Operation: Phoenix: Life Is A Highway by J. FoxGlov, foxglov@ksu.edu "Shit!" J pounded on his blank-faced JihadLinker with his right hand as he maneuvered through Central Texas Highway Hell at speeds reaching 90 mph with his left. While returning home to Manhattan, Kansas from his brief sojourn in Waco, he had just attempted to contact Grand Admiral Owsen, only to be unceremoniously ignored and hung up on. An audible sigh. "Owsen's not listening to me. What else is new." Another sigh, as his thoughts wandered...how had it all come to this point? The last two months had been a near-blur...seemed only yesterday he had organized a concerned Jihad and 'convinced' one Ennio Phillips to step down as Praetor, thereby loosening a chokehold that had kept the collective talents and interests of the Jihad under Ennio's thumb for so long... Now he was Praetor. Big sneckin' deal. What did it all mean? Sure, the Jihad was using reason as a means to their end, as they always should have. Respect, diplomacy, tolerance for near-everything that wasn't a) spoungin, b) spoungin, or c) spoungin...these were concepts that now defined the Jihad, and he was being given one acclaim after another for all he 'had done.' As 'piggy (nothing can stop me now)' vibrated his rear view mirror, he found himself ranting to the air: "Now, just as we all thought we could sit back and *BREATHE* for maybe a minute, I find out while we're scattered all over the frackin' Country that giant 'mech HellWyrms are stomping around..." He considered the 'Linker again, wondering... "Computer. Open channel to Grand Admiral Owsen." 'working...auto-message display mode on. *clik*' Owsen's face appeared on the tiny screen. "No, and send message to him I won't be either!" J blink-growl-fling-linker-against-passenger-side-door'd in one impulse move. "Whatever the hell that meant...jerk calls me a BUREAUCRAT, and then won't FUCKING TALK to me..." A shrug. His funeral. J drove along for another five minutes without so much as a word, listening to his 'further down the spiral' tape and his thoughts. This was not inconceivable. Owsen had told him of the BMW's, and how they were the cause of so much destruction in the Jihad's early days...huge mechanized 'droids vaguely resembling B'Harnii...somehow powered by processors from old Commodore 64's. The idea seemed absurd, and indeed it was...but was not was the hard reality of their existence, and how the Jihad had suffered its first major casualty in that war...the loss of Kevin the I. And so now we're back to this point...we plan, and organize, and build on our forces, trying to convince the general public that yes indeed, B'Harnii represents a threat to our sensibilities and to our society, working as peaceably as possible...then hell breaks loose. He idly raised his hand to his face, remembering the incident that happened a week? two weeks ago? He couldn't remember, all he knew was that all of a sudden, there was this incredible feeling of dread, and then what he and nearly everyone else thought was possible happened. His nose started bleeding. See, this sort of thing did not just happen. Not when the person involved has his biomolecular cohesion administered by an electronic enhancement apparatus. Blood capillaries just aren't supposed to Pop without warning, but somehow they had, and it was bugging J to no end. He reached over without taking his eyes off the road and reactivated the 'linker. Wonder what J-Rock's up to... -- The X'hirjq lieutenant, flanked by lesser warriors, bent over a lighted map. High in orbit above the Earth, they were under direct orders to seek out each Jihad member marked by the lord B'Harnii and direct squads down to the planet surface as needed to accomplish their extermination. [There,] the lieutenant thundered, as he gestured with a gray-scaled finger towards a glow emanating from a branching representation of major roads and highways. [The one known as FoxGlov is there.] The lieutenant pondered the readout. A small land vehicle, of pitiful speed and maneuverability, no obvious weaponry present...and only one lifeform, the driver... [How can this be?] an underling demanded. [This is their leader?] The lieutenant looked back unblinkingly, the hard stare causing the younger X'hirjq warrior to instinctively defer, the psionic suggestion understood by all in the room. [I will remind you what the one known as B'Harnii told us,] the lieutenant mused, turning back towards the map. [We are not to be fooled by this one's seeming lack of battle-readiness. The Praetor is said to be posessed of capabilities unknown to all, and we must act according to our uncertainty.] The lieutenant turned again to face the squad. [And since you find the threat so amusing, you shall take one of the light drones and minimize our uncertainty.] He pointed to the one who spoke before. [Go, but do not end this one.] The underling stood alert. [Why must I not end the Praetor's life?] The lieutenant bore down on the younger with a low hiss, curling lips back to reveal menacing teeth. [You do not question orders. The honor of destroying the leader of the Jihad is not yours to have. Out.] The younger X'hirjq bowed its head, and trod out of the command bridge, toward the pod bays... -- J thoughtfully grinned as he deactivated his 'linker. Just finished a communique with all active Alpha Squad officers, ordering them to meet him at the barracks of TRES headquarters. If what J-Rock had told him was all true (and J knew there was no reason for a lie) then he'd need to confer with his Corps squadron. "Seeing as how most I've not seen fight yet," J chuckled to himself, "this could be a unique opportunity, if anything." He groaned and shifted around in his seat, idly half-wishing he'd taken the offer to have his car fitted with Corps equipment and technology... something about not wanting to abuse resources meant for Jihad use for personal convenience held him back. "Lookit me, in a white '87 Chevy Nova. I'm so damn Chivalrous it's sick." At least it had an 'I HATE BARNEY' bumper sticker. -- The small X'hirjq ship entered the Earth's atmosphere directly above Interstate 35 just north of Denton, blind to American radar and intelligence scans, though plainly visible as it passed the outskirts of the city, giving residents an eyeful of its black scarab hull about the size of a Buick. Fifteen minutes later, all 1-900 UFO sighting hotlines would shut off all incoming calls from the entire state of Texas. The ship descended slowly until it hovered just above the highway, just behind its target, a white '87 Chevy Nova. [Now I see how a Praetor fights...] Twin plasma beams perforated the lane dividing lines on either side of the car, making J take full stock of the situation, now embodied in a flying beetle matching his speed directly behind him on the highway. "Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck..." J thought in _Misery_esque despair, "where's Al Cowlings when you need him?" Only good thing about being fired upon by a UFO is the traffic suddenly gives you lots of room on the road, he quickly surmised. Driving at his car's top speed, and his thoughts racing, he found little reason to believe he could get through this situation alive. Unless... Keeping one eye on the road, he reached way over to yank his Glov out of the passenger compartment. (Good place to put it, no?) "OK," he told himself as he unfolded it and slipped it on his left arm, "The car may not be altered...but I sure as hell am." The readings on the X'hirjq computer screen fluctuated wildly on its target's status. The life readings seemed to disappear for a second, then reform with a completely new configuration. The energy emitted seemed more than enough to destroy the car from the inside out, but was somehow contained within. [So, this must be the great secret the Praetor keeps hidden.] J shook his head to clear the vertigo, and concentrated on the road before him. Gripping the steering wheel with his left hand, he punched a series of buttons..."Say bai bai, E.T." The pilot's reptilian eyes widened as the target vehicle was enveloped in an electric blue glow which sensors seemed unable to penetrate. As the pilot fumed in frustration, the readings of the vehicle seemed to fade until only a blue wisp sped along the highway, only to fade as well... -- Kylun Lionheart shuffled the deck of cards yet another time and laid them out, one by one, for another round of solitaire. He hesitated, then laid the rest of the deck down. He, like the rest of Alpha Squad, had been called together by the Admiral to TRES HQ. From what he had heard, whatever they were there for was a catastrophe beyond anything they as a team had faced. He stretched his shoulders. But it was so Boring...waiting here, that was. Each member of Alpha, (except Captain Gremlin, who was apparently off on a solo mission,) had said little when they arrived at the HQ barracks one by one, and after an hour had settled into pasttimes to ward off the demon Ennui. Kylun rose and walked to a cabinet and pulled out some spray polish. Solitaire only had appeal for so long, and might as well get some work done. He set to polishing the twin spiked maces of Kennellya, the rather simple hand weapons he brandished in any fray, in the rare times when he felt he had to fight. Since he preferred the moderation and settling of arguments before they grew to violent ends far above barbarism, he rarely used them except in the holographic training rooms at the HQ. Still, given the time he devoted to honing his skills with the maces, in his hands they were lethal. He held one mace up to the light and rubbed a few smudges off the spikes, and sprayed it with the polish again. The spikes made it next to impossible to polish them by hand, but he always tried, if anything because they looked better clean. Out of one eye he surveyed the room from the central table, and the officers scattered throughout. Closest to him was the lone non-human, the dragon Hamsterriffic, seated against a wall, at least as far as he could lean against it to give room for his large green-scaled tail, and similarly adorned wings, now folded. Hamster, as he was usually called, had taken to reading one of the books in his collection of Anne McCaffrey titles, and was near-impossible to distract. Why he likes those books so much, Kylun thought, I'll never understand. "Ack!" Kylun broke the silence by nudging the spray polish off the table. "Raeth, would you get that?" The Raeth in question was prostrate on the floor, reading a stack of comic books near the table. He managed to stretch over to reach the can, and hand it up to his Commander. "Here y'go...and remember not to spend all your financial aid money on bagels, else you won't have enough left for cream cheese." Kylun blinked. "Oh, more Warped Logic. Thank you so much." Raeth grinned back lovingly, while Kylun just shook his head and resumed polishing his maces. The last two officers in the squad were similarly occupied to the point of absorption. K9 was plugged into headphones (figuratively speaking,) and playing DOOM with the B'HarniiDOOM patch the Grand Admiral had designed. Jaina, the squad's newest member, knelt facing the room, face in placid concentration, meditating in the manner indicative of a Jedi in training. Kylun held his other mace up to the light to admire its shine, smiling and wondering what was taking the Admiral so long. -- With a blue flash that appeared suddenly and grew to full size in an instant, J's car appeared in a parking lot adjacent to the campus, engine still running, but unmoving. He found a parking place and stepped out. The quick sprint across campus to the gate would likely draw a crowd, he figured. Humankind still wasn't all that hep to 3-tailed yellow 6'5" vulpine anthropomorphs. Who could blame them. He decided on the holograph projector he used when he brought the Mystic Mongoose out of hiding, and activated that attachment on his Glov. A brief hum and crackle of energy later, he had the outward appearance of being human again, without actually switching forms. This should keep the hordes at bay, he thought, and started across to the gate, at a brisk 20-mph sprint. -- "Perimeter alert...must be him." Kylun rose at sight of the red indicator on the wall, and stood at attention. The other officers followed suit, and faced the main door, awaiting the Admiral to grace their presence. The doors slid open automatically, and J stepped through, head high in his usual demeanor. "At ease, everyone. Glad you're *kkk*" His screams were deafening. K9 set to readjusting the door's sensors so hopefully they'd close After all extremities had passed through in the future. J sat down, a little embarrassed, his tails unconsciously twitching near the rapidly disappearing mark across all three. He tilted his head to one side, then jerked it back. "That wasn't fun." There was an awkward silence as everyone stifled chuckles. Jaina stepped forward and broke it to their relief. "Sir, with all due respect, would you mind repeating why you've called us all here?" J turned and grinned. "Again...didn't know I told you in the first place, but all right." J waved everyone to the table, and began. "I'll tell you what I know." -- The X'hirjq lieutenant stared arms crossed, facing the door leading into the command bridge, which opened at the return of the young upstart pilot. [So...you managed not to destroy the Praetor.] The young warrior bowed its head as the lieutenant plodded across the bridge and bore down again. [...as you were ordered not to. You also managed to let the Praetor escape in some manner that our instruments could not track.] The more revered X'hirjq, who by sheer dominance and not command structure held sway over the others, walked behind the younger, who remained deferent. The lieutenant raised its clawed foot and stomped on the younger X'hirjq's tail, then grabbed its head with one hand and yanked it backwards. [The only thing that has saved you is the readings you were able to take before your prey disappeared. Now get Out.] The lieutenant released the writhing youngster, and returned to the map, which was still scanning the countryside, but finding no trace of the lost enemy... -- Kylun shook his head, scarcely believing what he was able to follow. "So what does this mean, Admiral? What are we supposed to do?" J sighed. "I wish I had easy answers...but all I know is that Owsen is planning a crackdown on both the BMW's and whoever it is that reactivated them. I need to be there." Jaina raised her hand from its previous position, flat on the table. "Let me make sure I'm reading this correctly...you want us there to fall back on." J had to grin. "No, not exactly...my main concern is for the HQ. I'm more worried that our unknown enemy might find out where this place is. I need this squad on call here if it does." "However," he continued, "I'd appreciate someone coming along to watch my back. To minimize the loss to the security here, I'll only ask one volunteer." At the end of the last sentence, J suddenly became aware of the fact that while before his person had been illuminated by the overhead light, he along with the surrounding area was shrouded by a large shadow. He glanced upward, and swiveled his chair around to face Hamster, who hadn't been standing behind the chair all that long, it seemed. J squinted upwards to make out the dragon's yellow eyes. "And just what do *you* want, Commander?" Hamster moved only to extend taloned hands forward, palms up. "Just thinking about what Owsen always said...that we look both in the realm of philosophy and military to accomplish our ends. Seems I have yet to prove myself in the latter half.." J stood to shake his hand. "Can't argue with that. Commander," pointing at Kylun now, "think you can hold down the fort while we're gone?" Kylun made a face as if contemplating the suggestion, then reached over to retrieve his gleaming maces from the table. "We'll manage." J pointed. "You're in charge. Hamster, we's out." The two headed toward the door heading to the armoury. He had a feeling he'd better see how well he could pilot a Gambit-class. "So where *are* you heading, Admiral?" J turned in the doorway to answer Jaina. "Georgia." -To be continued... All material copyrighted by the original author.