Enjoy the second chapter here!


Dasyu groaned. This was anything but a good time for him. He had called for another staff session with his Generals. This was one of the most important ones to date. It was on the threat of the rebels who had been assaulting him for some time. His patience was just about

played out with the results of the convoys sent to gather raw materials.

The last year had been a living nightmare for him. For about two hours, he had endured great bliss after killing his longtime foe, Daniel Manning. Then reports came in about a rebel attack on the hangar holding Manning's ship, only to be followed with a huge explosion that destroyed his bread-and-butter stronghold. It was thought to be impregnable in the past. Not anymore, Dasyu thought.

He wasn't sure who the rebels were, but they were becoming a persistent thorn in his side. If they were former Specters, then Dasyu couldn't understand for the life of him why they would rebel after the enemy was killed. Either way, they had attacked his convoys. They took all weapons, disabled all tracking and surveillance devices, and left no survivors. The salvage teams were unable to trace any of the attackers back to a solid location, mainly because the attacks came at random places.

"If only there was a pattern to follow, things would be much easier," Dasyu said out loud to no one in particular.

Things did seem easier when he first arrived here. He, General Striker, and the other Generals landed their ship and woke the crew from stasis. They used the numerous supplies to create their three facilities in separate locations, using the vast amount of vehicles and aircraft his kind had created. However, they ran out of resources in the process, and forced Dasyu to disassemble his ship to continue the construction.

He knew that he would need more in order to succeed. Of course, there was no life form other than animals. There was a report of an intellect species called humans, but Dasyu had never come across any. He needed an answer to find both the humans and a solution for weapons. Those answers came quickly, when one of his scout ships discovered an anomaly along a river running near Facility One's location. Dasyu and Striker investigated it, and ended up smack dab in the middle of a Black Market center as well as the first human contact. Taking on the form of two soldiers, they found out the currency and produced a lot of counterfeit currency in order to buy half the center's weapons, which came from numerous nations and supplied them with weapons for every Specter Dasyu had and then some. Uniforms were also purchased for security personnel and a select percentage of people who were able to come along and take on human forms.

Dasyu grimaced, as he remembered that most of those personnel were at Facility Two. They were lost when that facility was destroyed, leaving only Striker and himself with human forms. Striker was lost along with Facility One, leaving only Dasyu.

It was eating at him that his facilities were lost due to a human, and things were only compounded when that human was related to the four who first discovered his operation. He had dealt with them, and Danny came back with added incentive. Now, they were all dead, but Danny didn't leave without taking two facilities with him. Dasyu had never lost so much to a small enemy; it was downright humiliating. He could still accomplish his goal with just one stronghold, but if he kept losing supplies, he would have a problem.

Dasyu came to an elevator car. He typed in his pass code, opening the black-and-yellow striped doors. He stepped in. Setting for the lowest level, Dasyu watched the doors close and the car descend to the depths below. Only a select few were allowed down to this level, and only the Generals were allowed inside the room unless they had someone they needed to explain something.

He reached the lowest level and the car doors opened. All that was in front of Dasyu was a short, twenty foot walk to a set of steel doors and two guards posted. As he came to them, they stood at attention and saluted. "At ease," Dasyu said. One of the guards handed him a computer pad and he entered the code to pass.

The guards stepped to the side and opened the doors for him. Dasyu walked through into the room. It was nothing but a boxy board room, with a black table and up to ten chairs there. He saw that the three Generals were waiting for him: Talon, the eagle and newly appointed General of the Air; Malachi, the falcon and General of the Ground; and General Xev. The leopardess transformer, after the death of Striker, was appointed as Dasyu's second-in-command. Dasyu was certain he could count on her, but the loss of Striker hurt. Boronas was also missing, and was now listed as dead, dealing a double-dose of loss.

He sat down at the head chair. The Generals, waiting for him to enter, did the same. Everyone placed their hand on a palm reader built into the table. One by one, they glowed white, indicated the recorder was activated. Dasyu spoke. "Specter council is now in session. Let's begin with the report with our last supply convoy."

Malachi stood up. He looked a little nervous, and rightfully so. "Sir, our last convoy, designation Iota Four, was last reported in Sector 12, Grid Juno. After lost contact for an hour, a recon flight of Blades searched that last known area. All they found were scrapped vehicles, with no survivors, no weapons or materials, and all equipment was stripped out of the vehicles that were not slagged."

Dasyu resisted the urge to drop his face onto the table, but did not hold his head up either. He slammed his fist down. The other Generals tensed, but did not jump. They knew this was coming. "This makes ten convoys wiped out in the last year, including three straight. Have there been any patterns we can follow from the ambush parties?"

"No, sir," Xev responded. "The attacks are completely randomized. Our enemy is cunning and knows how to evade us efficiently. It has been difficult to predict the-"

"I don't care about difficulties!" Dasyu shouted, causing Xev to show her nervousness in her expression. "I definitely will not accept failure or excuses. This is why I have us here today. I want a report of the rebel leader and how to best defend our convoys. If we don't do something soon, we're going to be in a tight bind. We can still achieve our goal of gathering all of this world's resources and expanding our production, but if we keep having to rebuild for supply transports, we will whittle away until we have nothing left."

The Generals nodded. Dasyu was not in the best mood, and they all understood his position. They couldn't keep rebuilding supply convoys to gather raw materials. Thankfully, they did have some good news, though. That would wait until after the bad news.

General Talon stood. "I have the report on the rebel leader, sir." He picked up the remote on the table and the screen lit up. A picture of a black and gold warrior appeared in the upper right portion of the screen, with the rest of the image taken up with what information they had. "This is the leader of the rebel faction, known as the Preliators. From the few transmissions we've intercepted, this person is known as General Preliator, or simply Preliator. We don't know if that's his true name, but it's all we have. He has been coordinating attacks, taking supplies, and causing dissention among our ranks. He's somehow convinced others to join him against us. Reportedly, over sixty personnel have defected to him."

"Do we have a record on anyone named Preliator?"

"No, sir." Talon responded.

"How did he get that black-and-gold armor?"

"We can't say."

A low growl resonated in Dasyu's throat. These answers were not what Dasyu wanted to hear, but he had little choice in the matter. "How does he conduct fights against us in terms of character?" Dasyu asked.

"The information we have suggests he organizes his attacks. The precision of the assaults as well as the timeliness are synchronized together. He attacks the supply transports first, destroying our materials gathered. Sniper fire takes care of our gunners, which leaves other teams to move in and finish us off, and as stated before, no survivors are left." Talon looked back at Dasyu. "It seems he prefers to keep things sealed under a tight jar to avoid discovery."

Dasyu looked around. "Any opinions?"

"Sounds to me like this Preliator might be smaller and in a tighter bind than we are," Malachi said, his eyes focused on the image. "It seems as though everything he has is extremely precious and takes every precaution to avoid leaks in his defenses."

"That could be true," Xev replied. "A more likely indication is that his success is going so smooth that he wants to keep this up, and by having any leaks, we would have an advantage over him that we could exploit. There's also a problem with this report, but it could also reveal a weakness in Preliator's plans."

"What would that problem be, General?" Dasyu asked.

"General Talon reports that these attacks are precise and timed well. No one, not even us Generals, can know when and where these rogue strike teams are attacking us without prior information."

"That could just be from the ones who defected to Preliator. They might've received information on the convoy routes and itineraries from them once they came over." That was Talon who spoke, arguing another case in point.

"If this was only recently after the defections, I would agree with you, General," Xev replied. "But I think that not everyone who defected has left this facility."

"Are saying there is a mole here?" Dasyu asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying, sir. There could be more than one of them." There was no look of doubt in Xev's face. She knew what she was talking about.

All of them stopped and thought this over. It definitely made sense, and that would be a great problem. They all knew that if a mole, or possibly moles, were in the facility transmitting information, then that posed a serious problem. The possibility of breached security protocols and stolen access codes could end up undermining their entire operation. This was now an immediate priority. If a mole was indeed inside the stronghold, the four of them would need to eliminate the problem.

Dasyu rested his joints on the table. "Alright. We need to pay careful attention to everyone. I also want records of anyone accessing our information. This does not leave the room, and you three will get what I need yourselves. I don't want anyone getting a heads-up from the Generals requesting all signed and unsigned usage of equipment. If anything comes up, narrow them down and see if we can't find the mole, or moles if there are more than one of them."

"Great," Malachi said exasperatedly. "I just love doing mountains of computer file exam-"

He was cut off by Dasyu's angered tone. "I don't remember asking you for your comments, Malachi! You have your orders. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, sir," was the dull reply.

"That's better," Dasyu said, his tone more calmer than before. "Do we have any good news, for a change?"

Xev sighed. Finally, a relief. She opened her files and began. "For starters, all our drones are being massed produced. Tanks, Rovers, Jet drones; all of them are being made at this rate. The only issue is limited resources. We have enough for another month's worth of drones before we have to stop, so no immediate worries right now."

"How many units do we have?"

"Two dozen tank drones, three dozen rover drones, and thirty jet drones."

"Okay, how about Operations Zero Hero and Optional?"

"Operation Zero Hero is on schedule. The scientists are working on the replication process, but soon everyone is going to receive an alternate form like the four of us. It shouldn't be much longer before they are ready to test it on our first few Specters." Xev searched for the other files. "As for Optional, it's waiting on Zero Hero. Once the replication process is complete, we just need a visual scan of any of the rebel Preliator's lieutenants. Hopefully, we'll catch one of them if not more."

"Excellent," Dasyu said, clearly more pleased than he was five minutes before. "We need these projects in order to infiltrate the enemy's ranks and rip them apart from the inside out. Once they're out of the way, there will be no opposition."

"Of course, this Preliator is proving himself to be very resilient," Talon said. "The only question is, why is he fighting against us?"

"A good question, General Talon." Dasyu turned back to look at the screen showing the image of Preliator. "So now, what are we going to do about him? More to the point, what ideas do you Generals have in defending the convoys we send out? We're going to need more resources to refine for drone construction."

Malachi answered almost immediately. "Well, what about heavily armored escorts? We can use the tank drones or the jet drones to fly escort for the convoys. We don't have many Blades to spare, and it might discourage them from attacking if they are short on supplies."

"Yeah…" Talon retorted in rare sarcasm. "…because that's discouraged them in the past with our current armed escorts." He faced the Specter leader. "Lord Dasyu, my idea is a little more crazy, but it will definitely keep the enemy from attacking our forces up close."

"Let's hear it."

"We send out our normal convoys, but each one will have a vehicle with a megaton, high-yield bomb."

"And you think my plan is ludicrous!" Malachi exclaimed. To him, that was pure suicide. Nobody wanted to destroy more materials and more equipment in battling the Preliators.

Dasyu waved his hands. "Generals, please. We don't have time for this, but Talon, you better explain your plan a little."

Talon nodded, sparing a glance at Malachi. "The enemy has reported to have stolen our equipment and weapons in every ambush of the ten convoys. If they get close enough, a single bomb would devastate their forces. They would be less likely to attack again, at least up close. But distance shooting would give us a better chance at our convoys returning to base intact."

"Hmm." Dasyu cupped his chin with his hand. "Xev, do you have an idea?"

"Yes, I do. It's based on the philosophy of 'the best defense is a good offense.'"

Before anything could be said, a loud knocking was heard on the door. Talon turned around and placed a hand on his pistol. Dasyu keyed the intercom. "Who is out there?"

"Gyro, signal officer, communications division. I have an urgent transmission for you, sir."

Dasyu growled. "Whatever it is can wait until this meeting is over."

"Sir, the transmission is from the rebel leader. He says his name is General Preliator."

"What!" Xev was stunned. This was the last thing any of them expected to hear.

"I guess I will be taking this call. Guards, let officer Gyro in."

The doors opened and Gyro walked in. He could tell that the mood of the Specter brass was edgy, so he didn't waste any time. He stood at the extra computer, which was formerly used for General Striker. "The transmission is on a secure channel line, so none of his people can home in on this. However, we've been unable to trace this channel to Preliator's location." His fingers typed rapidly away at the keyboard.

"That's fine, but I want to see Preliator's face and speak to him personally."

About a second later, the screen went blue for a moment. Then, the blue disappeared and was replaced by a figure with a black and gold face and bright yellow eyes. The figure cocked his head for a second before speaking. "Well, it's finally an honor to meet the legendary Dasyu. You're reputation precedes you…at least what's left of it." His last phrase had a hint of humor behind his voice, and a slight smirk to match on his face.

"Spare me your humor, Preliator. We both know who the other is. What do you want?"

"I'll be straight with you. There are some things of urgency we need to discuss."

Dasyu shrugged. "So? Discuss."

Preliator chuckled. "Not like this. I want to meet with you; you and me, one-on-one, with no weapons and no one else."

Smirking, Dasyu asked, "What makes you think I'd agree to that?"

"Of course, if you don't, I'll just keep going on my merry way. Your convoys certainly have been great target practice. This could be your chance to stop it. If you agree, I'll grant you a 'good faith' favor."

"This is outrageous!" General Xev interjected. "Lord Dasyu is not foolish enough to risk assassination by going alone." She turned to Dasyu. "I'll go and see what this rebel wants."

Preliator let out a laugh. "Nice, Dasyu. It's good to see who's wearing the pants this relationship that I'm seeing here."

That struck a nerve in Dasyu's pride. He wasn't going to be insulted like that in front of his Generals. "No!" Everyone remained quiet as Dasyu came close to the screen. He studied Preliator hard, thinking this deal over. The rebel General wouldn't be calling just to gloat, otherwise he'd have done this numerous times in the past year, but Xev was right. He wouldn't risk assassination. Dasyu nodded. "Alright, Preliator. When and where?"

"There's a huge lake to the west. I'm sure you can find it on your map. It's the largest one in Africa. On the southern side of the lake are a chain of inlands. The middle-most island is the one where we'll meet."

"I'm sure we can find it."

"We will meet fourteen days from today, at about two in the afternoon. As promised, I give to you my favor. There will be no attacks whatsoever during that time. None of your convoys will be touched, but any B.S. on your end and the favor's off."

Dasyu nodded. "Sounds good. This better be worth my time or you will sorely regret it."

The threat didn't seem to faze Preliator at all. He just shrugged. "I'll see you soon." The image went dark.

All of the Generals looked at Dasyu, curious as to what was going into his mind. The leader of the rebels wanted to meet with him. This could be the chance they need to end this conflict once and for all, but their leader might honor the agreement. Either way, they at least were guaranteed a reprieve from the sudden attacks on the convoys.

Talon finally broke the silence. "So, my lord…what are we going to do?"

Dasyu sat back down in his chair and pondered what he just did. This is either a great decision or a mistake. He looked up at Talon. "We're going to meet with Preliator, but he's got another thing coming if he thinks he'll be alive in two weeks. Talon, I want you to round up a few decent snipers."

A rare, smug smile broke out on Talon's face. "Will do, sir."

"Xev?" The General turned at Dasyu's inquiry. "Tell us more about your plan."

The General smiled and activated her files. A map appeared on the screen, with red dots in seemingly random locations. "These are places we've been to in the past, searching for alternate beast forms. Here's what we do."


The crisp, cool air was rare on a day in Africa, but that's just what the Preliators got on their return trip to the Pride Lands. It didn't matter, given their mode of transportation. However, they were all just glad that they finally were going back to their home. Even though they had been gone for a few days, it seemed like months to them. They weren't used to being away for so long, aside from the rescue mission the previous year. But this war demanded such duties.

Aboard the Paratus Preliator, Danny flew the ship, with Chumvi as co-pilot and Haraka in the communications seat. Mheetu and Tojo were manning the turrets should any trouble come their way. The Iron Curtain system was activated, so they could fly invisible to the naked eye and scanners, in spite of its limited use during flight. If the ship was docked, the system had proven to stay active for at least a week. Thankfully, it wasn't needed once they got home.

Danny first flew to Tupac's home, and then dropped off Malka at his. Now, it was about ten more minutes until they entered their land. With the exception of Haraka, all of them were looking forward to being with their mates again. It wasn't long ago when Aziza and Shani announced they were pregnant. The joy of that day was amazing, and everyone was looking forward to seeing the next generation of cubs in the Pride Lands.

After the Battle for the Pride Lands, the pride had united together. However, the losses were great, and the rebuilding had been a long, painful process. It was tiring for all of them, being exhausted of rebuilding for the second time in eight years. On the bright side, things were looking up. Peace had, once again, resumed its course in the Pride Lands. Zira wasn't planning another rebellion, or anyone for that matter. If it did, the people would be quick to report it.

For the pride, things were starting to return to normal. Vitani had eventually forgiven Zira for her crimes against the young lioness and her brother. Both Vitani and Kovu had spent more time with their real parents and made up for lost time between the four. It was awkward, at first, but soon things got up to speed.

Zira had a hard time being brought back into the pride. Most didn't trust her, and that was to be expected. Danny, Simba, Nala, Zainabu, and the senior lionesses made the first step in welcoming her back. She had definitely changed over the last year, baring little resemblance to her name. The loving, joyful attitude she now bore on her face was amazing; no one would think that she was so full of hate and evil in years past if they didn't know her until this point. However, she still carried a perfectionist attitude from years past, especially when it came to hunting. Even though Nala was the leader of the hunting party, Zira served as an excellent mentor for the younger lionesses, and though they still didn't fully trust her, there was no questioning Zira's hunting knowledge.

Among other changes were the roles of the sentinels. With Tojo, Mheetu, and Chumvi gone to fight alongside Danny, someone had to take their places. That someone came in the forms of Tanabi, Vitani, and Kovu. Even though Kovu was now a prince being trained to help his mate with the rulings of the kingdom, he needed to patrol the lands like a normal king. So far, they were doing a good job at it. No rogue lion would dare challenge this kingdom for a long time to come.

Danny, who was now back in human form, put in a disc and let some rap music play. The others didn't really know what to make of the music, but they never said anything. Even though twelve months had gone by, he still wasn't completely used to the lion and robot forms he received. He just stuck to his preference, but only once he was back aboard the ship and away from the base. He didn't want to take a chance of a spy seeing him and reporting back to Dasyu. That would bring chaos. He shrugged those thoughts aside as he looked at Chumvi. "Ten minutes before we reach home, buddy. You excited to see Aziza?"

Chumvi looked back at him. "Do you need to ask that question?"

"Just felt like saying a dumb question to get a conversation going," Danny said, shrugging.

"Good…" Haraka replied from behind them. "…because I didn't feel like asking the dumb question."

Danny snorted. "Glad to know you're still awake, Haraka."

"Glad to know you noticed," came the wise-cracking retort.

Shaking his head, Chumvi looked at Danny. "You know, I never asked you. How do you feel now that you're not a king anymore?"

To Haraka and Chumvi's surprise, Danny didn't seem all that disappointed. "To be honest, I'm kind of glad I'm no longer holding that title. There shouldn't be two kings to begin with, and I only took it because the land needed leadership. With peace and unity all but restored here, and the war with Dasyu, I decided to step down. Some people will miss me, but it was never meant for me to rule this kingdom." He leaned back in his chair. "Besides, I like just being part of the pride. I feel more at home being a normal person."

"I agree with you there," Haraka said. "I don't really miss the majordomo part, but I do miss the title a little."

"Why am I not surprised?" Chumvi said, dryly. Before Haraka could respond, he looked at Danny. "So, what part of your time here were you the most at ease?"

Danny thought that one over. He wasn't sure if he even had a time like that, but some did come close. "I think I felt the most at ease during my first two months here, before Scar had caused trouble, but I also would have to say the month after being married was also relaxing for me. I'm happily married, my family is in a better place, and the inner conflicts of the Pride Lands have been settled."

"Do you ever have thoughts about going back home? I mean, to your original home?"

"I've thought about it from time to time," Danny said. "But my family is here now, so I don't plan on leaving anytime soon." He noticed he was five minutes from having to prepare to land. "Now my turn for the questions and this is for both of you. What's your take on Bren and the others he recruited?"

Chumvi and Haraka exchanged glances. They were each wondering who would answer first. Chumvi finally answered. "I do understand Tojo and Mheetu's bias against him. He is…was a Specter for Dasyu. He, along with the others, might be spies trying to rip us apart from the inside." His expression softened. "But I'm not as vocal as our two gunners and I haven't seen anything that would make me suspicious of him."

Haraka seconded that. "I think he's done so much for us in providing for the war. He helped us blow Facility One, and there's no way Dasyu would sacrifice that just to lure us into a false sense of security. Besides, he thought we were dead, so why would he send Bren as a spy?"

"But Bren could've been reporting us to Dasyu when he left to recruit the others, and then was used as a spy," Chumvi argued. "I trust him, but I have my eye on him right now."

"I hear you, Chumvi," Danny said. "But I trust him. If he did want to report us, I think he would've let me die in that raging river with Zira last year. Still, your concerns are warranted and noted. I don't want to lose my home again."

"I appreciate your understanding our points on this and trust your judgment and leadership." The brown Preliator's face went slack. "Is this why you had Tojo and Mheetu take the gunner spots? To get our take on Bren?"

"Good guess, Chumvi. Yes, I wanted to hear your take on Bren. I already know their take on him and understand their distrust of him. But I do ask that all of us work together, at least until the war is over. Once that happens, I don't care as long as another war doesn't break out among us."

A loud beeping indicated that they were two minutes from landing. Danny straightened himself from the leaned-back position he was in and grabbed the controls. "Home sweet home, boys. Time for a little R&R."


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