"So then the boy went with the Invid," said Brigadier General Jack Emerson, his face appearing on the screen.

"Yes," I replied, inside one of the Quonset huts, sitting on a chair facing the screen.. "He said he wanted to ask the Regess to start peace talks."

"The war continues. Anyway, do you even know if that was the real Itzak Mlama? In the confusion the real Itzak could have been captured and replaced by a simulagent."

"We've traveled with him for over one and a half years. After the revelation, he still knew everything, including his father's name."

"How did you meet him?"

"Well, after I crashed here during a botched raid by the Golden Eagle, I looked for help. I encountered a village somewhere in the Seregeti region of Africa. This man, Ebrahim Mlama, was a militiaman. He spoke English as he was a veteran of the U.N. Army. He invited me to his home and that was where I met Itzak. He said he found Itzak in the ruins of a village destroyed during a war six years ago. Wait, now it would be seven years ago."

"Is it possible to contact the man claiming to be Itzak's father?"

"No. The Serengeti region was engulfed in war. Itzak and I managed to escape the village before it was overrun by the enemy. A human enemy, I might add."

"I can not say this is the first time someone believed to be human for years has been revealed as an Invid," said the general. "I must go now. I'll send a report to Allied Command."

Emerson's image disappeared, and the screen went blue.

I went back to the sleeping quarters inside one of the Quonsets.

"I still can't believe he's gone," said Laureline, sitting on her cot.

"I can't believe he went with the Invid," I said.

"He could not remain a boy forever," said Doc. "He is becoming a man- an Invid man- but a man nevertheless. He must shape his own identity. He is starting to have to make decisions that affect the course of his life and those around him, just as we did."

"He wanted to end the war," said Laureline. "Four over seven years he believed he was orphaned because of war. He was orphaned again when the Purifiers attacked his home."

I did not say anything.

There were no guarantees that the Regess would request peace talks.

There was no guarantee that the U.N. nor anyone in the Anti-Invid Alliance on Earth nor the Sentinels Alliance in space would consider a request, given the recent major victories over the Invid Regency. I could understand if they would view a request for peace talks as a delaying action.

If they could take out Reflex Point today, they would.

Doc broke the silence. "What if the Invid makes him fight against us?" he asked.

Would she do that? I had a sense of who the Regess was, as I had some of her memories thanks tio the Flower of Life.

"It would be tragic," I said.

"Any thoughts?"

"Itzak Mlama was of Invid blood, but he is one of us," said Doc.

"His father must have known Itzak wasn't human," I said. "Six years of raising him. And yet he shared his home with this alien boy. He adopted him."

I stood up. "I only knew Ebrahim Mlama for a day. And yet, I now know that he was probably the most heroic human in history. Not for his battles against the Robotech Masters when he was in the Army, but in taking in a child he believed lost his whole family."

"I cannae help but hear what ye were all sayin'," said Petty Officer Second Class Bridget Riley. "He was a fine lad."

"Thanks," I replied.

Ooooo

Outwardly, we were doing the same things, staying alert, maintenance, policing the area, playing sports or games during our off time. We had heard that Expeditionary Command was deploying more and more Space Marines to the surface.

It was clear that the Anti-Invid Alliance, and the Sentinels alliance, were pushing for a total defeat of the Invid and unconditional surrender.

They would not listen to appeals of peace talks from the Regess, not with their history with the Regency and their clear advantage.

I have heard of this game, chess. It never interested me that much, though Mimi sometimes liked to play. I was familiar with the terms, though; they were pretty much common knowledge for a game relatively few people play.

And I knew that the Alliance was setting up pieces for a checkmate.

It was the time for the piece called Orca Squadron to be moved.

"Our squadron will be relocating here, in Richland Center, a little over three hundred thirty klicks from the center of Reflex Point," said Lieutenant Commander Yusuf Obegwo, with First Lieutenant Peyton Flagg at his side." There are a great number of troops gathering from many different resistance groups across the world. Preliminary fortifications have already been set up. This will be the main staging area for the campaign against Reflex Point."

I looked where the commander pointed at the map. It was south of Lake Superior and the Invid Reflex Point Complex.

"You heard our commander," said Flagg. "let's pack up and move out."

And so we did.

Ooooooooo

Later that day, I landed my Beta at an airport in this place called Richland Center. Already I could see that things were going up. Many Quonset huts and tents were set up, and many more were being set up. It looked like there was almost as many people here as there were at West Point. Almost all of them were in uniform, and I could tell they were from various nations due to the flag patches they wore. I could see fixed anti-aircraft gun emplacements, concrete domes which had rapid-fire pulse lasers. Soldiers atop high towers were on the lookout for an air raid- or a larger force meant to take the base.

Of course, we had to unpack, and everyone made sure to do so. Even Obegwo got his hands dirty. Morale was high.

I knew that this would not have been possible a year ago. A concentration of human troops, this close to Reflex Point, would have been massacred then.

Now, they were leaving us alone.

I could only ponder military strategy. Would the Regency try to draw our troops in, hoping to wear our forces down before they reached the outer perimeter of Reflex Point? Would we try to draw the defenders out, goading them to advancing and thinning their numbers?

Those were the things generals and admirals and colonel and captains worried about.

I then had my break, so I looked around the camp that sprung from this old airport. I could see various types of combat and support aircraft. At least two Horizont dropships were parked on the tarmac.

Near one of the Quonsets, I saw a familiar face. A woman with creases in her face and streaks of gray in her hair, she was wearing a short-sleeve camouflage shirt. On her right shoulder was a flag patch consisting of a two bars on the top and bottom and a six-pointed star in the center.

"You..you're Rebekah Avital," I said. I reintroduced you.

"Good to see you are alive," she said.

"Same to you."

"What has been going on?" she asked.

"Long story. We traveled on land all the way across to Vietnam, got on a boat to this underground base in Japan, spent two months in a sub, then was deployed on this continent."

"I am a command sergeant major now," said Rebekah. "That means half of the time is behind a desk in New Masada. I was at the Battle of Suez. My unit was pinned down by the Invid until some veritechs came to our rescue. After Suez fell, it was the most joyous celebration. "

"And the Egyptians?"

"After Suez fell, they drew a line in the sand and told us not to step over it, nothing more. No doubt many of the Egyptians saw what happened to that girl. Half of the Egyptian Militia would have considered regicide if the Pharaoh ordered them to fight for the Invid. Anyway, enough about that. Where is your boyfriend? Gabriel, wasn't it?"

"He fell in battle with the Invid," I answered. "Four months ago."

"I'm sorry."

Rebekah then said something to someone else, and I turned and saw her speaking to a dark-haired man with an olive complexion.

I had to search my memories for him.

"You're that tutor for the prince," I said to him.

"Prince Hadid," said the man whose name I remembered as Tariq. "Yes, I was. You were that resistance cell that passed through Egypt. What I am doing here, well, I volunteered. Many of my people volunteered after hearing about what happened in New York. His Majesty the Pharaoh has more important things to worry about than stopping his subjects from leaving to fight the Invid- like the color of the drapes for his throne room"

"Tariq has been of great help to us," said Command Sergeant Major Avital.

"We come here at great risk. Aside from the obvious risk of being killed, none of us Egyptians here are taking the Pharaoh's pound, so we would not get veterans' disability benefits if any of us were crippled."

"Good to see you."

I wondered who else I would run into.

I saw Laureline talking to this dark-haired man with a close cropped beard, wearing short-sleeve camouflage.

"And who is this?" I asked.

"You helped save my life, back at the Raj's palace," said the young man. "Remember when I fell over the side."

"Yeah, we were trying to escape to continue the fight against the Invid." I recalled the incident months ago when Doc's old war buddy wanted to confine us in his kingdom to maintain neutrality." Did the Raj send you?"

"No, His Grace maintains neutrality," he replied. "I am on vacation. I wanted to see America. If his subjects want to travel the world, my Lord Raj has no problem with that."

"So many people here," said Laureline. "And there is this sense of hope."

I looked to my right and some people were working in this huge, boxy cannon, panels opened exposing wires and stuff. Their flag patches indicated that they were in the service of the United Nations itself.

"What is this?" asked Laureline.

"This is the Synchro Cannon," said one of the men, whose service tag and chevrons identified him as a gunnery sergeant in the United Nations Space Marines. "It works on subatomic fusion. It can punch a hole through Invid mecha, or even disrupt Invid force fields."

"Must have a big bang," I said.

"Yup," said the gunny. "And I heard the Spacy installed these things on their warships. I heard this cannon is based on long lost tech from this ancient civilization called the Shadow. A whole fleet of ships, armed with Synchro Cannons, we'd be invincible."

"No doubt about it," said Laureline, looking cannon.

"Good to see you two here," I heard.

I looked and saw Colonel Van Nguyen of the Vietnamese Liberation Force, wearing short-sleeve camouflage.

"Nice to see you," I said.

"There were times when I thought I would die at the Battle of Haiphong," replied the colonel.

I took a few deep breaths. "Gabriel Gashtar fell in battle with the Invid," I said.

"Oh," replied Nguyen. "I'm…sorry. What are you going to do?"

"I will survive the battle, and then go to his family home to tell them the news."

"You would be the best person for that. But in case…"

"We'll all make sure his family is notified of his sacrifice," said Laureline.

I looked past the perimeter. Beyond the trees, rising above the horizon from over three hundred thirty klicks north, was the center of Reflex Point.

Was Itzak there?

Can he convince the Regess to seek peace talks?

Whose side will he choose?

Ooooooo

The base at Richland Center was bustling. There was not too much time to fool around, or worry. Troops kept moving around, including the Space Marines who arrived from off Earth. Supplies were flown in by air transport or drive in by truck.

There was one event that broke the hustling, bustling routine.

Doc, Laureline, and I were meeting with Commander Obegwo and Lieutenant Flagg and this American military officer who was a major.

"I was one of the few who successfully passed Special Forces Combat Medic training," said Doc. "We have contact with Tirol now, you can verify this with Air Force Headquarters."

"I see," replied the commander.

"Sir, I should be out at one of the firebases. We all know we are not just going to exchange stares with the Invid. If they choose to attack, or we take battle to Reflex Point, I must be there, so I can save the wounded."

"Aboudi, we have a hospital here. You can treat wounded here."

"And if I am out there, I can increase the chances of the wounded making it to the hospital alive."

"Your opinion," Obegwo said to the American.

"We could use a combat medic, especially one with a Strike Garland," replied the major.

"I shall approve your transfer," said Commander Obegwo.

"Understood, sir," replied Doc.

He, Laureline, and I left the Quonset hut were we had that meeting.

"I would love nothing more than to stay by your sides," Doc said to us. "Gabe and Itzak should be here with us. We should all be together."

"But the right thing to do is not always what we want to do," said Laureline. "If you being out there means that a soldier could go home to his family, it is worth it."

He hugged us.

We all knew we might not be together again.

"Make sure others come back alive," I cried.

We watched as Doc left with the American major.

"It's just the two of us now," said Laureline.

In a sense, it was. I recalled the sixteen months all of us spent traveling together. Meeting Itzak at his family home, meeting Laureline, when Itzak and I had nowhere else to go, meeting Gabe, who crashed into that barn after the failed attempt to drive the Invid Regency from Earth, meeting Doc at that base near Lake Kyoga.

We were together sixteen months.

Sixteen months that had the most impact out of twenty-one and a half years of life.

We shared joy.

We shared pain.

I remember what Yusuf Obegwo said.

The Invid could not take away our memories. That is one victory we will never give them.

But looking at the troops here at Richland Center, we were not alone.

Ooooooooo

We and the Invid could not just stare at each other.

It was like a spinning top on a flat surface.

Soon the top loses angular momentum due to friction, and it falls.

Two well-armed enemies, protected by layers of fortifications.

Staring at each other is like a spinning top.

And the top had to fall.

And so it did.

There were so many resistance groups here at Richland Center.

I had already encountered the Israeli Defense Force and the Vietnamese Liberation Force and the Japanese Imperial Self-Defense Force and the People's Army of China and the U.S. Army. There were other resistance groups like the Fist of Darius and the Roman Legion and the U.S. Air Force and Teddy's Rough Riders and the Lafayette Escadrille. No doubt they had detachments deployed to the firebases closer to Reflex Point.

It was time.

Lieutenant Commander Yusuf Obegwo briefed us on our role, our plan.

A plan that would be the first casualty in battle.

The next casualty will be human lives.

I was inside the cockpit of my Stonewell Bellcom VFB-9 Beta. Amazing that I had this girl for over a year, since obtaining it from this place called Iron Mountain in this region of Earth called Afghanistan.

I flipped switches and checked the instruments and gauges.

Maybe the Regess will agree with Itzak, and withdraw her forces from Earth.

The commander gave the signal.

We lifted off.

I thought of Itzak.

His fate relied on the outcome of this battle.