And The Struggle Continues.
Author Chick's Notes: Just moving right along here. Disclaimers are in chapter 1.
And The Struggle Continues.
Zarana looked up when she heard a knock on the door. Opening it, she saw Zandar standing in the hallway. Brother and sister went into the small living room area and after accepting a beer, Zandar looked at his sister.
"You know more then you said, don't you?" He asked.
Zarana bit her lip and fiddled with the end of her braid before speaking up. "Remember when the Commander had me as a 'guest'?" Zandar frowned. "He was nothing compared to Edgewood." Zarana bit back tears.
Zandar moved from his chair to sit next to his sister on the couch. Zarana leaned into his hug as she continued. "Several of the girls stashed there were murdered by him after he'd had his fun. I guess because of Zartan, the Commander had given him orders to stay away from me." She finished.
Zandar made a low growling noise in the back of his throat. "I can't believe our brother allowed that to continue as long as he did."
"Zartan didn't know." Zarana defended. "When he found out, that's when he got me shipped out West. Supposedly to work as a cop, but I was so infuriated with what had happened I found Blaine instead and joined in on the Resistance."
"I still don't see why you did that."
"What the hell was I supposed to bloody do?" Zarana snapped. "Oh yes Commander! You had bloody raped me every damn night just for the hell of it! Of course I'll enforce your mad regime!" Zandar held up a hand in surrender at his sister's tirade.
"Alright. You made your point." He spoke softly. "I honestly don't know what all happened, and to be honest I don't think I want to know." The twins were silent for a few moments before Zandar spoke up again. "I just hope that Dan and Koa find something."
"I'm not surprised that sod took it upon himself to keep fighting." Zarana muttered. "He was mad like the rest of them, the only difference was he was mad like a bloody fox."
Skymate and Torpedo had found nothing of interest at the supply depot they'd raided. They heard reinforcements coming in as they had made their way back to their camp, so they decided to lay low and wait a few days before heading north to where the larger contingent was supposedly located.
At the depot, the leader of the recon surveyed the carnage. "I don't see why the filthy vermin weren't eradicated in the droves back in the eighteen hundreds." He spat, referring to the early Australian settler's attempts to wipe out the Aboriginal people. Another soldier came out of the bunker in a rush and demanded the commander's presence down below.
Several soldiers were picking up the bullet casings left from Torpedo's assault on the sleeping men and gathering any other evidence they could find. The commander took a look at one of the casings handed to him and studied it. "These are from an MP5." He muttered as he looked at the firing pin markings on the bottom of the shell. "Only the Mossad, the SAS, and US special forces used these with this kind of precision." He added. A total of forty-seven casings were found, indicating that whoever had fired on the men was a deadly shot. Nibbling at his lip, the commander called into his headquarters to report the findings.
"So you think that possibly those thugs the Baroness sent, gave away our location after all?" Edgewood asked.
"Yes sir. Whoever was here was good. To good to be some radical local with a vendetta."
Edgewood's eyes narrowed before making his next statement. "I want an immediate evacuation of all positions in the country! That woman must have found out where we were and sent a recon patrol to snoop around."
The orders were sent immediately to all positions scattered around the vast continent to evacuate. "We'll regroup in one week at position Juliet Foxtrot." Edgewood added as he too prepared to depart immediately.
A week had passed since the assault on the supply depot. In the far north of the East Australian peninsula, Skymate and Torpedo had found the remnants of an abandoned base. Dingo had come along with the two and after talking to several of the locals in the area, confirmed that the Weipa base had only recently been evacuated.
"Bloody hell! They found the depot and cleared out!" Skymate cursed. Dingo had also found out that reports were coming in from tribes all over the Outback, saying that any base that Edgewood's men had occupied had been abandoned as well.
"Apparently they were headquartered in Kakadu." Dingo said as he translated one man's account of recent events.
"Kakadu?" Torpedo asked.
"National park near Darwin on the west coast. Huge bloody place too." Dingo explained.
"It's about the size of Yosemite." Skymate added. "Any idea then why they were in Weipa?" He asked Dingo.
"Eastern headquarters." The man replied. "Kakadu was the main base."
"So dey wen clear out of da whole country?" Torpedo asked.
"Yeah."
Torpedo's shoulders slumped. "Dey could be anywhere den." He groaned. "We back at square one again."
Skymate shook his head and sighed. "And judging by how clean this place is, I reckon they didn't leave anything behind at Kakadu that would give us a clue as to where they pissed off to."
Dingo eyed the two as they despaired over the new findings. To him, the fact that the remaining COBRA forces had abandoned his home was a blessing. "Dan?"
"Yeah."
"The Mabo-jajara is free." Dingo smirked. "That has to mean something, doesn't it?"
Skymate sniffed. "You have a point there mate." He smiled. "You do have a point."
Torpedo caught the wistful tone in his friend's voice and turned to leave him alone with his thoughts. The Polynesian walked towards the shore and scanned the darkening horizon for a cluster of stars he'd known since childhood. After a few minutes he did find them and he reached up to his neck for the lava stone hanging there. "Ho'okahi la Hawai'i 'oe mana'o e ku'oko'a."
After a recon of Kakadu just to be safe, Torpedo and Skymate had decided there was nothing left of the remaining forces in Australia. So they went back to Washington DC to start their search all over again.
Back in DC, the Baroness steamed as she took in the information the recon provided. "At least we know who is in charge." She sated as she went over the report Skymate had handed her. "You did what you could, and at least one continent is truly free now." She added at the disappointed faces of Torpedo and Skymate.
"Yeah, one down, who knows how many to go." Torpedo muttered.
"The resistance movement started before the initial COBRA attack and look how long that took to be successful?" The Baroness stated. Neither man was cheered by her words. "For now, we'll concentrate on regaining the stolen supplies." She proclaimed. "They will resurface and this time we'll be ready for them."
"I hope so." Skymate growled.
"Have faith." She offered with a smile.
Later in her quarters, the Baroness sat on the couch and went over the latest reports on the rebuilding efforts taking place all over the globe. Steeler entered after a while and saw the look on her face. "What's wrong?"
She looked up when she heard his voice and offered a half smile. "Good and bad." She replied. "The bad is they got away in Australia."
"And the good?" Steeler asked.
"They got completely away. Australia is now apparently free of any remaining COBRA forces."
"Oh goody. Remind me to pack my bags for a vacation." Steeler snorted.
The Baroness raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing. Ever since he'd been reminded of how long he'd been in this world she knew, he had been in a dark mood. Steeler flopped down next to her and laid an arm behind her head. She leaned on his shoulder and closed her eyes, just grateful for his presence.
Steeler noted that she had been awfully quiet of late and figured out why. "I've been a real ass of late, haven't I?"
"You said it, not me." She mumbled.
"I'm sorry."
The Baroness raised her head and looked him in the eye. "I can't even begin to imagine what you must feel sometimes. I also admit that your little mood swings are a pain." She added with a smirk. "You've been tossed into an alien situation. I suppose that would bother anyone to some extent." She offered.
"Yeah." Steeler muttered. "I can also imagine the double takes I do sometimes in the middle of the night must be a riot to see." He grinned. "I never thought I'd find myself waking up next to you." He admitted.
"Well from what you have told me, I can see that." She said as she laid her head back on his shoulder. "I suppose I'll have to set up a camera in the room then." She added with a chuckle.
"No way! God only knows I don't want any of that on film!" He blurted.
TBC…
~~~
Translation time!
Mabo-jajara = A very rough translation of 'homeland' in Yirrkala, the predominate tribe in northeastern Australia.
Ho'okahi la Hawai'i 'oe mana'o e ku'oko'a. = One day Hawai'i, you will be free. (yes I do speak this and can pronounce that rather easily.)