{Thanks Ruatha}
Part XIV Next Time Duck
“We will be alright Tom,” said a very lovely looking woman holding a young child in her arms. “I doubt they will bombard the city.”
Tom leaned in and kissed the women gently on her lips. Afterward he starred into her deep green eyes for what felt like an eternity. He hated to leave his wife and daughter alone while he went off to defend the city from attack by the Global Alliance. He leaned down and softly kissed his newborn daughter, Emily, on her forehead. He then whispered ever so softly, “Daddy loves you and no matter what happens, know that I always will.”
Tom Straitened back up and once again kissed his wife but this time it was the kind of kiss a man gives a women when he is not sure whether or not he will ever see her again. The kind of kiss that Lasts forever. Once they had relaxed away from their passionate embrace, Tom smiled and said as confidently as he could, “I love you Mira, you and Emily both. I want you two to be safe, and I will see you once this is all over.”
Tom then slowly turned, as Mira eyes began to water, and started for the door. He glanced back one Last time and his heart was warmed, his resolved to do or die cemented, and his duty clear. He must protect them both from harm by taking down as many Global Alliance ships as he could. Tom looked away without ever considering that that would be the Last time he would ever see his wife and daughter again.
“General! General!” It was at first a faint voice, ever so soft, and then it began to get louder and move from the distance toward him. “General Christopher can you hear me?” It was an unfamiliar voice, it was female, and it sounded as if it was coming from now where and everywhere at the same time. Then Tom felt something shaking him, an odd sensation as he stood there on his porch in Evergreen City looking up at the blue sky. The shaking continued as Tom began to notice that the sky had begun to change color. It was no longer the deep cobalt blue that it had only been seconds ago, but now it had taken on an imperial white color, the color of snow.
“General Christopher can you hear me?” The voice had become so loud that he could not avoid it, it was emanating from all around him now. The shaking became more violent and Tom had to brace himself against the wall then suddenly, as if time flashed in his mind like a night beacon being switched on then off then on again, he was awake starring into the face of one of the most attractive woman he had ever seen.
“Mira,” he said without thought, slightly stunned before his senses returned and he recalled where he was.
“No General, my name is Nina Smith.”
Tom Tried to sit up but found the effort to painful to continue. He relaxed and slumped back down. His mind was racing now, for the Last thing he remembered was Richard walking in front of him. Now he was looking up into the face of this lovely woman with the most radiant green eyes he had ever seen. Even more brilliant than his wife’s. She also had long black hear that looked like a vain of pure Tivan Silk. She was strikingly beautiful; a real angel if ever there was such a thing. Tom laid there quietly for a second collecting his thoughts and gazing at the women looking down at him. Finally he had assimilated enough of his memory to ask her a question.
“What happened?”
“Your sky chariot exploded, you and your aid along with several others were injured by the bLast.” She responded in a soft comforting tone. It was so soothing to hear her speak that Tom nearly blacked out again. He caught himself and fought the urge to drift off. He struggled to keep his mind focused as he tested his extremities one by one. ‘Ok, I can feel my feet and hands. I hurt, but I don’t hurt that badly,’ he said to himself as he concluded his ‘I’m in one peace’ self-examination.
“Help me to sit up.” He said as he attempted to do it by himself and realized that he could not.
“Really sir, you should stay lying down, you took one hell of a hit.”
“I have to check on Richard. Is he alright?”
“He is about like you except he was hit by a peace of shrapnel.”
Tom’s face frowned at hearing this news. He doubled his effort to sit up and with the lovely woman’s help he was able to do so. A wave of nausea rushed over him and he felt as if he were going to vomit. His head spun, and his ears popped. He could feel his own heart beat beating hard and fast. His ribs began to hurt and it was hard to breath. But despite this, he stood up. The young woman braced him, as he looked around the tent. There were many injured people in their and many more attending to them. He stood there for a moment, waiting for the nausea to pass, before asking the young woman to take him to his aid Richard Hess.
It took Trax about a five and a half minutes to traverse the distance from the Operation Tents front side to the back of the Communications Tent. There were many people running about now, some tending to the wounded, and others attempting to put out the many small fires that had spawned into existence. Trax could see that the explosion had all but atomized the sky chariot leaving what was left of the craft scattered in smoldering black peaces of twisted debris and burnt metal all over the white ground of the Glacier. There was a large crater where the craft had sat with steam and smoke rising from it in tandem swirls of black and white vapor. Trax noticed that the explosion had also destroyed the two Prowlers parked next to the sky chariot and had damaged a third. A transport was also slightly damaged, but still looked to be in good shape. That had to have been the ship that Tanix had arrived on.
As Trax cleared the back of the Command tent he could see Tanix sitting in the shadow cast by the Communications tent. His optical scanner allowed for the detection of Optical Masking Net’s thus allowing him to see Tanix even though he was masked and cloaked from view. It looked to Trax that Tanix was indeed injured and having a tough go of it. He slowly moved up next to him, and saying nothing, he pulled out a small hand held medical scanner and began checking Tanix.
Tanix had passed out by this time and was not offering any resistance, a sign of serious injury, or a serious weakness on his part. Trax concluded the scan, reached behind Tanix and grasped the object that had punctured him and with one even pull yanked the shrapnel from Tanix’s back. This caused Tanix to awaken but to his credit, he did not scream or otherwise make a sound. He looked over at Trax and smiled, “Good to see you again Master Trax.” He said slowly and with some difficulty.
“Be quite you fool. Lean forward so that I can apply the liquid bandage.”
Tanix did as he was told, and leaned forward. The liquid bandage felt warm when it was applied and almost as soon as it hit his skin the pain began to subside.
“This will stop the bleeding and allow for your body to begin healing its self.” Trax said quietly. During this entire time they had been passed by many people, none of whom had seen them. Trax had to apply the liquid bandage without seeing where it was he was applying it. He could not have Tanix disengage his OMN, as that would have resulted in him becoming visible.
“Can you stand?” Asked Trax as he himself stood. He knew that Tanix could see as well as he could, and that in the optical scanner he was a yellow outline. Tanix slowly stood, it caused him considerable pain to do so, but he did do it and he did it without muttering a sound. ‘Far better to appear strong than to be strong,’ he thought to himself as he gritted his teeth.
“This way, I know of a place that will offer us sanctuary for the time being,” said Trax as he started walking off toward a Snow Marshal, a small ten-man transport sitting all alone next to the supply tent acrossed from the Troop Billet.
“General,” said Captain Macmillan O’Connor in a concerned tone of voice as he entered the mess tent and took in the scene. “I was told you were injured in the bLast.”
“He was Captain, but he refuses to lay down allow me to administer first aid until he has seen his aid.” Commented Nina Smith.
“Here allow me to help sir,” Said O’Connor as he put his arm under Toms and around his back, lifting him and giving him support. “Ms. Smith if you please.” He said indicating her to lead them to where General Christopher’s Aid, Richard Hess was being treated.
“He is in the kitchen, next to the door leading to the storage tent.” She said politely as she began to lead the two men in that direction.
Tanix climbed into the Snow Marshal first followed by Trax who closed the rear hatch. “We will be safe in here for a while. Disengage your OMN, and allow your energy pack to recharge,” Said Trax flatly as he disengaged his own OMN. The two of them shimmered slightly then materialized into full view of one another.
Without waiting for Tanix to speak, Trax fired off the question, “What are you doing here?”
Tanix sat for a second, attempting to get comfortable before replying. “I was sent to give you new orders.”
“The operation has been modified?”
“Affirmative. You are ordered to gather Intel on the object and ascertain weather or not its main computers can provide the location of other artifacts, namely the ship Pandora.”
“Then it has been determined that this ship is not the Pandora?”
“Affirmative. You are ordered to destroy it once you have the data. I was to assist you, but given my injury, I will not be able to.”
“Next time duck,” said Trax harshly.
Tanix had long since learned that his old Master Trax had a dark and drule sense of humor. To expect him to feel sympathy for his misfortune at being in the wrong place at the wrong time was pointless.
“Why did you destroy that ship? Doing so will only alert the humans that you are here.” Replied Tanix calmly.
“It was snowing when I departed the ship, two humans spotted my movements and had to be eliminated. I hid them under the ship using my spare OMN to camouflage them. I placed a Micro Taterium Explosives near them with a motion trigger in the event they were discovered.”
“I take it that they were discovered.” Said Tanix mockingly.
“I would say yes.” Replied Trax seriously having paid no attention to Tanix’s tone.
“The humans will no doubt begin to look for us.” Commented Tanix as he slightly sat up and looked out the forward window of the Snow Marshal. “This location will not remain secure.”
“It is secure for the time being. They have already searched it, and marked it as such.” Trax was looking at his Command and Control Pad (CCP) marking the location of all the humans within its scanning range. I have penetrated their Command and Control network and I am plugged into all of their CCP’s. If they plan to search this area again, we will have adequate time to relocate.” He tossed Tanix the CCP and checked his suites recharge meter.
“Most likely the humans will consider the explosion an act of sabotage, but with nothing to proceed on, and limited by the loss of man power, they will continue with their plans t lock the site down and evacuate the wounded and non essential personnel as planned.”
“They have recalled their patrols to evacuate the wounded,” Tanix said as he held up the CCP for Trax to view.
“Once they begin to evacuate their wounded we will be afforded the chance, although limitedly, to move about freely. I will infiltrate the object, and obtain the information needed prior to destroying it.”
“What of me? My strength has returned and I am able to assist,” Tanix said with some confidence as he once again adjusted his position. “Honor dictates that I participate.”
“No,” Replied Trax coldly, “you are injured and therefore you will make your way to the evacuation point and await my arrival.”
“This is unacceptable.”
“Your OMN is damaged and your spare unit is non-functional.”
“What?” Said Tanix as he reached for his spare OMN and felt it. It was indeed damaged and would not deploy when activated. Tanix felt his stomach sink as he looked up at Trax with a blank disappointed expression on his face.
“The success of this operation dictates that you continue on with the mission alone.” He finally said with little emotion. This would be his first failure, mission wise, since he became active. It was not a palatable experience to say the least.
“Agreed,” replied Trax as he reached for Tanix’s CCP. “I shall adjust your CCP and you may use it to avoid the human patrols. I will also need your Micro Taterium Explosives (MTE) as the object is far larger than our Intel had reported.”
Tanix handed over his MTE’s and took his CCP from Trax without comment.
Trax, upon the full recharge of his OMN, reactivated it and slipped out of the Snow Marshal and headed for the opening that the humans had cut into the ice in order to gain access to the object. He slipped by the guards as easily as a soft summer breeze blows by those who are napping ever so comfortably on the beach.
He moved down the tunnel to where the humans had stopped excavating and could clearly see the hull of the ship through the ice. Trax estimated that it would likely take the humans about three to five hours of normal excavating to expose the hull. Once that had been completed, Trax would create a diVersion and then meld through the bulkhead at the door and enter the ship. He would be going about his mission while the humans attempted to gain access. Once he had completed his mission, he would exit the vessel and make his way to his evacuation point.
By the time the humans gained entry, he would be well on his way back to the warmth of the Capitol City and the Humans well on their way to oblivion. However, until then, he would have to hide. Trax found a small area out of sight of the main tunnel, a natural fracture in the ice that broke off into several different direction providing ample areas for Trax to hide. He found a good location to conceal himself from view and disengaged his OMN. He would need all of his Environmental suites energy in order to meld through the objects hull. He had no idea how thick the hull was, and did not want to run out of power half way through it. He had heard stories of that happening to other Operatives, and did not want to add his name to that dubious list of failures.
“Richard you really need to learn how to duck when the other guy swings at you.” Commend Tom in a sincere but slightly joking tone of voice as he looked down at his aid. Richard looked like he had taken the blunt of the explosion. His hair was slightly singed and his face blackened. Tom could see that blood had at one point been coming from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. A sight that made Tom shudder.
“General,” said a young woman kindly, “he looks worse than he is.”
“Thank you Melissa,” replied Nina softly.
Richard smiled slightly and tried to speak. “I could offer you the same advice General,” his voice was very weak, almost un-hearable, but everyone who could hear it smiled.
“Captain,” asked Tom “how many did you loose?”
Captain O’Connor did not look down; he simply answered the question as honestly as he could. “I lost four men to the explosion with another seven, not including you or Captain Hess, having been injured.”
“I am sorry to hear that Captain,” Tom said solemnly with sincere reflection that only an officer who had lost men could understand. “It is never easy to loose good men to such a tragedy.”
“With all do respect General, this was not tragedy.” Replied O’Connor angrily.
Tom looked over at him and studied him for a moment. “What do you mean?”
“I had sent for you just prior to the explosion because two of my men had gone missing.”
“Missing?” Tom asked innocently. “And you think this had something to do with the explosion?”
“I do General. I do not believe in coincidences, nor do I believe that a sky chariot would suddenly explode right in the middle of search operation.”
“Some one blew up my sky chariot to hide something.” Tom understood full well what the Captain was getting at. What ever had caused his two men to go missing was most likely connected to the sky chariots explosion. The explosion was more than likely designed to cover up something.
“Most likely sir.”
“What is your game plan then Captain?”
“We lost two of our Prowlers in the explosion, and a third was damaged. I have recalled the remaining three back from patrol and will have one of them fly the wounded back to Andover Base. The other two can pick up the Scientist and troops in Davenport and take them to Andover as well.”
“What about the scientist and non-essential personnel still here?” Asked Tom.
“They can go out on the transport that is off loading cold weather equipment. It was only slightly damaged by the explosion and will be completely off loaded within a few hours.” Replied O’Connor as he consulted his CCP.
“What are talking about? I was not informed that any of my scientist would be leaving.” Commented Doctor Mentor angrily as he and Doctor Ramzies entered the room. “Would someone please explain this to me?”
“Don’t worry Doctor, you, Doctor Ramzies will be remaining behind to assist us with gaining entry and evaluating the ship.” Replied Captain O’Connor without looking up from his CCP. “We need to evacuate all other personel, including your people, in order to secure the site completely. As it stands Doctor, we may have an unwanted visitor and the more people running around the harder it will be for us to contain the site.”
“I see, the explosion then was not an accident?” Asked Doctor Mentor politely.
“No Doctor is was not.” Replied O’Connor simply.
“We had heard that it was a ruptured fuel repulser power cell that blew.” Commented Doctor Benton as he observed Nina Smith cleaning General Christopher’s facial wounds with some measure of amusement. Nina was enjoying herself.
“No Doctor, an explosion of that size could have only been caused by a fuel cell or an explosive device. And I want to thank you both for your help with the wounded. In fact, thank you all for your help.” Replied Captain O’Connor as he looked about the small room from face to face.
“Requesting permission to remain on site as well sir,” asked Richard.
Tom looked back down at Richard and smiled. “I want you to head back to Andover for a full check up Captain. No arguments.”
“Thank you General,” commented the young lady who was attending to Richard.
“General allow me to introduce to you my nurse, Melissa Anne, she is a student of Doctor Ramzies.” Richards voice had returned, although it did seem to have a bit more energy then Tom was accustom to hearing. It only took one look to know why. ‘Well I’ll be damned’ thought Tom to himself. Richard is in love with his nurse, and rightfully so as she was a very attractive woman. Tom could not suppress a smile and had to think before he opened his mouth to say anything.
“I think Ms. Anne is correct, and I would be most appreciative if she would accompany you back to Andover Base.”
Tom could see instantly by the smile on Ms Anne’s face that his request was greatly appreciated. She smiled broadly and looked right down at Richard blushing slightly. ‘Oh ya, the love bug has struck once again.’ Tom thought to himself in an amused way. How many good men had he lost to this infectious ailment he could not count. Now only if he could get Ms. Smith to stay behind.
“Well then, if your aid is going to be keeping his nurse, then I must demand that you, General, keep yours.” Nina Smith said in a charged voice as she finished cleaning Tom’s head wound. It was apparent to Tom that Nina Smith was not the kind of woman that men blew off. She was, among many things, full of pride and spirit. Tom liked her the instant he opened his eyes and starred into those radiant green eyes of hers.
“Who am I to argue with the Doctor,” he said as he smiled at her.
“I am not a Doctor yet, but if you military types keep getting hurt, I sure as hell will become one soon enough.”
Everyone seemed to laugh lightly at her comment including Tom who especially enjoyed her sense of humor.
“Captain,” it was Lieutenant Michael Winston voice coming over O’Connor’s COM, “Guardian One has landed and is ready to take on the wounded.”
“Very good Lieutenant, please advise Major Mantel that in light of our current situation I will require the services of his Tactical Trooper, Sergeant Harris.”
“Affirmative Sir. And sir in case you were not informed, one of the dead PFC’s was from Guardian One.”
O’Connor closed his eyes for a brief second before responding.
“Please inform Guardian One’s crew, and express my regrets. O’Connor out.”
“Yes sir.” With that the COM went dead.
“Richard, you have a nice flight now. I am sure the pilot of Guardian One will give you a smooth ride down the mountain,” Tom said in his usual bantering way. Richard new he was poking fun at him for the bumpy ride in.
“I’ll see you in a few days sir.” Richard said as Tom and Captain O’Connor left the room.
Nina had spent much of the time cleaning the Generals wounds and wanted to wash up. She could not explain it, but she found the General to be one of the most attractive men she had ever seen. ‘Oh stop it,’ she said to her self as she washed up. ‘Sure he is a handsome man and he is probably married.’ She stared at herself in the mirror for a long while before dawning her coat and helping the others to load the wounded onto Guardian One.
[ May 25, 2003, 09:38: Message edited by: Atrocities ]
Re: Once Upon The Stars (Updated 07-04-04)
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