Olivia were friends.
"Maeka , what in the....."
She never finished her sentence. Olivia's head exploded into a fine red mist. Maeka turned the weapon in her hand onto Jamie. Jamie had just enough time to notice that she was covered in blood before she fired. It must be the blood of the rest of the personnel at the station , was Jamie's last thought before she blew his head off.
Maeka calmly walked to the console and turned off the alarms. She then walked over to the wall of the control center. With claws that came out of the ends of her fingers she tore a symbol into the wall. Satisfied, she walked over to Olivia's body and put her hand into the spreading pool of blood. She then pressed her bloody handprint on the wall next to the symbol.
She pulled a device from her pocket and attached it to the communications console.
"It is done."
"You are late."
"No, no alarm was given."
"Why the delay?"
"I was curious. I wanted to test a female. They are weak, not like us. I chose one I had bedded and tested her. It did not take long before she begged me to die but I continued the test. Humans are weak. We will not have a problem with them."
"Stop speaking that foul language and report properly."
"Sorry, it's has been a long time since I spoke our parent’s language."
She spoke a language no human had every heard into the communication console. An inhuman sounding voice answered her. She walked to the airlock compartment and changed into an exit suit. Then she opened the hatch to the asteroids surface and stepped into the airless wasteland of the tiny asteroid. She did not bother to close the airlock doors and the air in the station escaped the station in a hurricane rush.
Maeka walked away from the station and waited. Above her the attack fleet could now be seen with the naked eye. Ships moved inexorability past the tiny asteroid toward Rift and the Fleet Anchorage, undetected because of Maeka's actions. A small landing ship separated from the fleet and landed close to Maeka. She climbed aboard and the ship returned to the formation overhead. The device Maeka had placed on the communications console exploded destroying the tiny listening post.
LYTEN SYSTEM
RIFT
ARMORED EXPEDITIONARY BRIGADE
HEADQUARTERS
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDER
Colonel Dasan Sand still remembered the feel of that young girl’s arms around his neck even after twenty-five years. He reached into the pocket of his utilities and pulled out the small blue handkerchief. He gently rubbed the old cloth between his fingers, letting the memory wash over him. It was worn and thin from use in places but he was never without it when he was on duty. It represented all of the other young girls he was sworn to protect. It had driven him through his years of service. Now all of his work and his career and in his mind, the lives of those little girls, depended on the exercise tomorrow. He could only hope that the creation of the Armored Infantry was in time to meet the aliens on their own terms before they struck again. After all the bureaucratic fights he was ready to prove its worth.
Dasan slipped the handkerchief back into his pocket and leaned back in his chair. He had finished the last of the reports from the company commanders before the exercise. It was hard to believe that it had been twenty-five years since The Patrol, as he had come to call it. It was The Patrol that had transformed him into the professional military man that he was today.
So many years, yet the memories were still fresh , as if The Patrol were only yesterday. Twenty-five years of long patrols and lonely outposts, as well as prestigious postings at Legion Headquarters, but he could still feel the pain and misery of the Status Insult as if he had just recovered. Technology had changed immensely since then. Naval crews and Legionnaries no longer had to be put into Status for a wormhole passage. New ships, new metals, new engines, new everything, so
"Maeka , what in the....."
She never finished her sentence. Olivia's head exploded into a fine red mist. Maeka turned the weapon in her hand onto Jamie. Jamie had just enough time to notice that she was covered in blood before she fired. It must be the blood of the rest of the personnel at the station , was Jamie's last thought before she blew his head off.
Maeka calmly walked to the console and turned off the alarms. She then walked over to the wall of the control center. With claws that came out of the ends of her fingers she tore a symbol into the wall. Satisfied, she walked over to Olivia's body and put her hand into the spreading pool of blood. She then pressed her bloody handprint on the wall next to the symbol.
She pulled a device from her pocket and attached it to the communications console.
"It is done."
"You are late."
"No, no alarm was given."
"Why the delay?"
"I was curious. I wanted to test a female. They are weak, not like us. I chose one I had bedded and tested her. It did not take long before she begged me to die but I continued the test. Humans are weak. We will not have a problem with them."
"Stop speaking that foul language and report properly."
"Sorry, it's has been a long time since I spoke our parent’s language."
She spoke a language no human had every heard into the communication console. An inhuman sounding voice answered her. She walked to the airlock compartment and changed into an exit suit. Then she opened the hatch to the asteroids surface and stepped into the airless wasteland of the tiny asteroid. She did not bother to close the airlock doors and the air in the station escaped the station in a hurricane rush.
Maeka walked away from the station and waited. Above her the attack fleet could now be seen with the naked eye. Ships moved inexorability past the tiny asteroid toward Rift and the Fleet Anchorage, undetected because of Maeka's actions. A small landing ship separated from the fleet and landed close to Maeka. She climbed aboard and the ship returned to the formation overhead. The device Maeka had placed on the communications console exploded destroying the tiny listening post.
LYTEN SYSTEM
RIFT
ARMORED EXPEDITIONARY BRIGADE
HEADQUARTERS
OFFICE OF THE COMMANDER
Colonel Dasan Sand still remembered the feel of that young girl’s arms around his neck even after twenty-five years. He reached into the pocket of his utilities and pulled out the small blue handkerchief. He gently rubbed the old cloth between his fingers, letting the memory wash over him. It was worn and thin from use in places but he was never without it when he was on duty. It represented all of the other young girls he was sworn to protect. It had driven him through his years of service. Now all of his work and his career and in his mind, the lives of those little girls, depended on the exercise tomorrow. He could only hope that the creation of the Armored Infantry was in time to meet the aliens on their own terms before they struck again. After all the bureaucratic fights he was ready to prove its worth.
Dasan slipped the handkerchief back into his pocket and leaned back in his chair. He had finished the last of the reports from the company commanders before the exercise. It was hard to believe that it had been twenty-five years since The Patrol, as he had come to call it. It was The Patrol that had transformed him into the professional military man that he was today.
So many years, yet the memories were still fresh , as if The Patrol were only yesterday. Twenty-five years of long patrols and lonely outposts, as well as prestigious postings at Legion Headquarters, but he could still feel the pain and misery of the Status Insult as if he had just recovered. Technology had changed immensely since then. Naval crews and Legionnaries no longer had to be put into Status for a wormhole passage. New ships, new metals, new engines, new everything, so
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