Operation: Home Front, Preparations part 1. By Trooper Cecrops, Doberman Empire This story begins shortly after the events in The Duel. Cecrops smiled as he returned into the mess hall. While the duel with Fredrickson had ended in a draw, he was able to show up the smartass Adams. 'There's only room here for one smartass, and that's me!' he thought. He laughed as he sat down in the empty chair which held his coat and pulled out another chair to rest his legs on. The rest of the group which had watched the duel was sitting down near him, and those who couldn't find a seat dragged chairs and tables from around the room to join the crowd. One of the soldier who hadn't bothered coming to the duel suddenly became interested as he saw everyone from his division crowding around the Trooper. "Hey, how'd it go?" "It was a draw!" smiled Fredrickson. "A draw? So I guess we now have two worst swordsmen in the squad?" "Yeah," concurred another soldier, "But you should have seen what he did to Adams!" "What? You mean he couldn't beat Fredrickson, but he beat Adams?" Adams walked through the door now, understanably appearing bewildered. "Yeah, you should have seen it!" said another soldier. "Wait a minute, this doesn't make sense. He beat Adams, our best swordsman, but he couldn't beat Fredrickson?" "Yep." Cecrops spoke, smiling. "What've we got here in the way of food?" "Lunch isn't for another half hour, you'll have to wait till then." "Thanks, I can wait." An hour later: Cecrops returned the tray after his third serving of lunch. As he returned to his chair, he saw half the room's troops were still centered around the area he was sitting in. "Well, that was good," Cecrops said to no one in particular. A soldier had long since taken the chair he had been resting his legs on, so he put his feet up on the table and leaned back in the chair. It was an art to support a chair on two legs without falling over backwards. "Hey, you're a magic user, right?" It was Adams, walking into the room carrying a candle and a saucer. Cecrops laughed. "I think I proved that to you very well in the training room. What's the stuff for?" Adams placed the saucer on the table in front of Cecrops as the Trooper took his feet off the table and sat upright. Adams then placed the candle upright in the middle of the saucer. "I read in a book somewhere that this was a good test of magical ability. Go ahead, light the candle. With your mind." "Where'd you read that?" Cecrops asked. "Oh, I dunno, it was prolly in some fantasy book I read." Cecrops chuckled, 'great reference,' he thought. He closed his eyes and began focusing his mind on the candle. He would make the candle grow hot, and eventually burst it would into flame. Cecrops concentrated. After a few seconds, he heard a few gasps, and then some quiet murmuring between the troops. The murmuring grew quiet as one of the troops hushed the others. After a few more seconds, the quiet murmurings returned and grew into giggles and chuckles, and then into full blown belly laughs. Cecrops, curious, stopped concentrating and opened his eyes. He looked at the saucer and saw an unharmed string floating in a pool of quickly drying melted wax. His face turned red, and he laughed as hard as anyone else in the room. Suddenly Cecrops noticed everyone else was quickly quieting down and turning to the door, so he stopped laughing and turned to see what was happening. A large heavyset man with a slight paunch walked in the door, flanked by a pair of Dobermensch. He appeared to be in his late thirties and looked as if he had seen his share of battles. He walked several steps into the room, then stopped. "Atten-SHUN!" he shouted. The roomfull of soldiers quickly got to their feet, including Cecrops after a moment of confusion. "Stand up straight, soldiers!" The already complying soldiers stood a little straighter. "I am Trooper Fadaus, and you are all hereby under my command! I am going to select several of you for an important mission of great consequence for the Empire. I want to know who thinks they're good enough to fight under my command," Fadaus surveyed the room, "And who here... is too AFRAID to fight a couple Sponge Minions." Fadaus's eyes locked on Cecrops. "Well... I know ONE person who isn't going to be on this mission. You, sir, are a disgrace to the Doberman Empire, and its uniform, which you DID NOT EVEN BOTHER TO WEA—R! What is your name, soldier?" Cecrops looked him straight in the eye. "Cecrops. -Trooper- Cecrops." Some of the soldiers at the table-cluster began to giggle at this but a stern glare from Fadaus quieted them. "You call yourself a Trooper, Cecrops? Tell me, why aren't you in the field right now?" "Haven't recieved any orders yet," Cecrops stated bluntly. Fadaus stared at Cecrops. "You had better check your Jihad- link-" Cecrops cut him off. "Don't have one. Yet." Fadaus was irritated at being interrupted. "Well, then, you had better check your E-mail. If you -have- E-mail, that is." Cecrops thought about this. "I just checked mine last night, but I should check it again." Fadaus gave Cecrops another stern glare, which it seemed he was very adept at giving. "Well, you had better. I would hate to know that any of my fellow officers are indolent, disorganized-" "Hey, leave him alone!" Cecrops turned, surprised at the voice. It was Adams's. Fadaus turned to Adams angrily. "Just who do you think you are, soldier?" Adams spoke firmly. "I am Private First Class Adams of the Eighth Division of California, of the Doberman Empire!" Fadaus turned to Cecrops. "Are these men under your command?" Cecrops responded, "No, but they seem to like me." Fadaus scowled. "Is everyone here from the Eighth Division?" Most of the soldiers at the cluster of tables nodded in assent. Fabaus continued. "Well, then. You should be glad, Cecrops, that you are not in charge of this division. Because this has to be the worst trained, worst diciplined, worst looking sorry group of so called 'soldiers' that I have ever seen!" Jaws dropped around the table, including Cecrops's. Fadaus turned around and walked back towards the center of the room. "Who the hell does he think he is?" Rooker whispered. "Says he's Trooper Fata...er, Fadaus, and I guess he thinks that's.." Cecrops began, then quieted when he saw Fadaus stomping towards him angrily. "WHAT did you call me?" Fadaus demanded, looking -really- angry. Cecrops gulped. "Well.. I was just saying that you believed your officer status gave you the authority to behave in an impudent manner." Fadaus grunted. "What I do, Trooper, is called DISCIPLINE. Without discipline, the unit cannot maintain order. You are obviously too young to understand, but once you've been in a few combat situations, you will understand." Cecrops managed a slight grin. "I'm sure I will." "Well then," Fadaus walked to the center of the room. "Everone on this side of the room," Fadaus motioned to the side that the Eighth division was NOT on, "Follow me!" Fadaus left the building, and the soldiers he ordered followed him out. "Well..." Fredrickson said quitely, "-that- was interesting." About an hour later: After a short rest, a shower, and a change of clothes, Cecrops turned on the base computer, logged onto the Internet, and checked his email. He saw a pair of new messages there: ---------------------------------------------------------------- -------- From: Fleet Commander Aurelius Invid Manticore Samhain To: Trooper Cecrops __________________________________________ ATTN: All Dobermensch Subject: Real Big Nice-Making Array B'harniian Forces assembling mass spongification array. Elements of the array in transit to locations around world. Destroy elements and search for transmitter coordinates. Specific details to follow. Fleet Commander Aurelius Invid Manticore Samhain Commander Osiris Artemis Cyrene Inagei _________________________________________ From: Fleet Commander Aurelius Invid Manticore Samhain To: Trooper Cecrops _________________________________________ ATTN: All officers in Northern California area Subject: Real Big Nice-Making Array Intelligence reports array elements located in or near the following areas: Eureka Pt. Reyes Petaluma Dunsmuir Quincy Red Bluff Clear Lake Find and destroy array elements and search for transmitter coordinates. Elements may be located in areas not listed. Report any information to your superiors. Description of elements to follow. Fleet Commander Aurelius Invid Manticore Samhain Commander Osiris Artemis Cyrene Inagei _________________________________________ ---------------------------------------------------------------- -------- Cecrops looked at the messages. This seemed to be a very precarious predicament. There was no third message with a description, so Cecrops turned off the computer and sat back to think about the situation. Petaluma was listed as one of the array locations. His hometown. The thought struck him if perhaps he had already discovered it, in theM community center. But that object had been only a small-scale device, not an array. It was just meant to spongify a roomful of people. Not.. the entire world. He also wondered where Trooper Fadaus was taking his troops, he never had said. Cecrops decided to take his troops to Petaluma. It was a place that was important to him, and he knew the area well. If Fadaus had gone there, he could turn around and go to Pt. Reyes. He didn't know much about the area, but some of the soldiers might. Cecrops walked out of the computer room. He ordered the first soldier he saw: "Have all of the troops in the Eighth Division meet me in the mess hall for a briefing." The soldier stammered a bit. "Yes, sir. Why not use the briefing room?" Cecrops thought about whether to tell the soldier that he didn't know where the„ briefing room was. He decided against it. "Just... Follow my order, soldier. I have my reasons." Cecrops smiled back as he walked away. To be cont'd in Preparation, Pt. 2.