doesn’t matter. We have to get our people away from the city and to places that aren’t so obvious. We don’t have the people to defend any known target against a regular military force. We’ve got to get most everybody to the caves that Sinopa and Chavez have fortified and stocked and see what happens next.”

“Caves, what caves?” Les asked incredulously.

“Sorry Les, we needed to wait until the absolute last minute to make sure the Goonies didn’t catch wind of the backup plan.” Bart replied, then continued, “While you people do that I intend to get in touch with Joe Fortson make sure he‘s on the same wavelength as the rest of us. Then Sin and I need to go out and look at that landing site.”

“I’ll go with you Bart,” Karl Nash said, “It’s my job after all.”

“I’m afraid not Karl,” Connor interrupted. “And you too Bart. This is a military matter now and as commander of the ground force that’s my job. Andy trained up a small stay behind force to do the ugly fighting while the militia protects the civilians. Myself, John, Elana, Lisa and of course Sin and Chavez are going to stick around and deal with that ship to give you all time to evacuate. Like Bart said, sorry about the secrecy.”

Bart gave Connor a long look. “I knew that old dog was up to something else. All right then, go do your thing, we’ve got this. Just buy us half an hour.” He snapped a strong salute, which Connor returned in kind. “And Connor, I’ll see you soon. And ask Kaiya to come in here. She’s been training too, hasn’t she?” He got a short nod in reply as his friend quickly ducked out of the room.

“Ok, so here’s the plan,” Bart started as Connor’s wife entered. “Karl, you, Kurt and Kiyoshi will go with the first round of folks to the caves. I’ll stay back with Rocco, Kaiya, Walt and Joe to cover the landing area until the shuttle can get back here and pick up the rest of the civilians. We split the forty other militia members down the middle, twenty with the first wave, twenty with the rest. Any questions?”

A minute earlier, in the main room of Liberty Hall

Connor walked out of the council room looking grim. The Parkers had just arrived back from packing their few things at the First Inn.

“Hanna, Linda, can you and the girls watch the kids? I’ve got to go grab some things from your place.”

“Yes, of course. It’s always a pleasure to take care of them,” Hanna replied.

“John, Lisa, go get our gear from the room in Hanna’s. I’ll join you in a second. Sin, Chavez, Elana, secure the building. Jules, JJ, hold the door from the inside. No one you don’t recognize gets through, understand?” The two men looked surprised to be taking orders from Connor, but nodded hard.

Liberty Hall Council Room

“Not much of a Council President am I,” Les said as Bart hurried out into the main room and the door swung closed behind him.

“Don’t sweat it Les,” Karl Nash said, “There’ll be plenty of time for that later. Five minutes are gone out of the fifteen everyone else has. Let’s all get packed make sure we’re ready when the bus and shuttle are.”

Connor Benjamin
Outside Liberty Hall

I commed Joe Fortson on my way out of Liberty Hall. He was already packed and on his way to help with the evac. Sabbu’s message had reached him too. I made a dash to Hanna’s and scanned the crowd. There was R. Eddings, right where I left him.

“Come on Ed, I’ve got a job for you. Wait for me outside Liberty Hall. ” Ignoring the questions coming from all sides I touched base with John and Chavez, and grabbing the rest of the gear we had stowed here for just such an occasion we left the inn and ran back to Liberty Hall just as Janie was landing the Dora. The noise of the landing ship brought Bart and Karl outside into the whistling wind. A light snow was falling again.

“What are you going to do Connor?”

“Suit up and ship out. Bart, I need you and Janie to drop Sythe, Peepers, Fox and Wraith – that’s John, Lisa, Sin and Chavez – off at the far side of Jack the Blade’s old freehold. That’ll put them between Bob Sarra’s cabin, where the Goonie ship came down, and the rest of the township. Take R. Eddings too, he’ll be good for recon. Then get back here and act as a guard for the bus while you and Les head up the evac. Two trips to the caves, no more, then get the bus under cover. It wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight. Dolphin (Elana) and I (Stonewall) are headed up to Fort Stuart to get the active defenses going.”

“Great minds think alike my friend, I said almost the same thing to the council just a minute ago. Luck,” Bart replied and, after clasping hands, he headed into the Dora with Jaine and the better part of Strike Force rear, who were still suiting up.

As the ship took off I turned to Rocco, who had gotten the cargo bus up and running, and Joe, who had just arrived.

“Bart and Janie should be back in five minutes. When they are, take off with the shuttle and cargo bus without waiting for the ones who haven’t made it back yet. Stop at Hanna’s and get everyone ready there. Make sure to announce that there is only going to be one more trip. Janie will stop at the communications shack and load up Sabbu and whatever he has that’s portable then fly guard on the last busload. Oh, and don’t wait for us. We’ll give you the time you need. Keep everyone safe.”

John Pierce
The Dora, en route to Jack the Blade’s abandoned freehold

“Low Babe, keep her down,” Bart said as I and the other three SF members finished suiting up. The Chameleon suits were really something else, though I’m sure Sin and Chavez with their experience and white combat suits would be damn near as hard to find.

“If I were any lower the trees,” –Janie started to reply, and then I felt a thud and we started to tip sideways as she corrected– “trees would be getting sheared off by our wings.”

“Better keep her where she is,” Bart said while swallowing hard. A minute later he put the dot of the weapons laser on the touch down point. It was outside the cleared tree line of the forested ridge. On the other side about a hundred fifty feet lower than the ridgeline was a quarter mile of open ground that we had used for wheat last summer. Bob Sarra’s place was a half a mile into the woods on the other side of the cleared swath.

Janie got within a few feet of the ground and we piled out, R. Eddings first (and least gracefully, I might add). Janie was heading back before we got into the trees.

Sin took command as soon as we hit the snow. “Sythe, Peepers, go 100 yards south and find a spot that overlooks the grain field and dig in. Wraith and I will do the same fifty yards north. Keep line of sight open so we can use the IR communications and stay off radio frequencies. R. Eddings, circle around and head through the field and see what you can see. Implement recon and evasion subroutines. Let’s do this.”

All four of us were on the slopes south side but I had a remote camera relaying the view as Eddings, looking like nothing so much as an ant sized black dot, made his way across the field. Distance and snow cut off the visible signal but he was still easy to make out in infra red. Ed was relaying his view via IR lightbeam and I switched my display over to his signal. I had the Chameleon suit fully engaged and it was eerie knowing I looked like nothing more than an imprint in the snow.

Safely across the farmland, Eddings continued through the forest, switched to narrow beam directional radio for communications placing a couple of relays along the way, and then slowed down as he neared the Sarra’s cabin. “Ok Ed, very slow now, keep low and be ready to draw back,” I gave the final go-ahead. I saw first the cabin in then the ship come into his field of view. “What the hell! That’s no Goonie ship. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before! Get back Eddings!” I ordered as a burst of light lanced out missing the robot by inches.

“Reviewing the images sent back.” Sin relayed to us. “I couldn’t get a good look at the shapes but I count over fifty bright IR signatures. Much brighter than a human would have been. We need to break radio silence and let the rest of the colony know what we’ve found. Get ready for the shit to hit the fan people.”

“Sending now.” Just as she hit her wrist comp a low roar started in the distance behind them. The four strike force members looked back and saw another two skull like ships screaming in over their heads, towards Liberty center. This day was just getting started.

It is many years since I wrote chapter 10 of the History of Alchibah. Needless to say, many of us survived. Some, it pains me still, didn’t.

We know much more now, than we did then.

But, as usual, I think it best that the colonists tell their own stories. These are tales of bravery, strife, survival, and most of all a belief that Liberty must survive at all costs.

Jaisa Benjamin

Late Fall, Liberty

As soon as I left Andy’s compound I punched John’s ID into my wrist comp.

“Hey honey. Where are you?” I asked in my sweetest tone of voice.

“At Hanna’s. I was just finishing lunch. Why, is something wrong?” he replied.

“No. Why would something be wrong?”

“You’ve never called me honey before.” Shit, he was right! “Are you sure everything’s ok?”

“Just peachy. I’ll see you in a minute!” I answered cheerfully.

I was walking in a beeline towards Hanna’s when I saw him emerge with Lisa (aka Peepers). He saw me coming too. He knew I was pissed about something, but he didn’t know what. And when he did figure out what no doubt he would really expect me to be pissed. But what if…I grinned. The hell with being pissed, this was too good an opportunity to fuck with him! I put two fingers in my mouth and issued an earsplitting whistle in his direction.

“Hey, boyfriend!” that was a good start. “What’s up?”

“Jai!” he said as we neared each other. “How are you?”

“Oh sure, that’s what you say now.” I replied. He gave me a confused look. “This is how I am.” I faked in Lisa’s direction, making like I was going to slug her. She took a step back as he took a step towards me.

“Oh don’t worry Peeper,” I said. There was no one else within earshot, so I figured it was safe. “I’m just messin’ with ya. You can go away now.” I dismissed her, making a shooing motion with my hand. Her eyes widened at hearing the other name, but she didn’t move. “I said, ‘You can go away now.’” I repeated in a flat voice. She went away. John looked around nervously.

“Hey honey. How’s your day been?” I asked, stepping close to him and smoothing his shirt. I even went so far as to pick imaginary lint off of it while I gazed up at him with the most innocent eyes I had. I took a step inside his stance.

‘I-” he started, and then was abruptly cut off as I pushed him over backwards and swept his legs out from under him. I kissed him hard and then whispered in his ear.

“Andy told me. You don’t have to play nice right now.”

After that it was a viscous (read: playful yet real) struggle, with us rolling around all over the place, not thirty feet in front of Hanna’s. People were looking over curiously, but no one stopped to intervene. They probably knew better.

After about fifteen seconds I had him pinned face first in the grass, arm twisted behind his back.

“Well this is humiliating,” he muttered, his voice partly muffled by the earth. I leaned forward to whisper in his ear.

“Not near as this is going to be.” I kissed him on the cheek. “Will you marry me?”

“Did you just ask me to marry you?” he asked incredulously. He was right, did I just ask him to marry me??? I blinked. In my distraction he threw me off and managed to pin me, back first with my hands above my head. “Did you?” he repeated. I grinned. He had left an opening. I flipped him over my head and repined him, this time in the same position he just had me. I kissed him again, hard.

“I guess I did.” I replied. “Well?” He struggled weakly to get up.

“Kiss me again.” I kissed him again, this time long and soft. He laughed. “A girl that kisses that good? How could I say no?” Then for an instant he got serious. “Yes, Jaisa, I will. Now will you let me up? This is embarrassing,” he finished plaintively.

Early Winter - Day 835 Alchibah:
Did the winter winds come early this year? We have no way of knowing. Snow didn’t drop down in small amounts in hesitant scattered squalls and then go away to melt before the real onset of winter. It snowed and snowed and snowed. After three days there was four foot on the ground and the drifts were half again as high. Up on the Mayflower the picture showed no letup from this first onslaught until at least a week from today.

Janie and I were snug and warm. The Jeep and EmyCee kept us shoveled out but the exposed position of our house on the point meant that most of what would have been drift snow just blew on by without piling up. We even had bare rock showing on the end of the point. Further up river, and especially in Liberty City, that was not the case. They had to shovel and keep on shoveling lest they be totally covered with the white stuff.

Our com links were good so we kept in touch with what was going on.

“I grew up in Indiana,” Janie said as we sipped our coffee watching the viewscreen and seeing it pile up in town. “Never saw this much before. What about you hon?”

“I’m not gonna say this is trivial because four foot in three days is a lot. But I grew up on the south shore of Lake Superior, and year in and year out we averaged about three hundred forty inches every year. Bout the only large region in North America that got more was up in the Rockies. Anyway we learned the way to deal with it was to move it early and often and make sure that in the beginning of the season you piled it up as far away as possible from where you had to pile it later so that there would be room for whatever came.

“Three hundred forty inches a year. That can’t be true.”

“Well it’s all in how you measure it. The county I lived in did the addition as it fell, when it was nice and fluffy, and they counted every flake.. But even if you used the measure of how it was when on the ground and packed down for a day, what you had to shovel, it still went into the low two hundreds. I guess if you never did any shoveling at all by the end of winter there would be about six or seven foot on the flat. But that would be very heavy dense packed down snow. Most people don‘t really see it but even in sub zero weather snow evaporates into the atmosphere, except it‘s called sublimation.”

“This winter here is gonna be almost twice as long as anything I’ve ever seen, but based on what the weather was like when we landed I think this storm is not typical of what we can expect, we’ve just got to wait and see. Anyway up here on the point we won’t get the kind of buildup they will in town even if I’m wrong about the total fall.”

“Ok, I can see that but what about this snowshoe making thing we are into? My hands are getting red and raw from soaking the leather and stringing the laces.”

“Yeah, there is that but at least we have almost enough finished for everyone who wants a pair and you never can tell how important that could be.”

“Why do you insist on snowshoes and not skis Bart? Skis would be a lot easier wouldn‘t they?”

“Sure would but learning to use them is much tougher and you can’t keep your hands free and move at the same time. With the way the natural predators have been this summer and fall till we drove most of them out I’d much rather have a weapon in hand than take a chance on dropping ski poles and getting ready for a shot.”

We found that robots and skiing worked well together and they soon became quite adept at that mode of transportation.

That storm let off and we all got dug out but it wasn’t a couple of days till it started up again and another two feet came. The cargo busses were running and if not for that the Stuarts and everyone further out to the north would have been totally cut off. Those on the other side of the river weren’t making it to town much at all and as far south as the Reye’s were they were into isolation mode. Janie and I sold more than a few pair of snowshoes and in the end started making skis also. I didn‘t have the time for teaching classes but it turned out both Karl and Pam Nash had done a fair amount of skiing back on Earth, that came as no surprise, so they grabbed the franchise.

All of the larger animals were conspicuous by their absence. The vargs and various small furred creatures left tracks in the snow but we didn’t see many. Not surprisingly the coats of most had taken on a decidedly whitish cast. I didn’t see it myself, but Chavez said he had tracked down a pack of varg and apparently their coats had changed from their summer jet black to a pristine white that was a near perfect camouflage, and apparently Sinopa’s two viras, Bite and Smite, were apparently doing ghost imitations as well.

With the humidity way down the skies got even clearer than before and we saw auroras every night. With a warm fire to come back to Janie and I had no complaints. At least till Lester Reye took his family back into town and started holding Council meetings every other night. “Catching up on what we should have done this summer” is how he explained it.

There was work to do on the legal system and the tax system and the defense system and every other yet unnamed system we didn’t even know existed. Janie and I trudged into town, mostly on snowshoes, sometimes in daylight using skis. We often spent the night at the First Inn, when Andy and Mariana couldn’t entice us out to Castle Stuart with a ride from on the cargo bus and a promise of superior real scotch whiskey, though Andy did own up to the fact that the aging process had been accelerated.

There were a few of the late comers and even a few of the first arrivals that had some major problems with the weather and a lack of preparation for it thereof, or however you say it, but we worked it out to most people’s satisfaction. Some labor hours would be changing hands, some now, some later. We had to get through a season that would be equal to some seven Earth months long so we had little choice. If we were to hold on to our sanity, but to find things to keep us busy.

Sinopa, Joe and Chavez, with help all around, were planning some kind of a winter hunt and that got a lot of interest from the adventurous sort with time on their hands, and that, no surprise, included half the colony. I had signed up and convinced Janie to come along. I should add that it was Sinopa’s rave reviews along with the prospect of a hunt that really made the snowshoe sales take off. Everyone knew that with Sinopa’s background she must be an expert on all things winter, and also in our favor was the fact that no one else was making any. Give all the credit to Sinopa,…poor unappreciated me. At least that’s what I said while counting up the change.

Manufacturing of most other things continued within the constraints of the weather but as far as the lumber mill was concerned we just cut what we had ready from before the snowfall and did a lot of trim and finish work. Gave me time to burn. And speaking of burning, between cut fire wood and Gabe’s ethanol we had plenty of fuel for the coming winter, even if it did turn out to be a lot worse than we had expected.

Food supplies were good as well – the second half of summer had more than made up for the flooding from the tsunami and hurricane. Projections are that even with minimal hunting we should have a healthy buffer in case the winter runs long. No Jamestown starvation here, that’s for damn sure.

Oh! And lest I forget, Janie’s implant expired and we were another couple due for a family addition come springtime. And that was certainly saying something, as there were already babies galore crawling around Liberty. Andy and Mariana had had twins (Terry and Tina), as had Ash and JoAnn (Ash V and Jade), and Gabe and Elana had just had a baby boy, Sequoia, about a month before first snow. With three other couples already expecting and several more talking about trying for the mid to late spring the next generation Alchibaens was well on its way.

War plans that we worked on all through the fall were accelerating, though neither Janie nor I were an integral part of the bulk of them. We had spent quite a lot of time practicing on the new Dora until everything was second nature. I participated in the home defense meetings, which included Joe, Rocco and Karl in addition to myself, the leaders of Strike Force Alchibah (Andy, Mariana, Ash, JoAnn, Gabe, Kat, Jai and Summer) and the four councilors not actively involved in the military (Les, Connor, Kara and Chen-Ling). We still didn’t know quite when the goonies were going to show up, but the answer was looking more like sooner than later, and there was no way this crew was going to be caught with its trousers down.

The idea was essentially that we were going to evacuate to a “secure location” (Andy wouldn’t say where, and if the others knew they weren’t talking) at the first sign of trouble while Strike Force and Space Force Alchibah went at them head on. I got the sense that there was a little more to it than that, but of course that was just a feeling with nothing really to back it up. And if we knew little and the rest of the colonists knew even less.

Everyone not in those meetings was just being told to follow the directions of the Home Defense leaders and the Council. Now, I understand the need for the secrecy, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying or troublesome. I did have a little sense of unease about an invitation to Ft Stuart for the weekend because I knew the guest list included Joe Fortson. Andy might be starting to fill in the old Cruiser Assault Team!

Late Fall, Liberty Spaceport, Alchibah

From the Log of Ash Andrews

“Bart, glad to see you. Andy wants me to give you a ride on the new Dora.

“Our running gag is off for this, I am in serious mode and you will see why later.”

Bart stared at what had been a sleek little yacht with marginal orbital capability before that bastard Jack had blown her up. This rebuilt ship still had the basic lines of the Dora but, so many changes had been made that the similarity ended with appearance. Bart grinned, “OK, truce what the heck is this?”

“This,” Ash intoned, “is the cutting edge of Atmospheric Fighter that we can come up with. Here put this on before we take a demo flight.” He handed Bart a corset looking garment that had to be stepped into and covered the body from the chest line to the knees.”

Bart grinned, “This had better not be a joke.” The he saw Ash strapping on the same rig.

Ash explained, “They are commonly called ‘Speed Jeans’, you are going to need them where we are going to go.”

Going in through the main hatch Ash started explaining the changes that had been made to the craft. “As you can see the cargo area and seating spaces are gone. This is all super capacitors and ammo feed and storage. The fuel tanks have been greatly reduced because all you need for flight control is the under jets.”

Bart looked quizzical, “You’re not going far or fast on just the belly jets!”

Ash suppressed a smirk, “You’ll see in just a couple of minutes and you ain’t gonna believe it. As you can see you have this hump running between the seats and the right seat no longer has any flight controls. The right seat is now purely for the Weapons Systems Officer or Wizzo as we called them. The Wizzo has a lot of weapons to keep track of.

“It starts off with five .50 cal Heavy MG’s arranged across the top. They are not bore sighted they all fire straight ahead like the old P-38 from WW II. Then you have the twin 25 MM Chain guns and finally the reason for the hump here. That baby is a 2 CM Rail Gun.”

Bart just sat back and whooshed, “What are you planning on fighting, a Battle Cruiser?”

“Frankly Bart, we don’t know so we planned for the worst. In the best case the .50’s and the 25’s make great ground support weapons. In the worst case, Dora is sheer death in atmosphere against a ship designed for space. Anyway let’s take her up, we have a three hour window where the Goonies can’t see us.

“First we have to get at least 15 feet off of the ground before we engage the Andrews-Hibbs-Chandler Drive or the ACHE drive as we are calling it.”

Ash smoothly manipulated the controls and made the transition to the main drive, “I’m gonna take her out over the ocean so we don’t scare the hell out of anybody when I open her up.”

After a few minutes of straight and level flight Ash grinned and said, “Grab your gonads Buddy here we go.”

Suddenly they were in a 4 G Stovepipe climb which whipped into a 7 G Split-S followed by a 8 G Immelman followed immediately by a 7 G snap roll left. As they leveled out Bart glanced at the Mach meter and was stunned to see a 9.

“As you can see, there are two G meters. One is for what you feel, the second is for what you are actually pulling. The ACHE drive has a 4 to 1 reduction effect, so when we felt 7 we were pulling 28. We may get a better ratio as we learn more and more about how this darn thing really works.

“Hell, Chandler’s idea of first firing up the exciter coils up in the Spin Axis on Mayflower let us get the System version working and we ain’t sure yet why it worked. This whole can of worms rests on a couple of Wild Ass Guesses, someday we have to make the Math actually make some sense.

“Hell, if it weren’t for the shield we would be melting the leading edges at this speed. But let’s take her home at a reasonable pace.” Saying that he throttled back to just under Mach 1.

“OK Ash, she’s impressive as hell and I don’t blame you for bragging. But, what does this have to do with me?”

“Because we want you to fly Her Bart, who the hell else am I going to trust with Her?”

“I suspect you could come up with more than a few volunteers, and she is a sweet flier. And I sure wouldn’t mind spending some time with her. You sure packed a lot into such a small volume but before I say yes I have a ton a questions to ask. The first of which is what do you realistically think the opposition is going to do?

“The time and effort spent on rebuilding the Dora aside from all the changes made is impressive but I can’t see you doing it unless you think it likely that at least some of the Gonnies are going to make it to Alchibah through the out system defenses. And that implies that a lot of our outsystem defenders won’t be around anymore.”

“You have it almost right Bart. We think we are going to stop them before they get here but in no way can we be sure. We just can’t take the chance or be stupid enough to think we are perfect.

“Time and materials won’t let us get any more large hulls built for the deep space section. And this is the kind of insurance we might need and can afford. Though I have to say even getting the Dora rebuilt was a struggle.

“What to expect if any Gonnies get by us is not terribly hard to figure out. They are going to try and take the land! But first they have to come through the atmosphere and they will be doing that in small maneuverable craft.

“What we think they can and probably will do out in space, is get a few by us in some variant of an Assault Shuttle. They will be armed but primarily Space oriented. Any thing large enough for serious transport and long range military space work is just a slow unmanuverable target at close range or in an atmosphere. So if any get this far the main job of the Dora would be to stop them from landing.”

“What’s the Mayflower going to be doing while all this goes on? She’s ultimately our last hope and would be a pretty tough nut to crack if we mostly holed up inside and worked to defend her.”

“That’s true and we’ve given it a lot of thought. The main problem with the idea is that once we give up the planets surface, it will become damn near impossible for us to return and take it back. Captain Travis doesn’t like it much but we may end up hiding the Mayflower out in the belt, powering her down, and hoping she is unnoticeable. That would mean loading her with all of the non combatants first or finding a way to evacuate the planet while under attack. And the second option seems unlikely to be successful. Anyway we have time to think on that part of the plan and maybe we’ll have more information to go on.”

“Yeah kinda like packing for a trip when you don’t now where your going. Back to the here and now; the way you got the Dora’s weapons set up it looks to me like she is mostly dedicated to the air to ground role.”

“Don’t underestimate that rail gun; you won’t after you test her, but if enough of the goonies get by us and get into a dispersed entry and landing pattern, one or two defender’s can’t be everywhere so some of them are sure to make it all the way down.”

“I follow you there Ash and they might come down at night or the Dora might need to support ground troops at night and I don’t see any ability to launch flairs or even provision for a spotlight and that could come in real handy. No skip the spotlight thing I see the problem there.”

“About flares you do have a point. I considered them then decided to leave the launch tubes out of the original plans. She’s got enough electronics and IR gear to handle night work but supporting troops on the ground makes sense. We do have plans for a flare system in a pod. We have eight Hard Points built in and our idea was that him what flies her gets to call the weapons mix on those points. Take her over and I’m sure you’ll come up with a few more things. Go ahead, take the controls Bart and give her a spin. Just remember the 15 Ft. Hard Deck. You have to have the ACHE dive off before you get to that height or you will blow the drive coils and that would make Jacks bomb look like a firecracker!

“And give another level of meaning to the ACHE drive! But when it comes to wanting to take over the controls. Do I ever!”

I gradually took her through her paces building up the high G maneuvers. All my previous experience was with much larger ships like the Surprise or the pre augmented Dora. It would take work to reach where we both knew a fighter pilot should be, but even Ash was surprised at how rapidly I was catching on.

As we were getting out back at Liberty Spaceport Ash stopped and looked straight at me. “Bart you are right about one thing, there are a lot of volunteers to fly this Baby. What it boils down to is, who does the Commander Air Group trust to both fly her and pull the damn Trigger?”

“CAG is me, and I trust one damn pair of people. You and Janie!

“I’m about convinced but Janie might need some work. Once I get her onboard and take her for a spin though I think she’ll come around.”

“All Right. Truce off watch your Six Buddy!”

On that note, we went over to Hanna’s for a debrief.

Late Fall, Ft. Stuart, Liberty, Alchibah

Hearing the knock at the door I yelled, “Come on In.”

Jai Benjamin opened the door with obvious trepidation and said, “You called Boss?”

“No Jai,” I replied. “ I asked. It’s time you started learning the difference. Anyhow, pour yourself a snort, we just pulled this out of the cask this morning. It’s only aged one E-Year but there should be some change.”

Jai went to the side tray by the fridge and went though the motions of mixing a drink and took a small sip.

“Damn Boss, I mean Mr. Stuart, Oh Hell Andy; this is getting real close to Honest to God Bourbon!” She exclaimed.

“Come back in about 3 more E-years and it’s just gonna get better. Hell, I can deal with rotgut as well as anyone but, I do prefer the better stuff.”

Jai grinned, “I promise not to ruin your reputation by telling.”

That actually got a real laugh. Wiping the tears out of my eyes, “Well, that means you are finally learning some discretion at any rate! More to the point the reason I asked you over here was to discuss some Command Positions; so who do you think the Commander Air Group or the CAG should be?”

Jai actually looked stunned, “Anyone with a brain or five minutes in a simulator knows the answer to that. Ash is the fracking most dangerous thing in Space, who else you gonna ask to do that job?”

“Nobody actually, Glen and I decided that month’s ago! Hell Ash is probably better than his father and the Turd was as good as they come.”

Jai had her turn to throw her head back and laugh, “The Turd, what was that all about?”

“Ashcroft Andrews III, how long does it take sick military humor to make The Third into The Turd? Probably around 4.5 nanoseconds, I can’t even remember who used it first. But he really was good, if some of our own traitors had not sold the missile systems to the damn Haj’s that got him he would be here today and our Ash would be a pure Research Scientist. Of course with the UN and family money covering tracks we could not prove it. The bullshit around that was what drove our Ash into pilot training, then of course his instructors figured out that it seemed to run in the blood.

“That being settled, who do you think should be my Deputy Commander for the Assault Force?”

Jai again seemed a little stunned, “That would have to be Gabe or Mariana. Shit, who else?”

“Well, our Chief Medical Officer also happens to be my partner. Thus she would be a particularly bad choice. Gabe as is now kinda famously known, not going to accept an Officer Commission. The Master Chief has a job and Deputy Commander ain’t it. Thus we come to the Third in line on the skills table.”

I reached into the desk drawer and came out with a set of Silver Oak Leaves. “Once again Jai, you are out of Uniform. Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin, welcome to the hot seat! This is your one chance to convince me that I am wrong and to try you best to weasel out of this. Won’t work worth a damn but, you can try!”

I finally saw Jai without a damn word to say. She actually opened her mouth two or three times like she had thought of something. Finally she spoke, “After the Varg Attack I never had a damn chance did I? But you owe me one damn thing Andy before I will take those. What the hell are you doing to John and I, why are you thrusting that damn Lisa between us?”

I could tell by her reaction that my eyes had slipped into The Reaper, “Because Major John “Scythe” Pierce needs a damn spotter and until this moment you had not proved to me you were Adult enough to handle it. “Peepers” was born to be his spotter and she does not particularly like him, she says he’s too damn much of a builder for her tastes. She is like Kat to Gabe - although there’s certainly no denying that pair’s friendship - the boy ain’t her type but damn are they a team.”

Jai sat and stared at the roof for the longest time, “Major, Scythe, Peepers; do you corrupt everything you touch?”

“Jai, I made a promise to a man I have never seen. I will defend this planet! Anything and anyone I have to use to do that I will. Shit the only stake I had in this place was that promise when we got here. Now get out of that chair and go into the nursery, then ask me what I will do!”

“I don’t have to,” She said as she reached for the pins and put them on. “All Right, Andy you got your Deputy Commander. I never had a choice did I? I just needed to grow up!”

“Bingo,” came the voice of LTC Connor Benjamin. “I had no idea how I was going to reclaim a young daughter who had been through hell on Earth. Then came this troika of Andy, Mariana and Sinopa. I figured out real fast that your father could not do it but look into a mirror and see the woman that that child has become. Now go grab John and be happy because it’s pretty clear you two were made for each other and it’s killing him too.

“Andy, I thought you were going to wait until the Strike Force got back to drop this little Bomb?”

“I was Connor but I have to ask a favor of her and I don’t think it’s fair to ask it and not tell her all!”

Jai was taken aback, “What favor could be that big?”

“Jai I am going to ask you to do something in cold blood that I can’t be sure that Gabe would do. We have enough Electronic Intercepts from the Goonie ships to know that the Political Officer in Charge is one Richard Redmond. Jai, if I go down you find that Son of a Bitch and kill him. Anyone else who surrenders falls under Warriors Code but, that Bastard dies!

“I am asking you to leave his cold dead body in Space no matter what surrender tactic he pulls. Anyone else lives, but this Bastard Dies!”

Jai’s face was a study in confusion, “Dear God, what did he do?”

“He was the asshole who sold MK24 AMRAMM’s to the damn Haj’s that killed the Turd, He was the boss of the project that infected my Sister with the bug that killed Her and His father was the Asshole who killed my Mother! That Son of a Bitch Dies!”

Her face seemed to change as she assimilated the data, suddenly I knew I was looking at Firebird not Jai Benjamin.

“Reaper, you can consider his ass toast!”

And we did battle the unfaithful as was ordained
upon a great plain:
And even as the Prophet was laid low,
we remained under the Lords protection;
and we came back to the lands of the Agorah,
bearing testimony to the miracle of our survival.

Hosham 15.7-8

Aaron felt a rough shaking and heard the waking up sounds coming from the camps of the Agorah and Tulari as he awoke himself, and opening his eyes saw Edwards squatting besides him in the pale morning light.

“Better get a move on it kid. The rest of the Tulari are back and I think they got a plan.”

Now, coming fully alert, Aaron could see on the low range of hills to the east, silhouetted against the eastern sky, the dark figures, spaced like the slats in a picket fence, hundreds of locals, spears pointing upwards as thin dark lines.

“I woulda’ thought they learned their lesson yesterday but guess not,” Edwards said calmly. Either the man had no nerves at all or was a very good actor or both. “Get packed up, we’re outta’ here before they do something we might regret.”

The couple of dozen Tulari who had been converted the night before, along with Hosham, Ephraim, Jacob, and Aram of the Agorah, had little or nothing to pack and were now fully awake and watching the hills in silence.

Aaron looked again to the hilltops and the silhouettes were no longer visible. He reached into his pack and pulled out then concentrated on looking through a pair of binoculars. He could barely make out the shapes below the crests, shapes that merged into the background but became clearer as they approached. Scanning a full 360 degrees he could see they were surrounded.

“Get a move on it kid,” Edwards said taking his place on the back of Jacob a few feet away while Hosham knelt to make it easier for Aaron to mount.

“I shall not!” Aaron replied. “What you—what we—did last night was wrong and we must try to make amends. We will wait here and I will ask for forgiveness and pray for guidance from our God. If the Lord wishes it so we will come to no harm.”

“Get mounted Aaron!” Edwards said speaking loudly for the first time. “You’re too young to be a martyr and the rest of us aren’t ready to die yet either, just in case the ‘Lord’ happens to be busy.”

“No! I shall stay and deal with this here and now! The Lord our God does not desert the faithful.” Seeing Edwards glare and sensing the uncertainty of the Tulari and Agorah Aaron added, “The rest of you may stay here but I will go out to meet with them.”

With a move so fast that all Aaron saw was the blur of motion, Edwards swung his rifle and the stock struck a glancing blow across the top of Aarons head. “Load him up, we move out now. We’re heading back the way we came. Agorah up front, Tulari on the sides. Now! Move it!”

They set out at a slow trot towards thin line of Tulari closing off the gap in the hills leading away from the plains. The rest of the Tulari, surrounding them from a distance a mile or so, immediately broke into a full charge. Several of the Agorah started moving faster as well.

“Keep your speed down,” Edwards ordered, “you’ll need to keep going once we break through the line.”

Edwards rifle was responsible for most of the death. I saw little of what I had learned about human emotion in his visage. But if it were not for the throwing spears of the Agorah in front, and the delaying tactics of the Tulari on the flanks, we could not have broken through. The inexperience of the force against us was the deciding factor.

Had they massed a larger force at the bottleneck leading out of the plain we could not have forced passage. As it was half of the Tulari with us were slain and Jacob of the Agorah was left behind on the blood soaked plain along with the bodies of near a hundred of those blocking our way. Much later I thought of the story of Cain and Able.

Once out of the trap the wisdom of not charging. but a slower and orderly withdrawal became clear. The attackers had spent much of their energy in the first chaotic minutes and could not keep up the chase long enough for those in the rear to catch up with us after the break. Even the additional burden of carrying Aaron and Edwards did not present any problem for the Agorah, as we now, had the enhanced physical ability that our new diet; the one since we began to eat meat, afforded. This was not the case yet for the Tulari who traveled with us. Four of them were slain when they dropped exhausted from the chase and stood their ground, delaying—if only briefly, those that still tried to follow.

When Aaron finally came awake at mid day there was nothing but a dust cloud behind to show that a chase was still in progress. It lasted two more days and nights before the inability to carry water and the lack of other supplies put an end to it. We still sped on at our best pace but did manage now and again to stop for sleep.

Jedediah speaks:
My son returned to our land again, the land of the Agorah, much sooner than I had expected. After giving thanks he explained to me what had happened, and the reason for the same, thusly: “When we awoke the morning after the first conversions of Tulari it was my intention to find other members of the tribe and bring the Word to them also.”

My son then explained to me about all of the rest that happened. And even as he spoke of the death and flight from the Tulari we could hear the noises coming from Brother Edwards’ and Sister Helen’s tent. And I could see that Aaron was becoming agitated and angry. Thankfully, Sister Martha was away and in the fields at this time.

“Be still my son, there has been enough trouble and ill will. If we are to survive and hold on to our purpose even Edwards, as the Lord has already shown, had a role to play. It is our place to question but not to judge. That is reserved for a higher power.

“We have photos of the interior showing water and fertile land of which none of the idolaters know. We must make haste and go forth unto that land and preserve first and then increase our strength even as Moses did wander in the desert in obedience to God we will do the same. We will send missionaries to the other tribes and we will increase our number. When the Lord commands; that is when we end our exile and we will again reclaim what is ours…and his.”

And we set out unto the desert, human and Agorah, and Tulari, old and young alike. And the tribe grew strong in the wilderness. And we sent out missionaries to work amongst our enemies. And we planed for our return.

Day 380

43 Miles inland from Liberty City

“So I’m sure you’re all wondering why we’re out here, and why Grinder and Dustup aren’t with us,” Andy began, using Mike and Kaye’s callsigns.

The rest of Strike Force Alchibah had taken the shuttle a few dozen miles inland to a hillside clearing, and the pair were conspicuous by their absence. Every other shooter / spotter team that would be taking part in the advance strike on the UNWG ships was there.

The eight of them – Andy and Mariana, Gabe and Kat, Jai and Summer and Ryu and May – were all decked out in full assault gear and very, very heavily armed. The skies were clear as the sun shone down and there was a gentle breeze playing with the tall grass. The picture could hardly have been more surreal.

“We,” he continued, gesturing towards himself and the three other veteran members of old SOCOM, “brought you four here,” he indicated the four younger members, “because you’re…different.

“And I don’t mean in your devotion or spirit or anything of that nature. Lord knows that if that was what I were talking about Mike and Kaye would certainly be here as well. No, I am referring to your genetic makeup. I appreciate you all submitting to the voluntary blood test last week, and we found some very interesting, if not entirely surprising, results.”

The four teens expressions twitched ever so slightly; in this mode, the equivalent of an exclamation of downright shock. Andy continued, “Mariana, as our resident biologist, if you would do the honors?”

“Of course. I’ll start with the basics and then give you what background we have. The fact is there are two genetic strains, lines, if you will, that we have identified as significantly affecting normal human physical abilities. Each of them has the potential to manifest itself in one of two ways.

“The first, which I am affected by, is precognition, in addition to some degree of empathic ability.”

Now the four were openly raising their eyebrows and glancing at each other. “In effect those of us who have this variant of the gene can sense things some time before they actually happen, up to about five seconds in some cases in fact.

“We also can sense most people’s emotions. I do not mean we are good at reading body language. I mean we can directly sense human emotions via brainwaves. For most of us it also means we have to be looking in the persons eyes. Summer, May, you have this variant of the gene.” The two girls looked momentarily shocked, but then slowly started nodding their heads in comprehension.

“You’re not making this up, are you? “ Summer asked. “I know exactly what you’re talking about, I just always thought I was some combination of lucky and weird.” May nodded her head.

“Well, I wouldn’t disagree with that,” Kat laughed, “genes or no genes. I’d say everyone with these little mofos in their system is some combination of lucky and weird.”

Mariana rolled her eyes. “I suppose that is one way of putting it. In any case, as I said, Summer and May, you both possess this version of the gene. JoAnn does as well, and we also suspect that Elana and Kaiya do.

“Jai, I am also fairly sure that Aya and Arra have got it, and possibly in a manner that may be a jump in the abilities we thought were associated with the gene.” The teen nodded, apparently unsurprised.

At this point Andy took over again.

“The second variation is what we call ‘overdrive’ or ‘speed.’” He began, “ Essentially it allows a person to push themselves to the very brink of what is humanly possible at will.

“I am sure all of you remember that reading assignment I gave you about the stages of stress and Combat reactions by that old Military Philosopher. The Conditions we are talking about here are the Red and Black.

“Some Olympic athletes are capable of psyching themselves up to getting into these ranges, and the best of the Military can operate in the Red. Occasionally very highly trained Elite soldiers in the heat of battle push into the Black.

“The difference is in people like Gabe and I it is essentially an on/off switch, and with our training we can push farther into the Black, than even the most highly trained soldiers or athletes that lack the gene.

“Jai, Ryu, you both possess it as well, as I think you will realize as you think back.

“Jai, how did you survive the varg attack? Speed, accuracy and a total disregarding of pain; classic signs of operating in the Red, or possibly even in the Black – without having been there it is impossible to tell.

“And both of you, what do you remember about the sparring match you got into after our first hand to hand session?” They were nodding their heads, grinning at the memory. They had matched each other very nearly perfectly, but at a level well above where almost anyone else could operate.

“We have worked hard to hone those skills and we will continue to train you on how to specifically utilize them over the coming weeks and months because we need them for the upcoming fight. What we are going to talk about now is ethics and how you are NOT going to use those skills.

“Anybody here want to get into a football game with Gabe or I?” Andy watched them shudder. “You would not have to worry, you would not get one iota more than our normal size advantage, which would be bad enough. But not one bit more.

“You could play poker with Mariana or Ash all night and if you get the cards you win. They are not going to use their skills to gain personal advantage.

“That is the crux we are talking about here. Ash and Kat are both double recessive – they have a weaker version of both genetic variants. Think about it. You have all heard the stories about Ash losing at poker. Being double recessive makes him the most dangerous fighter jock alive and his refusal to use those skills in a game make him the mark everyone is looking for.

“The point is he will not use his skills for personal gain. And that is what we need each of you to learn.

“Jai, you done good. You did your damn best to put yourself between an innocent and harms way. You and Ryu stepped it up slowly in a training situation, that was not bad. It was an interesting case study in two people feeling out the other. What, you didn’t know Ash recorded it? Not thinking People!

“Now for the fun part. Ash in his spare time while he was sitting at a desk, traced the genetics of these gene trails.

“They all trace back to one marriage in Switzerland of all places. It was between a Scot mercenary and the daughter of a Burgher. The Male line went back to Scotland and not long after to North America. The Female line kicked around in Europe and eventually made it to North America. The Dominant Lines have not crossed in all those years.

“The names of the original parents were Stuart and Kearns. Surprise folks, we are all distantly related.

“I don’t think you will be problems, our kids on the other hand are going to give me nightmares for years!

“And one last thing before we start today’s training. Gabe, if you would be so kind?” he asked. The giant began to remove his gear.

“Yall remember what I said about Gabe at his wedding? He’s a walking, talking example of why these genes are not yet common in the human race. Simply put, folks like us often don’t survive long enough to have children. We can push harder than other humans, and we tend to test those limits early and often. It is not a coincidence that so many people with these genes are here on Alchibah. Something about the lines makes us put ourselves in the way. Whether it’s genetic or some sort of family spirit that has been passed down we’re not sure, but there’s no doubt that we do not back down when we see something that needs righting.” He finished just as Gabe removed his undershirt. Maylin gasped, Ryu whistled.

The second thing they noticed was his sheer proportion. He couldn’t weight less that 330 and he didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. He looked like he could easily bench press an ox or shot put a small car. It was telling, though, that that was the second thing they noticed. The first was without a doubt the chaotic patchwork of scars on top of scars that crisscrossed his entire upper body.

“What you’re seeing is partly due to the fact that I was the top hostage negotiator in the States for a number of years,” Gabe began, “and I was also the first person in the door when the negotiations went south. Even for Spec Ops hostage rescue is…dicey. I tended to get shot a lot doing the old human shield trick.” Then it was Kat’s turn to talk.

“That’s certainly no lie. Which is exactly the point. We can dish more out and take more than anyone else going, but the fact is every one of us has been under the knife more than once. Gabe has been clinically dead on two different occasions. We’ve all taken hits that would have killed us on the spot if they were a few inches in the wrong direction. You four are good. Really. Fucking. Good. And if you work your asses off for another bunch of years you might be as good as we are. And that’s the point. No matter how good you are there’s a bullet with your name on it. Don’t let that bullet find you

“We’re not going to ask you to be careful or cautious. If you were either of those you couldn’t do your job. What you goddamn better be is smart. Cocky gets you dead, smart keeps you alive. So the next time you think, ‘Hell yeah, I’m good!’ picture that bullet, ditch the overconfidence and get even better.”