Gilette, Wyoming 2009

The night was cold. In fact it was so cold Major Coleman was shivering. Nevertheless the nine soldiers before him didn't show any sign of discomfort despite the fact that they only wore their green fatigues while he himself was wearing a warm parka. But then again, they were not really human soldiers, he reminded himself while looking at the nine X5 lined up before him.

It was about 2 a.m. and the Major felt tired after this more than exhausting day. They had been on a training recon mission since the afternoon and he started to feel that his body wasn't as young as it had been once. Nevertheless he still was a soldier and showed no sign of his beginning fatigue. One of the small soldiers, the team leader, stepped forward.

"Unit two awaiting your orders, sir!" he spoke, looking up to the man in uniform, his body remaining unmoving like the perfect soldier he was.

"Your mission for tonight is completed." Major Coleman spoke in a hard an authoritarian voice as always when he was talking to these children. "Although you can do better and you must do better. It took too long for X5-494 and X5-301 to reach their respective targets. You will have to improve your team's communication abilities or you force me to send you back to basic 451, understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" It was the response he expected from the nine year old boy before him but still it scared him sometimes how these small human beings acted. Being sent back to basic would mean a hard time for the whole unit even for X5's but still none of them even flinched or did as much as look at him at this thread. But they were not human!

"Very well. You have thirty minutes to shower and hit your racks. Training tomorrow starts at 0600. If only one of you is late the whole unit will be severely punished. Now move!"

"Sir, yes sir!" X5-451 quickly saluted and the whole unit darted towards the barracks in an incredible speed.

"494! Get in your bed. Light's out in 13 minutes." X5-451 said to his fellow soldier who still stood beside his bunk with X5-301 examining his back while most of the other team members rushed to change into their nightgowns.

"He's hurt", the young girl simply stated and pointed at 494's bruised back. He had fallen during the exercise.

"It's nothing" 494 replied hastily and tried to cover his injury before his CO would see it. But 451 had already seen enough. "I will not go to the infirmary."

"If it's not better tomorrow you will and that's an order, 494", 451 stated firmly. He could not afford an injured soldier if next day's exercises should to turn out better than today. "Now get to bed, you need your rest."

"Understood."

While X5-494 and the other X5's climbed into their beds their CO, X5-451 and his 2IC X5-301 supervised the process. Thanks to their shark DNA they didn't need to sleep and had much time during night to take a shower and prepare for the next day. Exactly ten minutes later the major arrived and announced lights out. It didn't make much difference for the genetically enhanced soldiers as there was no difference for their eyes if it was night or day but somehow the instructors wanted it to be that way so there was no sense in questioning that order.

Some minutes after the major had left 451 nodded to 301 and as every night at that silent sign the girl turned towards her bunk to undress and take a shower. But before she even managed to take of her jacket an alarm went off and the whole base seemed to jump to life. The young X5's jumped out of their beds and ran to the windows. Outside the bright fingers of searchlights could be seen and they could hear the guards and instructors shouting in the distance.

"What's going on out there?" 154 asked. She was a very thin girl and was usually the most unsure soldier of the group unless they trained escape and evade in which she almost always won. "451, what's going?"

"I don't know." 451 had put his CO face back on. He was uncertain what to do. Usually the instructors would come to their barracks if there was an unannounced night mission and wake them, never before the whole base had been in such turmoil. Which could only mean one thing: Something was terribly wrong. He glanced around and made his decision. He had to assure the safety of his team and make contact with a superior officer. "301 you come with me. We have to find one of our superiors. Everybody else stay in here. Prepare for engagement but don't leave the barracks until you receive new orders. Let's go 301!"

His 2IC nodded and followed him quickly out of the room while the others started to dress. The two X5 sprinted through the empty hallways towards where the most noise was coming from. 451 had a stern look on his face. If they were attacked he would not hesitate, he told himself.

They left the building through the main entrance and quickly made their way towards some of their instructors. They were standing near the barracks of unit one seemingly agitated. Nevertheless as soon as they saw the two X5 approaching they reached for their guns and aimed at the two soldiers. 451 somewhat shocked stopped dead in his tracks. What was going on? They were here to receive orders, they were not the enemy. Did that mean that his instructors were the enemy now? If they were there was no chance of surviving. They had no weapons, no way of escape. He moved slightly before 301. Perhaps if he could shield her from the first shots she would be able to…

Before he could finish that train of thoughts a figure in black clothing pushed through the lines of the agitated officers and it took every ounce of military training for 451 not to gasp in relieve. It was the colonel, the instructor and superior officer he trusted most.

"What's going on here?" Lydecker demanded the instructors before his gaze fell on the two X5's before him but instead of anxiety or aggressiveness 451 could only see a look of surprise in his eyes. "State your designation, soldier!"

"X5-451 and X5-301, unit two, sir!" the boy answered quickly snapping at attention.

"What are you doing out here, 451?", the colonel asked his voice dangerously low. "You should be in your barracks by now."

"I know, sir, I thought we should…we…" for the first time since he could remember 451 was lost for words. He felt fear when he looked at the colonel. There was a look in his eyes he had never seen before, a dark and dangerous look. He knew that something must have happened that made his commanding officer a very dangerous man in this moment. More dangerous than usually. He concentrated on his training. "We heard the alarm and I decided to search with my 2IC for our instructors because we didn't know which procedure we had to follow in such a situation, sir!"

Lydecker looked at the young soldier before him with a stern look and 451 braced himself for the hit that had to come. He certainly had done something wrong that made the colonel angry and punishment was the logical consequence for that.

"It was a mistake to come here with your 2IC, 451" the head of the Wyoming facility finally said. "The two highest ranking officers never leave their unit together during an unknown situation."

451 shuddered invisibly. A mistake. A mistake they had been told about long ago. He already knew that the punishment would be harsh. At least he could try and protect 301.

"Sir, it wasn't 301's mistake. I ordered her to come with me as the rest of our unit wasn't ready to…"

"Did I allow you to speak, soldier?" barked Lydecker and this time 451 did flinch. "Did I?"

"No, sir." It was barely a whisper. He looked down at the snow at his feet while he could feel 301 stepping closer, a small sign of comfort.

"Then you don't talk. And you step away from him, 301! Eyes straight, 451!"

For a few seconds Lydecker looked at them when suddenly a new idea came to his mind.

"Now, 451, why did you leave your barracks and came here?"

"To make contact with a superior officer and to receive new orders, sir!"

"Very well. Then let me get this straight. We do have a situation here. Unit one is trying to desert as we speak. We do not know yet if it's the whole unit or not but until now they have attacked several guards and are apparently going north, trying to reach the perimeter." The two X5 looked at him, astonished. The other X5 unit tried to desert? "You are to track them down and bring them back but you are not to go outside the perimeter even if an X5 of unit one does. Furthermore you are to follow every order a guard or an officer gives you, understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" they replied in unison.

"Good. This is not an exercise, soldiers, if you find them, bring them back. If possible alive, but if necessary you use every kind of force that is needed. Now move. MOVE!"

Without another word the two small soldiers darted towards north following the trails the fugitives had left in the snow. Last they heard Lydecker talking into his radio set: "This is Lydecker. There are two X5 of unit two pursuing unit one, I repeat, two X5 of unit two are in pursuit. They're the only ones wearing cammo, do not stop them, they're out there on my order."

Running through the woods 451 could not help but smile at the fact that it was 301 that was with him. The two of them were the best at search and destroy and he knew he could not have chosen a better partner for this mission. His adrenaline was running high and he felt his senses being sharper than he could ever remember. This was a real mission against a real enemy. There would be no instructor shouting stop if things got out of hand tonight. He knew that they had to be precautious, unit one X5's were highly trained soldiers as he and 301 were, whether they were deserters or not they were a grave danger.

It didn't take them long to find they're targets' rally point. Apparently from there they'd split up. 451 searched his dark environment for a sign where to go and finally chose one trail of footprints to follow but he didn't have much hope of getting one of their targets anymore, they just had been much too fast. They quickly approached the fence when they saw several of Manticore's special ops soldiers standing around a Humvee. There was no sign of the rogue X5's so they approached the vehicle and stood at attention before the colonel.

"Sir, X5-451 and 301 reporting, sir."

"Did you find them?"

"Negative, sir. They must already have gotten over the fence. Permission to continue pursuit?"

"Negative. I cannot let you go out of the fence." Lydecker sighed heavily. "Go back to your barracks and wait there."

"Sir, yes sir!"

The two soldiers turned around and started to jog back to the facility. After a minute or so 301 suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. At his curious glance she mentioned for the small and now frozen up lake. He followed her gaze and then he saw it. Somebody had broken through the ice; the traces were very well visible. But there were also tracks that this person had emerged from the water again and had gone in direction of the perimeter. Immediately the two were back in their combat mode. 301 carefully approached the hole in the ice and eyed the tracks, then mentioned towards a small groups of fir trees. Slowly they followed the track always ready to be attacked. Nevertheless 301 didn't stand a chance. Without a sound a small figure in a grey nightgown dropped from a tree right on top of her and knocked her out before she did even know their enemy was there. Seeing his 2IC fall 451 didn't hesitate a second and attacked the rogue X5. They exchanged some blows and kicks strong enough to seriously injure a normal human until 451 seemed to get the upper hand. He was fully clothed and his body ready for a fight while his opponent wore only a nightgown and was apparently weakened by the cold and the involuntary bath in the lake. Suddenly one of his jackboots connected in a brutal low-kick with his opponent's thigh. The rogue X5 yelped in pain and fell to the ground and in one swift move 451 had his enemy in a firm headlock and started to press on the other one's windpipe to cut off the respiration. As soon as his opponent would be unconscious he would be able to care about 301 and then bring back the deserter back to the base.

That was when he finally really looked in his adversaries eyes and in that moment he knew that he would never forget what he saw there. He had expected anger, hate, desperation perhaps even surrender or defiance. But all he saw was fear. The eyes were almost black, filled with a sort of terror that was unknown to him. These were the eyes of a living being that was afraid to death of what might come now. It was more than the shock he had seen when 648 had dropped dead during their morning run because of a heart failure, more than he had seen when 301 had been injured during their shooting exercises. This was the ultimate terror of somebody that knew exactly that what was coming was too much to bear for body and soul, the fear of the coming and the knowledge of a horrible death itself.

He was so shocked himself by that look that he gasped and immediately released his adversary from his grip and stumbled back until he fell to the ground. He felt fear gripping his heart from what he had just seen. He had never known before that a feeling like the one he had just seen existed. He didn't know what to do, didn't dare to move.

His enemy suddenly sat up in a fluent move and looked sternly at him. It was a girl, not older that himself. He could see that she still had some trouble breathing but she was recovering fast. They just starred at each other for several minutes until she finally spoke:

"Why did you do that?"

He didn't answer. His military training told him that communication with the enemy was not allowed. She moved slightly towards him and he backed off even more, bringing his hands up in some sort of a fighting stance and she stopped but didn't take her eyes off him.

"Why did you do that?" she repeated. Apparently she was as confused as he was.

"Do what?"

"Release me."

"I don't know." It was the truth. He didn't know. He'd had her. And yet he had backed off without a reason he could explain.

"You're from unit two" she stated the obvious. He just nodded. She seemed to think intensely. Finally she added: "Come with me."

"No!" The answer was out of his mouth before he could really think.

"You will get killed here!" she exclaimed but calmed down quickly. "We must go."

"I can't. We belong here. We don't even know what's out there."

For a moment they sat in silence until she shifted and stood up. He followed her example.

"Come with me" she repeated softly but he only shook his head.

"I will stay. Go."

"Why do you let me go?"

"I don't know. I think I saw something…something in your eyes…just go."

She finally nodded and turned around but she only got a few meters away before she turned around and came back.

"What's your name?"

"X5-451."

"That's your designation. You know, we all need names. My name is Max. You don't have one?"

He shook his head.

"Then I will call you Wolf" she said after a moment of thinking. "The way you fight and talk. It's somewhat calm and still strong. Wolf it is."

"Thank you" he replied confused. A name?

"Good luck, you will need it."

"Wait! What's your designation?"

"X5-452. But I'd prefer Max. Farewell!"

And with that she ran off. It was only when she had gotten about twenty meters away that she stopped one last time and looked at him. He was pretty sure she smiled sadly when she silently mouthed to him: 'Thank you.' And then she was gone.

He shook his head and turned around to take care of 301 when it suddenly hit him that he had just met his biological sister.

That was the prologue. Like it? Hate it? Reviews are life!