"Hurry, over there."
"No not like that, like this. No idiot like this."
"They need more shells on the east tower."
"Ouch!"
"Shit, I'm sorry. Is it broken?"
"Just the rim, it'll still work."
"Where's Mole I've got to have him approve these deployments."
"He's off fondling an AK-47, where do you think he is?"
"Uhmmm, central command?"
"Oh biscuit for the brilliant X-5."
"Shut-up ass."
"Make me wussy." #########################################################
My head spins on its axis, as I take in the bedlam before me. I am now the proud leader of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven extremely disorganized, killing machines.
They hadn't believed me at first, they hadn't wanted too. I thanked whatever gods watched over us, that Biggs hadn't gotten around to returning that stolen truck yet.
Like an angry hornet, the homing device still clung to the vehicle's undercarriage. Hard proof had turned an insane dream into a scramble to arms.
To my great fortune, everyone was so caught up in their preparations for battle that no one questioned my source of foreknowledge. I didn't relish the thought of telling Mole, CeCe, and Biggs that I was basing my command decisions on dreams of a lost, of a man whom, of a friend that is.
The racket in the courtyard, rising to an unbearable level, demanded my attention. With a lithe flip, I hopped the railing of the command centers balcony and ran over to the two male X's tussling below.
Raining my fists indiscriminately down upon both of their heads, pain eventually soaked through their testosterone haze.
A soft chuckle sounded behind me. "Men, a little sweat, a little blood, a few hormones, and they turn into puppy dogs."
Kate reached into the bloodied fray and grabbed one of the offenders by the back of the neck while I grabbed another by the back of the shirt. We silently propelled both of them back to their feet.
"Your commander is standing right in front of you boys, ATTENTION." Who knew that Kate had such a big voice? I was beginning to think that the boys back at Manticore had put a little tigress in all of us.
Looking appropriately shamed the tall pair shuffled their feet, and mumbled their apologies. "Just get back to work fellas." At my command they about- face and continue on the missions which their brawl had temporarily interrupted.
"I swear Kate, a few months out of Manticore and a bunch of highly trained soldiers revert into sloppy twenty-something children. How are we ever going to win this fight?"
"Pressure." I looked question marks at her. "Some people can't handle strain. Some people thrive under it. Maybe freedom has gone to our heads a bit; but you don't know Max, how much they have in them.
You see those people out there? I know that they don't look like much now but they've got so much training and gone through so much hell."
I resent her implications, that I don't understand them because of the escape; but beneath the sting, I feel the truth behind her words. Kate misinterprets the down expression on my face.
"You do know that you're famous, don't you Max? You got to have so much freedom, and you had this tight family unit of brothers and sisters. What you need to realize, is that all of us who stayed were a family as well. We didn't have the luxury of names or private deities, but we grew up with one another and above all else we watched each other's backs.
Soon we'll be pressured to fight again, and I can tell you straight-up that when the guns are aimed at us we'll come together again. That training will take us over and we will do what we have to.
We were trained to survive. We will survive."
The silence following her pronouncement was deafening in its depth. Slowly, our eyes met and we stared deeply at each other; and began at last, helplessly to laugh.
Still shaking with mirth, I said the first thing that came to mind. "Wow, do you think I could use that as a pep-speech?"
"Really? You like it? Cause personally I thought that it was a bit soap- boxy, a little preachy."
"Well, rallying cries do have to be a little sanctimonious, don't they?"
"Come on Max, let's go see if Mole needs any help with those troop deployments."
We'd made it half-way across the field, when we heard the first warning cries. "Incoming on the east." ############################################################
If the mutants could see us now, they would be quaking like the frightened animals they are.
Surrounding me, spread in every direction stood a battalion of two thousand of our finest brothers and sisters.
"Sir, the vehicles are prepared for full deployment at your command, just say go."
I sneer at him spitefully and flick my chin sharply. A deep sense of inner peace fills me, a sense that not even that idiot Otto could diminish.
As was foretold by our most powerful seer, we would deploy with the rising of the sun. Soon my forces would crush the pitiful flock in its little nest. Then on the eve of my triumph I would dispose of one snake in my bed, while releasing a plague of venom on the world.
Speak of the devil and she shall appear. To give her, her due she was a gorgeous sight. A tight black sheath of clinging pants and midriff tank adorned her hour-glass figure, and set off the dusk of her skin. She slunk towards me like a panther, shaking her dark curls over her shoulder.
She reached one slender hand towards me and dropped her tiny bundle into my hands. A small giggle bubbled from her lips. "One pill makes you bigger, the other makes you small. And some pills when they hit you make you feel nothing at all."
I looked doubtfully at the tiny projectile resting on my palm.
"Really Ames, after all of these years you should now that something doesn't have to be large to be deadly. Just remember what you have to do. When he's distracted."
"No not like that, like this. No idiot like this."
"They need more shells on the east tower."
"Ouch!"
"Shit, I'm sorry. Is it broken?"
"Just the rim, it'll still work."
"Where's Mole I've got to have him approve these deployments."
"He's off fondling an AK-47, where do you think he is?"
"Uhmmm, central command?"
"Oh biscuit for the brilliant X-5."
"Shut-up ass."
"Make me wussy." #########################################################
My head spins on its axis, as I take in the bedlam before me. I am now the proud leader of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven extremely disorganized, killing machines.
They hadn't believed me at first, they hadn't wanted too. I thanked whatever gods watched over us, that Biggs hadn't gotten around to returning that stolen truck yet.
Like an angry hornet, the homing device still clung to the vehicle's undercarriage. Hard proof had turned an insane dream into a scramble to arms.
To my great fortune, everyone was so caught up in their preparations for battle that no one questioned my source of foreknowledge. I didn't relish the thought of telling Mole, CeCe, and Biggs that I was basing my command decisions on dreams of a lost, of a man whom, of a friend that is.
The racket in the courtyard, rising to an unbearable level, demanded my attention. With a lithe flip, I hopped the railing of the command centers balcony and ran over to the two male X's tussling below.
Raining my fists indiscriminately down upon both of their heads, pain eventually soaked through their testosterone haze.
A soft chuckle sounded behind me. "Men, a little sweat, a little blood, a few hormones, and they turn into puppy dogs."
Kate reached into the bloodied fray and grabbed one of the offenders by the back of the neck while I grabbed another by the back of the shirt. We silently propelled both of them back to their feet.
"Your commander is standing right in front of you boys, ATTENTION." Who knew that Kate had such a big voice? I was beginning to think that the boys back at Manticore had put a little tigress in all of us.
Looking appropriately shamed the tall pair shuffled their feet, and mumbled their apologies. "Just get back to work fellas." At my command they about- face and continue on the missions which their brawl had temporarily interrupted.
"I swear Kate, a few months out of Manticore and a bunch of highly trained soldiers revert into sloppy twenty-something children. How are we ever going to win this fight?"
"Pressure." I looked question marks at her. "Some people can't handle strain. Some people thrive under it. Maybe freedom has gone to our heads a bit; but you don't know Max, how much they have in them.
You see those people out there? I know that they don't look like much now but they've got so much training and gone through so much hell."
I resent her implications, that I don't understand them because of the escape; but beneath the sting, I feel the truth behind her words. Kate misinterprets the down expression on my face.
"You do know that you're famous, don't you Max? You got to have so much freedom, and you had this tight family unit of brothers and sisters. What you need to realize, is that all of us who stayed were a family as well. We didn't have the luxury of names or private deities, but we grew up with one another and above all else we watched each other's backs.
Soon we'll be pressured to fight again, and I can tell you straight-up that when the guns are aimed at us we'll come together again. That training will take us over and we will do what we have to.
We were trained to survive. We will survive."
The silence following her pronouncement was deafening in its depth. Slowly, our eyes met and we stared deeply at each other; and began at last, helplessly to laugh.
Still shaking with mirth, I said the first thing that came to mind. "Wow, do you think I could use that as a pep-speech?"
"Really? You like it? Cause personally I thought that it was a bit soap- boxy, a little preachy."
"Well, rallying cries do have to be a little sanctimonious, don't they?"
"Come on Max, let's go see if Mole needs any help with those troop deployments."
We'd made it half-way across the field, when we heard the first warning cries. "Incoming on the east." ############################################################
If the mutants could see us now, they would be quaking like the frightened animals they are.
Surrounding me, spread in every direction stood a battalion of two thousand of our finest brothers and sisters.
"Sir, the vehicles are prepared for full deployment at your command, just say go."
I sneer at him spitefully and flick my chin sharply. A deep sense of inner peace fills me, a sense that not even that idiot Otto could diminish.
As was foretold by our most powerful seer, we would deploy with the rising of the sun. Soon my forces would crush the pitiful flock in its little nest. Then on the eve of my triumph I would dispose of one snake in my bed, while releasing a plague of venom on the world.
Speak of the devil and she shall appear. To give her, her due she was a gorgeous sight. A tight black sheath of clinging pants and midriff tank adorned her hour-glass figure, and set off the dusk of her skin. She slunk towards me like a panther, shaking her dark curls over her shoulder.
She reached one slender hand towards me and dropped her tiny bundle into my hands. A small giggle bubbled from her lips. "One pill makes you bigger, the other makes you small. And some pills when they hit you make you feel nothing at all."
I looked doubtfully at the tiny projectile resting on my palm.
"Really Ames, after all of these years you should now that something doesn't have to be large to be deadly. Just remember what you have to do. When he's distracted."