Operation: Phoenix, ...Before the Dawn "Now there's another thing I want you to remember. I don't want to get any messages saying that we are 'holding our position.' We're not 'holding' anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy! We're going to hold onto him by the nose, and we're gonna kick him in the ass!" -- General George S. Patton, Jr. by J-Rock, jjr5020@rigel.tamu.edu # Rancid "Sidekick" _Let's Go_ "Tim! We're gonna have company!" The aforementioned person was just finishing helping Mad Piper out of the Ellipsoid when he heard J-Rock's frantic call. Easing MP down to the floor next to a wall, he told him, "Now stay right there, sir. We'll come and get you." Then Tim darted back into the Ellipsoid to help his commander out. When he got there, he saw J-Rock's MADOX-03 firing assault cannon and rec-rifle shells at a whole slew of X'hirjq hunters. "Looks like a real freak show in here," Tim commented. "Nice to hear that. Now pick a freak and start blasting," J-Rock replied, incinerating a particularly troublesome heavy with a plasma mini- missile. Tim decided to just go at the Lizards in his own way. Picking off two with his EP-40, he jumped in next to an unarmored Lizard and decided to let the Scorpion grapple have some fun. Taking the miniature harpoon in his hand, he drew a fine phosphorescent blue-green line across the Lizard's throat before making a similar cut across her belly. The trooper stood there for a second before her head fell off one way and her upper torso fell down another, leaving only the legs and tail standing. Unfortunately for him, the Lizard right next to the recently-dispatched one swung her serrated sword in an overhand arc, aiming for his heart. The Cyclone's armor stopped the sword from doing any real damage, but the sheer power of the blow dropped Tim to the ground. But Tim wasn't out of tricks just yet. He cast the grapple with an underhand throw, opening up with his beam gun a few seconds later. Red bolts only served to heat the sword's metal as the harpoon imbedded itself in a collarbone. Tim then used the harpoon to pull himself back to his feet before dropping the Lizard with a well-placed head shot. "Tim, quit fucking around and kill Lizards sanely. Ok?" J-Rock asked over the radio. "You take the fun out of everything," Tim said as he picked up the superheated sword and threw it through the head of another unarmored Lizard. Just then, he saw a Lizard come out of an elevator door behind J-Rock, who was still blasting anything foolish enough to cross the path of his weapons. "Behind you!" Tim shouted. The Lizard disappeared in a spray of phosphorescent blue-green fluid and plastic flechettes as J triggered a BRP pack. "Thanks, Tim," he said. "Forgot about the entrance from the Pyramid. I'd say we'd best get out of here." Tim made for the door as J continued his supressing fire, then sprayed the room with energy bolts as J's MADOX ran through the door. He had already begun to edge toward the door when his sensors picked up J's voice: "Seal off the Ellipsoid from the rest of the complex! Authorization code Sierra Hotel India Tango!" Firing a few chest missiles to slow the Lizards down, Tim dove through the blast door just as it was closing. "Glad to see you're still with us," J said as the doors sealed shut. "You had me thinking you wouldn't make it." "I'd hate for you to leave without me," Tim replied. Just then, Mad Piper came storming out of his quarters wielding an ELBOW gun. "Lemme at 'em!" he cried. "I'll blow them aaalllll away!" J sighed. Well, he thought, you can't blame MP for wanting to try to make amends. Then again, as he was fond of pointing out to junior members of the Corps confronted with impossible situations, you best serve the Corps alive as opposed to sacrificing yourself upon the altar of vainglory. Tim led MP off towards the elevators as J keyed the defense system again. "Activate the remote defenses in the Admirals' Housing Level in two minutes, mark." He then headed off toward the elevator, hoping he wouldn't be too late. **************************************************************************** # Beastie Boys "Hello Brooklyn" _Paul's Boutique_ Bob blinked rapidly as he saw the unfolding battle below him. And to think this all started with the Lizards trying to jack us, he thought. His war after Waco was little more than a glorified taxi service, and he would be damned if this was to be how he went out. So, after getting back from dropping JFox off at Amanda's apartment in Waco, he had the fabricators knock together a new personalized Veritech, the _Easy Money_. In its Jet mode, it looked like a deep reddish-purple YF-23, with bits of chrome thrown in for fun. When the word that Maeve had been taken by the Lizards reached Aggieland, he felt that it was high time to go play with his new toy. The rescue mission had gone as cool as a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce. In fact, one could not ask for a better situation than what he had seen going into the X'hirjq firebase: incompetent sentries, and the expectation that no Jihaddi would be dumb enough to take the fight to them. Finding out where she was being held was no great challenge, either. Bob had managed to pry this information out of a guard using a tranq-needler pistol, a psi-dampener, some STRONG high-quality heavy restraints, and a fish-scaling knife. By the time the Lizards caught on, Bob had already grabbed Maeve and was afterburning his way out of their airspace. Not a bad accomplishment for a Jihad newbie who only had a next-gen VT and a mean streak three feet wide. The missile-launch siren woke Bob out of his reverie, and he snap-rolled the VT to one side and saw the flight of heavy fighters that had opened up on him. "You best be eating your Wheaties, chumps," Bob said as he powered up the _Easy Money's_ vibro-fields. The missile volley had turned around and bored in on Bob's tail... Only to detonate a meter away from the armor, pockmarking it in a dozen places. Bob mockingly asked, "Is that all you got?" as his gun pod waxed one of the fighters. One down, three to go. Bob then descended into the clouds, hoping to lose the rest. No such luck. The WOW-that's-black fighters followed him into the cloud cover. Two had dived under the clouds, looking to head him off at the pass. Unfortunately, Bob had seen them coming and popped in right on top of them, bashing their cockpits with his wingtips. The fighters' front ends shook themselves apart within the vibro-fields, and fell into a corkscrew dive from which there would be no recovery. Bob had designed this VT along the lines in which he fought: fast, light, and in your face. Needless to say, what armor there was couldn't last through a pounding match like the battle on the ground. Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, he thought, the Lizard pilot's voice echoed in his head, [Prepare to die, human!] Bob responded with a crude remark about the sexual habits of her grandparents and shifted the VT to Battloid mode. The heavy's twin ion bolts hit the VT in the back, but dissipated against the vibro-field there. More importantly, the shift meant that the fighter simply overshot the VT, allowing a free shot at its back. Bob brought his gun pod to bear, revealing the name "Franchise" painted on the barrel in elegant yellow script. However, before he could get a shot off, the heavy looped around again, pulling G's that would turn even the strongest human into applesauce. Bob just said, "No way you'll live. No way." Both Aerofighter and VT traded shots. In the end, the VT was still flying. The X'hirjq fighter blossomed into a fireball of expanding plasma. "Bonus!" Bob said. "Now I gotta refuel this thing." Changing the _Easy Money_ back into a jet, he said, "This is Easy Money, requesting clearance to land. Over." "Negative, Easy Money," the HQ's airboss responded. "There are X'hirjq forces in the tunnel. Repeat, X'hirjq forces are in the tunnel." Breaking off the connection, Bob said, "Well, this is for sucks. At least Freighttrain will get a workout." And on that note, he shifted the VT's geometry again, this time to Gerwalk mode, and disappeared into the tunnel's entrance. **************************************************************************** "Don, wait up," P-Chan said as she just managed to duck inside the elevator that Don was riding in. "Sure," Don said. "Misery loves company." "J-Rock told me the elevators only go down to the next level," P-Chan said. "I kinda figured it out already," Don responded, indicating the button panel with a nod of his head. Any further discussion of the subject stopped when the elevator doors opened to hurried, purposeful activity. P-Chan grabbed a passing Ensign and asked, "What's going on here?" The Ensign answered, "The Lizards are fixing to invade this level! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm late." P-Chan watched as the Ensign ran off. "That bites," she observed. "Hey, look on the bright side," Don said. "At least we don't have to go all the way to the hangar now." Just then, plasma bolts split the air, announcing the coming of the Lizard horde. P-Chan and Don dove into nearby hallways and returned fire, hoping they could somehow break through. # Megadeth "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due" _Rust in Peace_ Most of the redshirts weren't so lucky. About five troopers fell to the first fusillade of plasma fire. Three more fell to the ground screaming and clutching small barbed javelins that had gone through major portions of their anatomy. "Some bright side this turned out to be, Don!" P-Chan said while shooting a frag missile into the oncoming horde. The Battlearmored Lizards got off with negligible damage, but the normal troopers behind them got reduced to applesauce. Don didn't hear her, as he was engrossed in a radio conversation with the commander of the ragtag security force. "Keep some of your troops to the rear!" he said. "They'll try to flank you.. No, don't fire your heavy weapons yet. We've got it covered here, but some'll get by us. That's what we need you for. We understand. Over and out." Meanwhile, the Lizards were advancing upon the two in the standard "leap-frog" method, despite P-Chan claiming two more Lizards with HEAP missiles. "Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast!" she grated. Firing a few blasts from the beam cannons, Don broke cover and fired all of his chest missiles into the seething mass of X'hirjq battlearmor. The missiles streaked forth and plinked their targets. Hard. Two even Roboteched around to come in on opposite sides of an Assault's head, crushing it between them like the logs used by Ewoks to kill an AT-ST. Needless to say, no Lizard in the detail survived that barrage. P-Chan broke cover and came alongside Don, saying "Nice shooting, Scott Bernard. We'd better get to the hangar now." "Yes, I think we'd better," Don said as he ran toward the next elevator, reloading his chest launchers from the Cyc's "fanny packs" with P-Chan hot on his heels. **************************************************************************** Gypsy Joker had seen better days. He was currently holed up in the chapel with the remnants of the Frobinian Republican Guard, pouring fire upon the Lizard hordes. Already, the Lizards had taken the ampitheater and were working on the Library tower. Somehow, he had gotten seperated from the rest of Kappa Squad, and he thought he saw Ensign Frey among the tower's defenders. Dan Wood had gone off to play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse among the holo-dummies of the training grounds. And just where the Hell was Lieutenant Keith? Just then, an electric crackle echoed throughout the main hall, making most everybody's hair stand on end. Through the portal emerged several armed troops, followed by a young woman in a grey and white uniform (complete with helmet). "Stop where you are!" Joker shouted. "Throw down your weapons, or we will open fire!" "Why, Commander," the woman said as she removed her helmet. A mane of brown hair spilled over her shoulders as she said, "That's no way to treat a friend." "What are you doing here, Kimberly?" Joker asked, inwardly berating himself for not noticing the Blood Jihad insignia earlier. The Shadow Ranger replied, "Arsenal couldn't make it over here, so he sent me along to help you guys out. Said he had business in Maryland." "I know we're all short-handed, but is this all you could spare?" "We 'ported more troops to the Pyramid, and there should be some copters and A-10's coming in about two minutes." "Good luck trying to get those through. Lizard patrols have had a field day shooting down our transports." Joker stole a peek out of the window, and his eyes rested on a most unusual sight. Scrap metal was flying from everywhere towards Dan Wood! The weird part was that it was _wrapping around him_, much like his Cyclone did. Within moments, Dan stood at the controls of a 30-foot shogun robot. Joker motioned for Kimberly to come and look out the window at the bot, which was beginning to scrag those X'hirjq brave (or stupid) enough not to get out of the way. "Dan's activated his Bastard Operator From Hell mecha-armor," he said. "Maybe we'll get out of this yet.." Just then, the first Lizard Assault Armor broke down the Religious Hall's doors. "Yeah," he continued as he opened fire on the X'hirjq. "And I'm a Chinese jet pilot." **************************************************************************** # Cypress Hill "Hand On The Pump" Bob flew his VT through the tunnel with all the speed that he dared to squeeze out of it. He passed more than a few blown-out pop-up turrets along the way, amazed that the blast doors were opening to let him in and closing again after the _Easy Money_ had passed through. Good ol' Nina, Bob thought just as said ACI's icon appeared on his center screen. "Bob," she said, "I managed to get you by the blast doors, but there's another problem just ahead." "Lemme guess," Bob said. "Lizards?" Nina nodded as she continued, "Some have already reached the hangar, but most of them are still in the tunnel just ahead of your position." "I wouldn't worry too much about them. Uncle Bob's got a little present for them." Bob allowed himself an evil grin before he continued, "Thanks for the heads-up, Nina. You're a doll." "Computer-generated, not inflatable, computer-generated." "Check ya later." With that, Nina disappeared from the center screen as Bob started to focus on the task at hand. He wasn't too sure how he could've responded to that anyway. A gun pod with a slightly larger barrel with the word "Freighttrain" written in the same elegant yellow script slipped into the Mech's hand as it shifted to Battloid mode. As Bob approached the Lizard reserves, they turned to open fire, but it was far too late. "Good morning!" Bob shouted in his best ad-man's voice as he decimated the crowd with one blast from Freighttrain. Freighttrain was larger for a very good reason: it held double the amount and strength of plasma coils in a typical next-gen VT's gun-pod, coupled with a retractable beam-splitter. In short, Freighttrain was a two-ton plasma-loading 12-gauge shotgun. Bob bucked the remaining Lizards, then pried open the blast door, booting and swatting the scattered survivors as he entered the hangar. Don and P-Chan had already fought their way into the hangar, and were blasting Lizards that were coming in an almost-endless supply. One of the Lizards threw a grenade near a grouping of infantry, who began clutching their ears and writhing in intense pain. The Cyclone-clad relief force heard the high-pitched noise, but kept on fighting anyway. "Ugh," P-Chan observed as she saw the infantry go down. "Thank God for the bat-ears on our helmets." "Yeah," Don said as he reduced a Light armor to its component atoms. "But tell that to the Lizards. I don't think they heard you." [You will not escape the wrath of Clan X'uul'hzijq'o, human infidels!] "You were saying, Don?" P-Chan asked. As she launched a AP missile at a random Lizard, she said, "Escape this!" The Lizard made a satisfying THUMP as she hit the ground, a lump of phosphorescent blue-green goo where her chest had been. Then a god-awful screech reverberated arcoss the room as the blast doors were wedged open. "What is THAT?" P said as the _Easy Money_ burst through the door, pausing to backhand a few armored troopers against a wall. Don took one look at the VT and said in a low voice, "You have GOT to be kidding." To see what Don and P-Chan saw, picture this: Start with a next-gen VT. Next, paint the whole thing a deep reddish-purple, leaving the hands and feet chrome. Then, add the details: addias-style black stripes on the feet, and a Cadillac symbol covering the chest with the name "Easy Money" underneath in elegant yellow script. Throw in some creative modelling, namely ear antennae sculpted into Coolio-esque cornrow braids, and a steel cable painted to resemble a gold rope chain. Finally, rip out the external speakers and replace them with 20" subwoofers. Combine that with some bass-heavy techno pounding forth at volumes guaranteed to sterilize all frogs within 50 feet, and you can understand the momentary looks of confusion. "Whassa matter, you ain't never seen a pimped-out Mech before?" Bob asked. "BOB?!?" P-Chan asked, by now ready to quote Princess Leia's reaction to the _Millenium Falcon_ ("You came in THAT?..."). She had no more time to comment on that, as J-Rock and Tim came barrelling into the hangar, ready to conquer and kick some. The look on J's face upon seeing Bob's new toy wasn't anything like the other reactions, more like "Why am I not suprised?" Tim, on the other hand, was visibly cringing, crying "Ack! Blasphemy!" "Any Lizards get by you?" J asked. "A few split off and headed for DownBelow," Aruba replied. "Then what are we standing around here for?" J asked as he took off at full-tilt low flight for the DownBelow entrance. "Wait!" P-Chan shouted. "What about us?" "Try to keep up," J replied over the radio as the MADOX-03 vanished from sight. **************************************************************************** # They Might Be Giants "Dig My Grave" Things were getting real bad real quick, Mongoose thought as the incoming fire intensified. With the forcefield down, more and more Bots were being sent to hunt down the three 'Mechs that were harrying the B'Harnate flanks. Even though the Jihad's Mechs were superior to these Bots, the Bots had the advantage of numbers. Already, the Tetsujin had taken numerous hard hits, severely wearing away the armor. Mongoose didn't even want to hazard a guess on how much armor remained on Riko and Zumi's Mechs. "Well, looks like this is it," he said grimly as Triveritas punched through a B'Harne Bot's windscreen, somehow managing to slit the crew's throats. "We're gonna meet the Great Anti- Barney at last!" "What did I say about fatalism, Goose?" Noriko asked, but even her words seemed empty in the face of the Bots' onslaught. "Yeah, yeah, 'no fatalism allowed'," Goose replied. "But I just don't know if that applies anymore." "At least we'll go down fighting," Kazumi noted, down to just her ER PPC. She'd run out of all her remaining ammo and was reduced to jumping around and firing said ER PPC. "Wait one, I'm getting some unusual energy spikes to the east." "I see it too," Mongoose said. "Looks like some new units teleporting in." "You may be right, Goose.." Noriko breathed as the forms of mecha resolved themselves... # White Zombie "Thunder Kiss '65" _La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1_ ...And promptly opened fire on the rear rank of Bots. Mongoose could scarcely believe his eyes or the group's good fortune. "THEY'RE OURS! I DON'T FRIGGIN' BELIEVE IT, THEY'RE OURS!!" he shouted. Kazumi was already hailing the Star's saviors. "Unidentified mecha, this is Colonel Kazumi Amano-Ohta of the Texas A&M University B'Harne Genocide Division Mecha Section. Identify yourselves, over." The voice replied, "Colonel Ohta, this is Colonel Kittering of the Blood Jihad. We thought you could use some help." Another rank of Bots vanished under the concentrated fire of the Badlandses. "That's affirmative," Zumi said. Now we have a chance, she thought. Now we have a chance. **************************************************************************** # Sugar Ray "Mean Machine" _Lemonade and Brownies_ J-Rock had already extended the MADOX-03's wings for the run through the twisting tunnel leading to DownBelow Command, the heart and soul of the HQ. Already he had lost precious time, and if the X'hirjq were to take DownBelow, all would be lost. With that thought in mind, he opened up the flight thrusters some more. He'd rather die than let that happen. Walls and dead bodies of redshirts whizzed by in a blur as J-Rock zoomed ahead. Then his motion tracker told of some Lizards about a minute away. Can't play with them, he thought. Not enough time. J moved a toggle and the front edges of the wings slid apart and back, revealing double rows of chainsaw blades. The stragglers had turned and were fixing to open fire as the MADOX-03 descended upon them. J had the throttle open all the way, and the blades on the wings decapitated most, if not all the Lizard rearguard in one pass. Still, he popped another BRP pack on them as he hurtled by, just to be sure. Wee-R-FKD-2 had already taken up a position behind a hastily erected barricade about 100 meters away from DownBelow Command's door. Ever since the Lizards came, he had begun to wonder why he ever signed up for Research & Design's Transdimensional Collapsatron project. He had taken all the necessary precautions, even assuming the name "Paul Shene" to sound inconspicuous. But all that was before he saw B'Harne's show for the first time. That dinosaur was worse than all the (hidden) Commie Mutant Traitors in Alpha! Fortunately, he continued while patting his Plasma Thrower, he knew exactly how to deal with such treason. Just then, the Lizards came from around a corner, all guns blazing. "Eat this, Commie Mutant filth!" Wee-R said as he vaporized an advancing Medium with a jet of plasma. Suddenly, a high-pitched noise, like hundreds of fingernails scraping across a chalkboard, echoed all through the narrow corridor. Vat-damn! Wee-R thought as he collapsed on the floor with his hands over his ears. Is my Plasma Thrower malfunctioning again? As J-Rock rounded the last corner before DownBelow Command, he saw the Lizard advance guard heading for some downed TRES personnel behind a barricade. A quick scan of the scene also revealed a sonic grenade near the barricade, making its noise. There was only one thing left to do. He hosed the advancing Lizards with a sustained burst from his assault cannon, cutting down all but one in a Devourer. To this one, he said, "Yo, she-bitch! Let's go." # Molly Hatchet "Flirting With Disaster" [You dare oppose me?] the Lizard sent. [You will not live to regret the folly of that decision!] The Devourer seemed to vanish into thin air. J began to intently scan the area, all too aware of the Devourer's cloaked attack. The first hit spun J-Rock around 180 degrees, leaving a nasty scar across the MADOX's chest plate. J wheeled around to fire a frag shell, but the second strike caught him under his left arm, knocking him to the ground just as he squeezed the trigger. [You missed,] the Devourer's pilot mockingly sent. "Only once," J retorted, watching the water rain down from the roof. By some weird stroke of luck, the frag shell had hit the sprinkler system, setting off every sprinkler in the corridor. And if you looked carefully enough, as J was doing, you could barely make out the outline of a Devourer-class battlearmor. J simply trained all his weapons on the outline and fired, running the assault cannon dry as he squeezed off three quick shots from the rec-rifle. The Devourer did a jerky dance as bits of armor flaked off under the barrage, not falling until the third HEAT shell hit. "Putz," J said as he went to go check up on the barricade's defenders. "Ensign Shene, you all right?" he asked. "Yesh, sir, I'm ok," Shene responded. "The Lizards?" "All dead," J said, noticing Shene's shocked expression. "You sure you're alright?" [I..I will n-not be humiliated by the l-likes of y-you..] Turning around, J-Rock saw that the Lizard had shed her crippled suit and whipped out a huge serrated sword. Blood was covering a good portion of her body, but she was still alive! Both Kappas stared, transfixed at this sight. Consequently, Wee-R didn't notice that someone had pulled his .358 Mondo until a red beam hit the Lizard in her right shoulder. Bolt after bolt streaked forward and hit with uncanny accuracy until the Mondo made a beeping sound. "Uh, what do I do now, sir?" a female voice queried. "GET RID OF IT!" J-Rock and Wee-R chorused. They were familiar with Alphan weapons enough to know that they tend to explode when malfunctioning. The spent .358 went flying through the air and did just that when it was within inches of the Lizard's face. The now-faceless Lizard wavered on her feet before crashing to the ground of DownBelow. With the threat now over, J took the time to look at the phantom shooter. She was a raven-haired beauty, wearing a set of fatigues that bore an Ensign's rank badge. "Nice shooting, soldier. What's your name?" J asked. "Ensign Kymm Ford, sir," she replied. "The Corps could use more people like you, Lieutenant." J paused as Ford's eyes widened. A jump of _two_ ranks! This was almost unheard of! Still, she managed to keep her bearing and replied, "Thank you, sir!" "Have you ever considered joining Kappa Squad, Lieutenant? The pay's great -- assuming you live long enough to collect it." J held up a finger as he fielded a radio message. "There's no need, P. Everything's under control here... Uh-huh.. uh-huh.. Tell CyberPyro I'll be right up in a few minutes. J-Rock out." Picking up where he left off, he said, "You're welcome to come up to the Ellipsoid with me if you want." "Sorry, sir. I still have things to do down here." "I guess I'll be off. My other offer still stands." Ford grinned a coquettish grin as she said, "I'll think about it." "Carry on." And with that, J turned and zoomed off toward the hangar once more. **************************************************************************** WHILE THAT WAS GOING ON... Gypsy Joker and the handful of unwounded TRES troopers, Blood Jihaddi, and Dobermenschen watched with unconcealed amazement as the few X'hirjq remaining boarded their transports and quit the field. But the Lizards didn't leave without causing their fair share of damage. The guard towers were either burning or rubble. The Academy tower had fallen over on top of the Barracks, looking for all the world like a felled oak. Dan Wood sat dazed in the middle of all the scrap metal that had formed the Bastard Operator From Hell bot. Bane's unconscious body was being lifted from the overturned wreck of his Challenger. And everywhere one looked, there were the bodies of the dead. "They could've taken this place with what little they had at the end," Joker observed. "But they didn't," Kimberly said. "That's something to be thankful for, isn't it?" "Somehow I'm not so sure," Joker said as the TAMUBGD Mechs came into the compound, battered but functional. "Ah, hell... I just don't know anymore." And somewhere outside, above all the death and destruction on the ground below, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds for the first time since the blizzard started. **************************************************************************** EPILOGUE # Samuel Barber "Adagio for Strings" _"Platoon" soundtrack_ J-Rock found CyberPyro standing in the burnt-out wreckage of the Ellipsoid. "Is it me, or are you always this gloomy after winning a battle?" J asked under his breath, more to himself than CP. "But what's the point?" CP asked the sky. "We might as well have been destroyed! We couldn't fight off a thousand spongies right now!" "You're giving yourself far less credit than you're entitled to," J said, speaking up so that CP could hear him. "What you did out here today is something hardly anyone could match. You didn't just keep the Lizards from completely trashing our HQ. What you did was something much more than that. You turned death into a fighting chance, not only for us, but for the entire planet. You saw just how much the odds were stacked against us! There wasn't much we could've taken out of this battle, but I'm thankful that we actually got to bring some boys and girls home from this one." "Tell me about it. All this life wasted; the thousands of young men and women who'll never see another day. I hate war; every time is horrific beyond words... Weapons make no difference, because they each create their own horror. I..." CyberPyro's voice trailed off as his angst spent itself. "Amazing. You've only been in the Jihad about a year or so and you're already talking like a world-weary veteran. Which is odd, 'coz I've never known you to be imprecise with words like this." "OK, so I'm tired to the point of collapse. What are you up to?" "It's been a while since I've had anything substantial, so I thought I'd check out the offerings at the cafeteria. Afterwards, if I'm not too fried, I'd thought I'd go check for the remnants of the Spongin Armada." "Good plan. I'll be here picking up the pieces. Have a safe trip." J-Rock turned to walk out the door, lost in thought. CP's learned the difference between warriors and fighters all too well. Fighters go to war because they enjoy it. Warriors go to war because no one else will. But if the fighters are better armed and better manned than the warriors, what is there to do? Let's not forget that CP's often plagued with guilt over those who've died under his command and/or self-doubt. However, once he learns to temper that weakness, there won't be a hell of a lot that can stop him. Never mind, leave it be for now. We won, didn't we? Didn't we? And J-Rock left to get something to eat. To be continued in "Falls the Shadow"... All material copyrighted by the original author.