They had talked for a while when Ben's com beeped and he was summoned to the command centre for new assignment.

"Sorry guys I need to go" he said and turned to leave but Jim put a hand on his shoulder,

"You just look after yourself now little brother" Jim said and smiled which Ben returned faintly.

"Trust me Jimmyboy I will" he retorted teasingly.

Jim and Kono talked about old times, they hadn't seen Kono ever since he got recruited to go to Terra Nova.

"I can't remember Ben actually joking around this much" Jim said with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Kono asked.

"Mostly all we saw him do at home was just nod, except with the kids, who seemed to get an actual smile out of him now and then" Jim answered.

"Kono, ever since he came back from Somalia he was more like a ghost, the military simply called it the Somalia syndrome" Elisabeth said worriedly

"I really shouldn't be the one to tell you, I don't know the whole story but all I can say is that it was chemical weapons" Kono sighed.

This made Jim and Elisabeth gasp, especially Elisabeth that also looked furious.

"But chemical Warfare has been illegal since the 20th century?" she asked angrily.

"Tell that to Axis psi ops" Kono answered with a grimace.

As her parents and Kono talked Maddy was using her Plex to hack into the Eye, she knew it was forbidden even illegal, but she HAD to know why Uncle Ben was so tight lipped about his past,
when she hit a lot of encrypted files;

-AUTHORIZATION GENERAL RICHARD PHILBRICK ONLY-

After fruitlessly trying to hack Ben's core files she found some pictures from his earlier life, one was a police picture taken when he was a little boy, he looked beaten and bruised, in the corner it was written; DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIM, Maddy was absolutely shocked at what she read that Ben and her dad's own father HER GRANDFATHER had beaten both of them and their mother and the last time their father had apparently killed their mother and nearly beaten Ben to death, tears started welling up in her eyes at the thought of this.

But this couldn't be all there was so Maddy kept searching.
There were lots of pictures of when he was enrolled into the academy and when he graduated, she recognized a few that the family had kept but then saw some of what was apparently his early service in Somalia, there were some of him and boys from his unit even one where he was decorated for bravery by saving some general, but then she saw a picture of him with bleeding eyes and a blank look, as if he was crying tears of blood, she couldn't look more and terminated the connection.

Ben went back to the command centre, he took a short detour through the market to buy something to eat, when he got there Wash was on the radio.

"Lieutenant Okuda, do you read?" she said with worry in her voice.

"Something wrong, ma'am?" Ben asked.

"Lieutenant Okuda's team was delivering supplies to outpost three they were supposed to have checked in by now" she answered.

"Should we go out and look for them? " He asked.

"No but if we don't hear from them in two hours we'll have too, they had a flat tire last night so they may only be a little late" she answered.

"Well I'm here for my assignment ma'am" Ben said standing at ease.

"Yes, relay station five is frizzing again take three soldiers and go check it out." she ordered.

"Yes ma'am" he said and turned around and left.

Ben ate his late breakfast on the way to the barracks, when he got there some of the soldiers were lounging about with seemingly nothing better to do.

"I need three volunteers, to go with me to relay station five." he said, "Dunham, O'Mara and Jackson, you three make perfect volunteers, grab your gear and meet me outside in five minutes." he ordered.

The men groaned but did as they were told, while Ben got his gear in his room.
When he came out the men was ready and they all marched off to the motor pool.

They signed out for a rover and went on their way out the gates.
Ben's first OTG were going to be interesting, when they got to relay-station five they found a dead nykoraptor laying outside the door.

"Looks like it's been pecked to death by birds or something" Ben said after examining it.

As they searched the area, and Dunham and Jackson examined the damage to the relay there was a sound from the nearby trees, Ben scanned the tree line suspiciously,

"What was that?" Dunham said nervously,

Ben turned to his com unit,

"This is Sergeant Shannon at relay station five to Terra Nova, over?" it took a few seconds before the radio crackled to life and he could hear Lieutenant Washington's voice,

"This is Terra Nova, how's the damage?" Wash asked.

"The antennae seems trashed and we also found a dead Nyko at the door, seems to have been pecked to death by birds or something." Ben Answered.

"Can it be fixed?" Wash asked, Ben looked questioningly at Dunham and Jackson who shook their heads.

"That's a neg Lieutenant; we'll need some more equipment for that", Ben answered.

In the command centre Wash was still talking to Shannon when both Commander Taylor and Sheriff Shannon walked in with grave news that Lieutenant Okuda's team had been ambushed and killed by unknown assailants.

"There any teams out there today Wash?" Taylor asked, she nodded

"Yes sir, Sergeant Shannon's out there with a small team to fix relay station five", she answered

"But he says they'll need more equipment apparently the antennae are a total loss" she continued.

"Is he still on?" Taylor asked, Washington handed him the com,

"Sergeant Shannon you still there?" Taylor asked,

"Yes sir", came the reply.

"Anything else to report, son?"

"Other than a dead nyko that looks like it's been pecked to death by some birds, then no sir", Ben answered.

Then all of a sudden there was some loud shouting in the background then followed by discharging of sonic rifles.

As Ben was talking to the commander O'Mara came running out of the jungle screaming and trying to get off something that was clinging to his helmet,

"GET THIS FUCKING THING OFF OF ME!" he shouted, Ben let go of the com and ran over to him and grabbed what looked like some small reptile with wings, Ben broke its neck with little ease and removed it from O'Mara's helmet.

"Relax O'Mara, you scream like a girl." Dunham taunted.

"Shut up, and keep your eyes on the tree line instead." Ben snapped at him.

Then all of a sudden there was loud screeching from the jungle, after that a pack of those reptiles came flying at them.
With little else to do they started firing of their sonic rifles; finally the birds relented and flew off.
Ben then grabbed the com.

"Sorry about the delay sir, we had a little bird trouble", Ben said into the com.

"Everyone alright?" Taylor asked.

"A few cuts nothing serious sir, though O'Mara may need a fresh pair of shorts." Ben stated to a mild laughter from the others except O'Mara who scowled at them.

"Fix it as soon as possible sergeant, I don't want any teams getting killed like Okuda's team got last night", Taylor said

"What happened sir?" Ben asked

"You'll be briefed on that when you return sergeant, Terra Nova out." Taylor said and cut the com.

It took a couple of hours until new equipment arrived, and the work could finally begin except for a few screeches the birds didn't come back.

"I remember that screeching from last night." Jackson said, "He maybe them birds got spooked when O'Mara blew a fart? They can be really loud not to mention very smelly" he continued, to laughter from Dunham.

"Fuck you Jackson." O'Mara retorted angrily,

"Ok, THAT'S enough." Ben said but couldn't help smirking as well at their bantering.

It was getting dark when they finally got back inside the gates, after dismissing the men Ben went straight to the command centre,
when he got to Taylors offices the commander turned to him,

"What was that about birds, sergeant?" he asked

"Some pre historic birds got spooked and decided to try and attack us, but we scared them off sir" Ben answered, "Nothing all that dangerous sir, and we got the job done." he continued,

"Lieutenant Okuda and his team got killed last night." Taylor stated,

"What, how?" Ben asked

"We don't know yet, I've suspended all long range OTG missions, until we can figure out who or what killed lieutenant Okuda and his team." Taylor explained,

"I want more perimeter patrols, I want half our squads on this, and I want your squads on standby sergeant" Taylor ordered,

"Yes sir, we'll be ready." Ben declared.

"Good tell your men to rest up, everyone is to stay in the barracks unless there's an emergency." Taylor ordered.

"Dismissed sergeant" he continued,

"Yes sir" Ben acknowledged, saluted and walked out of the office, he hit his com,

"Reynolds, Reilly." he called into the com, Reilly answered almost immediately, Reynolds took a while longer than that.

"Round up your squads and get them back to the barracks ASAP, and then report to me." he ordered,

Reilly came in first and knocked in Ben's door,

"Enter" he said, and Reilly stepped in, "No Reynolds yet?" Ben asked, Reilly simply shook her head,

"We'll give him a few more minutes then, shall we?!" Ben said, and decided to strike up a conversation just to make time go faster,

"So what were you doing before you came here?" he asked,

"I was in the youth program since I was sixteen sir" Reilly answered with a surprised look in her face,

"I was too, I heard Taylor managed to get a lot of kids out of that shit." Ben said,

"The commander requested soldiers from the program specifically, other than Lieutenants Washington, Guzman and Lao and a few others almost all the soldiers came out of the youth program sir" Reilly said.

They continued to talk like that for about twenty minutes until there was a knock on the door.

"Enter" Ben said, and Reynolds came in,

"WELL Reynolds, I'm sorry to drag you away from your busy schedule" Ben said annoyed,

"Sorry sir, I was helping someone." Mark excused himself,

"Well anyway we and both squads have been placed on standby, for guard duty, and all of us are to rest up and be prepared for anything." Ben said,

"AND, above all we are to stay IN the barracks" he finished with a hard look on Reynolds.

The day went uneventful, as security waited for a possible attack, sixer or otherwise that never came.

That night as so many nights before the nightmares came, only this time the Russo-chinese soldiers did not turn into his dead comrades, they instead turned into his family, he was standing in the Shannon house and they were all around him…..DEAD, him with his bloody knife in his hands, suddenly Jim raised his head and stared at him,

"I should have figured you'd become like dad Ben." he said accusingly,

"Why did you kill us Ben?" Elisabeth asked,

"I thought you loved us, Uncle Ben?" Maddy cried,

Now Josh and Zoe stood up as well, they also opened their mouths to speak but instead off words a high pitched shriek came from them.

Ben woke up panting, sweat soaking him, the nightmare was gone but there was still shrieking going on…a LOT off it, he got out of his bed and walked out in only his boxers and a t-shirt, it seemed many of his squads had also heard the shrieking and were looking tiredly out of the windows.
There were dozens of those birds outside all over the fence some were even sweeping down over the barracks, Ben ordered the soldiers to grab sonic weapons and took one himself and opened the door to the barracks and started firing into the air at the birds other soldiers that were passing by did the same until the birds flew off.

"Could it have been these that killed Okuda's team?" He thought he checked his watch it was almost four in the morning; he got his comm., and called the command centre,

"Sergeant Shannon to command over?" He called; it didn't take long for him to get an answer,

"This is Taylor; I was just about to call you sergeant" Taylor answered,

"Sir, there was just an attack by those birds that attacked me and my men at the relay station yesterday, we managed to drive them off." Ben said.

"There's been more attacks son, they attacked the sheriff and his son outside the Shannon house-BUT don't worry they are both alright and being checked at the infirmary, I need you to start gearing up your squads, I want at least one of them at the main gate and the other at the infirmary" Taylor said,.

"Yes sir" Ben answered, and immediately called over Reynolds and Reilly,

"Reilly, Reynolds both your squads are to be prepped and ready for action, Reilly your squad will patrol at the infirmary, Reynolds your squad will patrol near the main gate and the market"

"Yes sir" both answered and started getting their squads ready.